Editing Axel Springer

{{Short description|German publisher (1912–1985)}}
{{For|the publishing house|Axel Springer SE}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name           = Axel Springer
| image          = Axel Springer 1966.jpg
| caption        = Springer in 1966
| birth_name     = Axel Cäsar Springer
| birth_date     = {{Birth date|1912|05|02|df=y}}
| birth_place    = [[Altona, Hamburg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date     = {{death date and age|1985|09|22|1912|05|02|df=y }}
| death_place    = [[West Berlin]], [[West Germany]]
| occupation     = Business, publishing
| spouse         = Martha Else Meyer (1933–1938, divorced)<br />Erna Frieda Berta Holm (1939–?, divorced)<br />[[Rosemarie Springer|Rosemarie Alsen]] (née [[Werner Lorenz|Lorenz]]) (1953–1961, divorced)<br />Helga Alsen (née Ludewig) (1962–?, divorced)<br />[[Friede Springer]] (1978–1985)
| children       = 3
| relations      = [[Werner Lorenz]] (father-in-law)
| signature      =
}}
'''Axel Cäsar Springer''' (2 May 1912 – 22 September 1985) was a German publisher and founder of what is now [[Axel Springer SE]], the largest media publishing firm in Europe. By the early 1960s his print titles dominated the [[West Germany|West German]] daily press market. His ''[[Bild Zeitung]]'' became the nation's tabloid.

In the late 1960s, Springer entered into confrontation with the emergent [[New Left]]. Hostile coverage of student protests and a continuing rightward drift in editorial comment were met with boycotts and printing-press blockades, and later in 1972 with the bombing of the company offices by the [[Red Army Faction]] (the "Baader Meinhof Gang").

In the late 1970s, exposés of journalistic malpractice by the investigative reporter [[Günter Wallraff]] led to Press Council reprimands. Sometimes referred to as Germany's [[Rupert Murdoch]],<ref name="local.de">{{cite news |title=Germany's Rupert Murdoch turns 100 |url=https://www.thelocal.de/20120502/42291 |work=The Local de |date=2 May 2012 |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207034716/https://www.thelocal.de/20120502/42291/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kirchick 1">{{cite news |last1=Kirchick |first1=James |title=The German Murdoch |url=https://jameskirchick.com/2013/05/08/the-german-murdoch/ |access-date=14 February 2021 |work=Tablet |issue=8 May 2013 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925042228/https://jameskirchick.com/2013/05/08/the-german-murdoch/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Springer, with counter suits and minor divestments, was able to ride out public criticism of his editorial ethics and market dominance.

Springer engaged in private diplomacy in Moscow in 1958 and, with greater recognition, in Jerusalem in 1966 and 1967. In addition to promotion and defence of the values of the "Western family of nations" and [[NATO]], Springer declared "reconciliation of Jews and Germans and support for the vital rights of the [[Israel|State of Israel]]" to be a ''leitmotif'' of his company's journalism.<ref>[http://www.axelspringer.de/englisch/umwelt/inhalte/leitbild/leitlinien/leitlinien.htm Corporate Principles, Values and Guidelines of Axel Springer AG] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927235227/http://www.axelspringer.de/englisch/umwelt/inhalte/leitbild/leitlinien/leitlinien.htm |date=27 September 2007 }}</ref>

== Career under the Hitler regime ==
Axel Caesar Springer was born 2 May 1912 in [[Altona, Hamburg|Altona]], a borough of [[Hamburg]], the son of Ottilie (née Müller)<ref>{{citation
  |title=Geschichte und Analyse des Springer-Konzerns (I)
  |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45465479.html
  |author=
  |work=[[Der Spiegel]]
  |year=1968
  |volume=
  |issue=2
  |series=2 December
  |pages=62
  |quote=
  |access-date=2 December 2023
  |archive-date=1 January 2017
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101181431/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45465479.html
  |url-status=live
  }}</ref> and [[:de:Hinrich Springer|Hinrich Springer]]. The senior Springer owned a small printing and publishing firm, Hammerich & Lesser-Verla, and was the treasurer of the [[Centrism|centrist]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Stephen J. |url=http://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00lees |title=The Weimar Republic |date=1998 |publisher=London; New York : Routledge |others=Library Genesis |isbn=978-0-415-17178-6}}</ref> or [[Centre-left politics|centre-left]]<ref name="LeftWingLiberal">{{cite book |author=Orlow |first=Dietrich |url=https://archive.org/details/weimarprussia19100orlo |title=Weimar Prussia, 1918–1925: The Unlikely Rock of Democracy |date=15 December 1986 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-7640-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/weimarprussia19100orlo/page/329 329] |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[German Democratic Party]] (Deutsche Demokratische Partei).<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum, Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik |title=Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Biografie: Axel Cäsar Springer |url=https://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/axel-springer.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=www.hdg.de |language=de |archive-date=18 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918072952/https://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/axel-springer.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

