Der Spiegel is known inGerman-speaking countries mostly for itsinvestigative journalism. It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals, such as theSpiegel affair in 1962 and theFlick affair in the 1980s. The news website by the same name was launched in 1994 under the nameSpiegel 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 ofDer Spiegel was published inHanover on Saturday, 4 January 1947.[6] Its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titledDiese Woche (German:This Week),[6] which had first been published in November 1946.[3] After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over toRudolf Augstein as chief editor, and was renamedDer 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;[7] Jahr's share merged with Richard Gruner's in 1965 to form the publishing companyGruner + Jahr. In 1969, Augstein bought out Gruner + Jahr forDM 42 million and became the sole owner ofDer 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 of 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.[8]
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.[9] By the 1970s, it had reached a plateau at about 900,000 copies. When theGerman reunification in 1990 made it available to a new readership in formerEast Germany, the circulation exceeded one million.
The magazine's influence is based on two pillars; firstly, themoral authority established by investigative journalism since the early years and proven alive by several scoops during the 1980s; secondly, the economic power of the prolificSpiegel publishing house. Since 1988, it has produced the TV programSpiegel TV, and further diversified during the 1990s.
During the second quarter of 1992 the circulation ofDer Spiegel was 1.1 million copies.[10] In 1994,Spiegel Online was launched.[11][12] It had separate and independent editorial staff fromDer Spiegel. In 1999, the circulation ofDer Spiegel was 1,061,000 copies.[13]
U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush holding a copy ofDer Spiegel, March 2002
Der Spiegel had an average circulation of 1,076,000 copies in 2003.[14] In 2007 the magazine started a new regionalsupplement inSwitzerland.[15] A 50-page study of Switzerland, it was the first regional supplement of the magazine.[15]
In 2010Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-timefact checkers, which theColumbia Journalism Review called "most likely the world's largest fact checking operation".[16] The same year, it was the third best-selling general interest magazine in Europe with a circulation of 1,016,373 copies.[17]
In 2018,Der Spiegel became involved in ajournalistic scandal after it discovered and made public that one of its leading reporters,Claas Relotius, had "falsified his articles on a grand scale".[18][19]
WhenStefan Aust took over in 1994, the magazine's readers realized that his personality was different from his predecessor's. In 2005, a documentary by Stephan Lamby quoted him as follows: "We stand at a very big cannon!"[20] Politicians of all stripes who had to deal with the magazine's attention often voiced their disaffection for it. The outspoken conservativeFranz Josef Strauss contended thatDer Spiegel was "theGestapo of our time". He referred to journalists in general as "rats".[21] The Social DemocratWilly Brandt called it "Scheißblatt" (i.e., a "shit paper") during his term in office asChancellor.[22]
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.[23][24][25][26][27] The magazine plays the role ofopinion leader in the German press.[28] According toThe Economist,Der Spiegel is one ofcontinental Europe's most influential magazines.[29]
Der Spiegel has a distinctive reputation for revealing political misconduct and scandals. OnlineEncyclopædia Britannica emphasizes this quality of the magazine as follows: "The magazine is renowned for its aggressive, vigorous, and well-writtenexposés of government malpractice and scandals."[3][11] It merited recognition for this as early as 1950 when the federal parliament launched an inquiry intoSpiegel's accusations that bribed members of parliament had promotedBonn overFrankfurt as the seat of West Germany's government.
