Stern (, German for "Star") is an illustrated, broadly left-liberal, weekly current affairs magazine published in Hamburg, Germany, by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. Under the editorship (1948–1980) of its founder Henri Nannen, it attained a circulation of between 1.5 and 1.8 million, the largest in Europe's for a magazine of its kind. Unusually for a popular magazine in post-war West Germany, and most notably in the contributions to 1975 of Sebastian Haffner, Stern investigated the origin and nature of the preceding tragedies of German history. In 1983, however, its credibility was seriously damaged by its purchase and syndication of the forged Hitler Diaries. A sharp drop in sales anticipated the general fall in newsprint readership in the new century. By 2019, circulation had fallen under half a million. History and profile Journalistic style Henri Nannen produced the first 16-page issue (with the actress Hildegard Knef on the cover) on 1 August 1948. He had been able to obtain the licence from the British military government in Hannover despite his wartime service in , a military propaganda unit in Italy. He moved the magazine to Hamburg where, in 1965, he founded , now one of the largest publishing houses in Europe. Under Nannen's direction, sought to present itself as an exemplar of what in Germany is called ('useful journalism'). The emphasis is on providing sufficient background on topic to allow readers opportunity to arrive at their own judgements rather than have these decided for them editorially or (as was commonly the case in the tabloid output of rival publisher ) in the headlines. As a result articles tended to be longer and more investigative, while distinguished from those of the similarly directed by the wider range of social and life-style issues covered, and by a greater reliance of illustration and graphic design. Breaks with the Adenauer consensus Stern was open to the questioning, from a liberal and left perspective, of the post-war political and social order in West Germany identified with the long Chancellorship (1949–1963) of Konrad Adenauer. In the 1962 affair, Stern denounced as violations of constitutional norms and press freedom, the effective closure by the government of the magazine's publishing rival. In a contest seen a key turning point in the culture of the Federal Republic away from the deference demanded by the old ('authoritarian state'), Stern (together with Springer Press and ) offered presses, teletypes