[rtomanek]

Since I am trying to not let my German become too rusty, what would you recommend as a German news source that is somewhat free of a political agenda, so not leaning to the right or to the left too much?

Ideally just news, or news in context but no unbalanced editorials, opinion pieces or political or social agenda. It is the last one I am struggling with finding.

Also no cheap drama, preferably being positive in general.

No popular science, too.

Not shallow.

[rv-de]

I'd recommend the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

[parasight]

I’d recommend faz.net (from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). It’s not completely free of political agenda but IMHO it’s a lot better than Spiegel.de.

[IfOnlyYouKnew]

Read the DPA newsticker if you really just want "Merkel said X", "Train accident in Y", etc.

Spiegel, ZEIT, sueddeutsche, Tagesschau, and FAZ are the large, reputable, online publishers. If you want to watch, tagesthemen is I believe among the best-produced daily news in both German and English language.

Spiegel (the magazine) is distinct from Spiegel Online, and is only available for paying customers. Do read through one–I'm sure there's a free trial or a pdf you can find somewhere. It's mostly medium-length and some long-form, deeply reported stories, current events none-withstanding.

All of these are essentially mainstream, politically, with FAZ tending centre-right, tagesschau going to great length to appear neutral, and the rest being centre-left, somewhere right of The Guardian, left of The Economist.

[DanielleMolloy]

Spiegel, ZEIT and Süddeutsche, especially their online editions aren't good recommendations for someone asking for news free of political agenda. During the last decade they have become very left-leaning, which is a sad development. I occasionally pick up a print copy of Zeit and Spiegel and these seem to be fine, but e.g. Der Spiegel also put Trump decapitating the Statue of Liberty on their cover (just inappropriate). I've never understood the good reputation of Süddeutsche, they are just doing very shallow reporting.

FAZ und NZZ are mostly neutral, slightly conservative (but not in the US sense). I'd recommend them.

[knbknb]

dw - Deutsche Welle. "Germqn Broadcast". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Welle

A broadcast service for promoting the language and culture to an international audience. A bit like "Voice of America". DW is financed by public funds that was allocated on the state level (ARD).

The have offerings such as a "slowly spoken news with transcript" podcast, in German language.

https://www.dw.com/de/deutsch-lernen/deutsch-aktuell/s-2146

[lqet]

Telepolis: https://www.heise.de/tp/

Also, the list above lacks the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) as a source for high-quality journalism (politically, I would describe the FAZ as open-minded conservative.)

[IfOnlyYouKnew]

That's ridiculous. Telepolis is tin-foil, crackpot conspiracy-mongering. It being anywhere close in quality to reputable news sources is laughable. It's so far off the mark, I wouldn't even know where to put it on the traditional left/right scale. The "incoherent"<->"this is satire, right?" scale is its natural habitat.

[lolc]

I like reading Telepolis for just that: willingness to question mainstream consensus. Sometimes they do swerve wildly into crackpot territory. Some authors on there I just don't read because they've written shit in the past.

[detaro]

Telepolis is somewhat interesting to read, but it's full of agendas.

[Tomte]

Haha! Telepolis is an extremely left-wing niche online site, with a certain leaning towards conspiracy theories.

It's the first time I've actually seen them included in any list of reputable media.