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Der Spiegel

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Der Spiegel is a very important news magazine in Germany. It is published every week in a city called Hamburg. This magazine is one of the largest of its kind in all of Europe. In 2022, about 724,000 copies were sold each week. It is famous for its investigative journalism. This means reporters work hard to find hidden truths. They look for secrets about how governments and powerful people act.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Oval Office (18015552044)
President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Oval Office (18015552044)

How does the magazine work to find these secrets? Reporters use a method called investigative journalism to uncover scandals. A scandal is when someone in power does something wrong or dishonest. For example, the magazine helped reveal the Spiegel affair in 1962. It also helped uncover the Flick affair during the 1980s. In 2010, the magazine had a huge team of fact checkers. There were about 80 people whose job was to check every detail. This helped make sure the stories were as true as possible.

The story of the magazine began a long time ago. It was founded in 1947 by two men. One was a British army officer named John Seymour Chaloner. The other was Rudolf Augstein, who was a radio operator. The very first edition came out in Hanover on January 4, 1947. Augstein was the leader, or editor-in-chief, for many years. He stayed in that role until he died on November 7, 2002.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Oval Office (18015552044)
President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Oval Office (18015552044)

Many interesting numbers tell the story of its growth. In 1947, only 15,000 copies were sold. By 1961, that number grew to 437,000 copies. When Germany reunited in 1990, the magazine reached over one million readers. In 1994, they started a website called Spiegel Online. Today, the magazine and the website work together as one team. They use the same name and share the same news staff.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Oval Office (18015552044)
President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Oval Office (18015552044)

Even great magazines can make mistakes sometimes. In 2018, the magazine found a big problem with one of its writers. A reporter named Claas Relotius had made up facts and people in his stories. This was a major scandal for the magazine. They also had a mistake in 2022 regarding a story about a girl in Greece. They had to take those stories back because they were not true. Learning from these mistakes is a hard but important part of being a news leader.

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