The German Review

The German Review

Der Spiegel's ivory tower

Germany's most prestigious newspaper's reputation has taken a hit in recent years.

Jörg Luyken's avatar
Jörg Luyken
Jan 26, 2021
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1. Der Spiegel’s ivory tower

The ivory tower in Hamburg © Chris Redan / shutterstock

It’s just over two years since Germany’s most influential political magazine was caught in the biggest scandal to have hit journalism in years. But it doesn’t seem like Der Spiegel really meant its promise to be more humble in the wake of its star journalist making up prize-winning reportage upon prize-winning reportage.

A bit of self-reflection would have been appropriate. After all, Claas Relotius managed to get away with writing fiction disguised as journalism for years because his thrilling stories stroked the prejudices of the magazine’s editorial board.

The first signal that nothing much had changed behind the scenes came last summer, when their US correspondent wrote a bizarre article in which he announced that he’d no longer report objectively. Former US president Trump was such a liar that untruth had to be fought with untruth… or at least we assume that’s what this garbled obituary to neutral ne…

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