Neues Deutschland German Newspaper (ND) (English: New Germany) is a national German daily newspaper. It was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which governed the German Democratic Republic (GDR – East Germany), and as such served as one of the party’s most important organs.More than the other newspapers in the GDR, ND not only endorsed all policy decisions of the government, frequently changing its editorial position to support the new party line, but it also sought to elevate the prestige of each member of the leadership, perhaps most importantly Erich Honecker.

It currently has its headquarters in Berlin and retains a socialist outlook, although having renounced its former stands. The newspaper is both politically and financially tied to the The Left (Die Linke) party, an indirect heir to the SED, which owns the publishing house and printing presses.

ND was formed in 1946. as a Lizenzzeitung after the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) merged to form the SED in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The first edition of ND was published on 23 April 1946 in conjunction with the founding of the SED. ND replaced the SPD organ Das Volk and the KPD organ Deutsche Volkszeitung. Karl Maron was the first chief editor of the daily and served in the post until 1950.

Before the reunification of Germany in October 1990, ND had a circulation of a million and was second only to the youth newspaper junge Welt in readership.

ND was one of the most important propaganda tools for the SED and the SED’s key piece of media used to maintain their control of the state. ND had a very heavy focus on East German party and government leaders. For example, on 16 March 1987, in the edition produced for the opening of the Leipzig Fair, there were over 41 photographs of SED Secretary-General Erich Honecker. In contrast to other GDR newspapers, ND used high quality paper and printing materials and was not affected by the traditional item deficiencies common in the GDR.

After reunification, ND’s readership diminished greatly. In 2006, ND had a circulation of 45,247. Like most large newspapers in Germany currently, ND has a problem in that the majority of its readers are over 60 years old. ND produces both national edition and a regional edition for Berlin and Brandenburg.

Jürgen Reents, who has political roots in both the Party of Democratic Socialism and the Green Party, has been the editor in chief of ND since 1999. One of his major goals has been to transform ND’s image from a propaganda leaflet to a more respected newspaper. In October 2005 the editors moved from Elsenbrücke to Franz-Mehring Platz in Berlin. Three months later, Olaf Koppe took over management of the newspaper.

Each issue of the daily between 1945 and 1990 was digitalized by the Berlin State Library in June 2013.