Reading the news is much easier today than it was 30 years ago. I wasn’t reading the news 30 years ago but I can imagine without the internet, staying up to date to the minute was not something everyone did. So sometimes, it feels like there’s no excuse to not be informed and current and yet, it’s still sometimes difficult to do, as we continue to be bombarded with misleading stories or useless junk 24/7. There’s certainly good news to be picked up, but where? And when does one have time to fully immerse in a story to come up with one’s own opinion?
Though I’m trying to break my habit of skimming over headlines and the intro sentences to paragraphs, I still do it everyday. But out of these quick reads I usually pick one or two to read in depth. Before that, I had some trouble finding out how to stay current on current events in two languages while living in Germany.
Unfortunately, I’m avoiding doing it in German. For my German news sources I’m definitely skimming, then reading “Heute in Wiesbaden…” and just turning straight to Google Translate. But no more! I will struggle on with at least two (short articles) a week and get to the end of them before pulling out translate.
This can be exhausting though and sometimes I just want to know what’s going on in my city and region. As someone who always knew what was up in her neighborhood, I really don’t like feeling out of the loop over here. I finally found some sources (in English!) to help keep in touch with what’s going on. I’m also a fan of community curated forums which I also visit nearly everyday.

 English news

From the title of this newsletter you might be able to tell this is my favorite. I signed up for this newsletter before I left the USA and I still love getting it today. Though it hits inboxes at around 6am EST, over here I get it around lunchtime. Which means instead of starting my day with TheSkimm, I now take my break and catch up on what’s been going on.

Another newsletter with an excellent mix of fluff news mixed with news plus reader content. This one comes in around 4pm CET so it’s a fun tea break or bus ride home read. I like the surveys they put out for their readers, editorials written based on reader feedback, and the bottom half the newsletter changes everyday, from interviews with entrepreneurs or bloggers to tracklists to small lists of ideas for one to implement in their lives, right now. And, I really like the “Today I Will…” motivational module at the very end.

English news from German sources about Germany

Der Spiegel (“The Mirror”) is a weekly magazine which covers news important to Germany, and provides this small section of selected stories they translate into English, or were originally reported in English. The paper is considered to be based upon “investigative journalism” and could be considered fairly centered.
From Wikipedia:
“In 2010 Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers, which the Columbia Journalism Review called ‘most likely the world’s largest fact checking operation’.”

The Local is a group of papers meant to reach expats around Europe. Therefore, select countries have their own dedicated Local and network to reach out to. The news on the .de site is dedicated to what’s happening in Germany though it’s easy to switch to other regions if you’re curious about European-wide news.
This site is also affiliated with Toytown Germany, an English expat forum.

Deutsche Welle (“German Wave”) is the public international broadcaster of Germany. They have both radio and television broadcasts in a variety of languages. The organization was created to promote Germany and German democratic interests outside of Germany, while still informing the public within Germany. This site definitely has a more international feel to it with a broad scope of stories. They also report on international news for a German audience, in English, so the viewpoint is different from one used to American news.
They also run an Akadamie for media development, aimed at training journalists from the start of their education. They also offer German lessons online (for free), an online placement test, and have articles written at different levels of German, so one can practice as they improve their language skills.

English news about Washington DC, areas surrounding, and USA national:

I have a soft spot for this paper since it does contain a lot of local news from the areas I’m familiar with. However it’s also a good pulse for the USA as a whole and though national media is a sensitive subject these days, I don’t feel the Post has ever let us down.

The Patch is a group of papers, similar to The Local, made up of multiple regional sites that group together under one heading to be found more easily. The Patch was pretty small when I first read it, but taking a look now I find there are many neighborhoods and metro areas represented.

 German news, national and international:

This site makes the list twice because this is dedicated to the original, German publication. Same information as above, but this link will take you directly to the home page in German.

German news about Wiesbaden and surrounding areas:

Another one of a group of local papers, Merkurist relies on “snips” which are comments or short questions or statements made by registered user who live in one of the areas Merkurist covers. These snips are then investigated in more detail by the journalists on staff and in this way is a community-supplied paper, taking in only stories which are of interest to the public.
Of course they do create their own stories and reports but a lot of the time the stories are mainly up to the minute with information, relating to the newest store opening or a crash on one of the autobahns nearby.
If your German is elementary this will be a tougher source as the language feels more casual, more colloguieal, since it is a regionally sourced site.

Available for other cities as well, such as Frankfurt or Mainz.

 Forums

I’m a big fan of being involved in community forums. My most favorite is Reddit, which I’ve been using for years and I’ve seen the ups and downs of it all. I really like r/germany and r/German, for obvious reasons. My German isn’t anywhere good enough to understand r/de yet but I have hopes, since the little I do understand I find kind of funny.
Toytown Germany, as mentioned above, is excellent for job hunting, recipe conversions, and general “I have observed this thing in Germany, anyone else?” kinds of conversations.

Other Sources

If you stream your entertainment and use Chromecast to do so, or if you’re ok with watching videos on your phone, I have found two excellent (and free!) apps for German immersion and live TV.
Das Erste – clips and shows from the channel
ZDF – same for this channel
Since part of your Rundfunkbeitrag goes towards the support of these channels, you should check them out!

Any sources I’ve missed? Let me know if you have a favorite which isn’t listed here! Or tell me how you like to be active on the forums and I’ll keep an eye out for you in future conversations for a quick “Guten Tag.”