About DUZ

DUZ

DUZ — the acronym of Deutsche Universitätszeitung (German University Journal) — is a German-language magazine for science, higher education, and society, published from Berlin. Founded in December 1945 in Göttingen in the immediate aftermath of World War II, it is one of the oldest surviving publications of the German academic world, with a readership of around 20,000 decision-makers in higher education and research. After a period of insolvency in 2025, the magazine returned to publication in 2026 under the title DUZ Wissenschaft & Management, continuing its eight-decade mission of independent journalism on science policy and university affairs.

Overview

DUZ is a special-interest magazine for the German-speaking science system: university presidents and rectors, research managers, science policymakers at state and federal level, and researchers themselves. Its editorial program spans science policy, university governance, research management, teaching and learning, academic careers, and the relationship between science and society. The magazine describes its offer to readers as orientation in the flood of information, background knowledge for decision-making, inspiration for practical work, and career guidance.

The current publication appears under the DUZ Verlags- und Medienhaus GmbH, the publishing house that emerged from the Berlin branch of the Dr. Josef Raabe Verlags-GmbH in January 2016. The duz.de portal is organized into sections including Politik & Gesellschaft (Politics & Society), Wissenschaft & Management (Science & Management), Kommunikation & Transparenz (Communication & Transparency), Studium & Lehre (Study & Teaching), and Arbeit & Psychologie (Work & Psychology). The 2026 issues — for example, DUZ Wissenschaft & Management 04/2026 — cover topics such as research security, artificial intelligence in teaching, knowledge transfer, and university governance, reflecting the magazine's dual focus on policy debate and management practice.

DUZ's readership, consistently estimated at around 20,000, extends beyond its core audience: politicians, entrepreneurs, and industrial researchers are also counted among its readers. The magazine has long positioned itself as required reading for anyone setting the course in the science enterprise, and its journalistic independence is presented as its trademark. The brand also encompasses duz-open.de, an open-access publication platform, and the duz SPECIAL supplements produced for institutional partners.

History

DUZ was founded in December 1945 in Göttingen as the Göttinger Universitätszeitung (GUZ), in the "Stunde Null" (zero hour) of German higher education after the Nazi era and World War II. In those early years it was a journalistic novelty with the ambition of honestly confronting the Nazi past and prehistory within the academic world, reaching beyond Göttingen nationally and internationally. Its early coverage of political and higher-education topics — university reform, studium generale, questions of the theory of science, sociology, and literature — was noted for unusual precision and sharpness, and the young GUZ/DUZ was regarded, especially abroad, as one of the most significant voices of academic Germany.

In 1949 the paper became the Deutsche Universitätszeitung (DUZ). In 1950 the editorial office moved from Göttingen to Bonn-Bad Godesberg, and the magazine increasingly became a journal for scientists specifically, reporting mainly on science-policy topics; at times it served as the official bulletin of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). In 1964 Josef Raabe — who had founded the Hochschul-Dienst "HD" information service in 1948 — bought the DUZ and took over its editorial direction. In 1969 the DUZ merged with the HD, appearing thereafter every two weeks. In 1979 Raabe sold the magazine to the Ernst Klett Verlag; in the 1980s it became part of a science publishing operation within the RAABE group, itself part of the Klett Group. In 2000 the editorial office moved to Berlin.

In January 2016 the DUZ came under the roof of the newly founded DUZ Verlags- und Medienhaus GmbH, which continued part of the predecessor publisher's specialist media. In 2019, editorial director Angelika Fritsche led a reconception and relaunch: the Deutsche Universitätszeitung became DUZ – Magazin für Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, returning to its roots as a platform for reflection and exchange that seeks to intervene in the societal and political discourse of science and society. In 2025 the magazine was shut down due to insolvency — an event the magazine itself marked with the retrospective "80 Jahre DUZ – Ende einer Ära … und ein möglicher Aufbruch" — but it returned to publication in 2026, with current issues such as DUZ Wissenschaft & Management 04/2026 appearing on duz.de.

Coverage and Content

DUZ's editorial content addresses the full agenda of the German science system. Science-policy coverage includes federal and state higher-education legislation, coalition agreements' implications for research, funding programs, and debates on university governance — for example, interviews with university presidents on state higher-education laws and the tension between regulation and institutional autonomy. Research-management topics range from research security and knowledge transfer to coaching for science managers and the professionalization of transfer offices.

Teaching and learning form another pillar: the magazine covers AI in higher-education teaching, student dropout, the future of teaching formats, and the career paths of academic staff. The "Arbeit & Psychologie" section addresses working conditions in academia, while "Kommunikation & Transparenz" deals with science communication and public trust. A recurring format is the in-depth interview with leaders of the science system — university presidents, transfer-office directors, and policy figures — alongside essays and editorials that argue positions in ongoing debates.

The magazine's quality journalism has been repeatedly recognized: in January 2011, managing editor Christine Prußky received the Goethe-Medienpreis for science and higher-education journalism, and in 2005 the DUZ was named among the specialist journals of the year in the science/medicine category. The duz SPECIAL supplements, produced for partners such as the CHE Centre for Higher Education, extend the brand into sponsored deep-dives on topics like the future of studying. The open-access platform duz-open.de broadens the brand's digital footprint beyond the subscription magazine.

Organization and Ownership

Since January 2016, DUZ has been published by the DUZ Verlags- und Medienhaus GmbH in Berlin, the publishing house that emerged from the Berlin branch of the Dr. Josef Raabe Verlags-GmbH. The predecessor, founded by Dr. Josef Raabe in 1964 and part of the Ernst Klett Verlag since 1979, had published the magazine from offices at Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 90 in Berlin. The current ownership structure of the DUZ Verlags- und Medienhaus GmbH is not publicly confirmed in the accessible sources; the publisher responsible for editorial content in the Raabe era was Christine Prußky in Berlin.

The magazine's editorial leadership in its most recent incarnation included Angelika Fritsche as editorial director, who led the 2019 relaunch to DUZ – Magazin für Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. The current editor-in-chief following the 2026 return to publication is not publicly confirmed. Historically, the editorial team included editors such as Hans-Christoph Keller, Mareike Knoke, and Christine Xuân Müller, with regular contributors including Frank van Bebber, Benjamin Haerdle, and Marion Hartig — though the current masthead is not publicly documented.

DUZ operates as an independent specialist publisher focused on the science and higher-education market. Its business model combines subscriptions — historically the magazine reached some 20,000 readers — with advertising from higher-education institutions, research funders, and service providers, as well as sponsored special editions. The 2025 insolvency and 2026 relaunch suggest a restructuring of the publishing operation, the details of which are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

DUZ's digital flagship is duz.de, which presents the magazine's current issues, individual articles with permanent URLs, and thematic sections spanning politics, management, communication, teaching, and careers. The site carries advertising banners from higher-education institutions and research organizations — including the Humboldt Foundation and universities of applied sciences — reflecting its role as a marketplace for the academic labor market and the science system. Selected articles are freely accessible, while the full magazine content follows the subscription model.

The brand's digital ecosystem includes duz-open.de, an open-access publication platform referenced in the portal's advertising, extending DUZ's reach into freely available science-system publications. The magazine's 2026 return is documented on duz.de itself, with current issues such as DUZ Wissenschaft & Management 04/2026 and individual articles on research security, AI in teaching, and university governance. For a specialist magazine whose audience consists of digitally connected knowledge workers, the portal serves as both a reading platform and an archive. The magazine's social-media channels are not prominently documented in the accessible sources; the primary digital touchpoints remain the duz.de portal and the duz-open.de platform.