During theSpiegel scandal in 1962, which followed the release of a report about the possible low state of readiness of theGerman armed forces, Minister of Defense and conservative figureheadFranz Josef Strauss hadDer Spiegel investigated. In the course of this investigation, the editorial offices were raided by police while Rudolf Augstein and otherDer Spiegel editors were arrested on charges of treason. Despite a lack of sufficient authority, Strauss even went after the article's author,Conrad Ahlers [ar;arz;cs;fr;de;no;pl], 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 ChancellorKonrad 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 theFlick Affair.[9]
According to a 2013 report byThe New York Times, the magazine's leading role in German investigative journalism has diminished, since other German media outlets, includingSüddeutsche Zeitung,Bild,ARD andZDF, have become more involved in investigative reporting.[32]
On 19 December 2018,Der Spiegel made public that reporterClaas 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.[18][19] 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.[19] 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.[18]
The Wall Street Journal cited a formerDer 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?"[45] An apology ensued fromDer Spiegel for looking for a cliché of a Trump-voting town, and not finding it.[46]Mathias Bröckers, formerDie Tageszeitung editor, wrote: "the imaginative author simply delivered what his superiors demanded and fit into their spin".[47] American journalistJames Kirchick claimed inThe Atlantic that "Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism."[48][49] The US Ambassador to GermanyRichard Grenell also wrote a letter to the magazine's editors, saying that Claas Relotius's journalism showed an anti-American bias. He also expressed shock at how Der Spiegel allowed "anti-American coverage."[50]
2022 fake news about refugee death at the Greece–Turkey borders
In the summer of 2022,Der Spiegel published three articles and a podcast regarding the death of a refugee girl named "Maria" on an islet in theEvros river at the Greece–Turkey borders, accusing Greece of failing to aid the refugees, which caused the girl's death. But at the end of December 2022, the magazine retracted the articles and the podcast.[51][52] Greek newspaperKathimerini reported that the story had been fabricated.[53][54][55] In 2023, the Swiss newspaperNeue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote that this story was "one of the largest fake news breakdowns since Claas Relotius."[56]
The Hamburg state court ordered Der Spiegel in 2019 to remove unsupported claims from an article that accused thePeople's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) of "torture" and "psychoterror."[57]
In January 1978, the office ofDer Spiegel inEast Berlin was closed by theEast German government following the publication of critical articles against the conditions in the country.[58] A special 25 March 2008 edition of the magazine onIslam was banned inEgypt in April 2008 for publishing material deemed by authorities to be insulting Islam andMuhammed.[59][60]
Der Spiegel began moving into its current head office inHafenCity in September 2011. The facility was designed byHenning Larsen Architects ofDenmark. The magazine's offices were previously in a high-rise building with 8,226 square metres (88,540 sq ft) of office space.[61]
^abFrank Esser; Uwe Hartung (2004). "Nazis, Pollution, and no Sex: Political Scandals as a Reflection of Political Culture in Germany".American Behavioral Scientist.47 (1040):1040–1071.doi:10.1177/0002764203262277.S2CID143578000.
^abChristina Schäffner (2005). "Bringing a German Voice to English-speaking Readers: Spiegel International".Language and Intercultural Communication.5 (2):154–167.doi:10.1080/14708470508668891.S2CID143954235.
^Ingomar Kloss (2001)."Advertising in Germany". In Ingomar Kloss (ed.).Advertising Worldwide: Advertising Conditions in Selected Countries. Berlin; Heidelberg; New York: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 130.ISBN978-3-540-67713-0.
^Bojan Pancevski; Sara Germano (20 December 2018)."Germany's Der Spiegel Says Reporter Made Up Facts".The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved23 December 2018.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?"
^Matt Furber; Mitch Smith (27 December 2018)."Minnesota Town Defamed by German Reporter Is Ready to Forgive".The New York Times. Retrieved28 December 2018.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
^"If the narrative is correct, facts are secondary".Question Authority – Think For Yourself. Mathias Broeckers. 22 December 2018. Retrieved28 December 2018.Claas Relotius, because the imaginative author has just delivered what his superiors demanded and fit into their spin
^James Kirchick (3 January 2019)."Germany's Leading Magazine Published Falsehoods About American Life".The Atlantic. Retrieved6 January 2019.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
^abjoint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft,Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.
^joint venture with Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack, Studio Gong Niedersachsen and Brune-Rieck-Beteiligungs.
^joint venture with Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.
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