Biographie
Springer grew up with his parents in Hamburg. After finishing school in 1928, he completed an apprenticeship as a printer at his father's publishing house. He later worked at Schröder's Sieler & Vogel paper mills in Hamburg and Leipzig. Until 1932, Springer completed a traineeship at the "Bergedorfer Zeitung" and the WTB news agency. He later became editor of the newspaper "Altonaer Nachrichten", where he worked in the areas of sports and business. In 1933, Springer married the Hamburg merchant's daughter Martha Else Meyer, who gave birth to their daughter Barbara that same year. In 1934, Springer became deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Altonaer Nachrichten". After his first marriage failed, he married the Berlin model Erna Frieda Berta Holm (née Sexton) in 1939. According to a medical certificate, he was classified as unfit for war in the same year.
In 1941 the NSDAP imposed a ban on working at the publishing house. From then on, propaganda material was printed. In the same year, their first son, Axel, was born from their relationship with Erna. From 1944 to 1945, Springer was a partner in Hammerich & Lesser Verlag, which continued to exist unchanged. The calendar "Contemplation. Eternal Words of Humanity" was published as the first print. From 1946 the publisher published the "Nordwestdeutsche Hefte", in which information from the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was printed. The program magazine "Hör zu" also appeared for the first time in 1946. Springer founded "Axel Springer Verlags GmbH" in 1947 and, together with his publishing colleague John Jahr, received the license to publish the women's magazine "Constanze". After the first issue appeared in March 1948, "Constanze" developed into one of the most successful fashion magazines of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in West Germany.
In 1948, with the license to publish a daily newspaper ("Hamburger Abendblatt"), Springer also received permission to publish the first non-partisan newspaper approved by the authorities in Hamburg. In order to meet the high circulation requirements, construction of the publishing house on Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße began in 1950. After "Hör zu" had exceeded the million circulation mark, Springer developed the tabloid format of the "BILD-Zeitung" in 1952 based on the model of the English "Yellow Press" newspapers. When his second marriage also failed, Springer married Rosemarie Alsen, née Lorenz, in 1953. In 1953 he also bought the English-owned newspapers "Die Welt", "Welt am Sonntag" and "Das Neue Blatt" to add to the existing publishing program. In 1956, Springer made its first external acquisition with a stake in Berlin's Ullstein-Verlag.
Since April of that year, the "BILD-Zeitung" has been published daily and, in the form of "Bild am Sonntag", also on weekends. Springer traveled to Moscow in 1958, where he held talks with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev. The aim of the initiative was to introduce the Russian government to a concept for German reunification. However, the only result of the trip was an interview that was published in the newspaper "Die Welt". In 1959, Springer acquired the majority share in the Berlin-based Ullstein-Verlag, which now owns the daily newspapers "B.Z." and "Berliner Morgenpost". Springer married Helga Alsen, née Ludewig-Sarre, for the fourth time in 1962. The sons Raimund and Nikolaus emerged from this relationship. To further expand the program, the publisher bought the Düsseldorf tabloid "Mittag" and the Munich publishing house Kindler & Schiermeyer in 1964. Further acquisitions in 1965 included the youth magazine "Bravo", "twen" and the football magazine "Kicker".
In 1965, as part of a trip to Israel, Springer donated 3.5 million DM to build an Israeli museum. Together with Federal President Heinrich Lübke, the new Springer publishing house was inaugurated in West Berlin in 1966, which became the group's headquarters from 1967. This year also marked the beginning of the first major protests against the publisher as part of the student movement. The focus of the criticism was Axel Springer. The source of the discontent of various student groups was the misuse of media power by Springer. With slogans like "Dispossessed Springer," students marched through the streets of Berlin in mostly unauthorized demonstrations. Springer responded by publishing four principles that were henceforth binding for all editors at Springer Verlag: 1.) - Supporting the reunification of Germany. 2.) - Reconciliation between Germans and Jews. 3.) - Rejection of any kind of political totalitarianism. 4.) - Defense of the social market economy.
After the attack on student leader Rudi Dutschke in 1968, the situation threatened to escalate. Due to the previous verbal smear campaign by the Springer press against the Student. The Student's movement's accusation was: "Image shot with it". Now the case was treated politically and at the highest level. A press commission set up by the federal government joined in the criticism of Springer-Verlag and expressed concerns about the irresponsible handling of press freedom in Germany. Springer then voluntarily sold the magazines "Das Neue Blatt", "Jasmin", "Eltern", "Bravo", "twen" and "Kicker", for which he was praised by the Association of German Newspaper Publishers. In 1970 the group was converted into a stock corporation. The group's previous companies, such as Ullstein, Hammerich & Lesser and Axel Springer & Sohn, were combined into the AG, whose sole shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board was Springer himself.
In 1972, the "Red Army Faction" carried out a bomb attack on the Springer high-rise in Hamburg. 17 employees of the publishing house were injured. In 1973, an arson attack followed on Springer's guest house in Kampen and on his chalet in Gstaad. In 1974, Springer was awarded an honorary doctorate by Israel's Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan. In 1976 he received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in 1977 he was awarded the American Friendship Medal. The book "The Opener" sparked great media interest in 1977. The author and journalist Günter Wallraff sneaked into the editorial team of the Bild newspaper in Hanover under the code name Hans Esser. With his criticism of the way the newspaper works, he once again triggered a wave of indignation. In a later trial, the publisher lost to Wallraff. In 1978, to satisfy the public, the Springer publishing house was ordered to pay 50,000 DM to the student Eleonore Poensgen.
The reason for this was that the BILD newspaper declared the student a terrorist after the murder of Dresdner Bank boss Jürgen Ponto. Also in 1978, Springer married Elfriede "Friede" Riewerts for the fifth time. For his services to reconciliation between Germans and Jews, he was the first winner to receive the Leo Baeck Medal. Springer's eldest son Axel, who was very close to him despite numerous quarrels and was considered his successor, committed suicide in Hamburg in 1980. Shortly afterwards the book "Out of Concern for Germany" was published. Also in 1980, there was an organized boycott against Springer during the PEN congress in Bremen. 58 writers and journalists decided to stop writing for Springer-Verlag. Numerous artists and scientists joined in.
The next year, Springer was awarded an honorary doctorate from Boston University and the Konrad Adenauer Prize from the Deutschlandstiftung. At the beginning of the 1980s, Springer increasingly withdrew from business life. One of his last projects was the unsuccessful expansion of the Btx. From 1982 he began negotiations with the Burda publishing house about the sale of company shares. In the same year, Springer was honored with the Berlin Ernst Reuter Medal. After tough negotiations with the Federal Cartel Office, Burda-Verlag took over a 24.9% share in Springer-Verlag in 1983. In the same year, Springer was the first German to be awarded the title "Keeper of Jerusalem". In 1985 the publisher sold a further 49% of the company's shares, with Leo Kirch acquiring his first 10% of the Springer company.