After being apprenticed as a compositor he worked on his father’s paper, ''Altonaer Nachrichten.'' Following [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|Hitler's assumption of untrammeled power]] in 1933, new press ordinances made Springer directly accountable to the [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|Ministry of Propaganda]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-10-04 |title=Nazi Germany's Schriftleitergesetz: The End of Freedom of the Press |url=https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/nazi-germanys-schriftleitergesetz-the-end-of-freedom-of-the-press/ |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Arolsen Archives |language=en-GB |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202210110/https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/nazi-germanys-schriftleitergesetz-the-end-of-freedom-of-the-press/ |url-status=live }}</ref> although as editor of the sports and business pages he may have remained relatively free of [[Nazi Party|Nazi-party]] dictation.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Kerr2">{{cite news |last1=Kerr |first1=Peter |date=23 September 1985 |title=Axel Springer, German Publisher, is Dead at 73 |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/23/world/axel-springer-german-publisher-is-dead-at-73.html |access-date=15 February 2021 |archive-date=18 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018211344/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/23/world/axel-springer-german-publisher-is-dead-at-73.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After paper shortages shut the daily in 1941, he stayed with the firm printing literary works until [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|Allied air raids]] in 1944 destroyed both the business premises and the family home.<ref>von Arnim, Tim (2012): ''"Und dann werde ich das größte Zeitungshaus Europas bauen.“ Der Unternehmer Axel Springer.'' Campus, Frankfurt am Main, p. 275, <nowiki>ISBN 978-3-593-39636-1</nowiki></ref>

Notwithstanding its vilification by the Nazis, Springer was a [[jazz]] enthusiast. He played with the possibility of a career in music. His model was the Austrian tenor [[Richard Tauber]], a star of both film and operatic stage who, having a Jewish parent, was also deprecated by the regime.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-10-18 |title=100. Geburtstag: Swing-Kid Axel Springer, eine verhinderte Karriere - WELT |url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article13946383/Swing-Kid-Axel-Springer-eine-verhinderte-Karriere.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=DIE WELT |language=de |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202140514/https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article13946383/Swing-Kid-Axel-Springer-eine-verhinderte-Karriere.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1933, Springer married Martha Else Meyer, whose father (like Tauber's) was Jewish. They divorced in 1938. While the divorce papers list Springer's infidelity as grounds (he would have five wives over the course of his 73 years), by 1938 it was clear that his marriage to a person classified, under the [[Nuremberg Laws|new race laws]], as a "half-Jew", a ''[[Mischling]]'', would bar him as an editor and publisher.<ref>{{cite web |title=A editorial Law Enabling Nazi Censorship |url=https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/editorial-law-nazi-censorship-1933/ |website=Alpha History |date=August 2012 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="Kirchick" /> Springer would later support both Meyer and her mother, who survived the [[Theresienstadt Ghetto]].<ref name="Avidan" /> Springer later commented: "I cannot say I didn't know what was happening. In 1933 I stood on the [[Kurfürstendamm]] in Berlin and watched [[Sturmabteilung|Nazi Storm Troopers]] beating up old Jews. I was a young man, and I couldn't do anything about it. But I never forgot it".<ref name="Goshko">{{cite news |last1=Goshko |first1=John |title=Axel Springer: Germany's Luce |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050073-1.pdf |access-date=15 February 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=22 April 1973 |archive-date=10 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710181114/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP83M00914R002800050073-1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1934, Springer joined the [[National Socialist Motor Corps|National Socialist Motorist Corps]] (''Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps'', NSKK). He later claimed that this was to secure "a Nazi-uniformed buffer" for his family "in an organization that did not make any major ideological commitments and that allowed politics to be combined with the motorsport that I loved so much.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Posche |first=Ulrike |date=2008-02-29 |title=Aus dem Leben eines Taugewas |url=https://www.stern.de/politik/geschichte/biografie-axel-springer-aus-dem-leben-eines-taugewas-3081944.html |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=stern.de |language=de |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202210327/https://www.stern.de/politik/geschichte/biografie-axel-springer-aus-dem-leben-eines-taugewas-3081944.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Other NSKK members who would go on to occupy prominent positions in the post-war [[Federal Republic of Germany (1949-1990)|Federal Republic]] offered similar careerist explanations, among them Springer's future rival in publishing [[Franz Burda]], [[Franz Josef Strauss]] who was to lead [[Bavaria]]'s ruling [[Christian Social Union in Bavaria|Christian Social Union]], and (a purportedly inactive party member)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kurt Georg Kiesinger {{!}} Chancellor of Germany, CDU leader, WW2 diplomat {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Georg-Kiesinger |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=7 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507030457/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Georg-Kiesinger |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Kurt Georg Kiesinger]], West Germany's third [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Hascher |first=Michael |date=2006 |title=Motorisierung und "Volksgemeinschaft": Das Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK), 1931-1945 (review) |id={{Project MUSE|204981}} |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=857–858 |doi=10.1353/tech.2006.0228 |s2cid=110344018 |issn=1097-3729}}</ref> Contrary to their picture of a relatively "apolitical" motorist club, the NSKK was a paramilitary organisation,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seidler |first=Franz W. |date=1984 |title=Das Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps und die Organisation Todt im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Die Entwicklung des NSKK bis 1939 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30197352 |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=625–636 |jstor=30197352 |issn=0042-5702 |access-date=1 December 2023 |archive-date=15 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215205638/https://www.jstor.org/stable/30197352 |url-status=live }}</ref> implicated in the regime's racist policy of exclusion and discrimination (it screened its members for [[Aryan]] traits) and in the [[Antisemitism|anti-semitic]] [[Kristallnacht|pogroms of 1938]].<ref name=":2" />

