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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.

History and profile

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. Both magazines were edited by the same editorial team led by Klaus Hilbig for one year. 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. The publisher of the magazine was the Junge-Welt-Verlag, publishing company of the Freie Deutsche Jugend. Atze came out monthly and was first headquartered in Berlin and then in Dresden.

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

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

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.

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

References

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. ^ 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. ^ 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. ^ "Atze". ddr-werbefiguren-welt.de (in German). Retrieved 3 August 2023.
5. ^ "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.

• 1955 establishments in East Germany
• 1991 disestablishments in Germany
• Comics magazines published in Germany
• Defunct youth magazines
• Defunct German-language magazines
• Defunct political magazines published in Germany
• Defunct socialist magazines
• Former state media
• Magazines about comics
• Magazines established in 1955
• Magazines disestablished in 1991
• Magazines published in Berlin
• Magazines published in East Germany
• Mass media in Dresden
• Monthly magazines published in Germany