The German literary magazine Neue Sirene was founded in 1994 and is issued twice a year. The magazine prints German and international literature, while the latter is always accompanied by its German translation. Thus, the publishers intend to present the "stylistic and thematic richness of contemporary literature". Additionally, each number also contains artistic photographs. Bettina Hohoff is the editor in chief.
Since number 21 (2007) the Neue Sirene is edited as book series under the title Crucial Contemporary Literature. The concept of mixing German and international literary texts has been kept. Following the editors, three groups of authors are presented equally:
Neue Sirene exclusively publishes first editions, which is also true for already well established writers, such as Jean Cocteau, Emily Dickinson, Imre Kertész, Eugenio Montale, Sylvia Plath and Rainer Maria Rilke. Each issue contains an editorial as introduction. Published authors are e.g. Adunis, Michael Basse, Klaus Ebner, Michael Eisele, İsmet Elçi, Simone Frieling, Helga Gruschka, Claudia Höpfner, Dietrich Krusche, Gellu Naum, Lutz Rathenow, Wolfgang Sréter, Renata Zambrzycka, Liao Yiwu and Bülent Kaçan.