The editor-in-chief of the weekly Der Spiegel has defended his magazine's front cover illustration of US President Donald Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. The image has had a mixed response in the German media.
Image: DER SPIEGEL/Edel Rodriguez
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Media covering Trump's first weeks in office
Several magazines chose to put US President Donald Trump or his advisors on their covers this week - but not in the way the new US administration might have hoped.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R. Ellis
Der Spiegel - Liberty for the chop?
With most Germans seeing the US as nearly as big a threat as Russia since Trump took office, Der Spiegel's front page illustration perhaps sums up the pulse of many in Germany, depicting the new US president carrying a knife in one hand and holding the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty, the ultimate symbol of freedom, in the other. It was drawn by Cuban-born artist Edel Rodriguez.
Image: DER SPIEGEL
The New Yorker - Freedom blown out
The New Yorker magazine has made no secret of its dislike of Trump's election victory. The US weekly stays with the Statue of Liberty theme, illustrating just the arm of the Roman goddess of Libertas - who is carrying a torch that is said to light the way to freedom - only the torch has been extinguished. The illustration is entitled "Liberty's flameout" by artist John W. Tomac.
Image: The New Yorker
The Economist - The rich revolutionary
The Economist front cover underscores its coverage of Trump's first days in office. The British weekly described how the real estate magnate had already "lobbed the first Molotov cocktail of policies and executive orders against the capital's brilliant-white porticos." It warned that the world "should prepare for trouble" now that there's an insurgent in the White House.
Image: The Economist
Time - Puppet-master to the president?
Opting for a photo of Trump's chief strategist along with the headline "The Great Manipulator," Time magazine asks whether Steve Bannon is the second most powerful man in America, pointing to his "mind-meld with Trump." The US weekly said the two are both "talkative and brash, pugnacious money magnets who never quite fit among the elite."
Image: Time Magazin
Liberation - France is not a fan
French daily Liberation turned the stripes of the American flag into barbed wire to symbolize Trump's protectionist rhetoric, including the plan to build a border wall with Mexico and his entry ban on citizens of seven countries. Asking 'Can we stop him?' the paper accuses the new US leader of taking America to the edge of democracy with decisions that have divided his country and the world.
Image: Libération - Foto: DW/B. Riegert
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"Der Spiegel does not want to provoke anybody," editor-in-chief Klaus Brinkbaeumer told Reuters TV, adding he was surprised by the impact of the illustration.
Published on Saturday, the magazine cover shows a cartoon figure of Trump with a bloodied knife in one hand and the statue's head in the other, with the caption "America First."
Trump has faced condemnation over his recent decision to issue an executive order banning the admittance of refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days.
Media covering Trump's first weeks in office
Several magazines chose to put US President Donald Trump or his advisors on their covers this week - but not in the way the new US administration might have hoped.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R. Ellis
Der Spiegel - Liberty for the chop?
With most Germans seeing the US as nearly as big a threat as Russia since Trump took office, Der Spiegel's front page illustration perhaps sums up the pulse of many in Germany, depicting the new US president carrying a knife in one hand and holding the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty, the ultimate symbol of freedom, in the other. It was drawn by Cuban-born artist Edel Rodriguez.
Image: DER SPIEGEL
The New Yorker - Freedom blown out
The New Yorker magazine has made no secret of its dislike of Trump's election victory. The US weekly stays with the Statue of Liberty theme, illustrating just the arm of the Roman goddess of Libertas - who is carrying a torch that is said to light the way to freedom - only the torch has been extinguished. The illustration is entitled "Liberty's flameout" by artist John W. Tomac.
Image: The New Yorker
The Economist - The rich revolutionary
The Economist front cover underscores its coverage of Trump's first days in office. The British weekly described how the real estate magnate had already "lobbed the first Molotov cocktail of policies and executive orders against the capital's brilliant-white porticos." It warned that the world "should prepare for trouble" now that there's an insurgent in the White House.
Image: The Economist
Time - Puppet-master to the president?
Opting for a photo of Trump's chief strategist along with the headline "The Great Manipulator," Time magazine asks whether Steve Bannon is the second most powerful man in America, pointing to his "mind-meld with Trump." The US weekly said the two are both "talkative and brash, pugnacious money magnets who never quite fit among the elite."
Image: Time Magazin
Liberation - France is not a fan
French daily Liberation turned the stripes of the American flag into barbed wire to symbolize Trump's protectionist rhetoric, including the plan to build a border wall with Mexico and his entry ban on citizens of seven countries. Asking 'Can we stop him?' the paper accuses the new US leader of taking America to the edge of democracy with decisions that have divided his country and the world.
Image: Libération - Foto: DW/B. Riegert
5 images1 | 5
"We want to show what this is about, it's about democracy, it's about freedom, it's about freedom of the press, freedom of justice and all that is seriously endangered," Brinkbaeumer said. "So we are defending democracy [...] Are these serious times? Yes they are."
"On our cover the American president beheads the symbol which has welcomed migrants and refugees to the United States since 1886, and with democracy and freedom," Brinkbaeumer told the German news agency DPA.
Brinkbaeumer did not comment when asked the extent to which the representation was intended to resemble beheadings by the terrorist group "Islamic State" (IS).
Klaus Brinkbäumer is the editor in chief of Germany's leading political weeklyImage: picture alliance/dpa/G. Wendt
"It's a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol," the cartoon's author - US-Cuban artist Edel Rodriguez - told The Washington Post, adding that he wanted to draw a parallel between Islamist extremist ideas and Trump's radical policies.
"Both sides are extremists, so I'm just making a comparison between them," he said.
Trump is not amused
Trump has attacked Berlin's policies since coming to office in January.
He has said Merkel made a "catastrophic mistake" with her open-door migration policy and his top trade adviser last week accused Germany of using a "grossly undervalued" euro to gain advantage over the US and its European partners.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been the US' main European ally under former US president Barack Obama.
Germany's media response
The newspaper Die Welt said the cover "damages journalism," while another German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said it was "exactly what Trump needs - a distorted image of him, which he can use to work more on his distorted image of the press."
Bild tabloid drew a parallel with Mohammed Emwazi, a British national known as 'Jihadi John,' who was seen in several videos showing the beheading of IS hostages.
"The Spiegel cover is just what Trump needs - a distorted image of him which he can use to further his own distorted image of the press," it said, adding that that such images could underpin Trump supporters' belief that the media is biased against him and "belong to the establishment, which he is allegedly up against."
Conservative daily Die Welt, which - like Bild - belongs to the Axel Springer publishing group, criticized the Spiegel cover for "devaluing journalism."
The cover has also, however, attracted some praise on Twitter.
