Customer Rating:  
Summary: Solid Magazine
Comment: I have a subscription to Der Spiegel and the quality of the magazine is prima. Very high-level stuff in every magazine and covers a very broad variety of topics. I agree with the other reviewers that the magazine leans left, as the German population itself does. As a Republican myself, I sometimes find the political orientation of Der Spiegel to be annoying and sometimes even infuriating (its transparently biased view on Obama over McCain, for instance), but the magazine is an important source for left-leaning perspectives for me and has catapulted my German to the next level. Der Spiegel is not always biased, however, and many of its articles are supremely sophisticated and informative.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A True News Magazine
Comment: I've been reading "Der Spiegel" for over 30 years. To compare "Der Spiegel" to "Time", as it is today, is like comparing "Time" to a comic book. They are in a different league all together. The depth in the articles in "Der Spiegel" are way above other magazines. Some have said it has a "left" leaning. That is surprising because I always got the feeling than people in Germany think it leans "right". That's because in general the political spectrum is more to the "left" in Europe.
In any case, I must credit "Der Spiegel" with helping me learn German and making sure I keep my German knowledge current. Above all I must credit "Der Spiegel" with keeping me informed. If you are a teacher, a student or an expatriate it's a must have.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get an idea about the Spiegel online
Comment: I have been a reader of the Spiegel in Germany for several years. Since I moved to the US for graduate study I subscribe to a daily (free!) newsletter called "Der Tag". Instead of relying on polemic critics you might as well read some of the articles yourself to get an idea of the quality of the Spiegel.
By the way, I also love the Economist. In general, however, I think the neoclassical approach of the Economist differs significantly from the perceptively left-leaning, liberal Spiegel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, intellectual, left?
Comment: There are a few good news magazines out there, the Spiegel is definitely one of them.
I teach German in the US and my older students read the Spiegel with a lot of enthusiasm. They are always astounded by the depths of the Spiegel's coverage when comparing it Time Magazine, Newsweek or others.
I absolutely do not share the opinion that the Spiegel covers only events related to Germany. The reports are critical, and compared to American media usually a bit left ( if you consider NPR coverage left as well).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Blasphemy
Comment: As a long time reader of both, Der Spiegel as well as The Economist, reading the above reviews considering Der Spiegel a German "version" of The Economist made me smile. Guys, stay serious. This is just not true. While The Economist provides in-depth analysis of foreign affairs, of political and economical problems all over the world, Der Spiegel focuses on events in Germany as well as events concerning Germany in some way. There is no broad coverage of topics not related to German daily news. Additionally, the intellectual level of Der Spiegel is much lower than that of The Economist - neither style of language, nor the articles' content can be looked upon as equivalent. Political analysis tends to be superficial (take "Unter der Tarnkappe", ed. 20/2003, which tries to explain the problems of the German government by pointing at the weight problem of the secretary of state, Joschka Fischer) and very biased (eg. during the war in Iraq, the magazine's cover denounced the US as a "bigheaded superpower"). To put it into a nutshell, Der Spiegel is one of Germany's best news magazines - but not due to its qualities, rather because of the fact that its competitors (like "Focus") are even worse. However, calling it a magazine of equal importance as The Economist is just inappropriate, in my humble opinion.
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