About Untertürkheimer Zeitung

Untertürkheimer Zeitung

The Untertürkheimer Zeitung is a daily local newspaper for Stuttgart-Untertürkheim and the surrounding Neckar suburbs, appearing Monday through Saturday as a content-identical edition of the Cannstatter Zeitung. First published on 12 June 1899 as the "Generalanzeiger für Unter- und Obertürkheim, Wangen, Hedelfingen und Rothenberg," it has served the eastern Stuttgart districts for over 125 years. Published by the Bechtle Verlag (Bechtle, Graphische Betriebe und Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG) in Esslingen am Neckar, it takes its national and business pages from the Stuttgarter Nachrichten while maintaining its own local newsroom. The combined Cannstatter/Untertürkheimer Zeitung sells around 3,900 copies. Its digital home is within the esslinger-zeitung.de portal.

Overview

The Untertürkheimer Zeitung covers Stuttgart-Untertürkheim — with around 16,000 inhabitants, one of the state capital's eastern districts — and the neighboring Neckar suburbs: Obertürkheim, Wangen, Hedelfingen, and the Rotenberg. The paper appears Monday through Saturday in Rhenish format, combining the district's local section with the Stuttgarter Nachrichten' supraregional pages.

Untertürkheim's identity is industrial and viticultural in equal measure: the district hosts the Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim plant — Daimler's historic powertrain factory and the company's original home — while the surrounding hills are covered in vineyards producing the Württemberg wines of the Neckar valley. The paper's readership consists of the district's established households, the Daimler workforce, winegrowers, and local businesses.

The paper operates with a separate local newsroom from the Cannstatter Zeitung, though the two editions are content-identical apart from their local sections. The arrangement — two historic titles, two local desks, one publishing house — has persisted since the papers united under the Rotenberg Verlag in 1955.

History

The Untertürkheimer Zeitung first appeared on 12 June 1899 as the "Generalanzeiger für Unter- und Obertürkheim, Wangen, Hedelfingen und Rothenberg" — a general advertiser for the then-independent Neckar suburbs east of Stuttgart. (Untertürkheim, Cannstatt, and Wangen lost their independence and were incorporated into Stuttgart on 1 April 1905.)

In 1955, the Cannstatter Zeitung (founded 1824) and the Untertürkheimer Zeitung united under the joint Rotenberg Verlag in Bad Cannstatt, while retaining two separate local newsrooms — a structure that survives to this day. On 1 July 1960, the Bechtle Verlag & Druck in Esslingen am Neckar acquired the Rotenberg Verlag with both daily newspapers, bringing the Stuttgart district papers under the Esslingen publishing house that also produces the Eßlinger Zeitung.

The ownership history since: in October 2016, the Südwestdeutsche Medien Holding (SWMH) acquired 87% of the Eßlinger Zeitung — and with it the Cannstatter/Untertürkheimer Zeitung — ending the Bechtle founding family's nearly 150-year stewardship. In 2025, the SWMH sold its shares to the Neue Pressegesellschaft in Ulm, placing the Untertürkheim paper within the Ulm-based group that also owns the Südwest Presse. Printing takes place in Esslingen at Bechtle.

Coverage and Content

The local section covers Untertürkheim's district affairs: the Bezirksbeirat (district council), planning decisions, schools, and the clubs and associations of the Neckar suburbs. The Mercedes-Benz plant — one of Daimler's most important production sites, currently transitioning to electric drivetrains — is a constant presence: the paper covers the plant's employment, its transformation, and its relationship with the district.

The winegrowing heritage shapes distinctive coverage: the vineyards of the Untertürkheim hills, the wine festivals, the vintners' associations, and the annual harvest. The paper documents the balance between industry and viticulture that defines the district — the factory and the vineyard slope often visible in the same photograph.

District development topics include the S-Bahn connections, the Neckar riverfront, the harbor and locks inaugurated in 1958, and the ongoing evolution of a working-class district within an affluent state capital. Beyond the local pages, readers receive the Stuttgarter Nachrichten' comprehensive regional, state, national, and international coverage, plus the business section.

