Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung
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Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung or AIZ (in English, The Workers Pictorial Newspaper) was a weekly German illustrated magazine published between 1924 and 1938 in Berlin and Prague. Anti-Fascism and pro-Communism in stance, it was published by Willi Münzenberg and is best remembered for the brilliantly propagandistic photomontages of John Heartfield.
History of the AIZ
The history of the AIZ began with a famine in the Soviet Union and Lenin's appeal of August 2 1921 to the working class for assistance. As a support organization for this campaign, International Workers' Aid (IAH) was formed, led by William (Willi) Münzenberg. In the autumn of 1921 a monthly German magazine was created, Soviet Russia in Pictures, with reports about the recently created Russian Soviet state, its achievements and problems, and about the IAH. In 1922 the first reports on the German proletariat appeared in its pages. At this time the sheet had one edition of about 10,000 copies.
Soon renamed Berlin Illustrirte Zeitung (Berliner pictorial newspaper), the magazine continued to carry reports on the Soviet Union and the work of the IAH while expanding its coverage of issues concerning the German worker. Now larger in format, its contributors included George Grosz, Maxim Gorki, George Bernard Shaw, Käthe Kollwitz and others. The magazine's increasing influence was expressed in the edition numbers; in 1922 about 100,000 copies, in 1924, 180,000 copies. At the end of 1924 the sheet had grown beyond the status of an IAH organ.
On November 30, 1924, the first AIZ appeared, with a new format and a biweekly schedule. This change initiated the rapid ascent of the AIZ, which had become the socialist pictorial in Germany. The magazine covered current events and published fiction and poetry, with such contributors as Anna Seghers, Erich Kästner, Maxim Gorki and Kurt Tucholsky. Willi Münzenberg pursued a strategy of the connection of the communist movement with the leading intellectuals of the first German republic. In November 1926 AIZ began publishing on a weekly schedule.
The photojournalism, often striking, was predominantly worker photography. In 1930 began the magazine's association with John Heartfield, whose photomontages savagely attacking both National Socialism and capitalism became a regular feature. In the years leading up to 1933 the circulation of AIZ reached over one half million. After the seizure of power by Hitler the AIZ went into exile in Prague, continuing until 1938 under editor-in-chief Franz Carl Weiskopf.
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