[1][5] Das Volk was the second "working-class newspaper" to emerge in Berlin after the Second World War — the first having been the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) organ Deutsche Volkszeitung.

[3] The newspaper was controlled by the left-wing tendency inside the SPD, and supported merger of the party with the KPD.

[1] The paper's editorial offices were inside SPD party headquarters on Behrenstrasse in East Berlin.

Meier wanted to move the editorial offices to West Berlin, but this was allegedly blocked by the Soviet authorities.

[1][5][9] During the SPD-KPD merger talks the idea of continuing publication of Das Volk had been discussed, but only as a local organ of the SED in Berlin.