User:Dr Gangrene/wachter

Wochen-Blatt für Bürger und Landsleute

The Belgian Revolution brought about the birth in Luxembourg of press pluralism. Indeed, the only newspaper, the Journal de la Ville et du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, was under the Dutch King-Grand Duke and was a "prisoner" of the Fortress of Luxembourg. Those readers who were in sympathy with the Belgian Revolution, living outside the fortress, wished for a newspaper that shared their views.

In the 1830s, several Revolution-supporting French-language newspapers were founded, printed in Arlon (still a part of Luxembourg, before the Partition): La Gazette, the Journal d’Arlon et de la province de Luxembourg, and the Écho du Luxembourg. For the first time in a century, there was more than one newspaper in Luxembourg, creating the conditions required for a public debate in the press.

In the Luxembourgish-speaking part of the country, on 3 March 1837, the first edition of the Wochen-Blatt für Bürger und Landsleute appeared in Diekirch, three months before elections to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.

It was published by Joseph Antoine Schroell (1798-1865), a printer originally from Trier. Schroell had movied to Echternach in 1822 and since 1832 lived in Diekirch, an administrative and judicial district centre, where printing work was likely more easy to find; he went on to become the founder of one of the most famous Luxembourgish printing dynasties.

The newspaper opened each edition with domestic politics, followed by Diekirch births, marriages and deaths, announcements in French and German, an arts section, as well as opinions by François Julien Vannérus.

Due to many irregularities, the elections in the district of Diekirch were canceled on 13 June and moved to 30 October. However, this changed nothing about the results: Watlet had lost them against Remy de Puydt, an engineer. On 4 November, the newspaper announced that three weeks prior, its editorship had passed into different hands. The election of De Puydt had apparently brought about this change. Indeed, the only way to reveal the absues was to put the newspaper in independent hands. The last edition came out in 25 November 1837; the following week, its name had changed.

Diekircher Wochen-Blatt

On 2 December 1837, the Wochen-Blatt für Bürger und Landsleute shortened its title to Diekircher Wochen-Blatt (Feuille hebdomadaire de Diekirch). It considered itself a free organ representing Germano-Luxembourgish interests, and consequently advocated for joining the German Zollverein. Its article on a plan to join this customs union was censured by the president of the court of justice of Diekirch, which was responsible for censorship at the time. The newspaper was increasingly interested in agricultural questions, while making a strict separation between the editorial staffs for farming and politics. Among its collaborators were the workers' lawyer Charles-Théodore André and the future head of the state agricultural school in Ettelbruck, Charles Faber.

30 December 1848 saw its last issue published under the name Diekircher Wochen-Blatt, which may have been too closely associated with the Revolution. It was to change its name to Der Wächter an der Sauer.

Der Wächter an der Sauer

The first edition under the new name appeared on 3 January 1849. With the Revolution having finished, the Diekirch newspaper abandoned its title which was offensive to many ears.

The newspaper was entirely in German, and still thought of itself as liberal. In the beginning, on its front page in terms of actual articles it only had at most an editorial, dated from Diekirch or from the Sauer. This editorial might also be replaced by a reader's letter, an article from the Courrier, or the civil registration of Diekirch. Other news was taken from national and international newspapers, with source attribution. It was similar for the arts section at the bottom of the front page, which mostly consisted of episodic stories of a historical nature. The Wächter an der Sauer seemed to be less a means for its editor Johann Schroell to spread a particular worldview, than a way to use up the full capacity of his printing presses. This took up only a few hours of his time, twice a week, to put together a newspaper, while mostly copying and pasting. Attempts to present itself as the semi-official organ of the farmers' association, and to reproduce fully its announcements and regulations, likely also had commercial motivations.

On 1 January 1851, Schroell passed on the editorship to his son Théophile, aged 22. Théophile Schroell (1829-1893) turned the newspaper, which appeared on Wednesdays and Saturdays, into one of the most interesting publications of the 1850s. Every edition started with a long article on domestic politics, followed by a press review (with commentary) of all local papers. In is way, even readers who read nothing other than the Wächter could form an idea of the latest political debates. The arts section at the bottom of the front page included stories and lyrical poems, including a series of poems by Michel Rodange in July 1854. There was also news from the rest of the world, taken from the international press.

