Tarantel (magazine)

Tarantel was launched in West Berlin in 1950.^[1][3] Its founder was the German journalist Heinz Wenzel, known as Heinrich Bär, who also edited the magazine.^[3][4][5] The magazine was first published by Freiheitsverlag Leipzig in a miniature format on a monthly basis.^[1][6] Later Heinrich Bär Verlag became the publisher of the magazine.^[7] The company employed Tarantel as part of its propaganda war against East Germany which was ridiculed by the magazine.^[7] It also mocked the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of East Germany and East German government officials.^[3][4]

Christian F. Ostermann argues that the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) (German: Combat Group against Inhumanity) was behind the magazine.^[8] As of 1952 the magazine was among six German organizations which were financed by the US as tools of psychological manipulation in East Germany.^[9] Tarantel was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency of the US.^[2] The magazine was illegally circulated in East Germany, and possession of it was strictly banned by the East German government.^[6] In the late 1950s it sold 250,000-300,000 copies in West Berlin.^[3] The magazine folded in 1962.^[6]