''pardon'' was a German satirical

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

, which appeared

biweekly Weekly newspaper is a general-news or current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspaper is published once every two weeks. Weekly newspape ...

from 1962 to 1982. It was published to criticise the conservative situation of the

Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Democrati ...

era. ''pardon'' worked in a combination of politics and humour, information and satire, philosophy and

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

. Its authors included students who became known only later, writers

Robert Gernhardt Robert Gernhardt (13 December 1937 – 30 June 2006) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist and poet. Life Robert Gernhardt was born the son of a judge and a chemist in Tallinn, where his family was part of the Baltic German minority. In ...

and F. W. Bernstein, and graphic artists

F. K. Waechter Friedrich Karl Waechter (3 November 1937 in Danzig – 16 September 2005 in Frankfurt) was a renowned Germany, German cartoonist, author, and playwright. Life Waechter was born in Danzig as a son of a teacher. His family fled over the Baltic ...

, , , and . Guest authors included

Alice Schwarzer Alice Sophie Schwarzer (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal '' EMMA''. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-ab ...

Günter Wallraff Günter Wallraff (born 1 October 1942) is a German writer and undercover journalist. Life Günther Wallraff was born in Burscheid as the son of a Ford worker and a factory owner's daughter. After attending high school, he trained as bookselle ...

and . Commentators included

Freimut Duve Freimut Duve (26 November 1936 – 3 March 2020) was a German journalist, writer, politician and human rights activist. From 1980 to 1998 he was a member of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). He was the first OSC ...

and

Robert Jungk Robert Jungk (; born ''Robert Baum'', also known as ''Robert Baum-Jungk''; 11 May 1913 – 14 July 1994) was an Austrian writer, journalist, historian and peace campaigner. He wrote mostly on matters relating to nuclear weapons. Life Jungk was ...

Wilhelm Genazino Wilhelm Genazino (22 January 1943 – 12 December 2018) was a German journalist and author. He worked first as a journalist for the satirical magazine ''pardon'' and for ''Lesezeichen''. From the early 1970s, he was a freelance writer who became ...

was a member of the editorial staff for some time.

History

1961 to 1971

A test version of ''pardon'' appeared in 1961, the first regular issue appeared om 27 August 1962, founded by publishers and .

Loriot Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow (12 November 1923 – 22 August 2011), known as Vicco von Bülow or Loriot (), was a German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. As an artist, he was almost exclusively kno ...

designed the first title page. Among the first writers were

Werner Finck Werner Finck (2 May 1902 – 31 July 1978) was a German ''Kabarett'' comedian, actor and author. Not politically motivated by his own admission but just a "convinced individualist", he became one of Germany's leading cabaret artists under the co ...

, Wolfgang Bauer,

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

Martin Walser Martin Johannes Walser (; 24 March 1927 – 26 July 2023) was a German writer, known especially as a novelist. He began his career as journalist for ''Süddeutscher Rundfunk'', where he wrote and directed audio plays. He was a member of Group 47 ...

and

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

. ''pardon'' was successful from the start. The '' FAZ'' summarised later that ''pardon'' influenced the ''

zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' (; ; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F ...

'' of its era, leaving a mark on post-war history ("Pardon hat unter Nikels Leitung mit dessen literarisch-satirischem Spürsinn 18 Jahre lang Einfluss auf den Zeitgeist der Republik genommen – eine markante Phase der Nachkriegsgeschichte.") ''pardon'' was for a while the most popular satirical magazine in Europe, reaching more than 1.5 million regular readers then. The politician

Franz Josef Strauß Franz Josef Strauss ( ; 6 September 1915 – 3 October 1988) was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions between ...

began 18 legal cases against the magazine, and lost them all.

Reorganisation

In 1971, Erich Bärmeier left the team. Several authors disliked a change to less satire and more film and travel topics. Some of them founded the group

Neue Frankfurter Schule Neue Frankfurter Schule (NFS, New Frankfurt School) is a group of writers and artists which was founded by former members of the editorial staff of the German satirical magazine ''Pardon (magazine), pardon''. They have published the magazine ''Tita ...

which published the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'' magazine from 1979. Nikel won authors such as

Elke Heidenreich Elke Heidenreich (née Riegert; born 15 February 1943) is a German author, TV presenter, literary critic and journalist. She has written audio plays, a magazine column, scripts for television plays and books. Heidenreich is known as the ''Kabaret ...

and

Peter Härtling Peter Härtling (; 13 November 1933 – 10 July 2017) was a German writer, poet, publisher and journalist. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his major contribution to German literature. Biography Härtling was ...

, among others. He discovered new talent, including and . He published caricatures by

Tom Bunk Tom Bunk (born 17 December 1945) is a cartoonist known for adding multiple extraneous details to his posters, cartoons and illustrations created for both American and German publishers. Career In 1973, he moved to Berlin, where he began renderin ...

, ,

Gerhard Seyfried Gerhard Seyfried (born March 15, 1948) is a German comic artist, cartoonist, and writer. One of the most popular German underground artists, he won the Max & Moritz Prize in 1990. Working method With Flucht aus Berlin (1989/90) he changed h ...

, Brösel and . Nikel ended his tenure in October 1980, leaving the ''pardon'' license to

Hermann L. Gremliza Hermann Ludwig Gremliza (20 November 1940 – 20 December 2019) was a German Far-left politics, radical left journalist. Gremliza was born in Cologne. In the 1960s he studied in Tübingen. He learned the profession working at ''Der Spiegel'', and ...

of ''

konkret has been the name of two German magazines. was originally the name of a magazine established by Klaus Rainer Röhl in 1957, that was an influential magazine on the German political left in the 1960s. The magazine was dissolved in 1973 as a c ...

'', with chief editor . Their first issue appeared in May 1982, but the magazine was discontinued in July that year. Revivals have been tried but were shortlived.

Literature

* : ''Die schärfsten Kritiker der Elche in Wort und Strich und Bild''. Alexander Fest, Berlin 2001, . * : ''Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf - Gezeichnete Erinnerungen an eine Große Zeit'' 'Adolf Hitler's My Struggle - drawn memories of a big time'' (1968) ** Carl Hanser Verlag, 4. edition 1998, . ** NBad Malente: Vitolibro. 2014,

References

External links

Homepage of Johannes Hans A. Nikel
* Oliver Maria Schmitt
''Das Super-Sexy-Satire-Spritzpistolen-Schwebe-Blatt''.
2001, ''Titanic'' {{DISPLAYTITLE:''pardon'' (magazine) 1962 establishments in West Germany 1982 disestablishments in West Germany Biweekly magazines published in Germany Defunct magazines published in Germany German-language magazines Magazines established in 1962 Magazines disestablished in 1982 Mass media in Frankfurt Satirical magazines published in Germany