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![]() 1 May 2004 issue | |
Editor-in-Chief | Steffen Klusmann |
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Categories | News magazine |
Frequency | Weekly (on Saturdays) |
Circulation | 695,910/ week |
Publisher | Spiegel-Verlag |
First issue | 4 January 1947 |
Country | Germany |
Based in | Hamburg |
Language | German |
Website | spiegel |
ISSN | 0038-7452 (print) 2195-1349 (web) |
Der Spiegel (German pronunciation: [deːɐ̯ˈʃpiːɡl̩] , lit. 'The Mirror') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. [1] With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, [2] it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. [3] It was founded in 1947 [4] [3] by John Seymour Chaloner, a British army officer, and Rudolf Augstein, a former Wehrmacht radio operator who was recognized in 2000 by the International Press Institute as one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes. [5] Typically, the magazine has a content to advertising ratio of 2:1.
Der Spiegel is known in German-speaking countries mostly for its investigative journalism. It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals such as the Spiegel affair in 1962 and the Flick affair in the 1980s. According to The Economist , Der Spiegel is one of continental Europe's most influential magazines. [6] The news website by the same name was launched in 1994 under the name Spiegel Online with an independent editorial staff. Today, the content is created by a shared editorial team and the website uses the same media brand as the printed magazine.
The first edition of Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on Saturday, 4 January 1947. [7] Its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled Diese Woche (German: This Week), [7] which had first been published in November 1946. [3] After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, and was renamed Der Spiegel. From the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002.
After 1950, the magazine was owned by Rudolf Augstein and John Jahr; [8] Jahr's share merged with Richard Gruner's in 1965 to form the publishing company Gruner + Jahr. In 1969, Augstein bought out Gruner + Jahr for DM 42 million and became the sole owner of Der Spiegel. In 1971, Gruner + Jahr bought back a 25% share in the magazine. In 1974, Augstein restructured the company to make the employees shareholders. All employees with more than three years seniority were offered the opportunity to become an associate and participate in the management of the company, as well as in the profits.[ citation needed ]
Since 1952, Der Spiegel has been headquartered in its own building in the old town part of Hamburg. [9]
Der Spiegel's circulation rose quickly. From 15,000 copies in 1947, it grew to 65,000 in 1948 and 437,000 in 1961. It was nearly 500,000 copies in 1962. [10] By the 1970s, it had reached a plateau at about 900,000 copies. When the German reunification in 1990 made it available to a new readership in former East Germany, the circulation exceeded one million.
The magazine's influence is based on two pillars; firstly the moral authority established by investigative journalism since the early years and proven alive by several scoops during the 1980s; secondly the economic power of the prolific Spiegel publishing house. Since 1988, it has produced the TV program Spiegel TV, and further diversified during the 1990s.
During the second quarter of 1992 the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1.1 million copies. [11] In 1994, Spiegel Online was launched. [12] [13] It had separate and independent editorial staff from Der Spiegel. In 1999, the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1,061,000 copies. [14]
Der Spiegel had an average circulation of 1,076,000 copies in 2003. [15] In 2007 the magazine started a new regional supplement in Switzerland. [16] A 50-page study of Switzerland, it was the first regional supplement of the magazine. [16]
In 2010 Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers, which the Columbia Journalism Review called "most likely the world's largest fact checking operation". [17] The same year it was the third best-selling general interest magazine in Europe with a circulation of 1,016,373 copies. [18]
In 2018, Der Spiegel became involved in a journalistic scandal after it discovered and made public that one of its leading reporters, Claas Relotius, had "falsified his articles on a grand scale". [19] [20]
When Stefan Aust took over in 1994, the magazine's readers realized that his personality was different from his predecessor. In 2005, a documentary by Stephan Lamby quoted him as follows: "We stand at a very big cannon!" [21] Politicians of all stripes who had to deal with the magazine's attention often voiced their disaffection for it. The outspoken conservative Franz Josef Strauss contended that Der Spiegel was "the Gestapo of our time". He referred to journalists in general as "rats". [22] The Social Democrat Willy Brandt called it "Scheißblatt" (i.e., a "shit paper") during his term in office as Chancellor. [23]
Der Spiegel often produces feature-length articles on problems affecting Germany (like demographic trends, the federal system's gridlock or the issues of its education system) and describes optional strategies and their risks in depth. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] The magazine plays the role of opinion leader in the German press. [29]
Der Spiegel has a distinctive reputation for revealing political misconduct and scandals. Online Encyclopædia Britannica emphasizes this quality of the magazine as follows: "The magazine is renowned for its aggressive, vigorous, and well-written exposés of government malpractice and scandals." [3] [12] It merited recognition for this as early as 1950 when the federal parliament launched an inquiry into Spiegel's accusations that bribed members of parliament had promoted Bonn over Frankfurt as the seat of West Germany's government.