Organization and Ownership

The Untertürkheimer Zeitung is published by the Bechtle, Graphische Betriebe und Verlagsgesellschaft (Bechtle Verlag und Esslinger Zeitung) GmbH & Co. KG, based in Esslingen am Neckar, as a sister edition of the Cannstatter Zeitung. Since the 2025 sale, the publishing house belongs to the Neue Pressegesellschaft in Ulm — the media group behind the Südwest Presse.

The paper maintains its own local newsroom for the Untertürkheim district, separate from the Cannstatt desk, while the Stuttgarter Nachrichten supplies the national and business pages. Ulrich Nagel is named as chief editor of the Cannstatter Zeitung, according to published sources. The Eßlinger Zeitung's digital infrastructure — including the newsdesk introduced in 2016 and the digital subscription system — serves the district papers as well.

Untertürkheim: Factory and Vineyard

Untertürkheim's dual character makes it one of Stuttgart's most distinctive districts, and the paper's local journalism reflects both sides. The Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim plant — where Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach's legacy became an industrial giant — employs thousands and anchors the district's economy; the paper's coverage of its electrification transformation is economic reporting with direct consequences for readers' livelihoods.

The vineyards tell the older story: wine has grown on the Neckar slopes since Roman times, and the Untertürkheim vintners maintain traditions — the wine festivals, the Besenwirtschaften (seasonal wine taverns), the steep-slope viticulture — that the paper chronicles with the attention of a community publication. The district's history, from independent wine village to incorporated Stuttgart district (1905) to industrial suburb, unfolds in the paper's archive across 125 years.

Two Papers, Two Newsrooms, One House

The Cannstatter/Untertürkheimer Zeitung's structure — two historic titles, two separate local newsrooms, one publishing house — is a deliberate preservation of local identity within economic consolidation. Since the 1955 union under the Rotenberg Verlag, the papers have shared everything except the thing readers care about most: the local pages. The Cannstatt desk covers Bad Cannstatt's affairs; the Untertürkheim desk covers the Neckar suburbs. This separation matters in Stuttgart's district politics, where the Bezirksbeiräte (district advisory councils) give the neighborhoods genuine — if limited — self-governance, and where a Daimler plant decision lands differently in Untertürkheim than a Wilhelma zoo story does in Cannstatt.

The model represents a compromise between the economics of newspaper production — shared printing, shared national pages, shared digital infrastructure — and the journalism of proximity. For the Untertürkheim reader, the paper remains "their" paper in a way a Stuttgart-wide edition could never be: the reporters know the Widdersteinstraße shopkeepers, the Lindenschule parents, the vintners on the Württemberg hill. In an era of newsroom consolidation, the two-desk structure is both anachronism and asset.

Readership and Market Position

The combined Cannstatter/Untertürkheimer Zeitung sells 3,910 copies (IVW 2/2022) — a small circulation reflecting the papers' hyper-local remit within a major city. The papers face competition from the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten's own Stuttgart coverage, but their exclusive focus on the eastern districts gives them a community-paper intimacy the metropolitan dailies cannot match.

The readership consists of Untertürkheim's established households, the Daimler workforce, winegrowers, and local businesses — a stable, loyal audience. Like all German local dailies, the papers face long-term circulation pressure, addressed through the esslinger-zeitung.de digital platform, e-paper editions, and digital subscriptions.

Digital Presence

The paper's digital home is within the esslinger-zeitung.de portal, the Eßlinger Zeitung's online platform, which publishes the district papers' local news alongside the Esslingen coverage. The portal operates a digital subscription model — introduced in 2016 — with e-paper editions for desktop and the e-paper app for tablets, plus full access to all articles. The Eßlinger Zeitung maintains active social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X) and the ES-TV video offering, extending the district papers' reach. The digital infrastructure serves all the Bechtle titles, giving the small Untertürkheim paper a modern online presence.