== German press lord ==
=== 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>

=== Zehrer and the approach to Moscow ===
Springer's choice as chief editor for ''Die Welt'' was controversial. [[Hans Zehrer]] was a veteran of the [[Kapp Putsch]] of 1920, and in the last [[Weimar Republic|Weimar years]] had been the editor of the nationalist and anti-republican journal ''[[Die Tat]]''.<ref>''[[Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890]]'' edited by [[Philip Rees]] (1991, {{ISBN|0-13-089301-3}}), pp.&nbsp;417–418.</ref> In 1946, he had been removed from the then British-controlled ''Die Welt'' after protests from [[Attlee ministry|Britain's Labour government]] and from the Social Democrats then governing Hamburg.<ref>Demant, Ebbo (1971) ''Hans Zehrer als politischer Publizist. Von Schleicher zu Springer'', Verlag von Hase und Köhler, Mainz 1971, {{ISBN|3-7758-0815-9}}.</ref>

At ''Die Welt'' Springer allowed Zehrer to entertain the idea of an [[Austrian State Treaty|Austrian solution]] for Germany.<ref name="Muller">{{cite book |last1=Muller |first1=Hans Dieter |title=Press power: A study of Axel Springer |date=1969 |publisher=Macdonald & Co |location=London |isbn=978-0-356-02689-3 |pages=143–148}}</ref> In 1955, Austria had regained its unity and independence through a four-power agreement guaranteeing the country's non-alignment and neutrality. In January 1958, Springer travelled with Zehrer to Moscow. Before departing he told to a reporter: "I know very well that there are people who consider me naïve. But I believe in reunification within five years." In addition to permanent German neutrality, Springer was proposing a nuclear-free Central Europe.<ref>von Sothen, Hans Becker (2005), ''Hans Zehrer als politischer Publizist nach 1945.'' In Frank-Lothar Kroll ed. ''Die kupierte Alternative. Konservatismus in Deutschland nach 1945.'' pp. 125–178. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, {{ISBN|3-428-11781-6}}</ref><ref name="Keil">{{cite web |last1=Keil |first1=Lars-Broder |title="The world is changed by dreams" |url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-world-is-changed-by-dreams |publisher=Axel Springer SE |access-date=16 February 2021 |archive-date=30 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630172337/https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-world-is-changed-by-dreams |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Nikita Khrushchev]] kept Springer and Zehrer waiting sixteen days for an interview. It did not go well, and cannot have been helped by Springer seeking to convince the Soviet premier of the advantages not only of German neutrality but also of West Germany's [[social market economy]].<ref>The interview was printed and discussed in ''Die Welt'' (7 February 1958). A Russian transcript is held Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDr im Bundesarchiv "Niederschrift der vertaulichedn Unterredung N.S. Chuschtschows mit den westdeutschedn Pressevertreten A. Springer und H. Zehrer, 29.1.1958", DY30/J IV 2/202;75</ref><ref name="Kruip" /> The Russians, like the Americans, viewed their strategic position in Germany as indispensable. Neutrality was not an option. Springer was to describe the trip as the "central political event of my life", convincing him that there was no alternative to [[Konrad Adenauer]]'s ''Westbindung'': to discount Communist overtures and to persevere with the [[NATO|North Atlantic alliance.]]<ref name="Goshko" /> On his return he forbad any criticism of the western allies, whether it was of the [[Cyprus Emergency|British in Cyprus]], the [[Algerian War|French in Algeria]], or the Americans in the [[Second Taiwan Strait Crisis|Taiwan Strait]], because "we need them in Berlin".<ref name="Poscenzsky">{{cite news |last1=von Poscenzsky |first1=Gert |title=As Befahl die Schwenkung |url=https://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/46196219 |access-date=20 February 2021 |work=Der Spiegel |issue=48 |date=1962 |archive-date=9 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809064531/https://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/46196219 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== 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" />

