Birgit M. Kraatz
Birgit M. Kraatz (* 1939 in Cologne ) is a German journalist.
Life
Kraatz studied Slavic Studies, Eastern European History and Journalism at the Free University in Berlin. She gained her first, very early professional experience in the press office of German industry, which was founded in New Delhi by Krupp, Mannesmann, Siemens, AEG and others in 1960 as part of the first major German development aid project. She worked for two years in New Delhi and in Rourkela / Orissa. On non-working weekends, she drove across the country with German and Dutch missionaries and wrote down her experiences for the Kölner Stadtanzeiger and the “Windrose”, the first international TV correspondent network (Peter von Zahns) that worked for ZDF and ARD.
After her return, she did a two-year internship in a newspaper at the Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf, followed by the first editorial position at the then left-liberal Swiss weekly newspaper “Die Weltwoche”, Zurich. From 1968 she reported for the "Weltwoche" and German newspapers and radio stations, from 1969 also for ZDF and Swiss television from Italy.
From 1977 she headed the Roman editorial team of Stern . 1980 to 1990 followed a decade at Spiegel . The ten years for the Hamburg news magazine were extraordinary political years, because Italy, thanks to the crumbling power of the Democrazia Cristiana, the victory of the KPI (at that time the largest communist party in the western world with 11 million voters) in the European elections, right and left terrorism, the tragedy of Moro in the seventies had become a seething workshop of political modernity.
From 1972 onwards she looked after and maintained contacts with the Italian left-wing parties for the SPD, of which the Communist Party was an important interlocutor for Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik because of its direct and reliable contacts in East Berlin.
From 1990 she reported on German reunification as a special correspondent for Italian state television and interviewed for Rai 3 (radio and television).
Her book publications (“Seveso or how responsibility becomes farce”, Rowohlt Verlag; “Rom”, (10 editions) Dumont Verlag, “Milan”, Bucher Verlag) became her interview book with Willy Brandt “We are not too heroes born “1986, Diogenes Verlag also published in Italian translation a year later by Laterza.
She has been married to lawyer Michael Nesselhauf for the second time since October 1990. She is the mother of a daughter.
Awards
For her reporting from Italy she was awarded the prestigious Premiolino and “Citta'di Roma” journalism prizes.
Works
- Seveso or How responsibility becomes a farce . Rowohlt, rororo, 1979
- Rome . DuMont, Cologne 1982
- ... we were not born to be heroes : A conversation about Germany with Birgit Kraatz. Diogenes Zurich 1986
- Milan . Bucher, 1991
Individual evidence
- ^ Kraatz, Brigitte , Premiolino website, accessed November 30, 2018
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kraatz, Birgit M. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |