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Stay in the Picture!

Regularly reading German newspapers is a great way to stay up to date on German and European affairs, and to practise your German language skills!

Whether you’re a German translator, learning German or at home in German, immersing yourself in German texts for just 5 minutes a day will help keep your German up to date! german newspapers, german news, german newspaper, zeitungen

In terms of free German English translation, you can German newspapers to check up on German terms - international stories in English newspapers will also be covered by their German counterparts. Examine the language they use.

The German newspapers listed here all have online editions, giving you free access to German texts and allowing you to dip into a variety of writing styles and subject matter. Some offer audio broadcasts of news items, which is a great chance to hear well-spoken German. Below I’ve listed some of the most popular German language newspapers according to type and frequency of publication, as well as a few Austrian and Swiss-German language newspapers.

Happy reading!

GERMAN PUBLICATIONS

Quality national German daily newspapers

In descending order of popularity (approximate circulation levels).
For ease of navigation, each of the following links will open a new window:

1. Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) Half a million copies.

2. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) Just under half a million copies.

3. Die Welt 300,000 copies.

4. Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) 200,00 copies.

5. Der Tagesspiegel 180,000 copies.

6. Handelsblatt (financial newspaper) 180,000 copies.

7. Financial Times Deutschland 130,000 copies.

8. Die tageszeitung (taz) 80,000 copies.

Quality German weeklies

1. Die Zeit Around 650,000 copies. Appears on Thursdays.

TIP! For German translation students: I’ve noticed that many exam papers, especially for the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation, take as their source text an extract from one of the German quality dailies such as Die Zeit, or the FAZ. So read your papers carefully and use them for practice translations!

National German tabloid dailies

These are your populist and more sensationalist daily papers, but just as The Sun, England’s most popular daily, is said to be written by the best journalists that Oxford and Cambridge can produce, an occasional dip into the Bild-Zeitung will give you some examples of a more colloquial use of German, and an insight into local prejudices!

1. Bild-Zeitung Almost 4 million copies.

2. Express 200,000 copies.

SWISS PUBLICATIONS

Quality national Swiss daily newspapers

1. Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) 330,000 copies, respected, liberal paper going back over 200 years.

2. Tages-Anzeiger (Tagi, or TA)550,000 copies, largest Swiss daily, left of centre.

National Swiss tabloid

1. Blick Readership of around 750,000

AUSTRIAN PUBLICATIONS

National quality daily newspapers in Austria

These are somewhat provincial compared to German newspapers, but will give you an in-depth view of what’s going on in Austria. german newspapers, german news, german newspaper, zeitungen

german newspapers, german news, german newspaper, zeitungen

Note: The weekly German newspaper Die Zeit also dedicates a page to Austrian news with articles commenting on the state of Austrian politics, often by Austrian journalists or popular figures. These analyses are probably a lot more realistic than the local Austrian coverage!

1. Der Standard Liberal, online edition reportedly attracts over 1 million readers.

2. Die Presse 350,000 copies, liberal and free-market.

3. Wirtschaftsblatt 25,000 copies, Austria’s only financial daily.

National Austrian tabloid dailies :

1. Kronen Zeitung (Die Krone) Around 3 million, Austria’s largest populist daily.

2. Kurier 300,000 copies

And as an added extra, if you’re looking for news about Germany and German affairs in general, but prefer your news in English, then you might try the online news published by the German Missions in the United States, the official website of the German Embassy and 8 official German consulates in the USA.

Or try the webpage of Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (German Wave) whose goal is to provide information about Germany and Europe to an international audience in 30 languages.

Happy reading!

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