''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national

weekly newspaper A weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly new ...

published in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German

newspapers of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and include some of the o ...

and is known for its long and extensive articles.

History

The first edition of ''Die Zeit'' was first published in Hamburg on 21 February 1946. The founding publishers were

Gerd Bucerius Gerd Bucerius (19 May 1906 – 29 September 1995) was a German politician, publisher and journalist, one of the founding members of '' Die Zeit''. He is the namesake of the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and of the Bucerius Kunst Forum, an art ...

, Lovis H. Lorenz, Richard Tüngel and Ewald Schmidt di Simoni. Another important founder was Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, who joined as an editor in 1946. She became publisher of ''Die Zeit'' from 1972 until her death in 2002, together from 1983 onwards with former

German chancellor The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Cha ...

, later joined by

Josef Joffe Josef Joffe (born 15 March 1944) is a former publisher-editor of '' Die Zeit'', a weekly German newspaper. His second career has been in academia. Appointed Senior Fellow of Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies in 2007 (a ...

and former German federal secretary of culture

Michael Naumann Michael Naumann (born 8 December 1941) is a German politician, publisher and journalist. He was the German culture minister, secretary of culture from 1998 until 2001. He is married to Marie Warburg, daughter of Eric Warburg and granddaughter of ...

. The paper's publishing house,

Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History Th ...

in Hamburg, is owned by the

Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a privately held German company based in Stuttgart which Holding company, owns publishing companies worldwide. Through Macmillan Publishers, it is one of the Publishing#Book publishing, Big Five English-langu ...

and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Media. The paper is published weekly on Thursdays. As of 2018, ''Die Zeit'' has additional offices in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, New York,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 2018, it re-opened an office in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Orientation

The paper is considered to be

highbrow Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, "highbrow" is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseudo ...

. Its political direction is

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to Left-w ...

and

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

or left-liberal. ''Die Zeit'' often publishes dossiers, essays, third-party articles and excerpts of lectures of different authors emphasising their points of view on a single aspect or topic in one or in consecutive issues. It is known for its very large physical paper format ( Nordisch) and its long and detailed articles.

Print edition

Sections and supplements

''Die Zeit'' is divided into different sections, some of which are: * Politik (''English: politics'') * Streit (''English literally: dispute'') * Dossier (''English: dossier'') * Geschichte (''English: history'') * Wirtschaft (''English: economy'') * Wissen (''English: science'') * Feuilleton (''English: features'') * Zeitmagazin

Appearance and printing

The masthead lettering in the weekly ''Die Zeit'' with its elegant font was designed by

Carl Otto Czeschka Carl Otto Czeschka (22 October 1878, Vienna – 30 July, 1960, Hamburg) was an Austrian painter and graphic designer associated with the Wiener Werkstätte. Life Carl Otto Czeschka was half Bohemian and half Moravian origin. His father Wen ...

in 1946. Czeschka was inspired by the British daily newspaper ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' which shows the British national coat of arms in between ''The'' and ''Times''. This was not only for graphic reasons, it also represented the founder's self-conception which he published in an editorial called "''Unsere Aufgabe'' (English: "Our Mission") on February 21, 1946. The very first version of Czeschka's design, which included the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

crest, was used from the first edition (published on February 21, 1946) to the 12th edition (published on May 9, 1946). Other than the official coat of arms this crest featured peacock's feathers with little hearts on them. Additionally, the position of the lions' legs first resembled those of the old great coat of arms. The positions were changed in 1952. Regardless of this tiny difference, the crest was viewed as the great Hamburg coat of arms by the Hamburg Senate and was therefore considered a national emblem. Upon this, the crest was revised: An open gate was supposed to be incorporated to represent the cosmopolitanism of the hanseatic city. However, the Senate also declined this version that was printed in editions 13 to 18, as it was viewed a misuse of a

national emblem A national emblem is an emblem or seal that is reserved for use by a nation state or multi-national state as a symbol of that nation. Many nations have a seal or emblem in addition to a national flag A national flag is a flag that represents ...

for commercial purposes, which is still prohibited to this day. To avoid another prohibition, ''Zeit Magazin'' changed its masthead on June 27, 1946, into the

Coat of arms of Bremen This article is about the coat of arms of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and the city of Bremen. Description From the Bremen Official Website: :The Coat-of-Arms of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen shows a silver key on a red s ...

: The key and the golden crown of the city coat of arms, which was approved by

Wilhelm Kaisen Carl Wilhelm Kaisen (22 May 1887 – 19 December 1979) was a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who served as the 2nd President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen from 1945 to 1965. In 1958/59 he served as the 10th ...

