{"id":9,"date":"2025-04-11T15:15:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T15:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relaunch2025.zeitenspiegel.de\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:13:10","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.zeitenspiegel.de\/en\/ueber-uns\/","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 1985, a few young writers and photographers in the Swabian province joined forces to form a community of reporters. Far away from the major media centers of Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, many predicted failure. The skepticism was even greater when our founders ventured a model based on solidarity: all fees went into a common pot and were withdrawn as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it worked. We got orders, new members, and committed social reportage quickly became a core element of Zeitenspiegel. In order to promote such stories outside our community, in 1998 we announced our first reportage prize in the name of our honorary member, the photographer Hansel Mieth. Today, this prize and the Gabriel Gr\u00fcner Scholarship - named after our colleague who was shot in the Kosovo war - are among the most prestigious awards in German journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, we founded a kindergarten and a reporting school. Together with the Culture Counts Foundation, we launched the global reportage series \u201ePeace counts\u201c about peacemakers. Our Courage magazine has been published for ten years with a similarly constructive approach - as a supplement in up to 20 daily newspapers and with a circulation of around 800,000 copies. A heartfelt project, award-winning, just like many of our reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our home is still Weinstadt, an idyllic spot between vineyards in the Stuttgart suburbs. We run the stern Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg office here in a former farmhouse. Other Zeitenspieglers are based in Hamburg, Dortmund, Berlin, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Manila and Beijing, among other places. Together, we develop new ideas every week: for daily newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think in many narrative forms: political analyses, columns, podcasts, video stories. And, of course, classic reportage in pictures and text. The same golden rule has applied for four decades: good stories have many facets. And we want to tell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Voices on Zeitenspiegel:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201eThe last and only kibbutz on German soil.\u201c<\/p>\nStefanie Rosenkranz, Stern reporter<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eYou're neo-hippies!\u201c<\/p>\nSouleymane Oulai, Ivorian radio presenter and former Rastaman<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eA bit pietistic, but open-minded.\u201c<\/p>\nMarkus Grill, journalist at the WDR\/NDR\/S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung research network<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eMoney was always tight, but I was the freest man on God's earth, I could choose the stories I wanted to do and travel wherever I wanted.\u201c<\/p>\nJ\u00fcrgen Schaefer, editor-in-chief at GEO about his time at Zeitenspiegel<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eWhen you go public, I want to know.\u201c<\/p>\nThomas Osterkorn, former editor-in-chief of Stern magazine<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eSide gussets - who is that?\u201c<\/p>\nElaine Miradour, television presenter on state television in C\u00f4te d'Ivoire<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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What is Zeitenspiegel? A \u201csheltered workshop\u201d as some mock? <\/p>\nStephanie Nannen, freelance author<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eI appreciate the inner attitude at Zeitenspiegel and believe that good writers are always needed. Anyone who wants good, committed, enlightening journalism, who appreciates the undaunted way in which Zeitenspiegel devotes itself to the problems of the Third World in projects such as \u201ePeace Counts\u201c, who values meaning and responsibility, must wish this community of reporters that it will be around for a long time to come.\u201c<\/p>\nIngrid Kolb, Stern author, former director of the Henri Nannen School<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Im Jahr 1985 schlossen sich ein paar junge Schreibende und Fotografierende in der schw\u00e4bischen Provinz zu einer Reportergemeinschaft zusammen. Fernab der gro\u00dfen Medienzentren Hamburg, Berlin und M\u00fcnchen prophezeiten viele das Scheitern. Noch gr\u00f6\u00dfer war die Skepsis, als unsere Gr\u00fcnderinnen und Gr\u00fcnder ein solidarisches Modell wagten: Alle Honorare flossen in einen gemeinsamen Topf und wurden nach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":40,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t