GERMANY: The founder and publisher of Germany's most influential news magazine, Der Spiegel, has died aged 79. Mr Rudolf Augstein founded the magazine in 1947 and became the most influential journalist of the post-war era in Germany.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, said: "His experiences during the Nazi era made him a glowing defender of democracy and the rule of law."
The president, Mr Johannes Rau, said: "He was one of the great, perhaps the greatest journalist of the federal republic. Our country is poorer without him."
The magazine helped to build up Germany's post-war democracy but also uncovered some of the country's biggest scandals.
Politicians of all political hues paid tribute yesterday to Mr Augstein's position on key events in German history, such as his support for Ostpolitik, the normalisation of relations between West and East Germany and his backing of unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
