Kurt Baschwitz and the Founding Of Gazette

Abstract

Kurt Baschwitz had to flee from Germany in the 1930s, like so many other social scientists. Though perhaps less well-known internationally than some of his colleagues, he was a pioneer in communication science and mass psychology and has contributed much to the international exchange of information and research among scholars in our field of studies. After 1945, one of his major efforts was to re-establish contacts that had been lost because of the war. Gazette, the international journal that he founded in 1955, was intended to serve these different purposes. Since then Gazette has continued to act as a liaison centre for research and researchers from different parts of the world. Its scope may have widened considerably, both in choice of subjects and in a geographical sense - reflecting the developments in our discipline and the scientific interests of successive editors - still through the years the journal has remained true to the scientific and humanistic aims of its founder.