by Wendy B
Originally published in Currents February/March 2005

Do you ever think that the Hamburger Abendblatt is too provincial, the Suddeutsche too difficult, and Der Spiegel too long? Of course, if what you really want is a quick overview in English, then you are stuck with the Herald Tribune or plodding through the online sites of the major English or American newspapers.

Look no further: go online to www.spiegel.de/international. Spiegel Online (the “CNN of Germany”) has recently launched a daily online news site. It offers a quick, edgy, European perspective on worldwide events in English. 

If you need a quick overview of what’s up in the world, read the Buzz Blog. It will get you through almost any cocktail party conversation. If you like to go in-depth, then read Under the Scope: a different, thorny topic each day. You can even find Der Spiegel magazine stories translated into English in the Spiegel View. If you are married to a German, or work with lots of them, you’ll be grateful for Fishwrap, which summarizes the top headlines from each of the major German papers. And for those who love finding interesting and bizarre internet sites that actually have something to do with current events, then check out Must Reads. (The site is updated each day at 15:00 [German time], but I’d highly recommend signing up for the email newsletter.)

OK, I need to confess that the editor-in-chief of Spiegel Online is my husband. But then again, I guess that’s why he knew there was an audience for a news site like this one!