Die Telegraphischen Depeschen des Wolff’schen Telegraphischen Büros (WTB)

Wolff’s Telegraphisches Büro was the first news agency in Germany. It was founded in 1849 and existed for more than three quarters of a century. While the organization and the history of the WTB has meanwhile been invastigated, little is known about its product, the telegraphic news. These are content analyzed on the basis of one newspaper per decade for the period of 1849 to 1919. Financial and stock exchange information and journalistic news need to be distinguished. The number and volume of the telegraphic news copy increased over the years. Other research questions are concerned with the speed with which the news was distributed, their sources, journalistic forms and topics. Moreover, the study tries to clarify whether a selection of news can be observed, and whether the WTB news stories were edited. Only after the turn of the century did the telegraphic news leave a special section in the paper reserved for them, and began to penetrate the political content of the newspaper without, however, dominating it.