WELT, DIE

(German: "The World"), daily newspaper, one of the most influential in Germany and the only one of national scope and stature published in Bonn during that city's time as West German capital. Die Welt was established in 1946 as a four-page semiweekly by British occupation authorities in Hamburg. The paper's circulation rose rapidly, reaching 500,000 (including an edition in Essen) in 1947 and 1,000,000 in 1949. British control of the paper was terminated in 1950, and it was bought by the Hamburg publisher Axel Springer. Die Welt was essentially conservative to start with, and it became more so under the militantly anti-Fascist, anti-Communist Springer. Hostile to social innovation, it has, however, innovated extensively in technical areas. By 1955 it was operating three plants-in Hamburg, Berlin, and Essen-the first German paper to do so. In 1975 its editorial headquarters was moved to Bonn, where it was thought costs would be lower and where Die Welt's main interests in political and financial developments in government could be more readily covered.