Press history collection

The press history collection with its extensive range of periodically published German and international newspapers, magazines, public intelligence bulletins, gazettes, graphic reproductions, facsimiles, and other historical print and publishing documents, maps over 400 years of history of the medium. Many technical collection exhibits document the development of news conveyance, printing methods, as well as communication and its control or censorship.

Gutenberg's invention of printing with movable type also paved the way for printed newspapers. Following the spread of manually written news by merchants as early as the 16th century, Johann Carolus of Strasbourg produced the first printed newspaper in 1605. In 1650, the world's first printed daily newspaper appeared in Leipzig, making political events accessible to wider strata of the population.

The unique collection of the museum highlights the diversity of periodical print products that have been published since the 17th century. The museum holds a particular wealth of around 5,000 individual items of the period from 1800 to the present.