Konkret

konkret is a monthly German magazine "for politics and culture" (according to its subtitle) that has existed since 1957.

Origins

"Studentenkurier"

In 1955, Klaus Rainer Röhl started the monthly "Studentenkurier" ("Student Messenger"), which was published until 1957. Due to the contributions of many authors as Werner Riegel, Peter Rühmkorf, Arno Schmidt, Kurt Hiller, it became a very influential magazine among students.

Start of "konkret"

On the basis of the success of the "Studentenkurier", "konkret" was founded by Röhl in 1957. Until 1964, it had clandestine ideological and financial relations with the East German government. [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1933629,00.html] Innovative in its style, beautifully illustrated and printed on huge folio size heavy stock, its pages often ended up as posters on students' dorm walls and university campus fences. It had great influence with progressive intellectuals, both students and adults. In the high phase of the German student movement of the sixties, it appeared biweekly and sometimes even weekly.

One of the best known journalists on the magazine was Ulrike Meinhof, the editor-in-chief from 1962. She ended her work for "konkret" early in 1969 shortly before she joined the Red Army Faction. On May 7, 1969, the house of "konkret" publisher Klaus Rainer Röhl was stormed by activists including konkret staff under Meinhof's leadership, its windows and furnishing destroyed.

"konkret" since 1974

The current location of publication is Hamburg and the chief publisher since 1974 has been journalist Hermann L. Gremliza, who also writes the introduction column of the magazine.

"konkret" presents itself as a radical leftist magazine, standing to left of Germany's established parties. Currently, it is often connected to the Anti-German movement, although this attribution has been rejected by Gremliza. Its maxim is "reading what others don't want to know" ("lesen, was andere nicht wissen wollen").

Notable contributors during the Gremliza era (among numerous others) were:

*Norbert Blüm
*Wolf Biermann
*Heinrich Böll
*Daniel Cohn-Bendit
*Karlheinz Deschner
*Jutta Ditfurth
*Rudi Dutschke
*Thomas Ebermann
*Erich Fried
*Robert Gernhardt
*Sebastian Haffner
*Yaak Karsunke
*Oskar Negt
*Robert Neumann
*Willy Puchner
*Alice Schwarzer
*Klaus Theweleit
*Sahra Wagenknecht
*Günter Wallraff
*Detlef zum Winkel
* Gero Hoschek
*Hans Magnus Enzensberger
*Günter Grass

External links

* [http://www.konkret-verlage.de/kvv/kvv.php Konkret website]