== The Spiegel affair ==
{{Main|Spiegel affair}}
On 26 October 1962, the [[Hamburg]] offices of ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' were raided and closed by police. The publisher, [[Rudolf Augstein]], along with the weekly's two editors-in-chief and a reporter were arrested. Defence minister [[Franz Josef Strauss]] levelled accusations of treason (''Landesverrat'') in respect to an article detailing NATO projections of "unimaginable chaos" in the event of a Soviet nuclear strike and criticising the government's lack of preparedness. In a statement he was later obliged to recant, Strauss denied that he had initiated the police action.<ref name=spg>{{cite news|last=Gunkel|first=Christoph|title=50th Anniversary of the 'Spiegel Affair': A Watershed Moment for West German Democracy|journal=Der Spiegel|date=21 September 2012|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/50th-anniversary-of-the-spiegel-affair-a-857030.html|access-date=26 August 2013|archive-date=22 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922072308/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/50th-anniversary-of-the-spiegel-affair-a-857030.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although Augstein was a liberal critic, Springer offered his presses, teletypes and office space so ''Der Spiegel'' could keep on publishing.<ref name="Blair">{{cite journal |last1=Blair |first1=Fraser |title=How Adenauer awakened German democracy: he raided the people's paper |journal=Maclean's |date=1 December 1962 |url=https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1962/12/1/how-adenauer-awakened-german-democracy-he-raided-the-peoples-paper |access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> It was, however, at the cost of further access to ''Die Welt'' that columnist [[Sebastian Haffner]] took to the ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]'' to pronounce on the violation of press freedom and constitutional norms.<ref>{{Citation | last = Taylor | first = Frederick | title = Exorcising Hitler | place = London | publisher = Bloomsbury Press | year = 2011 | page = 371| title-link = Exorcising Hitler }}.</ref><ref name="Soukup">{{cite book |last1=Soukup |first1=Uwe |title=Ich bin nun mal Deutscher. Sabastian Haffner, Eine Biographie |date=2001 |publisher=Aufbau Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=3-596-15642-4}}</ref>

Adenauer appears to have been sufficiently convinced of Springer's political reliability, that when in October 1963 he resigned as [[Chancellor of Germany|chancellor]], he suggested (perhaps playfully) to ''Bild'' Editor-in-Chief [[Peter Boenisch]] that the publisher might be the "politician" best fitted to continue his policies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=How Adenauer suggested Axel Springer as his successor|url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/how-adenauer-suggested-axel-springer-as-his-successor|access-date=6 March 2021|website=Axel Springer SE|language=en-GB|archive-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923173432/https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/how-adenauer-suggested-axel-springer-as-his-successor|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Criticism and confrontation ==
=== The SDS Anti-Springer campaign ===
The Spiegel affair ignited youth protest and brought the ''Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund'' (SDS), the German Socialist Student Union, onto the streets. Swift to denounce those who questioned the equity and social costs of the West German ''[[Wirtschaftswunder]]'' ("economic miracle"), Springer characterised the "extra-parliamentary opposition" as subversive.<ref name="Sedlmaier">{{cite book |last1=Sedlmaier |first1=Alexander |title=Consumption and Violence: Radical Protest in Cold-War West Germany |date=2014 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |pages=168–204 |jstor=j.ctv3znzm0.8 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3znzm0.8 |access-date=13 February 2021 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727183319/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3znzm0.8 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In June 1967 an open letter from a large group of writers (among them [[Ingeborg Drewitz]], [[Hans Magnus Enzensberger]] and [[Günter Grass]]), accused the Springer Press of "incitement" in a police riot in West Berlin that saw the death of student protester [[Benno Ohnesorg]].<ref>"Zum Tod des Studenten Benno Ohnesorg" in ''Vaterland, Muttersprache: Deutsche Schriftsteller und ihr Staat von 1945 bis heute'', eds. Klaus Wagenbach, Winfried Stephan and Michael Krüger. Klaus Wagenbach Berlin, 1980, {{ISBN|380310100X}}. p. 247</ref> Rallied by [[Ulrike Meinhof]]'s journal ''konkret'', students had been protesting a visit by the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah of Iran]]. Bild's response (3 June 1967) to the death was to declare that where "Students threaten: We shoot back" and "This is where fun and compromise and democratic tolerance end. We have to take a stand against [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] methods".<ref>{{Cite web|title=- Presse-Cäsar mit "Bild"-Zeitung|url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/presse-caesar-mit-bild-zeitung.870.de.html?dram:article_id=131525|access-date=4 March 2021|website=Deutschlandfunk Kultur|language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>"Studenten drohen: Wir schießen zurück", "Hier hören der Spaß und der Kompromiss und die demokratische Toleranz auf. Wir haben etwas gegen SA-Methoden." Kai Herrmann: [http://www.zeit.de/1967/23/die-polizeischlacht-von-berlin ''Die Polizeischlacht von Berlin''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211203438/https://www.zeit.de/1967/23/die-polizeischlacht-von-berlin |date=11 December 2021 }} In: ''[[Die Zeit]]'', Nr. 23/1967</ref> Protesters broke windows at Springer offices and tried to disrupt printing and delivery, but the trade unions kept their distance from the anti-Springer campaign, and the SDS, increasingly focussed on the [[Vietnam War|War in Vietnam]], conceded that the protests had failed to "mobilise the masses". After a month it called a halt.<ref name="Sedlmaier" />

When on 11 April 1968, the SDS leader [[Rudi Dutschke]] (who had called for the expropriation of Springer's press empire) was shot on the street in West Berlin by the young right-wing extremist [[Josef Bachmann]], the cry again was that ''Bild'' was complicit ("Bild schoss mit!"). Serious unrest followed . Demonstrators tried to storm the Springer house in Berlin and set fire to ''Bild'' delivery vans. The Hamburg print shop was besieged to prevent the paper leaving the presses, and in Munich a demonstrator and a policeman were killed after students ransacked the ''Bild'' editorial offices. There were over a thousand arrests.<ref name="Sedlmaier" /> "A tendentious headline in ''Bild''", the protesters claimed, "is more violence than a stone against the head of a policeman".<ref>"'Gefáhr für uns alle', Studenten gegen Springer", ''Der Spiegel'', 6 May 1968, p. 42</ref>

