 In 1953, he undertook a journalism apprenticeship at the "Rheinische Post".In 1955, working for "Der Spiegel", Simoneit was the first German journalist to visit the People's Republic of China, at the same time becoming the magazine's travel correspondent for the entire East.During his time with Der Spiegel he also had more than 25 cover stories to his credit as well as interviews with Heinrich Nordhoff, SPD politician Georg Leber, Nikita Khrushchev, Walter Ulbricht and Henry Ford II.