Editing Axel Springer (section)

=== From ''Hörzu'' to ''Bild'' and ''Die Welt'' ===
[[File:Verleihung der Fritz-Schumacher-Medaille durch die F.V.S. Stiftung (Kiel 65.395).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Springer (left) in 1974]]
After the war, in 1946, Springer founded his own publishing company, ''Axel Springer GmbH'', in Hamburg publishing the radio (and later TV) listings magazine ''Hörzu''. Never having worn a uniform (thanks to asthma and diabetes) or been a member of the Nazi party (from which, by virtue of his marriage to Martha Meyer, he would have been excluded),<ref>Grau, Günter (2010): ''Lexikon zur Homosexuellenverfolgung 1933–1945: Institutionen – Kompetenzen – Betätigungsfelder''. Lit-Verlag, Münster/ Berlin, p. 267.</ref> Springer was able to obtain from the British occupation authorities a license to run a newspaper.<ref name="Avidan" /> His first daily was the ''[[Hamburger Abendblatt]]''. Competing in Hamburg with the five other dailies, Springer offered a paper he described as "geared to the underdog and the little man", and perfected a formula he launched on the national market in 1952 with [[Bild|''Bild Zeitung'']].<ref name="Goshko" />

Fed a tabloid mix of sensation, scandal, celebrity, sports and horoscopes, the ''Bild'' readership peaked in the mid-1960s at 4.5 million. It had the largest circulation of any newspaper in Western Europe or North America. ''Bild'' allowed Springer the luxury of his 1953 acquisition, the national broadsheet ''Die Welt'', a loss maker but a rival to the [[Newspaper of record|newspapers of record]], {{Lang|de|[[Die Zeit]]}} and the ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Humphreys|title=Mass Media and Media Policy in Western Europe|date=1996|publisher=Manchester University Press|page=82|isbn=9780719031977|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2vlTzbOGhdIC&pg=PR6}}</ref>

In 1956, Springer secured a 26% share in Berlin's prestigious [[Ullstein Verlag|Ullstein publishing house]], which in 1952 had been restored to the Jewish family who had originally owned it. He became the majority shareholder at the end of 1959 acquiring, among other titles, the ''[[Berliner Morgenpost]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kellerdorf |first=Sven Felix |date=2012 |title=100. Geburtstag: Warum Axel Springer den Ullstein-Verlag kaufte - WELT |url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article106147913/Warum-Axel-Springer-den-Ullstein-Verlag-kaufte.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=DIE WELT |language=de |archive-date=14 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231214102241/https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article106147913/Warum-Axel-Springer-den-Ullstein-Verlag-kaufte.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Springer celebrated Ullstein as having been, in [[Weimar Republic|the Weimar years]], the symbol of a Jewish-German liberal-democratic tradition, but at the same time his critics were to note, in line with ''Die Welt'' and ''Bild'', a decisive rightward shift in editorial policy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hung |first=Jochen |date=2016-12-22 |title=The 'Ullstein Spirit': The Ullstein Publishing House, the End of the Weimar Republic and the Making of Cold War German Identity, 1925–77 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022009416669419 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |language=en |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=158–184 |doi=10.1177/0022009416669419 |issn=0022-0094 |s2cid=157773070 |quote=Axel Springer succeeded in integrating an overly positive version of Ullstein’s history into West German national identity. |hdl-access=free |hdl=1874/362112}}</ref>