[[Helmut Schmidt]], then parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats, sought to intervene with Springer. Schmidt conceded that the publisher's success was related to new journalistic methods and formats that catered to public tastes, but charged Springer with using that position of preeminence to mix "news and suggestive commentary". He might have "fewer problems" if he restructured his publishing house on the model of private foundations or public media institutions. In the event, when finally Springer consented to meet with Schmidt in August 1968, their discussion was of the Czechoslovak crisis (Schmidt assuring Springer that it was "impossible" that the Soviets would repeat the events of [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Budapest 1956]] and crush the [[Prague Spring]] with tanks).<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019|title=Tripartite summit after Dutschke assassination attempt|url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/tripartite-summit-after-dutschke-assassination-attempt|url-status=live|access-date=13 December 2021|website=www.axelspringer.com|language=en-GB|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811120113/https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/tripartite-summit-after-dutschke-assassination-attempt |archive-date=11 August 2020 }}</ref>

On 19 May 1972, the [[Red Army Faction]] (the "Baader Meinhof Gang") bombed Springer's Hamburg offices, injuring 17 employees, two of them seriously.<ref>{{cite web |title=Red Army Faction: A Chronology of Terror |url=https://www.dw.com/en/red-army-faction-a-chronology-of-terror/a-2763946#:~:text=In%20its%2028%20years%20of,of%20the%20group's%20terrorist%20activities. |website=DW |publisher=Deutsche Welle |access-date=9 February 2021 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126211438/https://www.dw.com/en/red-army-faction-a-chronology-of-terror/a-2763946#:~:text=In%20its%2028%20years%20of,of%20the%20group's%20terrorist%20activities. |url-status=live }}</ref> Springer critics regretted the escalation, but accepted the thesis of [[The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum|''The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, or: How violence develops and where it can lead'']], [[Heinrich Böll]]'s 1974 novel in which violence is framed and driven by a demagogic and unscrupulous tabloid press. "No one", Haffner argued in liberal weekly ''Stern'', "has planted the seeds of violence more keenly than Springer journalism".<ref>Sebastian Haffner, "Blutiges Spiel", ''Stern'', 4 June 1972.</ref><ref name="Sedlmaier" />

=== Investigations ===
Springer declared that no government minister need tell him "what the people think". Critics, however, focussed less on his supposedly canny sense for the public, than on his press capacity to shape opinion. It was said that Federal ministers began each day by "combing ''Die Welt'' for signs of whether Springer was smiling of frowning on them."<ref name="Goshko" /> If only in its headline, the front page of ''Bild'' was also seen as "agenda setting".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Koss|first=Jennifer|title=Bildzeitung und Agenda-Setting: Die Titelseite der BILD als Beispiel für mediale Thematisierungsmacht|publisher=GRIN Verlag|year=2010|isbn=978-3-640-59818-2}}</ref>

In 1968, a government commission concluded that the degree of control Springer had achieved over the publishing industry in West Germany (40% of newspapers and about 20% of magazines) threatened the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press.<ref>[http://www.zeit.de/1968/22/die-pressefreiheit-ist-bedroht ''"Die Pressefreiheit ist bedroht"''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191130200732/https://www.zeit.de/1968/22/die-pressefreiheit-ist-bedroht |date=30 November 2019 }} In: ''[[Die Zeit]]'', Nr. 22/1968, 31 May 1968, access date 17 February 2021</ref> But official steps towards decartelisation were successfully pre-empted by Springer's sale of a half dozen of his lesser titles.<ref>{{citation
  |title=Spiegel-Interview mit dem Vorsitzenden der Bonner Presse-Kommission Dr. Eberhard Günther
  |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45997574.html
  |author=
  |work=[[Der Spiegel]]
  |year=1968
  |volume=
  |issue=27
  |series=17 February
  |pages=
  |quote=
  |access-date=17 February 2021
  |archive-date=12 April 2016
  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412065136/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45997574.html
  |url-status=live
  }}</ref> A critical test of his ability to manage and deflect concern over media concentration might have come only with the introduction of commercial television, and that was delayed in West Germany until 1984, the year before he died.<ref name="Sedlmaier" /> ([[Willy Brandt|Willi Brandt]] recalls that his "friendly relations" with Axel Springer first suffered in the early 1960s when, as governing mayor of West Berlin, he had declined Springer's request to help him open the Federal Republic to commercial television by licensing a local broadcaster).<ref name="Brandt">{{cite book |last1=Brandt |first1=Willi |title=My Life in Politics |date=1992 |publisher=Viking |location=London |isbn=0-670-84435-7 |page=266}}</ref>

