THE NEWSPAPER THAT SCOOPED THE WORLD: The Cologne Post and British journalism in the occupied Rhineland 1919-1929

[The Scorer]

Has anyone seen this, please?

 

There's an article about it in the Western Mail today, and from it and the Amazon description (below), it looks very interesting.

"The Cologne Post was a British newspaper published during the occupation of the German Rhineland, between 1919 and 1929. Its greatest claim to fame was that it was the first in the world to publish the terms of the Peace Treaty, which brought the Great War to an end. The paper called it the 'greatest scoop in the history of journalism' and how it was achieved is a fascinating story in itself. But there was much more to the Cologne Post. Published daily from 1919 to 1925 (and bi-weekly thereafter), it is a window on the world of a small British colony in Germany, a country which was going through a period of unprecedented turmoil in the aftermath of the war and under the terms of the peace treaty. Until daily papers from London became easily available (in 1925) it was the only source of up-to-date information for the British in Germany. This was no military newsletter. It combined local news with reports from the United Kingdom, the British Empire and the wider world. British troops were in Germany for all but 16 of the 100 years after 1919. The Cologne Post was there at the beginning of that history. Since 2014, attention has been focused on the First World War. This account of the newspaper casts a unique light on what followed - the occupation and consequences of the peace."

 

I've read a book about the Occupation, but I can't remember if this was included, so this is now on my "Wish List"!

[The Scorer]

I decided to buy this to see what it was about, and I've recently finished reading it. 

 

Well, it's interesting, but nevertheless a strange book. The strangest part is that it doesn't explain how they managed to "Scoop the World" to be the first newspaper to publish the Peace Treaty. All they say is that the staff were required to work on a particular day, they were sworn to secrecy about what they were doing, and once in the offices were not allowed to leave. The implication is that only one person (J W Nevill, the Acting Editor) knew how the paper obtained the Treaty; however, he never confirmed whether this was so and, indeed, never spoke about it to anyone. During the printing, he received a telegram which he read and put into his pocket having shown no-one; again, we don't know who it was from or what it said, as he never told anyone what the message was. 

 

This story (such as it is) takes up the first chapter, and the rest of the book is a more general story of the paper, which was published until 1929. It looks at various aspects of what they published, who worked there (although the identity of many of those seems to be another mystery) and their links with the servicemen, their families and the wider population.

 

I found it interesting, worth reading, and I'd recommend it, but with the condition that it certainly isn't what I thought it would be.