The German press card

Before 1934 a German journalist belonged, if he chose, to the Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse, the professional association of the press. The Schriftleitergesetz of 4 October 1933 changed that: from 1 January 1934 no one could work as an editor (Schriftleiter) unless entered, on application, in the professional list of editors kept by the Landesverbände der deutschen Presse (§ 8), and the law admitted only citizens of the Reich, in possession of their civil honours, of 'Aryan descent' and not married to a person of non-Aryan descent (§§ 5 and 6). Exceptions needed the head of the Landesverband and the approval of the Propaganda Minister (§ 9). Jewish and opposition journalists were driven from their profession by it.

No card of either period has been found, so both are reconstructions, and the office says so above them. The emblem the Reich's offices struck after 1933 is not drawn.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

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The paper

A reconstruction

This paper is a reconstruction. German journalists before 1934 belonged to the Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse, which the law of 1933 later made the keeper of the professional lists, but no card of the Weimar years has been found: the words and the layout are ours.

This paper is a reconstruction. From 1 January 1934 no one could work as an editor in Germany unless entered in the professional list of editors kept by the Landesverband der deutschen Presse (Schriftleitergesetz, § 8), and the law admitted only citizens of the Reich of 'Aryan descent', not married to a Jew (§§ 5 and 6): Jewish journalists were driven from their profession by it. No card of the period has been found; its words and layout are ours, and the emblem the Reich's offices struck is not drawn.

The same paper elsewhere

• Press cards by country

Still to be confirmed

• the whole card. What would settle it: a card of the Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse of 1920 to 1933.

Sources

• Deutsches Reich; text reproduced at klausjans.de, Schriftleitergesetz vom 4. Oktober 1933 (RGBl. I S. 713), §§ 5, 6, 8, 9, in force 1 January 1934, § 5: Schriftleiter kann nur sein, wer die deutsche Reichsangehörigkeit besitzt, die bürgerlichen Ehrenrechte nicht verloren hat, arischer Abstammung ist …; § 6: the Aryan requirement as in § 1a of the Reichsbeamtengesetz; § 8: Die Zulassung zum Schriftleiterberuf wird auf Antrag durch Eintragung in die Berufsliste der Schriftleiter bewirkt. Die Berufslisten werden bei den Landesverbänden der deutschen Presse geführt; § 9: exceptions on the application of the head of the Landesverband with the approval of the Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (read directly)

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