Claas Relotius, a reporter at DER SPIEGEL, invented and embellished parts of the stories for the magazine. We have had a number of crisis meetings, conducted a few press interviews, followed closely by social media channels and discussed possible strategies. The days have been long, and more long days are sure to come.

Claas Relotius worked for DER SPIEGEL for four years and wrote many fantastic features. He wrote about people that he never met or simply invented them out of thin air. Hey, scenes that never happened.

It can not yet be precise. We did not want to leave that task up to others. We have started the investigation process and want to establish it. Because we want to know exactly what happened and why, so it can never happen again. MIRROR IN THE MIRROR. We have a lot of questions for ourselves.

We are deeply sorry about what has happened. If you want to be in good faith, DER SPIEGEL should be trusted. We have many journalists on our staff who are looking forward to seeing the reality of living under a cloud of suspicion. It is up to us to prove that suspicious are unfounded.

We are aware that the Relotius case makes the fight against fake news that much more difficult. For everyone. For other media outlets that are on our side and for citizens and politicians who are interested in an accurate portrayal of reality. We would like to apologize to them, too. But we can assure you: We understand the gravity of the situation. And we want to do everything we can to learn from our mistakes.

Claas Relotius apparently had the feeling he could never live up to our expectations with stories that were only good or very good. He had the impression that they had to be excellent. It is not something we ever communicated to him, but we were naturally proud of the enormously positive feedback they generated and of the many prizes he won. That's the pressure on him to repeat his success and win the next prize. He apparently thought he could only do so with fabrications.

Misguided

We are now fighting for our credibility and we are angry that Relotius so bitterly disappointed our readers and us. But we do not see Claas Relotius as an enemy. We see him as one of us who found himself at a psychological dead-end, and who then reached for the wrong, badly misguided remedies. So we have compassion for him.

He committed fraud and we are defrauded: the top editors, the section editors and the fact checkers. We were always proud of our system, which includes numerous safeguards ensuring that stories are read by many different people. Our fact checkers examine each story on the search for errors.

Now we know that the system is flawed. In the coming weeks and months, the committee will search for these flaws and make suggestions for how we can fix them. Search instances of fraud, however, may not turn into spying.

As a reporter, Relotius ... It is a special form of journalism in which diligence and vibrancy are a must. The reporter is there, watching and listening, and then writes what he or she has seen and heard within the framework of a narrative arc and eloquence.

Some may be tempted to transform journalism into literature. Reporters are often on their own, frequently in foreign countries. For a checker back home, it's not always easy to determine if assertions in a story are true or false.

Most reporters work with precision and accuracy, something that needs to be emphasized here. Yet it is still necessary to closely examine the discipline of reportage and the temptations it presents. Just as we should look at the numerous journalism prizes that track ambition, but not always in a healthy way.

We have always believed that it is necessary for excellent journalism. We do not want to monitor every step taken by our journalists. They should also be allowed to drift, a necessary spark for creativity. But too much creativity should be avoided.

We want to investigate the Relotius case with the humility it requires. That is something we owe you, our readers. We love our magazine, THE MIRROR, and we are extremely sorry that we could not save it, our dear old friend, from this crisis.

Sincerely,

Steffen Klusmann, future DER SPIEGEL editor-in-chief
Dirk Kurbjuweit, deputy DER SPIEGEL editor-in-chief