A more serious embarrassment for Springer were the investigations of journalist [[Günter Wallraff]]. In 1977, his employment, undercover, as an editor for ''Bild'' led to exposés, (''Der Aufmacher'' – a pun meaning both "Lead Story" and "the one who opens" – and ''Zeugen der Anklage'', "Witnesses for the Prosecution") of the kinds of journalistic malpractices and unethical research methods Böll had depicted in his novel (directed in 1975 as a film by [[Volker Schlöndorff]] and [[Margarethe von Trotta]]). Wallraff (denounced by Springer as a "liar", a "psychopath" and an "underground communist") noted that "Bild regularly broke into the private, even intimate sphere of the people it was reporting about", and he claimed to have seen suicide notes written by people who had their lives publicly scandalised by the paper.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Welle (www.dw.com)|first=Deutsche|title=60 years old, 'Bild' newspaper divisive as ever {{!}} DW {{!}} 22 June 2012|url=https://www.dw.com/en/60-years-old-bild-newspaper-divisive-as-ever/a-16044303|access-date=24 February 2021|website=DW.COM|language=en-GB|archive-date=14 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614035250/https://www.dw.com/en/60-years-old-bild-newspaper-divisive-as-ever/a-16044303|url-status=live}}</ref>

The German Press Council issued ''Bild'' six reprimands. After extended legal action brought by Springer, a Federal court in 1981 ruled in favour of Mr. Wallraff. It said his writings had focused on "an aberration in journalism, the discussion of which should be of great interest to the public."<ref name="Kerr2"/> Injunctions nonetheless prevented publication of some of the most damning material. Un-redacted copies of Wallraff original reporting were not published until 2012.<ref name="Sedlmaier" />

== Opposition to Brandt and Ostpolitik ==
Springer maintained a position, not itself welcome on the conservative right, that Germans had themselves to blame for their country's division: "What Germany did under Hitler was terrible, and we were destined to suffer for it". But noting that "the people in the other part of Germany were no more guilty than those of us over here", he insisted that they deserved "same kind of chance" at rehabilitation that democratic and market freedoms had allowed their compatriots in the west.<ref name="Goshko" /> On that basis, he refused any recognition that might "normalise" the East German [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]] regime. When [[Berlin Wall|the Wall]] went up in Berlin in 1961, Springer built his 22-storey headquarters flush up against it in the centre of the city, so that every day it might look over, and be seen from, what his writers regularly referred to as the [[Soviet Occupation Zone]] (German: ''Sowjetische Besatzungszone'' or ''SBZ''). While dissenters, such as [[Sebastian Haffner]] concluded that there was now no alternative to formal recognition,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lange |first1=Nils |title=Von Kommunisten und Kolumnisten Sebastian Haffner, Matthias Walden und das Problem der Anerkennung der DDR |year=2018 |publisher=Ernste Reuter Hefte |isbn=978-3-95410-215-0}}</ref> Springer was unyielding. He condemned the accommodationist [[Ostpolitik]] pursued from 1969 by Brandt.

Springer's hostility to the SED regime was reciprocated. Over the course of two years from 1968 to 1970, GDR state television aired a lavishly-produced 10-hour miniseries, ''Ich – Axel Cäsar Springer'', depicting the media magnate as the puppet of a secretive, post-war Nazi cabal.<ref>Jochen Staadt, Tobias Voigt, Stefan Wolle: ''Feind-bild Springer: Ein Verlag Und Seine Gegner''. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2009. {{ISBN|9783525363812}}. pp. 165-166.</ref> At the same time, the East Germans were so impressed by the seeming power of ''Bild'' that between 1957 and 1973 they attempted, with different tabloid formats, to sell their own their ''NEUE Bild Zeitung'' to West Germans crossing the border.<ref>{{Cite web|title=So fälschte die DDR BILD: An der Grenze wurde sie für 10 Pfennig verkauft|url=https://www.bild.de/news/inland/60-jahre-bild/so-faelschte-die-ddr-bild-24947846.bild.html|access-date=17 February 2021|website=bild.de|date=2 July 2012|language=de|archive-date=21 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921111221/https://www.bild.de/news/inland/60-jahre-bild/so-faelschte-die-ddr-bild-24947846.bild.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Springer's efforts, which his writers may have understood as a general means of discrediting the Social Democrats, were unavailing. Blue-collar workers who formed the core of Bild's now declining readership (down 800,000 by 1972) voted for Brandt regardless. Significantly Springer, who had always cited the "poll" at the newspaper and magazine kiosk (''Abstimmung am Kiosk'') as the ultimate justification for his journalism, no matter how controversial,<ref name="Kruip" /> proved willing to adjust.<ref name="Goshko" /> He moved, or parted company with, those in his employ who had been attacking Brandt from ever more extreme right-wing positions. Among these were, [[Peter Boenisch]], chief editor at ''Bild''; and ''[[Welt am Sonntag]]'' columnist [[Willi Schlamm]] (a former Austrian Communist and an American [[John Birch Society|John Bircher]]). Once it was clear that the [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany|Christian Democrats]] would not reverse course on recognition, ''Bild'' did begin, albeit in quotation marks, to refer to East Germany as the GDR (the [[German Democratic Republic]]).<ref name=guardian-20200717>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/16/bild-zeitung-tabloid-julian-reichelt-angela-merkel-germany |title=Bild, Merkel and the culture wars: the inside story of Germany's biggest tabloid |last=Meaney |first=Thomas |newspaper=The Guardian |date=17 July 2020 |access-date=17 July 2020 |archive-date=18 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818174352/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/16/bild-zeitung-tabloid-julian-reichelt-angela-merkel-germany |url-status=live }}</ref>

