![]() ![]() Indeed, censorship by the Catholic Church reached its apogee during the Counter Reformation. However, even after secular control of censorship had been established, the Catholic Church by no means relinquished its own censorship measures. Finally, censorship by secular authorities became the dominant kind. This supervision was subsequently increasingly adopted by secular institutions also. Censorship emerged in three main stages: Initially, the supervision of printing was organized solely by the church. The printing of a proscribed text resulted in serious penalties, including excommunication. The aim of the prescribed supervision was to maintain doctrinal consistency, but moral and educative concerns also entered into these considerations. 3 One year later, a papal bull decreed the pre-authorization of texts for printing.Ĭensorship had its origins in the religious realm because it was initially primarily religious works and texts for liturgical purposes that were printed. In 1486, Berthold von Henneberg (1441–1504), the archbishop-elector of Mainz, issued the first decree establishing a censorship commission for the entire archbishopric. Thus, the first measures to control printing were introduced just a few decades after the emergence of printing technology. To prevent the dissemination of a text, it was necessary to prevent it being printed at all. From this point, it was possible to make and distribute numerous copies of any text. However, the need for the supervision of communication within society only became urgent after the invention of printing with movable type by Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1 By contrast, something akin to freedom of expression existed during the period of classical Greek democracy and during the Roman Republic. For example, the Roman "Law of the Twelve Tables" from the 5th century BC made libel punishable by death. Though there was no printed press in antiquity, restrictions regarding public utterances existed. In the Roman Empire, censors were officials who were appointed for a limited time period, and who adjudicated on public morality, besides estimating the value of property. The word "censor" is derived from the Latin verb censere, which means "to evaluate, to examine, to check". In Germany, this process took more time and was characterized not only by occasional progress, but also by the repeated reversion to an authoritarian relationship between the state and the press.Ĭensorship had always been the primary means of controlling the press. While Germany was initially similar to other European countries and to the rest of the world as regards the censorship of printing, the gradual removal of such measures and the emergence of freedom of the press began earlier in many other countries. Origins and Beginnings of Censorship in Germanyįrom the very beginning, the development of printing in Europe was accompanied and influenced – albeit to varying degrees – by measures aimed at controlling it. However, a paradox existed in this regard: For a long time, state authorities allowed political newspapers to report on events abroad (indeed these reports formed a large part of the content) precisely because they distracted from domestic political circumstances. Freedom of the press, on the other hand, opened the gates for transfer of this kind. In European history, censorship was not only used as a means of political, intellectual and cultural control within the state, but was also used to prevent the cross-border transfer of information and ideas deemed unwelcome. In the 20th century, the newly emerging media (film, radio, and television) also became subject to censorship and control measures, and modern totalitarian regimes engaged in the massive suppression of freedom of expression in these media. Temporary progress was repeatedly followed by backlashes. In France and Germany, on the other hand, freedom of the press was not achieved until (considerably) later. In the 17th century, the campaign against censorship and for freedom of the press began in England, where substantial success was achieved as early as 1695. Initially, it was the church which imposed censorship, though institutions of the state soon became involved as well. ![]() However, it became significantly more important in the early modern period with the invention of printing, which enabled the easy reproduction of texts in large quantities. ![]() Jürgen Wilke Original auf Original in German,Ĭensorship as a means of controlling communication has existed since classical antiquity. ![]()
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