During the Spiegel scandal in 1962, which followed the release of a report about the possible low state of readiness of the German armed forces, minister of defense and conservative figurehead Franz Josef Strauss had Der Spiegel investigated. In the course of this investigation, the editorial offices were raided by police while Rudolf Augstein and other Der Spiegel editors were arrested on charges of treason. Despite a lack of sufficient authority, Strauss even went after the article's author, Conrad Ahlers , who was consequently arrested in Spain where he was on holiday. When the legal case collapsed, the scandal led to a major shake-up in chancellor Konrad Adenauer's cabinet, and Strauss had to stand down. The affair was generally received as an attack on the freedom of the press. Since then, Der Spiegel has repeatedly played a significant role in revealing political grievances and misdeeds, including the Flick Affair. [10]
The Spiegel scandal is now remembered for altering the political culture of post-war Germany and—with the first mass demonstrations and public protests—being a turning point from the old Obrigkeitsstaat (authoritarian state) to a modern democracy.[ citation needed ]
In 2010, the magazine supported WikiLeaks in publishing leaked materials from the United States State Department, along with The Guardian , The New York Times , El País , and Le Monde [30] and in October 2013 with the help of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden unveiled the systematic wiretapping of Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel's private cell phone over a period of over 10 years at the hands of the National Security Agency's Special Collection Service (SCS). [31]
The leading role of the magazine in investigative journalism and its monopoly came to end in 2013 since other German media outlets, including Süddeutsche Zeitung , Bild , ARD and ZDF, began to effectively deal with political scandals. [32]
On 19 December 2018, Der Spiegel made public that reporter Claas Relotius had admitted that he had "falsified his articles on a grand scale", inventing facts, persons and quotations in at least 14 of his stories. [19] [20] The magazine uncovered the fraud after a co-author of one of Relotius's stories, Juan Moreno, became suspicious of the veracity of Relotius's contributions and gathered evidence against him. [20] Relotius resigned, telling the magazine that he was "sick" and needed to get help. Der Spiegel left his articles accessible, but with a notice referring to the magazine's ongoing investigation into the fabrications. [19]
The Wall Street Journal cited a former Der Spiegel journalist who said "some of the articles at issue appeared to confirm certain German stereotypes about Trump voters, asking "was this possible because of ideological bias?" [33] An apology ensued from Der Spiegel for looking for a cliché of a Trump-voting town, and not finding it. [34] Mathias Bröckers, former Die Tageszeitung editor, wrote: "the imaginative author simply delivered what his superiors demanded and fit into their spin". [35] American journalist James Kirchick claimed in The Atlantic that "Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism." [36] [37]
In the summer of 2022, Der Spiegel published three articles and a podcast regarding the death of a refugee girl on an islet in the Evros river at the Greece–Turkey borders, accusing Greece of failing to aid the refugees which caused the girl's death. The report led to a broad debate in the Greek public and accusations were spread against the Greek authorities. But at the end of December 2022, the magazine retracted the articles and the podcast because they were based on fake news. [38] [39] Greek government made a public comment urging Greece’s opposition party, SYRIZA, to apologise for not retracting their comments and publicly apologizing for aligning with Der Spiegel’s allegations regarding the incorrect reports. [40] In 2023, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote that this story was "one of the largest fake news breakdowns since Claas Relotius." [41]
In January 1978 the office of Der Spiegel in East Berlin was closed by the East German government following the publication of critical articles against the conditions in the country. [42] A special 25 March 2008 edition of the magazine on Islam was banned in Egypt in April 2008 for publishing material deemed by authorities to be insulting Islam and Muhammed. [43] [44]
Der Spiegel began moving into its current head office in HafenCity in September 2011. The facility was designed by Henning Larsen Architects of Denmark. The magazine was previously located in a high-rise building with 8,226 square metres (88,540 sq ft) of office space. [45]
The Spiegel affair of 1962 was a political scandal in West Germany. It stemmed from the publication of an article in Der Spiegel, West Germany's weekly political magazine, about the nation's defense forces. Several Spiegel staffers were detained on charges of treason, but were ultimately released without trial.
Rudolf Karl Augstein was a German journalist, editor, publicist, and politician. He was one of the most influential German journalists, founder and part-owner of Der Spiegel magazine. As a politician, he was a member of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) between November 1972 and January 1973.
Henri Nannen was a German journalist and art collector. He became one of the most prominent journalists and magazine publishers in Germany.
