THE FINE PRINT - Guitar World Deutsche Erstausgabe!

By Jeff Kitts
published

In 1993, Guitar World boldly tried to enter the German market by having each issue translated into German and then shipped overseas. Without the benefit of the computer firepower we have today, getting each issue translated back in 1994 was no easy feat.Basically, we had two German editors (who we lovingly referred to as "the Germans") who would come in each night after we left for the day, and they would spend the next few hours translating all the copy in the magazine from English to German. And each morning I, a lowly Senior Editor back then, would come into work and clear the used coffee cups and food wrappers from my desk...they were not the neatest editors on the planet, to put it mildly. Here you can see the cover of one of those issues from May 1993...click it to see a larger version. You can also see the opening page of German text from the Eddie Van Halen interview in that issue, as well as Diamond (yes, he was still known as Diamond back then) Darrell's "Riffer Madness" column that month. R.I.P., Dime...and the short-lived German edition of Guitar World.JK

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Jeff Kitts
Jeff Kitts

As a teenager, Jeff Kitts began his career in the mid ’80s as editor of an underground heavy metal fanzine in the bedroom of his parents’ house. From there he went on to write for countless rock and metal magazines around the world – including Circus, Hit Parader, Metal Maniacs, Rock Power and others – and in 1992 began working as an assistant editor at Guitar World. During his 27 years at Guitar World, Jeff served in multiple editorial capacities, including managing editor and executive editor before finally departing as editorial director in 2018. Jeff has authored several books and continues to write for Guitar World and other publications and teaches English full time in New Jersey. His first (and still favorite) guitar was a black Ibanez RG550.