European Guide on
Banking and Reverse Mortgage Loans

History of the company/bank and archive description for Axel Springer Verlag AG

Previously a largely apolitical person, Axel Springer became a leading champion of German reunification via his newspapers. In the late 1960s and early 70s Axel Springer Verlag owned 39 per cent of the circulation of all German newspapers and 18 per cent of the country's magazines, according to sources close to the Bonn government. The extra-parliamentary opposition, left-wing groups and liberals were united in their opposition to Axel Springer Verlag. Violence flared up. The culmination was a two-fold bomb attack in 1972 on the Hamburg headquarters, in which 17 employees were injured. Axel Springer considered selling his entire publishing business. Indeed, several publications were disposed of.

In 1985, the year of his death, Axel Springer floated 49 percent of the company's shares on the stock exchange. In his will he decreed that his total assets should remain undivided for a period of thirty years. Chancellor Helmut Kohl described the deceased as "a great German". After in 1989 the Berlin Wall had come down, Axel Springer Verlag acquired participating interests in OSTSEE-ZEITUNG and LEIPZIGER VOLKSZEITUNG. DIE WELT was the first national daily newspaper to transfer its operations to Berlin.

In its own right and in partnership with other companies, Axel Springer Verlag publishes around 180 newspapers and magazines in domestic and foreign markets. The advent of the multimedia age now has prompted the company to explore new creative avenues. It operates more than two dozen different services on the Internet. These include the online versions of BILD, DIE WELT, ALLEGRA and AUTO BILD, as well as original online offerings. Axel Springer Verlag also holds participating interests in various TV stations and production companies. Today Axel Springer Verlag is transforming itself from a German print publisher to an international media company.

1. Records
1942-1999, aproximately 400 shelf-metres, from the following areas: Management: board of management, competences: staff, distribution, newspapers, magazines, advertisments, technology, New Media
object-related material: DIE WELT, WELT AM SONNTAG, Koralle-Verlag, FBT/FFB)
Legal Department
Electronic Publishing
Technology

2. Collection Axel Springer
1930-85, approximately 120 shelf-metres.

3. Collections and deposits from employees and journalists
1900- , continuing, approximately 90 shelf-metres

4. Collections
Audio-visual material: c. 500 audio tapes (1960s-90s), c. 400 tape reels (1940s-70s), c. 850 video tapes (1970s-90s), c. 400 film reels (1940s-70s)
Photographs: c. 10,000 photographs on the history of the company and its employees
Market research: c. 1000 studies (1940s-80s)
Newspapers: selected copies of 724 titles, the oldest from 1731
Advertising: more than 2000 objects (posters, brochures, leaflets, three-dimensional objects etc.)

5. Text archive/press cuttings
Archive of the Hamburger Fremdenblatt (1908-53), approximately 65 shelf-metres (1600 files)
Archive of Die Neue Zeitung (1945-48), approximately 5 shelf-metres

6. Documentation
Press cuttings on Axel Springer Verlag, from 1954, continued

7. Library
Reading library, focussing on the history of the press and the media, c. 6000 books and articles