Stern is an illustrated, broadly left-liberal, weekly current affairs magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. Under the editorship (1948–1980) of its founder Henri Nannen, it attained a circulation of between 1.5 and 1.8 million, the largest in Europe's for a magazine of its kind.
The Berliner Zeitung is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner Verlag.
The Financial Times Deutschland was a German-language financial newspaper based in Hamburg, Germany, published by Bertelsmann's Gruner + Jahr newspaper and magazine division. The daily contained four sections: Business, Politics & Economy, Finance, and Agenda. It ceased publication on 7 December 2012.
Focus is a German-language news magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. Established in 1993 as an alternative to the Der Spiegel weekly news magazine, since 2015 the editorial staff has been headquartered in Germany's capital of Berlin. Alongside Spiegel and Stern, Focus is one of the three most widely circulated German weeklies. The concept originated from Hubert Burda and Helmut Markwort, who went from being Editor-in-chief to become publisher in 2009 and since 2017 has been listed in the publication's masthead as founding editor-in-chief. As of March 2016 the editor-in-chief of Focus was Robert Schneider.
Gruner + Jahr is a publishing house headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by Richard Gruner, John Jahr, and Gerd Bucerius. From 1969 to 1973, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in the company and gradually increased it over time. After 2014, the company was a fully owned subsidiary of the Gütersloh-based media and services group. Under the leadership and innovation strategy of Julia Jäkel, Gruner + Jahr evolved into a publishing house producing cross-channel media products for the digital society.
Erich Böhme was a German journalist and television presenter.
Brigitte is a biweekly women's magazine in Germany which has been in circulation since 1886.
Der Freitag is a German weekly national newspaper established in 1990. It has a focus on politics, culture and economy, and is published in Rhenish format. The place of publication is Berlin. Its publisher and editor-in-chief is Jakob Augstein, who is also one of the main owners of Der Spiegel. The newspaper has won several awards, such as European Newspaper of the Year and World's Best Designed Newspaper.
Jakob Augstein is a German journalist, publisher and heir. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Der Freitag and also one of the main owners of Der Spiegel and the Spiegel publishing company, that were founded by his father Rudolf Augstein.
The Henri-Nannen-Schule, formerly Hamburger Journalistenschule, is the journalist school of Europe's largest publishing house, Gruner + Jahr, German weekly Die Zeit and national news magazine Der Spiegel. Its seat is Hamburg and it is considered one of the best schools of journalism in Germany, along with the German School of Journalism in Munich.
Manager Magazin is a German monthly business magazine focusing on business, finance and management based in Hamburg, Germany.
Bild der Frau is a weekly women's magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, that has been in circulation since 1983.
Prima is a monthly women's magazine published in Paris, France. The magazine has been in circulation since 1982. It has editions in Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Diez Minutos is a Spanish language weekly celebrity, entertainment and women's magazine published in Madrid, Spain. The magazine has been in circulation since 1951.
Claas-Hendrik Relotius is a German former journalist. He resigned from Der Spiegel in 2018 after admitting to numerous instances of journalistic fraud.
Peter Merseburger was a German journalist and author. After working for newspapers and the magazine Der Spiegel, he moved to the broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in 1965. He became known as television presenter of the political magazine Panorama that he moderated from 1967 to 1975, presenting controversial themes. From 1977, he was correspondent of the ARD in several capital cities such as Washington, D.C., East Berlin and London. After retirement in 1991, he turned to writing biographies of influential persons including Kurt Schumacher, Willy Brandt, Rudolf Augstein, and Theodor Heuss.
Tausend Zeilen Lüge. Das System Relotius und der deutsche Journalismus is a 2019 book by the Spanish journalist Juan Moreno. It is about the case of the Spiegel journalist Claas Relotius, who was revealed by his colleague Moreno to fabricate content for his news stories.
Mr Augstein's success in making Der Spiegel one of continental Europe's most influential magazines...
Stefan Niggemeier, an independent media blogger in Berlin and a former Spiegel journalist, said some of the articles at issue appeared to confirm certain German stereotypes about Trump voters, asking "was this possible because of ideological bias?"
he was trying to look for a cliché of a Trump-voting town and he simply didn't find it," said Christoph Scheuermann, the Der Spiegel correspondent who visited Fergus Falls last week to apologize
Claas Relotius, because the imaginative author has just delivered what his superiors demanded and fit into their spin
Though it is respected abroad as an authoritative news source, Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism, usually grounded in its brand of knee-jerk German pacifism
Der Spiegel wird zwar international als zuverlässige Nachrichtenquelle geachtet, doch er verbreitet seit langem schon einen kruden und sensationslüsternen Antiamerikanismus