Award-winning journalist at Der Spiegel admits making up stories including interview with Colin Kaepernick's parents

Case is 'the biggest fraud scandal in journalism since the Hitler diaries' says reporters' union

Claas Relotius admitted fabricating details in at least 14 stories since 2011 (AP)

A star reporter at German news magazine Der Spiegel has resigned after he admitted fabricating details in a string of high-profile stories including a supposed interview with the parents of NFL footballer Colin Kaepernick.

Claas Relotius left the title on Monday after he confessed to more than a dozen acts of journalistic fraud over several years.

The 33-year-old conceded that he had invented details in at least 14 stories, including one about an American woman who he claimed had volunteered to witness the executions of death row inmates. In one story he invented the existence of a sign reading “Mexicans Keep Out” in a Minnesota town.

“The management of Der Spiegel will appoint a committee of internal and external experts” to investigate, bosses said, adding that the results would be made public.

The case ”marks a low point in the 70-year history of Der Spiegel,” they said.

The German Journalists’ Union DJU called the case “the biggest fraud scandal in journalism since the Hitler diaries” that Germany‘s Stern magazine published in 1983 and were later found to be forgeries.

Some of the roughly 60 stories Mr Relotius wrote since 2011 were accurate but others were “completely invented or embellished with manipulated quotes or other fact-fantasy”, Der Spiegel said.

Among the fabricated stories were articles about a wrongfully detained Guantanamo inmate and children kidnapped by Islamic State.

Stories included quotes from people he had never met or interviewed, editors said.

Mr Relotius was found out after a fellow journalist raised suspicions about his work. The magazine said he told editors the fabrications were an attempt to avoid failure.

Residents of Fergus Falls, the Minnesota town in question, wrote on Medium this week that Mr Relotius had invented numerous, easily-disproved facts about their home including that they were obsessed by the film American Sniper and that it had run in the local cinema for two years after its release.

After visiting to write about rural support for Donald Trump Mr Relotius also falsely reported that the local power plant could be seen from inside a downtown cafe and even invented characters to quote.

Mr Relotius did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.