From August 1971 Günter Prinz, Boenisch's successor at ''Bild'', restored the paper's circulation by returning to a less politically charged "mix of sex, facts und fiction".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jacobi |first=Claus |date=2002 |title=Bild wrd 50 |url=http://www.axelspringer.de/inhalte/pressese/inhalte/fotolounge/texte_bild/jacobi.htm |access-date=2023-12-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202053709/http://www.axelspringer.de/inhalte/pressese/inhalte/fotolounge/texte_bild/jacobi.htm |archive-date=2 February 2007 }}</ref>

=== Brandt's ''Kniefall von Warschau'' ===
{{Main|Kniefall von Warschau}}
Springer's son, Axel Springer Jr. (1941–1980), was the photographer and journalist "Sven Simon", and was for a period chief editor of ''[[Welt am Sonntag]]''. In 1980, at the age of 38, he took his own life. He is perhaps best remembered for his iconic picture of [[Kniefall von Warschau|Willi Brandt kneeling]] on 7 December 1970 before the memorial to [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising|Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Sontheimer |first1=Michael |title=Willy Brandt in Warschau, Kniefall vor der Geschichte |url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/willy-brandt-in-warschau-a-946886.html |access-date=14 February 2021 |work=Der Spiegel |date=6 December 2020 |archive-date=7 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207101235/https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/willy-brandt-in-warschau-a-946886.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The occasion of Brandt's visit to Poland was the signing of the [[Treaty of Warsaw (1970)|Treaty of Warsaw]] between [[West Germany]] and [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]]. This recognised the [[Oder–Neisse line|Oder-Neisse Line]] as Germany's final frontier in the east and, on that basis, established diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic and the [[Polish People's Republic|People's Republic of Poland]]. Writing himself in ''Die Welt'', Springer expressed outrage that a democratically elected German government should license a Communist regime in its annexation of a quarter of the country. In ''Bild,'' Boenisch remarked that, while Brandt attempted "kneel away" the crimes of the Nazis, the victims of his Stalinist hosts were being made to kneel by rifle butts to the groin.<ref>{{Cite web|title="Bild" lässt Willy Brandt für sich knien — BILDblog|date=11 July 2007|url=https://bildblog.de/2372/bild-laesst-willy-brandt-fuer-sich-knien/|access-date=24 February 2021|language=de-DE|archive-date=7 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207071923/https://bildblog.de/2372/bild-laesst-willy-brandt-fuer-sich-knien/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Friend of Israel ==
Springer's journalism did not explore the history of the Nazi-era in the manner of ''Der Spiegel'' or ''Stern''. Bild editor-in-chief Rudolf Michael (1952–58) was against "educating the readers". Nevertheless, under Karl-Heinz Hagen (1960–62) the newspaper began, sensationally as was its wont, to report on trials of Nazi war criminals, including in 1961 the Jerusalem [[Eichmann trial|trial of Adolf Eichmann]]. This was at a time when surveys suggested that only every second West German supported the prosecutions; that a third wished an end to the discussion of the [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] regime; and that 73% regarded Jews as "a different race".<ref name="Avidan" />

Next to post-war Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]], it has been said that "no German played a more significant role in the effort to repair his country's burdened relationship with the Jews, and to ensure its support for their state, than Axel Springer."<ref name="Kirchick">{{cite news |last1=Kirchick |first1=James |title=The Good Murdoch: Media magnate Axel Springer's significant, and unheralded, role in repairing German-Jewish relations |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-good-murdoch |access-date=14 February 2021 |work=Tablet |issue=8 May 2013 |archive-date=30 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130172631/https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-good-murdoch |url-status=live }}</ref> It was a cause to which, as early as 1957, he dedicated his newspapers editorially and to which he made his own personal contributions.<ref name="Avidan">{{cite news |last1=Avidan |first1=Igal |title=The man on the hill |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-man-on-the-hill/ |access-date=14 February 2021 |work=The Times of Israel |date=4 June 2012 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511071218/https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-man-on-the-hill/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

As had Adenauer in the wake of his 1952 [[Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany|Reparations Agreement]], Springer found that in Israel "German money" was not universally welcome. During his first visit to Israel in 1966, Springer proposed a donation of 3.6 million [[Deutsche Mark]] ($900,000) to [[The Israel Museum, Jerusalem]], which would name an auditorium in his honor. Protesters took to the streets, and the Israeli newspaper ''[[LaMerhav]]'' declared that for the museum to accept money from a German would be a "disavowal of Jewish memory". (It was ultimately decided that Springer's generosity should be honored by a plaque).<ref name="Kirchick" />

Springer returned to Jerusalem on 10 June 1967, to celebrate, in the company of Viennese-born mayor [[Teddy Kollek]], the conquest of the [[Old City (Jerusalem)|Old City]] in the [[Six-Day War]]. He had ordered his newspapers to cover the war obsessively and with an unapologetically pro-Israel bias, later joking that he had simply published Israeli newspapers in German.<ref name="Kirchick" /> "The Israelis", he commented on the front page of ''Bild'', "have the right to live in peace without permanent new Arab blackmails."<ref name="Avidan" />

