Atze

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Atze
Categories
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation450,000
PublisherJunge-Welt-Verlag
Founded1955
First issueApril 1955
Final issue
Number		1991
442
CompanyFreie Deutsche Jugend
CountryEast Germany
Based in
LanguageGerman
ISSN0323-8903
OCLC85150277

Atze (German: Pal) was a monthly comics magazine which was published from 1955 to 1991 in East Germany. It was the first comic publication in the country and was one of the state-controlled publications targeting youth.[1]

History and profile[edit]

Atze was established in 1955 as a sister publication of another magazine named Der Junge Pionier (German: The Young Scout), and its first issue appeared in April that year.[2][3] Both magazines were edited by the same editorial team led by Klaus Hilbig for one year.[2][4] Then Atze became part of the Freie Deutsche Jugend (German: Central Council of the Free German Youth) which was a youth movement controlled by the state until 1990.[2] The publisher of the magazine was the Junge-Welt-Verlag, publishing company of the Freie Deutsche Jugend.[2][4] Atze came out monthly and was first headquartered in Berlin and then in Dresden.[4]

In the first year Atze was an eight-page publication.[5] The magazine was redesigned in 1957, and its page number was extended to twelve.[5] From 1962 its page number was sixteen.[5]

Atze began to feature the comic series Fix and Fax by Jürgen Kieser in 1958.[5][6] It also featured Pats Reiseabenteuer (German: Pat's Travel Adventures) which was started in 1967.[4][3] One of its editors-in-chief was Wolfgang Altenburger who held the post from 1963 who had been a contributor of Atze.[2] He introduced a new outline for the magazine.[5] It included political editorials and comic series Pats Reiseabenteuer and Fix and Fax.[5] This outline was employed without any significant change until the closure of Atze in 1991 due to its lower market share.[5]

Wolfgang Altenburger did not only introduce an outline for Atze, but also made the magazine much more political in 1967 through anti-western, nationalist and socialist content in order to encourage socialist ideology among East German youth.[3][7]

During its lifetime Atze produced a total of 442 issues and featured 1,686 comic stories.[8] The magazine had a constant circulation of 450,000 copies.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ John D. Benjamin (2019). "Relocating the Text: Mosaik and the Invention of a German East German Comics Tradition". The German Quarterly. 92 (2): 149. doi:10.1111/gequ.12100.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Michael F. Scholz (2020). "Images of Spies and Counterspies in East German Comics". In Martha Kuhlman; José Alaniz (eds.). Comics of the New Europe: Reflections and Intersections. Leuven: Leuven University Press. pp. 160, 164. doi:10.2307/jj.2487428.14. ISBN 9789461665270.
  3. ^ a b c Sean Eedy (2018). "Four colour anti-fascism: postwar narratives and the obfuscation of the Holocaust in East German comics". Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 17 (1): 25–26. doi:10.1080/14725886.2017.1382071. S2CID 148646502.
  4. ^ a b c d "Atze". ddr-werbefiguren-welt.de (in German). Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Atze". ddr-comics.de (in German). Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  6. ^ "Fix-und-Fax-Schöpfer Jürgen Kieser ist tot". ntv (in German). 21 May 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  7. ^ Sean Eedy (2014). "Reimagining GDR comics: Kultur, children's literature and the socialist personality". Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. 5 (3): 246. doi:10.1080/21504857.2014.908402. S2CID 154817600.
  8. ^ "Atze-Datenbank". weisshahn.de (in German). Retrieved 3 August 2023.
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