, the mayor of

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

. This happened as a result of the mediation from Josef Müller-Marein who later became the editorial director of ''Die Zeit''. The design with the ''Bremer Schlüssel'' in its masthead was also designed by Carl Otto Czeschka and is used as the logo of the whole publishing group today. With the demand from Ernst Samhaber, the Hamburg artist

Alfred Mahlau Alfred Mahlau (21 June 1894 – 22 January 1967) German painter, illustrator and teacher. Biography Alfred Mahlau was born in Berlin on 21 June 1894. He was best known for his graphical work and illustrations, and for the large stained glass ...

had created the whole first edition which had a five-column break. The edition was printed in the printing house Broscheck in Hamburg. At the same time, Czeschka had also drawn the headlines of the first edition for the different sections of the newspaper. The articles of ''Die Zeit'' and, especially the leading articles on the first page, are traditionally longer and more detailed than the ones of a daily newspaper. However, in the past few years many articles have been noticeably shorter and include more pictures. Since the redesign by Mario Garcia in January 1998, the headlines have been printed in ''Tiemann-Antiqua''. The running texts are printed in ''

Garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and bo ...

'', a font that is very frequently used in books. ''Die Zeit'' did not join the discussion about the return of the traditional

German orthography German orthography is the orthography used in writing the German language, which is largely phonemic. However, it shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogous to other spellings rather than phonemic. The pronunciation of al ...

, which was led by

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

and

Bild ''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper ''Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...

. Starting in 1999, the newspaper used its in-house orthography which derived from the traditional orthography as well as from the different versions of the reformed orthography, which were edited by Dieter E. Zimmer. Since 2007, ''Die Zeit'' refrained from using the in-house orthography and started following the recommendations of the

Duden The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years. , ...

. The nordisch format, a trademark of the newspaper, has always been addressed in literature and cabaret—mostly in satirical form. According to Hanns Dieter Hüsche ''Die Zeit'' is "''so groß, wenn man die aufschlägt, muss der Nachbar gleich zum Zahnarzt'' (English literally: "so big, if you open it, the neighbour must go to the dentist immediately"). In reality however, the format is not bigger than that of a dozen other German newspapers. ''Die Zeit'' is

printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

by the Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei GmbH in Mörfelden-Walldorf. The Deutscher Pressevertrieb, based in Hamburg, is in charge of the distribution of the newspapers.

Editor-in-chief

* 1946: Ernst Samhaber * 1946–1955: Richard Tüngel * 1957–1968: Josef Müller-Marein * 1968–1972: Marion Gräfin Dönhoff * 1973–1992:

Theo Sommer Theo Sommer (10 June 1930 – 22 August 2022) was a German newspaper editor and intellectual. He began working for ''Die Zeit'' in 1958, rising to an editor-in-chief and publisher. His editorials for ''Die Zeit'' shaped the paper's social-liber ...

* 1992–1997: Robert Leicht * 1997–2001:

Roger de Weck Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

* 2001–2004:

and

* since 2004:

Giovanni di Lorenzo Giovanni di Lorenzo (; born 9 March 1959) is an Italian-German journalist. Editor-in-chief (since 2004) of German nationwide weekly newspaper '' Die Zeit'' and former editor-in-chief of Berlin's liberal daily newspaper ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (19 ...

Zeitmagazin

The ''Zeitmagazin'' was first published as a supplement in 1970 and later discontinued in 1999. ''Die Zeit'' then introduced the section ''Leben'' (''English: Lifestyle''). Since May 24 2007, ''Die Zeit'' reintroduced the ''Zeitmagazin''. For the supplement's 40th birthday, ''Die Zeit'' published a 100-page anniversary issue, including 40 different covers - one for each year.

Circulation

The 1993 circulation of ''Die Zeit'' was 500,000 copies. With a circulation of 504,072 for the second half of 2012 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper. It reached 520,000 copies in the first quarter of 2013.

Zeit Online

''Zeit Online'' is run by Zeit Online GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of the publishing company ''Zeitverlag''. The independent editorial office consists of around 70 editors, graphic designers and technicians. Upon February 1, 2009, ''Zeit Online'', ''Tagesspiegel Online'' and ''zoomer.de'' were merged into ''Zeit Digital'' with one joint editorial office in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Only some editors as well as the technology and the marketing departments remained in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. ''Zoomer.de'' was discontinued in February 2009, and the editorial office of ''Tagesspiegel Online'' was handed back to ''Tagesspiegel'' in September 2009. In 2017, ''Die Zeit'' was among the most quoted sources in German Wikipedia. At present, it is one of the 100 most visited websites in Germany. Sections: The content is categorized into four section groups that each consist of one or more sections, as follows: - Politics, Economy and Society - Culture and Discovery - Knowledge & Digital - Sports Since April 2014, ''Zeit Online'' has also been publishing a local section for Hamburg. In a survey of German literature blogs, the literature section of ''Zeit Online'' was rated as the best portal, better than the literature section of

and

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

amongst others. On 2 November 2012, ''Zeit Online'' launched a Content API which is available for software developers. Website traffic: Up to 2017, ''Die Zeit'' experienced a significant increase in clicks on their website. In March 2017, Z+ was launched and so was a payment model for the new product. Since then, some of the content has only been available after payment. In January 2019, the website was visited 75.1 million times. On average, 2.34 pages were opened per visit. Recent history: Gero von Randow, a former ''Die Zeit'' editor, was the editor-in-chief until February 2008. The journalist Wolfgang Blau took over his position in March of that year. When Blau joined

