Die Tat was a monthly publication of politics and culture. It was founded in April 1909 and its publisher (from 1912 on) was Eugen Diederichs

Eugen Diederichs

Eugen Diederichs was a German publisher from Löbitz.Diederichs started his publishing company in Florence, Italy, in 1896. He moved on to Leipzig, where he published the early works of Herman Hesse, and from there to Jena in 1904. He started publishing the magazine Die Tat in 1912...

 from Jena

Jena

Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...

. From 1939 until 1944 Die Tat was continued as Das XX. Jahrhundert.

1909-1912

The magazine was founded by the freemason

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 Ernst Horneffer. It had the subtitle Wege zu freiem Menschentum, which in this case would be that of a Nietzsche-man.

1912-1928

In October 1912 Eugen Diederichs took control of the magazine, which at that point had only a distribution of about 1,000. The content would change, and from now on it would sport the subtitle Eine sozial-religiöse Monatsschrift, later changed to Sozial-religiöse Monatsschrift für deutsche Kultur. It would not be published during the First World War. Again, in 1921 Diederichs would change the title of Die Tat, implying another change of viewership and ideology: Die Tat. Monatsschrift für die Zukunft deutscher Kultur.

1928-1929

In 1928 Diederichs transferred editorial control of Die Tat to the writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 Adam Kuckhoff

Adam Kuckhoff

Adam Kuckhoff was a German writer, journalist, and resistance fighter in the Third Reich....

 (who later gets to be executed by the Nazis). This would only last shortly. The magazine would be restyled however, getting the subtitle Monatsschrift zur Gestaltung neuer Wirklichkeit.

1929-1933

Hans Zehrer

Hans Zehrer

Hans Zehrer was a German journalist. He edited a leading right-wing journal, Die Tat, and founded the Tat Circle.-Biography:...

 would become (unofficial) chief editor of Die Tate in September 1929 (now subtitled as Unabhängig Monatsschrift zur Gestaltung neuer Wirklichkeit), and would together with Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann

Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann

Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann was a German author, sociologist and playwright.-Some works:* Der faschistische Staat in Italien* Vom Sinn der Revolution...

, Ferdinand Fried and Giselher Wirsing make Die Tate into an influential promoter of the Tatkreis

Tatkreis

The Tatkreis, or "Action Circle", was a Völkisch movement which existed during the era of the Weimar Republic. They followed the beliefs of most Völkisch movements but claimed the current republic "corrupt and sterile beyond repair" and called for "freedom and rebirth" in Germany...

 and the Conservative Revolutionary movement

Conservative Revolutionary movement

The Conservative Revolutionary movement was a German national conservative movement, prominent in the years following the First World War. The Conservative Revolutionary school of thought advocated a "new" conservatism and nationalism that was specifically German, or Prussian in particular...

. In a short time the circulation of the magazine would rise to 30,000, attracting mostly a middle-class populace, and becoming a front-runner of the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 machine with the magazine's stress on autarky

Autarky

Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...

, nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, and anti-capitalistic tendencies. It also provided a front for Kurt von Schleicher

Kurt von Schleicher

Kurt von Schleicher was a German general and the last Chancellor of Germany during the era of the Weimar Republic. Seventeen months after his resignation, he was assassinated by order of his successor, Adolf Hitler, in the Night of the Long Knives....

, when Die Tate took control of the Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

paper Tägliche Rundschau in 1932.

1933-1939

In 1933 the Nazis took control of the publication and Giselher Wirsing would become its main editor, changing the subtitle of the magazine to Unabhängige Monatsschrift in 1934. The last subtitle change of the magazine occurred in 1936, fittingly it was now to be named the Deutsche Monatsschrift.