The editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel said a front cover illustration of US President Donald Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty was a response by the German magazine to threats against democracy.
The cover depicts a cartoon figure of Trump with a bloodied knife in one hand and the statue's head, dripping with blood, in the other - it carries the caption: "America First".
It followed a series of attacks on Berlin's policies by Trump and his aides that have marked a rapid deterioration in German relations with the United States.
"Der Spiegel does not want to provoke anybody," editor-in-chief Klaus Brinkbaeumer said.
"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," he said.
"So we are defending democracy... Are these serious times? Yes they are."
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of Germany's Free Democrats (FDP) and vice president of the European Parliament, described the cover as "tasteless".
