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German edition of Charlie Hebdo to close

A year after its launch, the German edition of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will stop appearing in response to falling circulation. The current edition will remain on stands for two weeks before it disappears.

French President Francois Hollande (C) looks at a commemorative plaque after its unveilling outside the former offices of French weekly satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
French President Francois Hollande (C) looks at a commemorative plaque after its unveilling outside the former offices of French weekly satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Reuters
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"As you know, we at Charlie, we like surprises. And today we have two new announcements for you - good and bad. The good thing is that you hold in your hands a collector's number. The bad news is that this is the lates issue of the German version of Charlie Hebdo ", reads the editorial of this issue co-authored by the editor Gerard Biard and the German editor Minka Schneider .

"An adventure must stop when the spirit of adventure is gone! It has not always been easy to understand you, just as it has not always been easy for you to understand us. And you can not imagine, how many readers a paper magazine needs to be profitable" continues the text entitled “Good night my friends, it's time for us to leave ".

The German version needed 10,000 readers to be profitable and that was not achieved, a spokesman for the newspaper said, without being able to give accurate figures of circulation.

"When we embarked on this adventure just a year ago, we did not know where she was going to lead us. But it seemed to us, and it still seems important to us to show Charlie Hebdo to all those who support him since January 7, 2015 but who, before that date, knew almost everything about this newspaper, "recalls the editorial.

The German version is edited from France by a 33-year-old from Berlin who on the advice of her colleagues uses a pseudonym, Minka Schneider.

Schneider, speaking to Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily at the tiem of the launch, recalled that the "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) solidarity movement was especially strong in Germany, where the magazine sold 70,000 copies of its "survivors' edition" one week after the shootings.

Despite its many loyal fans and supporters in France, Charlie Hebdo has never had a shortage of enemies.

It became a target of Islamist extremists after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, seen as an act of blasphemy by many Muslims, but has also delighted in outraging the Vatican and the French political establishment.

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