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

in April 2013, Jochen Wegner subsequently took over, and has been in charge since 15 March 2013. Before that, he had been the editor-in-chief at

Focus Online ''Focus'' (styled as ''FOCUS'') is a German-language news magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. Established in 1993 as an alternative to the '' Der Spiegel'' weekly news magazine, since 2015 the editorial staff has been headquartered in Germ ...

from 2006 to 2010. Being part of the same publishing group, ''Die Zeit'' and Berliner Tagesspiegel decided to cooperate in September 2006. Since then, they have been exchanging and sharing some of their online content. Zeit has similar relationships with other German online news portals such as ''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf by Handelsblatt Media Group, formerly known as Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt. History and profile ''Handelsblatt'' was es ...

'' and ''Golem.de''.

Cooperations

In June 2008, ''Zeit Online'' started a cooperation with

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

and broadcast their news in a display format called ''100 Sekunden'' (''English: 100 seconds''). Starting 2018, the online presence of ''brand eins'' and ''Zeit Online'' were merged and are now marketed together.

Zuender

Between 2005 and 2009, ''Zeit Online'' introduced ''Zuender'' (''English: igniter'') which was an online platform for young adults in Germany between the ages of 16 and 25.

Zeit Campus Online

''Zeit Campus Online'' started in 2006 as an online version of the printed magazine ''Zeit Campus''.

Störungsmelder

In 2007, ''Zeit Online'' started a cooperation with the music magazine ''Intro'', the union ''Gesicht Zeigen!'' (''English: show face'') and the agency ''WE DO'' as well as the moderators Markus Kavka, Ole Tillmann and

Klaas Heufer-Umlauf Klaas Heufer-Umlauf (born 22 September 1983 in Oldenburg) is a German television host, producer, actor and singer. He is best known as part of the duo Joko & Klaas, alongside Joko Winterscheidt. Biography Heufer-Umlauf is a trained hairdresse ...

. The project is called ''Störungsmelder'' (''English: trouble report'') and is directed against right-wing extremism.

Netz gegen Nazis

On 5 May 2008, ''Zeit Online'' started a project in cooperation with partners such as the German Football Association, the German Fire Department Association, the VZ-networks, the

and the

German Olympic Sports Confederation The German Olympic Sports Confederation (german: Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund or DOSB) was founded on 20 May 2006 by a merger of the ''Deutscher Sportbund'' (DSB), and the ''Nationales Olympisches Komitee für Deutschland'' (NOK) which dates ...

to start the online platform ''Netz gegen Nazis'' (''English: web against Nazis''). The web portal was subject to criticism from the journalists. This was based on the platform not providing new information and only arguing superficially. On 1 January 2009, ''Die Zeit'' withdrew their contribution to the project and handed over administration to the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. The project has since been renamed to '' Belltower.News''.

ze.tt

On 27 July 2015, the publishing house started a new online format called ''ze.tt'', aimed at young readers who spend a large amount of time on social-media.

Zeitmagazin International

''Die Zeit'' has published ''Zeitmagazin International'' (sometimes also referred to as ''The Berlin State of Mind'') twice a year since 2013. It contains articles from the weekly magazine which accompanies the newspaper, translated into English.

English-language online presence

A selection of stories are published in English at www.zeit.de/english/index.

Controversy

Big Brother Award

In June 2019, the ''Zeit Online'' was awarded with the

Big Brother Award The Big Brother Awards (BBAs) recognize "the government and private sector organizations ... which have done the most to threaten personal privacy". They are named after the George Orwell character Big Brother from the novel ''Nineteen Ei ...

in the category ''consumer protection''.

ZEIT-Stiftung The charitable foundation ''Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius'' (house style: ZEIT-Stiftung) is registered in Hamburg. Its aim is to fund projects in research and scholarship, arts and culture, as well as education and training. It was fou ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeit 1946 establishments in Germany Centrist newspapers German-language newspapers German news websites Liberal media in Germany Newspapers published in Hamburg Publications established in 1946 Weekly newspapers published in Germany

History

Orientation

Print edition

Sections and supplements

Appearance and printing

Editor-in-chief

Zeitmagazin

Circulation

Zeit Online

Cooperations

Zuender

Zeit Campus Online

Störungsmelder

Netz gegen Nazis

ze.tt

Zeitmagazin International

English-language online presence

Controversy

Big Brother Award

Related Articles

References

External links