Formal press freedom was suspended at the outset of the First World War. Control of the media was passed over to 62 various censor’s offices in the military, which acted independently of one another. This constantly led to contradictory situations. War-related news of troop movements, statistics covering losses at the front, and also information about particular emergencies among the general population were generally banned. Texts covering peace movements or the oppression of foreign peoples were monitored.

A military censor’s office for the control and approval of book imports, picture postcards and other printed material in the region of the Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East (Ober Ost for short) was set up in 1916 in the Deutsche Bücherei, founded on 3 October 1912. In this Book Assessment Office of the Ober Ost worked, amongst others, the writer Victor Klemperer, who wrote about his work there in his memoir Erinnerungen. Lists, for example, of unobjectionable books for the points of entry at Tilsit, Insterburg, Posen and Wilna were compiled there. Literature approved for export was marked with an export stamp. The censor’s office in the Deutsche Bücherei existed until 30 September 1918.