Because the bibliographer has reconstructed much of the material, investigating it in more bibliographic detail than has ever been done before, this bibliography represents an indispensable addition to Germany's regional and national bibliography. For a long time a introduction and survey of mass media in Germany on a scholarly level has been lacking. This first volume by P rer and Raabe makes up for this deficiency, although we must wait for the second volume for coverage of electronic media. The book is structured as a series of separate chapters that are interrelated but not internally referenced to each other. Only by using the indexes are the related articles linked together.
Chapters cover the German press during different historic periods and governments.
Of particular interest is the chapter about the former German Democratic Republic. Here for the first time sources are studied from a West German perspective, and provide a systematic description of the function and structure of the GDR press. The volume concludes with a list of references and sources and provides detailed subject and name indexes. This new book is recommended, although a revised and expanded second edition is desirable.