junge Welt was first published on 12 February 1947 in the Soviet Sector of Berlin. The paper became the official newspaper of the Central Council (Zentralrat) of the Free German Youth (FDJ), the communist youth organisation, on 12 November 1947.[5][6][7] With a daily circulation of 1.38 million,[8] junge Welt had the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the German Democratic Republic, even higher than the official Communist party organ Neues Deutschland.[8]