About Donaukurier

Donaukurier

The Donaukurier is the regional daily newspaper of Ingolstadt and the Danube region of Upper Bavaria — the paper of the Danube city that is also the home of Audi, the carmaker whose headquarters and main plant shape the region's economy and identity. Licensed by the US press officer David Davidson, it appeared as a licensed paper for the first time on 11 December 1945 — the license holder was Joseph Lackas, brother of publisher Matthias Lackas, whom the US military government considered close to the CSU without being a member. Since 1 January 2017 the paper has belonged to the Passauer Neue Presse group; its publisher is Simone Tucci-Diekmann. The editor-in-chief is Gerd Schneider (since February 2011), who has led the paper's newsroom through the Passauer Neue Presse era. With a sold circulation of 64,640 copies (a decline of 24.5 percent since 1998 — a gentler fall than most German regional papers), it is the paper of the Ingolstadt region. Its website is donaukurier.de — the digital home of Ingolstadt’s daily since the licensed-paper days.

Overview

The Donaukurier is Ingolstadt's newspaper — the daily of the Danube city that is also the home of Audi, published from the publishing house at the Brückenkopf, Stauffenbergstraße 2a, 85051 Ingolstadt, the bridgehead district on the Danube's south bank. It invokes the tradition of the Ingolstädter Zeitung, founded in 1872 as a Catholic-conservative paper and bought up by the Donaubote in 1935, and today holds a bourgeois-liberal orientation — the paper of Ingolstadt's educated middle class.

The paper's history carries the shadows of Ingolstadt's Nazi past: Wilhelm Reissmüller — son-in-law of Ludwig Liebl and former publishing manager of the Nazi regional paper Donaubote — became co-publisher in 1949 and sole publisher in 1951, leading the paper until his death in 1993. The Reissmüller family held the publishing house until 31 December 2016 — a continuity that kept the paper independent but also kept its founding compromises in the family.

History

The licensed paper: 11 December 1945

The paper received its license through the US press officer David Davidson and appeared as a licensed newspaper for the first time on 11 December 1945. The license holder was initially Joseph Lackas, the brother of publisher Matthias Lackas; Lackas was considered close to the CSU by the US military government, without being a member. Like almost all Bavarian licensed papers, the Donaukurier initially appeared only every second working day and had a circulation of 66,700 copies in 1948 — a substantial launch circulation for a paper starting from nothing in a ruined city.

With the end of the licensing requirement in 1949, Wilhelm Reissmüller — son-in-law of Ludwig Liebl and former publishing manager of the Donaubote, the Nazi regional paper published by Liebl — became co-publisher, and in 1951 sole publisher of the Donaukurier. From that year the national section of the Donaukurier has also been supplied to the Aichacher Zeitung. After Reissmüller's death in 1993 his wife Elin Reissmüller took over the publishing house; from 2004 until her death in 2009 she shared it with her grandson Georg Schäff, who was then sole publisher until 31 December 2016.

The Donaubote shadow

The Donaukurier's predecessor story is inseparable from the Donaubote, Ludwig Liebl's paper. After the Nazi seizure of power, Liebl kept the Donaubote out of the party publishers' hands by sharing publishing revenues with the party. In 1935 the Donaubote published boycott calls against Jewish businesses and the names of their customers — and in the same year took over the subscriber base and publishing rooms of the Catholic-conservative Ingolstädter Zeitung in the Nazi Gleichschaltung. Wilhelm Reissmüller became publishing manager of the Donaubote in 1937 and married Liebl's daughter Elin in October of that year. The last edition of the Donaubote appeared on 20/21 April 1945; after the war, the Donaubote and the Ingolstädter Zeitung were continued as the Donaukurier.

The Catholic Church's role in the paper's founding is documented in a remarkable episode: Cardinal Faulhaber and Bishop Rackl of Eichstätt sought to transfer a publishing house to the Church for the "spiritual re-education of youth," but the military government blocked the handover — and the mayor's own newspaper plans — and instead licensed the Donaukurier under Joseph Lackas in December 1945. Reissmüller, whose denazification proceedings the Donaukurier covered critically during the license years, reportedly cursed Lackas at home "like the devil incarnate."

The blackened front page

The Donaukurier has a bourgeois-liberal orientation — and a taste for protest. In the edition of 3/4 November 2007 the paper appeared with a blackened front page, protesting restrictions on basic rights and press freedom; the editors argued that democracy was being regulated to the edge of dissolution by the zeal of those responsible at state, federal, and European level — a striking visual protest from a regional daily. The action met with mostly positive resonance, by the paper's account. On 29/30 June 2013, on the NSA affair, the paper published an "open letter" to Bundestag and Landtag deputies, with an appeal to respect the right to privacy and data protection.

The Passauer Neue Presse takeover

On 1 January 2017 the Donaukurier was acquired by the Passauer Neue Presse — the end of the Reissmüller/Schäff family era after more than 65 years, and the paper's integration into one of Bavaria's larger regional groups. The publisher since is Simone Tucci-Diekmann of the Passauer Neue Presse group.

Content and Programming

The Donaukurier's content is the Ingolstadt region's daily life: the Danube city, Audi and the automotive supplier industry that dominates the region's economy — the paper covers the carmaker the way Detroit papers once covered the auto industry — the districts of Upper Bavaria along the Danube, FC Ingolstadt 04 and regional sport, and the cultural life of one of Bavaria's oldest cities, the former Bavarian capital with its university tradition. The paper's bourgeois-liberal orientation shapes its commentary — pro-civil-liberties, as the blackened front page showed.

Coverage and Audience

The Donaukurier serves Ingolstadt and the Danube region of Upper Bavaria — the Audi city and its commuter belt, the districts between the Danube and the Altmühl valley. With 64,640 copies sold, it is the region's paper of record. Its readership is the classic regional-paper profile: locally rooted, subscription-based, bourgeois-liberal in outlook — the engineers, administrators, and university people of the Ingolstadt region.

Ownership

Since 1951 the Donaukurier has supplied its supraregional section to the Aichacher Zeitung. The paper has a record of public protest actions: in its 29/30 June 2013 edition it published an "open letter" to Bundestag and Landtag deputies on the NSA affair, appealing for respect for privacy and data protection — following the blackened front page of November 2007, which the paper says met with mostly positive resonance. The 2016 sale to the Passauer Neue Presse drew protests from journalists' unions, with the Bavarian Journalists' Association warning of further media concentration.

The Donaukurier is published by Donaukurier Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG of Ingolstadt. Since 1 January 2017 it has belonged to the Passauer Neue Presse group; the publisher is Simone Tucci-Diekmann. From 1951 to 2016 the publishing house was in the hands of the Reissmüller family — Wilhelm, Elin, and Georg Schäff — three generations of the family that built the postwar paper. The editor-in-chief is Gerd Schneider, in the role since February 2011.

Digital Presence

The website donaukurier.de carries the paper's Ingolstadt journalism online, with continuously updated regional news and e-paper editions. The site operates with digital subscriptions. The paper is active on social media with Danube-region content, serving the Ingolstadt area's digitally engaged audience — including the Audi workforce and the region's commuters, who follow the city's news on their phones between shifts.