Deutsche Zentral Zeitung

Deutsche Zentral Zeitung

Clipping of a DZZ article from September 22, 1926
Type	German-language newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Publisher	German section of the Communist International
Editor	Julia Annenkova (1934–1937), Karl Hoffmann, Karl Filippovich Kurshner
Staff writers	political exiles from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France
Founded	1925
Political alignment	Communist
Ceased publication	1939
Headquarters	Moscow, Soviet Union

The Deutsche Zentral Zeitung (German Central Newspaper) was the German-language newspaper published in Moscow by the German-speaking section of the Communist International. The newspaper's type was set in Fraktur (see image) and contained translations of Russian articles and speeches, reviews, articles from and about other countries, and it publicized pronouncements and information from the Communist Party. Published for little over a decade, the newspaper ceased publication in 1939 after Soviet secret police (NKVD) arrested so many of the staff that it no longer had enough people to continue operation. The newspaper remained without a successor until 1957.

The large number of Germans living in the Soviet Union supported many publications in the German language in the 1930s. With the growing pressures of a growing police state, a number of German-language publications closed, leaving fewer than two dozen. The Deutsche Zentral Zeitung (DZZ) was founded in 1925. It was published in Moscow from 1926 to mid-1939 and was the Communist Party organ, "equivalent to Pravda". It published speeches by Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov and other top Soviet officials, government pronouncements and German translations of important articles from Pravda, the newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party. Articles detailed the accomplishments of the Soviet Union in agriculture and industry, advancements in technology and aviation. There were also early reports about Nazi concentration camps, such as the articles written by Willi Bredel on September 10, 1934 and October 27, 1934 about his own experiences as a prisoner in Fuhlsbüttel and by Werner Hirsch, also in October 1934, of his confinement at several camps. In December 1935, the DZZ published reports from the Rote Hilfe about Sachsenburg concentration camp, with specific information about names and numbers, including how many prisoners there were in different categories.