Support for Israel is a commitment of their founder that Axel Springer SE sustains.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 June 2021 |title=German publisher tells pro-Palestinian staff to quit |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-axel-springer-tells-staff-quit-anti |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en |archive-date=3 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203010546/https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-axel-springer-tells-staff-quit-anti |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boguslaw |first=Daniel |date=2023-10-26 |title=Axel Springer Fires Lebanese Employee Who Questioned Pro-Israel Stance |url=https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/axel-springer-fires-employee-israel/ |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US |archive-date=3 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203010546/https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/axel-springer-fires-employee-israel/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It remains enshrined in the company's mission statement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Values |url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/values |access-date=2023-12-03 |website=www.axelspringer.com |language=en-GB |archive-date=31 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031190945/https://www.axelspringer.com/en/values |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Honors ==
[[File:Axel Springerbronze.jpg|thumb|Bronze sculpture of Springer at the courtyard of the ''[[Hamburger Abendblatt]]'']]
Springer received honorary degrees from [[Bar-Ilan University]] in [[Ramat Gan]] (1974), and the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] (1976).<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ksw0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT84|isbn = 9781137570291|title = Germans and Jews Since the Holocaust|date = 24 November 2015|publisher = Macmillan International Higher Education}}</ref> In 1977 he received the American Friendship Medal.<ref name="Rowman & Littlefield">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnIpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA574|isbn=9781442269576|title=Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Germany|date=18 October 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield}}</ref>

In 1978, he was awarded the inaugural [[Leo Baeck Medal]].<ref name="books.google.com"/><ref name="Rowman & Littlefield"/><ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 9783598219405|title = Der deutsch-israelische Dialog: Dokumentation eines erregenden Kapitels deutscher Aussenpolitik|year = 1987|publisher = K.G. Saur |page = 55}}</ref> In 1985, he received the gold medal of the Jewish service organisation [[B'nai B'rith]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Springer, Axel Caesar |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/springer-axel-caesardeg |website=encyclopedia.com |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=23 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023234840/https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/springer-axel-caesardeg |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1981, [[Franz Josef Strauss]] presented Springer the [[Konrad Adenauer Prize|Konrad Adenauer Freedom Prize]] in recognition of his contribution to the foundation of a liberal press system, his commitment to the reunification of Germany in peace and freedom, and his exemplary activity in support of reconciliation between German and Jewish people.<ref name="Rowman & Littlefield"/><ref>{{Cite web|last=Limited|first=Alamy|title=Stock Photo – Jan. 9, 1958 [actually 1981]- Axel Springer Got The Konrad-Adenauer-Freedom-Award: The Konrad-adenauer-freedom-award of this year was given to the West-Berlin publisher Axel Springer by the|url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-jan-09-1958-axel-springer-got-the-konrad-adenauer-freedom-award-the-88604625.html|access-date=6 March 2021|website=Alamy|language=en|archive-date=17 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417061001/https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-jan-09-1958-axel-springer-got-the-konrad-adenauer-freedom-award-the-88604625.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Posthumously, Springer received both the Hamburg Citizens' Award in 1990 and the Theodor Herzl Prize of the [[World Jewish Congress]] in 2014.

== Death ==
Springer died in [[West Berlin]] in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.axelspringer.de/en/artikel/Brief-Biography-of-Axel-Springer-1912-1985_85853.html |title=Brief Biography of Axel Springer on www.axelspringer.com |access-date=6 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718152831/http://www.axelspringer.de/en/artikel/Brief-Biography-of-Axel-Springer-1912-1985_85853.html |archive-date=18 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His heiress is his fifth (and last) wife [[Friede Springer]] (born 1942) who, 30 years Springer's junior, had been his son's nanny.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Karacs|first1=Imre|last2=Koenig|first2=Peter|title=It's like watching two run-down old elephants perform a dance|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/its-like-watching-two-rundown-old-elephants-perform-a-dance-1156324.html|work=[[The Independent]]|date=31 May 1998|access-date=2 July 2014|archive-date=25 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925052905/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/its-like-watching-two-rundown-old-elephants-perform-a-dance-1156324.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1971, Springer published a collection of his speeches and essays: ''Von Berlin aus gesehen. Zeugnisse eines engagierten Deutschen'' (Seewald Verlag, Hamburg).

== See also ==
* [[William Denholm Barnetson]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Springer, Axel}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:German newspaper founders]]
[[Category:20th-century German newspaper publishers (people)]]
[[Category:German mass media owners]]
[[Category:People from Altona, Hamburg]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Berlin]]
[[Category:20th-century German journalists]]
[[Category:German male journalists]]
[[Category:Axel Springer SE]]
[[Category:Springer family|Axel]]
[[Category:Bild people]]
[[Category:Berliner Morgenpost]]
[[Category:Die Welt people]]
[[Category:B.Z. (newspaper)]]
[[Category:Hamburger Abendblatt]]
[[Category:German Zionists]]