Arbeiterzeitung

   / Workers’ Newspaper

   Founded in 1889 by Social Democratic Party of Austria (SDAP) leader Viktor Adler, the Arbeiterzeitung at first appeared only twice a month. From 1895 to 1934, it came out daily, though from 1933 to 1934 it was heavily censored. Finally forbidden to publish at all by the right-wing regime of Engelbert Dollfuss, the journal was transferred to Brno in Czechoslovakia, where it was published as a weekly and smuggled into Austria until 1938.

   The Arbeiterzeitung was the central organ of the SDAP; it reflected those views both in its editorial columns and in its selection of news. Its intellectual level was characteristically high, reflecting both the sophistication of the party leadership and its serious commitment to educating the Austrian working class. In the years before World War I and into the early 1930s, the Arbeiterzeitung often took outspoken, militant positions on questions such as interclass warfare. Its reporting sometimes embarrassed the conservative and right-wing governments that controlled Austria in the 1920s and 1930s. In January 1933, the Arbeiterzeitung disclosed that Austria was violating the Treaty of St. Germain by accepting shipments of weapons from Italy supposedly intended for Hungary. See ST. GERMAIN, TREATY OF. From 1945 to 1989, the Arbeiterzeitung was restored as a party daily. However, its reportorial tone became much more neutral and its editorial content more tabloidlike. In 1991, after two years of publication without any political identification, it folded for economic reasons.

   See also Press.