Tarantel (magazine)
{{Short description|Satirical magazine in West Germany (1950–1962)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox magazine
| title = Tarantel
| image_file =
| image_size =
| image_caption =
| editor = Heinrich Bär
| editor_title = Editor-in-chief
| previous_editor =
| frequency = Monthly
| circulation =
| category = Satirical magazine
| company =
| publisher = {{ubl|Freiheitsverlag Leipzig | Heinrich Bär Verlag}}
| founder = Heinrich Bär
| founded = 1950
| firstdate =
| finaldate = 1962
| country = West Germany
| based = Berlin
| language = German
| website =
| issn =
}}
Tarantel ({{langx|tr|Tarantula}}) was a German monthly satirical magazine in Berlin, West Germany, which was in circulation between 1950 and 1962. Being a propaganda publication it was started to address the readers in East Germany and was funded by the American intelligence organization CIA.
History and profile
Tarantel was launched in West Berlin in 1950.{{cite journal|author=John Brown Mason|page=517|title=Government, Administration, and Politics in East Germany: A Selected Bibliography|journal=American Political Science Review|date=June 1959|doi=10.2307/1952161
|volume=53|issue=2|jstor=1952161|s2cid=251095627 }}{{cite magazine|title=The Press: Armed with a Snicker|access-date=10 May 2022|magazine=Time|date=12 January 1959|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,937081,00.html}} Its founder was the German journalist Heinz Wenzel, known as Heinrich Bär, who also edited the magazine.{{cite magazine|title=Speaking of Pictures|magazine=Life|issn=0024-3019|volume=36|issue=14|date=5 April 1954|page=18
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18}}{{cite journal|year=2020|author=Dairo Pasquini|volume=50
|title=Longing for Purity: Fascism and Nazism in the Italian and German Satirical Press (1943/1945–1963)|issue=3|page=469|s2cid=221015170
|doi=10.1177/0265691420932251|journal=European History Quarterly}} The magazine was first published by Freiheitsverlag Leipzig in a miniature format on a monthly basis.{{cite web|title=Tarantel, satirical magazine, No. 16|publisher=Akg-images
|access-date=10 May 2022|url=https://www.akg-images.com/archive/-2UMDHUFUN2CI.html}} Later Heinrich Bär Verlag became the publisher of the magazine.{{cite journal|author=Peter Busch|title=The "Vietnam Legion": West German Psychological Warfare against East German Propaganda in the 1960s|journal=Journal of Cold War Studies|date=Summer 2014|volume=16|issue=3|page=183|doi=10.1162/JCWS_a_00472
|s2cid=57569912|url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-vietnam-legion--west-german-psychological-warfare-against-east-german-propaganda-in-the-1960s(717c4f29-ba5a-4651-a84b-a6f86095307a).html }} The company employed Tarantel as part of its propaganda war against East Germany which was ridiculed by the magazine. It also mocked the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of East Germany and East German government officials.
Christian F. Ostermann argues that the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) (German: Combat Group against Inhumanity) was behind the magazine.{{cite book|author=Christian F. Ostermann|title=Between Containment and Rollback: The United States and the Cold War in Germany
|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2021|isbn=978-1-5036-0763-7|page=152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElAdEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT152
|location=Stanford, CA}} As of 1952 the magazine was among six German organizations which were financed by the US as tools of psychological manipulation in East Germany.{{cite book|author=Giles Scott-Smith|title=Western Anti-Communism and the Interdoc Network: Cold War Internationale|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2012|isbn=978-1-137-28427-3|location=Basingstoke; New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQu-bAWqQcEC&pg=PP48|page=48|author-link=Giles Scott-Smith}} Tarantel was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency of the US.{{cite book|author=Thomas Rid|title=Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=2020|isbn=978-0-374-71865-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zR6ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT44|location=New York|page=44|author-link=Thomas Rid}} The magazine was illegally circulated in East Germany, and possession of it was strictly banned by the East German government. In the late 1950s it sold 250,000-300,000 copies in West Berlin. The magazine folded in 1962.
References
{{Reflist}}
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Category:1950 establishments in West Germany
Category:1962 disestablishments in West Germany
Category:Defunct magazines published in Germany
Category:Defunct German-language magazines
Category:German political satire
Category:Magazines established in 1950
Category:Magazines disestablished in 1962
Category:Magazines published in Berlin
Category:Monthly magazines published in Germany
Category:Satirical magazines published in Germany
Category:Anti-communism in Germany
Category:Propaganda newspapers and magazines