display
DIE WELT is now 75 years old, 68 of which it belongs to Axel Springer.
THE WORLD has seen the Wall, the Cold War, the German reunification, the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the financial crisis and now a pandemic.
There are also six world championship titles in football - two of the women, four of the men - the first female Chancellor and a German Pope.
DIE WELT has reported on every historical event since 1946.
In the spirit of Arthur Schopenhauer.
As the second hand of history.
The first WELT, newly conceived and designed under my direction, appeared on a historic day for Germans: on November 9th.
This day combines the most beautiful with the most terrible.
Every year we remember with shame the pogrom night of 1938, when the Nazis began to burn down Jewish institutions.
The harbinger of the Holocaust.
We think with joy of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The prelude to the reunification of Germany.
Leaf through all the pages of the first edition of WELT from April 2, 1946
display
On November 9th - the day that symbolizes the value coordinates of the WORLD like nothing else but a menetekel and a guiding star - the newspaper first appeared in 1998 with a new concept.
With a new production system, a new layout, a larger scope, different authors, a new structure.
Different priorities.
New fuel.
It was the result of months of obsessive work by a newly assembled team that wanted to change not only THE WORLD, but the world as well.
Since then, almost everything has got a little better every year.
In the WELT at least the authors.
The layout.
Thoughts.
The research.
The newspaper got better in other ways with my successors.
Cheekier with Roger Köppel.
Smarter with Thomas Schmid.
With Jan-Eric Peters more digital.
More investigative with Stefan Aust.
Freer with Ulf Poschardt.
Fresher with Dagmar Rosenfeld.
The WELT brand has emerged from the newspaper DIE WELT.
Daily newspaper.
Sunday newspaper.
Website.
App.
TV channel.
75 years of WELT - our texts
The decisive continuum, however, is the soul of the WORLD.
This newspaper was and is and remains the newspaper of those who think differently.
The forum for free and cheeky thoughts.
The leading medium of freedom.
First of all, the newspaper must be elegant and beautiful.
Visually a mixture of London and Milan.
Cleverness doesn't have to be blue-stocked.
Although that is a provocation for some.
But there is much more to it that it is unpredictable.
If everyone agrees, there has to be someone who thinks it possible that the opposite is true.
Or as Bertolt Brecht - who is not sure whether he would have become a WELT subscriber - said: "You have one in me that you cannot rely on."
display
This voice is needed in Germany.
More than ever.
As a publisher, we will make sure that it never falls silent.
But becomes more and more audible with subtle wisdom.
The digital era of media is our opportunity.
Strengthening freedom remains our mission.
In 1971, on the occasion of WELT's 25th birthday, Axel Springer said: “This newspaper was and is independent, which, however, is never and never identical with neutral.
On the contrary: this newspaper has always stood up with verve for what it thought was right;
she has shown no false consideration;
and it will continue to do so in the future. "
I would like to thank all employees and all readers of WELT for their loyalty.
And I would like to congratulate you on your 75th birthday.
The best is still ahead of us.
On its 100th birthday, WELT will be the journalistically most influential and economically successful brand for quality journalism in Germany.
I don't just wish that.
We will work for that.