Die Journalisten

(The Journalists) by Gustav Freytag.

   Premiered 1852. Freytag's comedy of intrigue within the newspaper publishing business was a staple of theater repertoires for five decades after its premiere. In it, Adelheid von Runek has left her estate and has come to visit Colonel Lang in the city. She intends with her visit to call upon her childhood friend Konrad Bolz, who works as an editor for a newspaper called The Union. The paper's managing editor is Professor Oldendorf, who is in love with Colonel Lang's daughter Ida. An election is upcoming, and the Union Party nominates Oldendorf as its candidate. He is opposed by the Coriolanus newspaper, and its backers nominate Colonel Lang to run for the same office. They hope that running against his prospective father-in-law will deter Oldendorf. Oldendorf refuses to step aside, however, and in retaliation the colonel forbids Oldendorf from coming to his house. Ida and Adelheid try to restore peace between the two, but Konrad Bolz proves to be a superb campaign manager and Oldendorf wins the election by a small majority. Adelheid tries to console her friend the colonel in his loss, pointing out that the people who nominated him were merely using him against their real enemy, Oldendorf. She buys the Union newspaper, and Oldendorf resigns from it to become the new member of parliament. Meantime Konrad has fallen in love with Adelheid, and the colonel forgives Oldendorf.

   The play is effective as a romantic comedy, but it is also an accurate reflection of how newspapers actually functioned in the days before typewriters. Freytag also shows how newspapers were more mouthpieces than sources of news, vehicles their owners used to manipulate public opinion more than anything else. The Journalists cannot be considered a 19th-century German precursor to Citizen Kane, but it is interesting nonetheless if only for its depiction of the newspaper business and the idiosyncratic characters within it.