WWhat request for information with five letters can also cause a problem? And how do you call a deeply felt sense of form, known as condition stable – three letters? If you think of “question” and “fit”, you’ve come to the right place. Because the tricky crossword puzzle “Kreuzwort” from the FAZ is now also available online as an interactive version – free of charge for subscribers to our digital edition. Whether on a desktop PC or on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Challenging puzzle fun is guaranteed!
Play the FAZ crossword puzzle online
A new crossword puzzle appears in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung every Friday. Simply register as usual with your profile at FAZ.NET, click on this link to the current online game and prove your general knowledge.
If you are not yet a subscriber to our digital edition, you can test our offers here for free.
This is how the crossword puzzle works
The clues are trickier than usual, but basically the crossword puzzle works like any other of its kind: the grid is divided into horizontal and vertical answer boxes. Numbers are written in some boxes. They mark the box for the first letter of the search words and refer to the clue with the same number under the playing field.
In order to solve the puzzle, the correct solution words must be entered in the horizontal and vertical fields so that all groups of letters make sense in the end. Each box has a letter that you can enter with your keyboard. There is no solution word for the entire playing field.
Difficulty level of our weekly crossword puzzle
Our crossword puzzle is not for beginners. Broad general knowledge and a large vocabulary are required. Sometimes you have to think a little outside the box to find the solution. So if you are looking for witty and challenging word puzzle fun, our online game is the right place for you.
Here’s how you can get help solving it
You can get a little help to solve our riddle. To do this, click on the three small dots at the top right. Then the help menu appears. If the slider on the right is slid to “on”, the boxes will turn green if you have guessed the correct solution word. If the fields turn red as you enter the terms, the answer is incorrect. If you want to increase the level of difficulty while playing, simply turn off the help.
If you haven’t figured out all the words, or filled in all the fields but haven’t checked them, you can see the solution to the tricky riddles next week under the new riddle.
save progress
Haven’t finished the FAZ crossword puzzle yet, but don’t have time to continue? This is not a problem. Because you’re a subscriber, your progress is automatically saved and you can pick up where you left off at another time. So feel free to come back later in the day and complete the puzzle.
Play crosswords on your phone on the go
Our crossword puzzle can also be played on mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets on the go. This is possible every Friday in the multimedia edition – or simply click on the link above.
This is how the crossword puzzle that is so popular today came about
The crossword puzzle was invented in 1913. At least the first crossword puzzle appeared on December 21, 1913 in the Sunday supplement “Fun” of the newspaper “New York World” – albeit under a different name. It wasn’t square, but diamond-shaped. The premiere was called “FUN’s Word-Cross Puzzle”, later the title was changed to “Find the Missing Cross Words”. Soon the puzzles were just called “crosswords”.
This is what Arthur Wynne’s first crossword puzzle looked like.
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Image: archive
Editor Arthur Wynne came up with the puzzle. Wynne had readers guess 31 terms in total. Three letters were given: F, U and N. German for “fun”. The instructions read: “Fill in the small boxes”. What did the puzzlers need to know back then? “The opposite of less”, “This puzzle is…”, “Part of a ship” and “A bird”. From the very first riddle, the answers had to be used both horizontally and vertically. Like today in the FAZ, it appeared weekly.
In 1924, the publishing house Simon & Schuster published the first collection of crossword puzzles. Germany had to wait until 1925 before a Berlin magazine printed the first crossword puzzle in Germany.
Arguably the most famous crossword author today is Will Shortz, who writes the New York Times Crossword Puzzles. Dieter Schoss and Christian Meurer invent the puzzles of the FAZ.
These are the different types of crossword puzzles
In puzzle books and magazines, crossword puzzles are often also called Swedish puzzles. Many people assume that this is a synonym for crossword puzzles. But that’s not true. A Swedish puzzle is a modification of the crossword puzzle. In the Swedish riddle, the questions are in a box within the riddle. The hints and questions for the corresponding search terms are correspondingly brief.
In the usual crossword puzzle, the clues are in a separate list. Numbers in the boxes refer to the associated clue. Just like in our crossword puzzle.
Who creates crossword puzzles
Today, puzzle agencies use computers to design puzzles, and many magazines use software to design at least some of the crossword and Swedish puzzles. But not our FAZ crossword puzzle. Dieter Schoss and Christian Meurer create them themselves.
Crossword puzzles promote general education
In order to stay mentally fit, researchers recommend a variety of activities – one component can be solving challenging crossword puzzles. If you want to solve crossword puzzles, you usually need a good general knowledge, and puzzle lovers can’t go wrong with brain jogging. Because studies suggest that you can train your brain. But it’s all about the details.
Exercise can improve brain power. Some studies show that the so-called local transfer works: Zurich researchers asked subjects to remember sequences of numbers. After the training, the test subjects were able to memorize both numbers and words better. But only because these brain functions are similar. The long-distance transfer does not work, so brain training does not improve your own thinking skills.
That’s why we like to puzzle
Crossword puzzles continue to enjoy great popularity. Why is that? Will Shortz told the NZZ: “We increasingly have the feeling that the world is getting out of control. […] Puzzles, on the other hand, have clear solutions and everything makes sense in the end. I believe that deep down, people long for completeness.” He therefore considers puzzle solvers to be balanced, focused people.
Eckstein is the pseudonym of the puzzle author “Thinking around the corner” in the Zeit magazine. There he answered the question why we like to solve puzzles so much: “Because we enjoy untangling things. That’s why everyone likes to watch crime novels.” In addition, people like to challenge themselves and compare themselves to others. What can I? And how well can I do it compared to the others?
As difficult as the puzzles may be, there is always a solution in the end. (At the latest in the resolution next week.) A calming, comforting circumstance that is not always granted in life. And how great is the sense of achievement when you prove your vocabulary and have filled in all the boxes correctly at the end!
Your feedback on the FAZ digital crossword puzzle
Do you have any questions or suggestions about our crossword puzzle? Then you can give us feedback here!
