Der Spiegel
German News Magazine.
Award Motivation
For its excellent reporting of national and international news and its editorial integrity.
Award details
Der Spiegel is one of the two largest circulating news magazines currently being published in Germany, with a weekly circulation of more than one million. Der Spiegel was founded in 1946, to act as Germany’s equivalent to America’s TIME and Newsweek magazines. Its first edition was published in 1947 with Rudolf Augstein acting as its first Editor-in-Chief. In 1974 Augstein restructured the company to allow employees with three or more years experience in senior positions to become shareholders and participate in the management of the company, receiving a share of the profits. Der Spiegel has a long history of investigative journalism and exposing political misconduct. Demonstrating this was the famed Spiegel Scandal of 1962 in which the magazine published a report about the low state of readiness of German armed forces. This article is still credited with altering the political culture of post-war Germany. In recent years the magazine has also exposed other political scandals, as well as supported other controversial political movements such as Wikileaks. Der Spiegel also has a concentrated regional and local interest, often producing feature articles on problems affecting the German population, as well as suggesting strategies to tackle the issues.