Zuerst! Magazine: First shall be last

A couple of weeks ago I was in a news kiosk in Franfurt and spotted an unfamiliar magazine - Zuerst! - which calls itself a "Deutsches Nachrichten Magazin"  a German News Magazine.  I wasn't about to shell out 6.50 euros for a magazine I knew nothing about.  Checking out the Web site I learned that Zuerst! is a right-wing extremist publication, more of a monthly companion to the neo-fascist weekly Junge Freiheit.  What do the publishers of Zuerst! hope to accomplish? They outline the broad scope of their program in this press release: 

Braucht Deutschland ein neues Nachrichtenmagazin? Unbedingt – finden Verlag und Redaktion! Linke und wirtschaftsliberale Publikationen erscheinen allerdings mehr als genug. Doch nachdem es Focus in siebzehn langen Jahren nicht gelungen ist, sich als überzeugender Gegenentwurf zum Spiegel zu profilie-ren, braucht das Land endlich ein Nachrichtenmagazin mit klarer politischer Positionierung. Ein Magazin, das genau jene Politikfelder ausleuchtet, die in der vorhandenen Publizistik unterschlagen oder im Sinne der Political correctness abgehandelt werden. Das Deutsche Nachrichtenmagazin ZUERST! dient deutschen – und keinen fremden – Interessen.

(Does Germany need a new news magazine?  Absolutely - say the publisher and the editors!  There are already more than enough left-wing and economically liberal publications.  But since Focus has not been able to make any significant inroads against Der Spiegel in 17 years the nation needs a news magazine with a clear political message.  A magazine that covers political ground that the established media ignores through its political correctness.  The German news magazine ZUERST! will serve German - not foreign - interests.) 

The magazine has caught the attention of the Landesamts für Verfassungsschutz Baden-Württemberg (The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution): 

Darüber hinaus agitiert die Schrift gegen die „endlosen Entnazifizierungsbemühungen", verbreitet gebietsrevisionistische Auffassungen und bewertet die Sprengstoffanschläge der „Südtiroler Freiheitskämpfer" in den 1960er Jahren als positiv. (The publication rails against the "unending de-nazification efforts", spreads revisionist theories on national boundaries, and writes approvingly of the terrorist activities of the "South Tirolean Freedom Fighters" in the 1960s.) 

But after perusing the content on the magazines Web site, I don't think the authorities need to be concerned.  I'd be surprised if Zuerst! lasts more than just a few issues. The articles are a noxious mixture of Islamophobia, völkisch ideology, and anti-American populism which anyone can get for free at Politically Incorrect or the Web site of the Kopp Verlag.  Why would anyone pay 6.60 Euros for such drivel?  Also, the "news" presented here is hardly current.  What is the news value of an article about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which happened 65 years ago?  When the editors of Zuerst! do venture into current politics they badly shoot themselves in the foot, such as the weird attack on Germany's new family minister, Kristina Köhler - the darling of the Neue Rechte (the New Right) - , because of her tolerance for gays and lesbians.  I'm sure there are still some homophobic folks among the fundamentalist Christian groups, but even the American "Tea-Bag" conservatives have realized that fomenting hate against gays is a losing proposition nowadays and does not help their right-wing extremist cause.  

So I'll be watching this latest effort spearhead a "movement" with an outdated and dying medium with a great deal of amusement.  How much money are the backers of this venture willing to lose before they shut it down?

Comments

[hattie]

So you are in Germany or have been there recently. I would like to get over there sometime, but it is such a long way!
I agree with you that this unoriginal venture does not have much of a future.

[islam news]

Information and quality is what motivates us to visit the blogs again.

[Fact Finder]

What a stinky, dirty, disgusting swine you are.
In a fitting fashion you put the picture of the King of Swine, Kurt Tucholsky on your pathetic blog.
Even sympathetic fellow Jews such as Dennis Prager and Telushkin in their "Why the Jews" paint an unflattering, factual picture of this disgusting creature, a true poisoner of Germany and by extension, Europe.

[David]

@Fact Finder,

I'm sure Tucholsky would have had a good laugh at anonymous cowards such as yourself.

[Step 1 USMLE]

I agree with Islam News. If a blog or a news site is giving me the kind of information I really need in a day, then I will surely visit it more often.

[Thukydides]

It's a decent magazine. Had interviews with Michael Klonovsky and Erik Lehnert, the latter just having published an edition of almost all letters Armin Mohler wrote to Ernst Jünger. Klonovsky is a linguistically-gifted writer who runs a blog where he dismantles the decadent german media and politicians.

Also, the highly analytic Manfred Kleine-Hartlage has a column in Zuerst!, which is reason enough to buy it. I prefer the Sezession amd Tumult-Magazin, though (Tumult gets published four and Sezession six times a year) The Compact-Magazin, led by Jürgen Elsässer, is also worth checking out, and is, like Zuerst!, published monthly.

The Junge Freiheit is not fascist, though; it's a meek conservative weekly newspaper. Often times too meek, but has been endorsed by Peter Scholl-Latour.

I wouldn't call it a dying medium, as especially Tumult and Sezession are beautifully-produced magazines. And Zuerst! is alive and kicking, proving you wrong.

[David]

@Thukydides,

Yes, I was wrong: "Zuerst" is still around, although I wonder if it turns a profit.

I enjoyed your comment until you mentioned Jürgen Elsässer - his Compact-Magazin is an anti-Semitic, Truther POS.

Here's what Armin Mohler said in 1995 when asked if he admired Hitler:

"Was heißt bewundern? Er hat immerhin eine richtige Führung geschaffen. Die Kader, die er heranzog, hatten Stil.“

I wonder what he meant by "Kader": Goebbels? Himmler?