This week, SPIEGEL is celebrating because the founder of the magazine, Rudolf Augstein, would have turned 5 years old on November 100. In 2002, as an intern, I had the opportunity to see his office in the former SPIEGEL building on Brandstwiete in Hamburg: On the top floor, accessible only by a marble staircase, it looked like a mid-century time machine, so I remember. While the rest of the house was no longer as stylish and modern as it had been at the beginning, when the designer Verner Panton had designed the interior (only the canteen was still a reminder of this), time seemed to have stood still in Augstein's office.

That's not the only reason why I was excited to read the four-part series, in which my colleagues Martin Doerry and Hauke Janssen talk about how it all started at SPIEGEL and how Augstein made the magazine great. They have researched the archive and also describe the aspects of it, which from today's perspective are at least ambivalent, if not difficult. Following Augstein's premise, which we see every day in the SPIEGEL foyer when we walk in the door or to the canteen: Say what is.

On this topic page you will find the texts by Doerry and Janssen, as well as other articles on Augstein's 100th birthday, including the questionnaire he filled out for the FAZ magazine in 1980.

Otherwise, the world situation unfortunately doesn't give us much reason to celebrate right now. All the more reason to deal with the history of conflicts that are currently keeping everyone in suspense. My colleague Frank Patalong, together with colleagues from the documentation department, set out to unravel the history of the Middle East conflict in a compact way: What is Palestine, where does Hamas come from, why have previous peace treaties failed? Answers to such questions can be found here. He also asked experts for tips on sources of information on the conflict. These are compiled here.

And because there is a lot of talk about anti-Semitism in Germany right now, I would like to recommend our SPIEGEL story issue on this very topic again. Although it was published in 2021, it is unfortunately still up-to-date. Like all older magazines, you can order it via the SPIEGEL shop on Amazon.

If you have any suggestions or criticism, write to us at spiegelgeschichte@spiegel.de, we will get back to you in two weeks.

The editors of SPIEGEL GESCHICHTE recommend:

  • "Hitler was not a mastermind": British historian Richard Overy reinterprets the Second World War – and says it began as early as 1931. Here, he explains how he came up with it.

  • Why drugs are banned: Alcohol can be bought legally almost everywhere, even though it brings hundreds of thousands of people into addiction. For LSD or a joint, on the other hand, you need a dealer you trust. It's not particularly logical. Historian Helena Barop explains how this came about.

  • "Berlin has plunged us into misery and misery": In the Rhineland, separatists, radicals and dreamers tried to secede a "Rhenish Republic" from the German Reich in the autumn of 1923. What was driving them?

  • How a communist coup attempt in Hamburg failed: Also in October 1923, German communists wanted to start the revolution in Hamburg. Moscow hoped to overthrow the Weimar Republic – but the Weimar Republic held its own.

  • The debt collection knight with an iron fist: "He can lick my ass," poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had Götz von Berlichingen say in his play of the same name. The South German robber baron really existed – he ran a highly profitable war business.