About Alsfelder Allgemeine

Alsfelder Allgemeine

The Alsfelder Allgemeine is the Alsfeld edition of the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung, the regional daily of central Hesse. Published Monday through Saturday for the town of Alsfeld and the old Alsfeld district, it carries the Gießen paper's regional and national reporting under its own local title while covering the Vogelsberg region — and it serves as the official gazette of the Vogelsberg district. It is one of the local editions of the Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagshaus, the Gießen-based publishing house that belongs to the Ippen group, and in Alsfeld it competes daily with the Oberhessische Zeitung.

Overview

The Alsfelder Allgemeine is a subscription daily appearing Monday through Saturday, subtitled "Zeitung für Stadt und Altkreis Alsfeld" — the newspaper for the town and the old district of Alsfeld — and designated as the official gazette (amtliches Verkündigungsblatt) for the Vogelsbergkreis. Alsfeld, a half-timbered town on the Schwalm in the Vogelsberg hills, is the largest town of the Vogelsberg district and a commercial center of upper Hesse. The paper covers this territory in the classic manner of the German local daily: the town council and district administration, the schools, the courts, church life, the sports clubs, and the everyday business of a community whose newspaper history reaches back into the 19th century.

The paper's structure is that of a local edition within the Gießener Allgemeine group. The national and regional pages come from the central newsroom in Gießen, while the local pages for Alsfeld and the Vogelsberg are produced for the edition. The publisher is the Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH & Co. KG of Gießen, which belongs to the Zeitungsgruppe Ippen. The Gießener Allgemeine's total sold circulation stands at 20,675 copies (IVW 1/2025, Monday to Saturday), a decline of 36.9 percent since 1998; edition-level figures for the Alsfelder Allgemeine are not publicly broken out.

Alsfeld is a two-paper town. Alongside the Alsfelder Allgemeine, the Oberhessische Zeitung — whose national section is produced by the Gießener Anzeiger while its local and sports newsroom sits in Alsfeld — serves the same town. The Oberhessische Zeitung is the older paper, first appearing in 1833 as the Anzeigeblatt für Alsfeld und Umgebung, founded by Friedrich Martin Ehrenklau; its printing house remained in the family for five generations. In 2014 it was taken over with the entire Zeitungsgruppe Zentralhessen by the VRM group, and on 1 January 2024 the Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagshaus took over the title as well — so that since 2021, and fully since 2024, the two competing Alsfeld dailies have shared the same publishing house. The two papers' rivalry, now conducted under one roof, remains one of the defining features of Alsfeld's media landscape.

History

The Alsfelder Allgemeine's parent paper, the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung, was founded in the immediate postwar period. On 2 January 1946 the military government issued license No. 26 W for the publication of the Gießener Freie Presse; the first issue appeared on 8 January 1946. The first publishers were Adolf Weller and Julius Hahn; on 3 June 1948 Hans Rempel joined Weller as publisher. A leading article on co-determination by Hans Rempel on 24 July 1948 led to a fierce controversy with the trade unions, the dismissal of an editorial staff member, and ultimately the first strike in the Federal Republic of Germany — a dramatic early chapter in the paper's history.

In 1966 the Gießener Freie Presse was renamed the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung. The paper grew into the regional daily of the city and district of Gießen, and its Alsfeld edition — the Alsfelder Allgemeine — became the paper of the Vogelsberg town and its old district. The publishing house, the Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagshaus of Gießen, joined the Zeitungsgruppe Ippen, the newspaper group of the Munich-based publisher Dirk Ippen.

The paper's online presence was completely revised in 2017 using the Ippen group's editorial system, which allows the group's Munich central newsroom to place articles independently of the Gießen newsroom. The editor-in-chief of the Gießener Allgemeine is Max Rempel; the publisher is Christian Rempel — the Rempel family's involvement in the paper reaching back to the postwar founding.

Coverage and Content

The Alsfelder Allgemeine's content follows the division of labor of the edition model. The Gießen newsroom produces the national and regional section — federal and state politics, the Hessian state politics from Wiesbaden, the economy, culture, sports — while the local pages are the edition's reason for being: reporting from the Alsfeld town council and the district administration of the Vogelsbergkreis, school and education news, court reporting, and coverage of the clubs, churches, and volunteer organizations that structure the town's social life.

The paper pays particular attention to the economy of the Vogelsberg region: the agriculture of the Vogelsberg hills, the mid-size industries of Alsfeld — from the district hospital to the furniture and packaging companies — and the commuter economy that ties the region to Gießen, Fulda, and Marburg. The half-timbered old town, one of the best-preserved in Hesse, and the tourism it brings are regular subjects, as are the traditional festivals and customs of upper Hesse.

As the official gazette of the Vogelsbergkreis, the paper carries the district's official announcements — a traditional function that underscores its institutional role in the region. The paper's advertising sections serve the local businesses of the Alsfeld area, and its classified and family-announcement pages remain among the most-read parts of the paper.

Organization and Ownership

The Alsfelder Allgemeine is published by the Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH & Co. KG of Gießen, which belongs to the Zeitungsgruppe Ippen. Within the Zeitungsholding Hessen — the holding structure of the Ippen group's Hessian papers — the Mittelhessische Druck- und Verlagshaus publishes the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung, the Alsfelder Allgemeine, the Wetterauer Zeitung, the Kreis-Anzeiger, and the Usinger Anzeiger, alongside the group's other Hessian titles.

The editor-in-chief of the Gießener Allgemeine is Max Rempel; the publisher is Christian Rempel. The paper's sold circulation of 20,675 copies (IVW 1/2025) covers the city and district of Gießen and, through the Alsfelder Allgemeine, the town and old district of Alsfeld. The group's papers are produced with the Ippen group's editorial system, linking the Gießen newsroom to the Munich central newsroom.

Digital Presence

Online, the Alsfelder Allgemeine is at alsfelder-allgemeine.de, where local reporting from Alsfeld and the Vogelsberg appears alongside the regional and national coverage of the Gießener Allgemeine group. The site's 2017 relaunch on the Ippen group's editorial system integrated the paper into the group's digital infrastructure, allowing the Munich central newsroom to contribute directly. Readers can access the paper as an ePaper, and the group's digital offerings include apps and newsletters.

On social media, the paper maintains channels that distribute its local stories, extending the reach of the Alsfeld edition beyond the printed paper's circulation area. The digital presence gives the Vogelsberg's news a home online, from the district's official announcements to the town council's decisions.

For the readers of Alsfeld and the old district, the Alsfelder Allgemeine remains the daily paper of their town: a local edition subtitled for the town and the old district, serving as the Vogelsberg district's official gazette, and produced within a publishing house whose Gießen roots reach back to the license of January 1946. In a town where two dailies still compete, it is the edition that brings the Gießener Allgemeine's journalism to the half-timbered town on the Schwalm.