Axel Springer

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The Axel-Springer-Building in Hamburg, Germany.

Axel Springer (May 2, 1912, Altona, Hamburg - September 22, 1985, West Berlin), was a German journalist and the founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company.

Springer was born as Axel Cäsar Springer in Hamburg, where his father worked as publisher. As a young man, in 1940-41, Springer acted as projectionist at the Waterloo cinema, near the Dammtor railway station, which presented American films for the well-to-do youth of Hamburg until Germany's declaration of war against the United States in December 1941.^[1]

Springer's career started with the foundation of Axel Springer GmbH in Hamburg in 1946. He published the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, followed by some magazines, including the popular radio and TV programme magazine Hör zu. In 1952, Springer started the publication of the tabloid Bild, becoming the daily newspaper for millions in Germany and one important influence on public opinion.

He went on to launch and acquire a string of papers and magazines characterised by entertainment and conservative politics. The Axel Springer Verlag today is one of the major magazine and newspaper publishers in Germany with over 180 newspapers and magazines in circulation: 23.7% of the German market in 1999.

Axel Springer had connections with the Grand Orient of Freemasonry in West Germany.^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1960s, Springer was attacked by the radical-leftist, communist and anarchist student movement for the political opinion pushed forward via Bild and the other Springer media and became a goal of their protest marches and direct actions. Springer was swift to denounce those who questioned the economic miracle of the fifties and sixties. The attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke has by some been connected to Bild's condemnation of the protesters.^{[citation needed]}

Springer's political views and that of his publications is often characterized as conservative by German standards.

Springer's Bild newspaper was attacked most famously in 1974's The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Böll.

Springer died in West Berlin in 1985.

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