Under Théophile Schroell's direction, the Wächter an der Sauer once again considered itself a left-liberal newspaper which, in collaboration with the Courrier of Luxembourg City, fought against the restoration of the monarch's powers, and the Catholic Luxemburger Wort. Conservative newspapers started to criticise the Wächter an der Sauer for sometimes expressing liberal points of view which the Courrier itself did not dare to express, in this period of reaction and censorship, which the Courrier could then republish as quotations. Shortly after the Wächter had been accused of making defamatory and harmful statements about government ministers (Administrators-General), it admitted after the elections of 14 June 1854 that it had taken the side of the supporters of the democratic Constitution of 1848 in vain. It wrote that the country had spoken, and the democrats had been beaten, since the electors had given their preference to their opponents.

After the coup d’État of November 1856, the publication of a liberal newspaper was no longer possible. The Wächter an der Sauer still appeared until 30 December. After this, Schroell's printing press suspended its publication to devote itself, from 2 January 1858 to 6 October 1860, to that of a newspaper devoted to the government which subsidised it, called Der Telegraph. After the change of government and the disappearance of the Telegraph in 1860, the printer again started to publish the moderately liberal Wächter an der Sauer from 6 October 1860 onwards.

Volksfreund

On 10 February 1869, the bishop published a pastoral letter to condem two newspapers: the Wächter an der Sauer (in Diekirch) and the Wäschfra, in Luxembourg City. In this letter, he forbade Catholics from supporting these newspapers by subscribing, or by writing or reading their articles, with the threat that anyone doing so would be denied absolution of their sins by priests. The Wächter was compared to a wolf that had snuck itself in among the flock entrusted to the bishop, as its edition of 7 February had supposedly contained great blasphemies against the figure of Jesus Christ.

Due to this, within 14 days, the Wächter ceased to publish, due to a lack of readers. However, on 23 February 1869, Schroell published a new periodical, Der Volksfreund (L’ami du peuple). It declared that it would treat farming questions as its priority. The editor was Servais Bettendorf. Le Volksfreund paraissait le dimanche, le mardi et le jeudi, et à partir de juin 1872, il sortit le mardi, le mercredi et le vendredi dans un format plus grand en tant qu’organe pour les annonces notariées du district. Its last issue appeared on 31 December 1876, when the newspaper changed its name once again, into Der Landwirth.

Der Landwirth

On 3 January 1877, l’imprimerie Schroell de Diekirch rebaptisa son Volksfreund, l’appelant cette fois Der Landwirth. Organ des königlichen Ackerbauvereins des Großherzogthums zugleich Zeitung für die notariellen Anzeigen des Arrondissements Diekirch (L’agriculteur. Organe de l’Association agricole royale du Grand-Duché et également journal pour les annonces notariées de l’arrondissement de Diekirch). Ainsi, le journal, qui était tantôt un journal d’opinion libéral, tantôt un journal d’annonces apolitique selon la conjoncture, l’auteur et les titres changeants, voulait mettre en avant sa spécialisation par rapport à d’autres journaux.

Due to the Industrial Revolution and population growth, the communication of new techniques to improve agricultural productivity became an important question. The Landwirth was, primarily, a collection of articles taken from agricultural newspapers from neighbouring countries. The reports from the Chamber of Deputies came from the Luxemburger Zeitung. S’y ajoutaient des nouvelles d’associations, des annonces et un feuilleton. Jusqu’au 23 mai, J. N. Moes de Weiler-laTour faisait partie de la rédaction, comme on pouvait le lire le 20 juin 1887.

Le Landwirth essayait de paraître politiquement neutre, même s’il fut représenté comme anticlérical lors de la polémique sur l’école au début du nouveau siècle. Le 2 juillet 1926, il fusionna avec le Nationalzeitung du ministre d’État Pierre Prüm, qui s’était retiré de ses fonctions quelques jours auparavant.