52 | Mass Media and Historical Change
Mercurius (1674–75) is seen as an early historical-political journal (Böning,
in Welke and Wilke 2008: 298f.). The Relationes Curiosae (1683–91), another
Hamburg periodical, is an example of a magazine that spread knowledge of
the world along more popular lines (Egenhoff 2008). One might conclude
that, contrary to Jürgen Habermas’s later theses, scientific and historical-po-
litical rather than literary periodicals represented the starting points of the
public sphere.
Even though the periodical did not emerge exclusively in the German
regions, the greatest variety of this new medium was to be found there.
Approximately seven thousand different titles of periodicals were assigned to
the period before 1830, even though a large proportion was only published
for a short duration. In terms of numbers, the market was dominated by
scholarly papers that were initially oriented towards universal academic dis-
course and later divided into specific academic disciplines. Historical peri-
odicals were particularly numerous, followed by theological journals (Wilke
2008: 96). On the other hand, political magazines were quantitatively of
much less significance. They initially documented governmental actions,
and in the last third of the eighteenth century became reform-oriented
companions to contemporary German politics (for example the Politische
Journal and the Staats-Anzeiger). On top of this, a large market developed
for entertainment periodicals aimed at educating the reader morally as well
as culturally. The morally edifying weeklies had particularly high circula-
tion figures. They made use of different genres such as fables, dialogues and
poetry in order to impart general knowledge and Christian middle-class
values to a diverse readership. In so doing, they also appealed to women.
Finally, literary periodicals were especially characteristic of the eighteenth
century. Besides reviews they printed short literary works and offered readers
the opportunity to send in their own contributions. Periodicals appealed to
various target groups and at the same time were conducive to the shaping
of respective social groups. Especially during the boom in the last third of
the eighteenth century, diverse magazines based on people’s interests, profes-
sion, generation and gender began to appear. Thus, forty-three youth jour-
nals emerged between 1770 and 1789 in Germany, particularly in northern
regions (Uphaus-Wehmeier 1984: 42). Titles such as Der Zögling; Wochen-
schrift zum besten der Erziehung der Jugend, Pädagogische Unterhandlungen;
Moralische Erzählungen and Jugendzeitung revealed their pedagogic orienta-
tion. Much like that of the moral periodicals, their goal was to entertain as
well as to instruct. In this context, younger generations were introduced to
current political issues and world affairs in a way that suited their age (Berg,
in Albrecht and Böning 2005: 13; Uphaus-Wehmeier 1984: 62, 103–10).
How periodicals established themselves according to target groups can be
shown by the example of women’s magazines, which have become a particular