Editing Axel Springer (section)

== Alleged American funding ==
There are questions as to how, in the lean post-war years, Springer was able to finance so large and rapid an expansion.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Kruip|first=Gudrun|url=https://www.degruyter.com/doi/10.1515/9783486595918|title=Das "Welt"-"Bild" des Axel Springer Verlags: Journalismus zwischen westlichen Werten und deutschen Denktraditionen|date=31 January 1999|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-486-59591-8|location=Berlin|pages=|doi=10.1515/9783486595918}}</ref> He operated without partners; even after currency reform in 1948, for a relative upstart bank credit would have been difficult to come by; and his first stock for public subscription was not issued until months before his death in 1985.<ref>{{cite book| last=Noam |first=Eli |title=Television in Europe |url=https://archive.org/details/televisionineuro00noam | url-access=registration |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]| date=1991| page=[https://archive.org/details/televisionineuro00noam/page/90 90]| isbn=0-19-506942-0}}</ref>

There were rumours that Springer, in the early post war years, was the beneficiary of covert U.S. efforts to shape and direct public opinion in Germany.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=28 July 2003|title=CIA und die Presse|url=https://taz.de/!734289/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207150055/https://taz.de/!734289/|archive-date=7 February 2022|access-date=30 January 2021|newspaper=Die Tageszeitung: Taz|page=4|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Blum">{{cite book |last1=Blum |first1=William |title=The CIA, a Forgotten History: Us Global Interventions Since World War 2 |date=1986 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-86232-480-3 |pages=114–116}}</ref> According to the American investigative journalist [[Murray Waas]] "highly reliable sources in the U.S. intelligence community" testified to the figure of "some $7 million" funnelled through the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] to Springer in the early 1950s.<ref name="Waas">{{cite journal |last1=Waas |first1=Murray |title=Covert Charge |journal=The Nation |date=19 June 1982}}</ref> The case appears otherwise circumstantial, based on Springer's editorial support of U.S. foreign policy .<ref name=":0"/> There was no mistaking Springer's anti-communism (he favoured Social Democrat [[Kurt Schumacher]]'s description of communists as "''rotlackierte Nazis''", red-painted Nazis).<ref name="Kruip">{{cite journal |last1=Kruip |first1=Gudrun |title=Restricted Support. the Role of Axel Springer Verlag in the Process of Westernization |journal=The American Impact on Western Europe. Conference at the German Historical Institute, Washington D.C. |date=25-27 March 1999 |pages=15, 19, 10 |url=http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/ghi_12/www.ghi-dc.org/conpotweb/westernpapers/kruip.pdf |access-date=25 February 2021 |archive-date=10 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710181110/http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/p/2005/ghi_12/www.ghi-dc.org/conpotweb/westernpapers/kruip.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> But given his dalliance with neutralism, his fixed alignment with American "geopolitical interests" can be dated only from his return from Moscow in 1958.

It is possible that CIA funding is confused with support from the Government and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) programme (wound up in October 1950) which ''Die Zeit'', among other pro-democratic, pro-Allied publishing efforts, are known to have benefitted.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kruip|first=Gudrun|title=Das "Welt"-"Bild" des Axel Springer Verlags: Journalismus zwischen westlichen Werten und deutschen Denktraditionen|publisher=Oldenbourg, Munich|year=1998|isbn=978-3-486-56343-6|pages=91–92}}</ref> Springer always maintained that his financial springboard was ''Hörzu'' which, attuned to the new radio and television age, was ground breaking and had no market rival.<ref name="Goshko" />