The Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien: the 1605 newspaper that started it all
Before the internet, before radio, before television, before modern newspapers there was the Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien. This German publication holds one of the most significant records in media history: it is officially the world's oldest newspaper, and the story behind it stretches back over four centuries to a print shop in Strasbourg.
Founded in 1605 in Strasbourg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, the paper's name roughly translates to "Account of all distinguished and commemorable news." The World Association of Newspapers has officially recognized it as the world's first newspaper, marking the 400th anniversary of its founding with a dedicated celebration titled "Newspapers: 400 Years Young."
The man who started it all
The driving force behind the Relation was Johann Carolus, a printer and publisher born in 1575 in the Holy Roman Empire. Carolus recognised a growing public demand for regular, reliable news and built the infrastructure to deliver it at a time when no template for doing so existed.
A surviving copy of the 1609 edition gives us great insight into exactly what Carolus was setting out to do. The title page of that issue promised coverage of news "occurring here and there in Upper and Lower Germany, also in France, Italy, Scotland and England, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, Turkey" and beyond. It was, in other words, an attempt at genuinely international news coverage at a time when travelling between those countries could take weeks or months. The closing line of the title page is particularly striking in its honesty and ambition: Carolus pledged to report everything "as faithfully as I can obtain and convey it." For a publication launched in 1605, that reads as a remarkably modern editorial commitment.
Researcher Johannes Weber, who published a landmark academic study in 2006 titled Strassburg, 1605: The Origins of the Newspaper in Europe, traced the very beginnings of European newspaper culture directly back to Carolus and his work in Strasbourg. The city's own urban archives hold records confirming the paper's origins, and the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz held a major exhibition titled "400 Jahre Zeitung" dedicated to this foundational period in German press history.
A debate that has lasted centuries
The definition of what constitutes a newspaper has long been a point of contention among historians and media scholars. Many researchers do not draw a clear distinction between a newsbook or pamphlet and a proper newspaper, which has led to ongoing debate over which publication genuinely deserves the title of the world's first. However, the academic consensus, backed by the World Association of Newspapers, firmly places the Relation at the top of the list when it comes to regular, printed, periodical news publications.
What is beyond dispute is the historical context in which it appeared. The Relation was in print before Newton's laws of motion, before the Great Fire of London, and well over a century before the United States came into existence. Its readers had no access to any other form of mass media. The printed page was the only mechanism through which news of the wider world could travel, and Strasbourg, as a major city within the Holy Roman Empire, was ideally positioned as a hub for information from across Europe.
Six decades of continuous publishing
What makes the Relation particularly remarkable is its longevity. The paper is believed to have continued publishing until approximately 1667, meaning it ran for over six decades in total. That represents 62 years of continuous news coverage in an era without electricity, telecommunications, or any of the infrastructure that modern publishing takes for granted. Johann Carolus himself died in 1634, yet the publication he created within the Holy Roman Empire continued for more than 30 years after his death.
Other newspapers that have stood the test of time
The Relation was not the only publication from this era to leave a lasting mark. Just four years after its founding, the Avisa Relation oder Zeitung launched in 1609, becoming another early pillar of the European press. Both papers emerged from the same period of rapid development in print culture within the Holy Roman Empire, when the printing press was massively changing how information moved across the continent.
Sweden's Post- och Inrikes Tidningar, founded in 1645, holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously published newspaper still in existence today. Having operated for nearly 380 years, it transitioned to a fully digital format in 2007, demonstrating that longevity and adaptability are not mutually exclusive.
In the United Kingdom, The London Gazette has been in continuous publication since 1665, originally established to keep the public informed during a period of plague and significant political change. It remains an official publication of the British government to this day.
Across the Atlantic, The Hartford Courant in the United States has been publishing since 1764, making it the oldest continuously published newspaper in America. It was already over a decade old when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.
The foundations of modern media
For those looking to explore this history in greater depth, Andrew Pettegree's 2014 book The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself, published by Yale University Press, is widely considered essential reading on the subject. It examines how the concept of news as a regular, printed, shareable product evolved from these early publications into the global media landscape that exists today.
Every newspaper, news website, and digital publication in existence traces its origins in some form back to what Johann Carolus created in Strasbourg in 1605. The Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien ran for 62 years, outlived its founder by three decades, and set a precedent that has shaped how the world communicates ever since.