About Neue Württembergische Zeitung

Neue Württembergische Zeitung

The Neue Württembergische Zeitung (NWZ) is the regional daily newspaper of the Göppingen district in Baden-Württemberg, appearing daily except Sunday. First published on 2 August 1946 under a license from the American control government, it has appeared since 1974 as a head paper of the Südwest Presse, the Ulm-based regional daily — a partnership now in its sixth decade. The sold circulation was 19,609 copies in the first quarter of 2026 (IVW, Monday to Saturday), a decline of 50.7 percent since 1998. The publisher is the Neue Pressegesellschaft in Ulm, and the edition's online home is the Göppingen section of the Südwest Presse portal at swp.de/goeppingen/. For readers in the district between Stuttgart and Ulm — the "Stauferkreis" around the Hohenstaufen mountain — the NWZ is the established daily paper, chronicling the district's public life since the first postwar years.

Overview

The Neue Württembergische Zeitung is a subscription daily appearing daily except Sunday, serving the Göppingen district — the Stauferkreis, named for the Staufer (Hohenstaufen) dynasty whose ancestral mountain rises over the district — in the Stuttgart region of Baden-Württemberg. It is published as a head paper (Kopfblatt) of the Südwest Presse, carrying the Ulm paper's national and international mantle alongside its own locally produced Göppingen pages.

The publisher is the Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH in Ulm, the publishing company of the Südwest Presse, owned in equal halves by the Ebner Pressegesellschaft and the ZVD Mediengesellschaft, with Ulrich Becker as editor-in-chief. The Südwest Presse's own lineage runs through the Ulmer Tagblatt (founded 1859, taken over by the Ebner publishing house in 1877), the Schwäbische Donau-Zeitung licensed in 1945 to Kurt Fried, Johannes Weißer, and Paul Thielemann, and the 1968 renaming — a history the NWZ has shared since the 1974 merger. The sold circulation of the NWZ was 19,609 copies in the first quarter of 2026 (IVW, Monday to Saturday), down 50.7 percent since 1998 — a decline that mirrors the broader pressures on the German regional press, though the paper remains the leading daily in its district.

History

After the end of the Second World War, Karl Aberle together with Fritz Harzendorf received a license from the American control government to publish a newspaper. The first edition of the Neuen Württembergischen Zeitung appeared on 2 August 1946 in Göppingen, placing it among the licensed papers of the American occupation zone — and making the NWZ one of the older postwar foundings among Germany's regional dailies still appearing today.

A remarkable chapter followed in June 1962, when members of the family of the entrepreneur Robert Bosch — through the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt (DVA) and the Württemberger Zeitung GmbH — acquired half of the Göppingen newspaper publishing and printing company, taking over the leadership of the NWZ with its then six head papers. The Bosch family already controlled the Stuttgarter Zeitung; the founder Karl Aberle's widow retained the other 50 percent, and at the DVA Robert Bosch junior and his sister Eva Madelung held 51 percent of the shares — a reminder of how deeply industrial capital was once intertwined with the southwestern German press. In March 1964 the Kocherbote in Gaildorf joined the group, and in July of the same year the Leonberger Kreiszeitung, the Sindelfinger Zeitung, the Gäubote in Herrenberg, the Kornwestheimer Zeitung, the Winnender Zeitung, and the Bote vom Welzheimers Wald — together the NWZ would then have had a combined circulation of 110,000 copies.

In 1974 the Neue Württembergische Zeitung merged with the Südwest Presse of Ulm; the Göppingen publishing house entered the Ulmer Zeitungsverlag with a 50 percent stake in that context. Since then the NWZ has appeared as a head paper of the Südwest Presse, one of around 30 affiliated local editions in the Ulm paper's network across Baden-Württemberg and parts of Bavaria — a network whose combined daily sold circulation stood at 274,383 copies in the second quarter of 2016, 93 percent of it by subscription, reaching around 860,000 readers.

The NWZ also published the Südwestdeutsche Illustrierte Wochenzeitung — from 1957 the Südwestdeutsche Illustrierte Wochen Zeitung, from 1973 the Illustrierte Wochenzeitung (iWz) — a Saturday weekend supplement appearing in numerous carrier papers between Ulm, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, and the Palatinate from October 1952 until its last issue on 24 February 1973, with serial novels, the "Gut Schwäbisch" column, pictures of the week, chess problems, stamp corners, "Heimat im Bild" features presenting the sights of the towns where the supplement appeared, and from 1955 the radio and then television program listings in the form of a broadcast schedule — a window into the media habits of the postwar decades.

Coverage and Content

The NWZ's local pages cover the Göppingen district: the district administration, the town councils, local courts, schools, clubs, and the economic life of the Stauferkreis — from the Märklin model-train maker in Göppingen, the district's most famous company, to the mechanical engineering firms of the Filstal valley and the automotive suppliers tied to the Stuttgart region. The paper reports on the Hohenstaufen mountain and the Staufer heritage that gives the district its identity, on local festivals such as the Göppingen city festival, and on the development pressures of a district situated between the Stuttgart and Ulm growth poles, with the Filstalbahn railway and the A8 autobahn shaping its commuter geography.

The shared Südwest Presse mantle supplies national and international news, business, sports, and culture; since 2015 the politics and business reporting of both the Südwest Presse and the Märkische Oderzeitung has been supplied through the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft, another subsidiary of the Neue Pressegesellschaft. Regular features include local sports coverage — from the district's football clubs to the handball and athletics scenes — event calendars, service pages, and special supplements tied to the Stauferkreis calendar. The advertising sections serve the district's retailers, craftsmen, and industrial employers.

Organization and Ownership

The publisher is the Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH in Ulm, owned 50 percent by the Ebner Pressegesellschaft and 50 percent by the ZVD Mediengesellschaft. The editor-in-chief of the Südwest Presse is Ulrich Becker. The Göppingen newsroom produces the NWZ's local pages with reporters covering the district's town halls, the district administration, and the Filstal communities; the editor-in-chief of the NWZ edition specifically is not publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed for this profile. The paper is printed at one of the five print sites in which the Neue Pressegesellschaft holds at least a significant stake.

Digital Presence

The edition's online home is the Göppingen section of the Südwest Presse portal at swp.de/goeppingen/, which serves all of the group's editions with localized sections. The site offers current news from the Göppingen district, the e-paper edition reproducing the printed paper, and digital subscription options, with premium content behind a paywall. Mobile apps for smartphones and tablets deliver breaking news and the e-paper, while newsletters keep subscribers informed of the district's most important stories, and social media channels carry local news to readers in the Stauferkreis.

The Südwest Presse's digital strategy must serve around 30 affiliated local editions, balancing the efficiency of a shared platform with the local identity of titles like the NWZ. Like every German regional daily, the paper faces the ongoing challenge of converting a print circulation that has halved since 1998 into digital readership — a transition in which the NWZ's loyal Stauferkreis subscriber base is its strongest asset.