National-Zeitung

The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the National Zeitung as propagating a xenophobic, nationalist and revisionist world view.

The idea for a newspaper as an advocate for the rights of German soldiers originated in a prisoner of war camp in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and came from Nazi Kreisleiter Helmut Damerau and the Wehrmacht Colonel Heinrich Detloff von Kalben.

Damerau approached the West German government for financial support and the newspaper received a monthly subsidy of DM 11,000 from 1953 onward.

[8] The fifth anniversary of the first publication of the paper saw it print well-wishes from a number of high ranking former Wehrmacht Generals, among them the former Generalfeldmarschalls Erich von Manstein, Wilhelm List, Albert Kesselring and SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser of the Waffen-SS.

[8] The newspaper advocated a return to German military traditions after the formation of the Bundeswehr and attempted to influence officers who had previously served in the Wehrmacht.

German defence minister Franz-Josef Strauss made unsuccessful attempts to purchase the newspaper, offering Damerau DM 150,000 for the financially troubled paper.

Damerau instead asked right-wing journalist Gerhard Frey for a loan and the latter, independently wealthy, gradually gained a controlling interest in the Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung.

[8] The newspaper continued to publish content with a historical revisionist view, attempting to deflect Germany's responsibility for World War II and attacking members of the German resistance as traitors to the Fatherland.

In 1986, he purchased the revisionist Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung, which had originally been published by members of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany.