Spiegel affair

Spiegel affair, scandal in 1962, involving the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel and the West German government, that erupted after the magazine published an article about the country’s defense forces, evoking a harsh response from the federal authorities—particularly from Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss, who would later be forced to resign over his actions. The scandal marked the first time that the post-World War II West German government acted in such an extreme manner against the press. The incident elicited a strong show of support for Der Spiegel from domestic and international media as well as the public, who were galvanized to demonstrate against the government’s actions.

In early October 1962 Der Spiegel published an article that included details about the performance of West Germany’s defense forces during a recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercise and a NATO commander’s assessment that found the West German forces to be only partially ready to defend the country. The article drew anger from some quarters, particularly from Strauss and others in the Defense Ministry, and actions against the magazine and its staff were quietly pursued. A federal judge approved search and arrest warrants for Der Spiegel materials and staff based on allegations that the magazine had committed high treason by publishing details that a hastily compiled Defense Ministry document claimed were state secrets (the claim that the details published by Der Spiegel were actually state secrets would later be rejected by a federal court). On the evening of October 26, federal police detained a Der Spiegel employee who they mistakenly thought was the magazine’s publisher, Rudolf Augstein, the subject of one of the arrest warrants. When the error was realized and the employee was released, officials feared that Augstein would be tipped off to their investigation and that evidence might be destroyed. Der Spiegel’s offices were raided later that night and were then occupied for a month; some Der Spiegel employees also had their homes searched.

In addition to Augstein, Conrad Ahlers—the journalist responsible for the story—was also one of several individuals who were the subject of an arrest warrant. Whereas Augstein gave himself up to the police after he learned of the warrant, Ahlers was arrested in Spain, where he had been on vacation. Ahlers’s arrest on foreign territory, which was arranged by Strauss, caused considerable indignation because it was illegal, as the government later admitted. Strauss initially denied his involvement in the arrest, because he did not want to appear vengeful. It was a well-known fact that his relationship with Der Spiegel had been contentious for years because the magazine had repeatedly covered Strauss in a critical manner. Once Strauss’s participation in the matter was proved, however, he suffered heavily, as did the West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who had publicly supported Strauss throughout the scandal.

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As details of the Spiegel affair emerged, Adenauer’s coalition government began to unravel. The Ministry of Justice—headed by a minister from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), a junior partner in the coalition dominated by Adenauer’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Strauss’s Christian Social Union (CSU)—should have been in charge of the Der Spiegel matter but had not been fully informed about the steps carried out against the magazine and its staff; instead, it was Strauss and his Ministry of Defense that took matters into their own hands. When several FDP cabinet ministers resigned on November 19 in a show of displeasure with the situation, Adenauer’s coalition collapsed. The next month, Adenauer was able to form another coalition government only on the condition that Strauss not be part of it; consequently, Strauss resigned, albeit unwillingly.

In addition to Augstein and Ahlers, several others had been arrested in conjunction with the Spiegel affair—with Augstein being detained for more than100 days—but none were ever convicted of treason. Although Strauss had to resign as defense minister, he was able to make a political comeback and was selected as the CSU-CDU candidate for chancellor in 1980. He did not win, however, and many consider the Spiegel affair to be one of the reasons that he never became chancellor.