Rudolf Augstein

Rudolf Karl Augstein (5 November 1923 – 7 November 2002) was one of the most influential German journalists, founder and part-owner of Der Spiegel magazine.

Born in Hanover, Germany, he was a radio operator and artillery observer in the German Wehrmacht during World War II.

He founded Der Spiegel in 1946/1947, which became (and still is) the most important investigative weekly magazine in Germany. During the Spiegel scandal in 1961 and 1962, he was arrested and jailed for 103 days, until Franz Josef Strauß was forced to resign as Minister of the Defense under continuing protest from the public and the resignation of the FDP cabinet members.

Augstein became a member of the Bundestag in 1972 for the Free Democrats for North Rhine-Westphalia, but gave back his seat by 1973 to focus on his duties as a journalist. It has been speculated that he considered himself much more influential with his magazine.

An amateur historian, Augstein published several successful books, among them Preußens Friedrich und die Deutschen (1981, ), Otto von Bismarck (1990, ), and, about his lifetime opponent, Überlebensgroß Herr Strauß. Ein Spiegelbild (1983, ). During the Historikerstreit of 1986-1987, Augstein was fierce in his criticism of Ernst Nolte and Andreas Hillgruber for creating what Augstein called the "New Auschwitz Lie". A controversial statement by Augstein was his description of Hillgruber as a "constitutional Nazi". Augstein called for Hillgruber to be fired from his post at the University of Cologne for being a "constitutional Nazi", and argued that there was no moral difference between Hillgruber and other "constitutional Nazis" like Hans Globke. Augstein wrote in opposition to Nolte that:

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