Dirk Steffens

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Dirk Steffens (2019)

Dirk Peter Jörg Steffens (born December 5, 1967 in Stade ) is a German journalist and television presenter .

Life

Steffens grew up near Stade in Lower Saxony . He completed an apprenticeship as a telecommunications mechanic in Hamburg and studied history and politics after graduating from high school . After a traineeship at the Cologne School of Journalism , he initially worked for a year as a political and news editor at Deutschlandfunk Cologne . Since then he has worked as a freelance TV writer, presenter , documentary filmmaker and producer for various radio and television broadcasters. Steffens has also been in front of the camera since 2005 and initially presented a weekly series of animal films at VOX , later he switched to moderating the Terra X documentary format and other programs on ZDF . For science, nature and travel formats, he has undertaken film expeditions to more than 120 countries on all continents over the past decades . He is also an experienced diver and underwater filmmaker. He gained fame primarily through the Terra-X documentary series Fascination Earth , which he has moderated since December 2008.

As Germany ambassador, Steffens is committed to the environmental organization WWF and the German section of the Jane Goodall Institute . In the field of environmental education, he is active nationwide as a speaker. Since June 2015 he has also been a member of the board of trustees of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research . In September 2016, Federal Environment Minister Hendricks appointed Dirk Steffens as the official “UN Decade Ambassador for Biodiversity”.

Since November 2016, Steffens has been festival director at Green Screen , the international nature film festival from Eckernförde .

Since 2017 he has moderated the presentation of the German Future Prize - a prize from the Federal President for technology and innovation.

In December 2017, Dirk Steffens founded the Biodiversity Foundation together with his wife . The foundation has set itself the task of providing information about the causes and dangers of global species extinction .

Awards

Dirk Steffens awarded the German Television Prize (2019)

For his work in front of and behind the camera, Steffens has received several prizes, including the Golden Camera (2011) and the Walter Scheel Prize (2013). For his documentary Project Hühnerhof , which was first broadcast on ZDF in September 2014, Dirk Steffens was awarded the Herbert Quandt Media Prize on June 22, 2015 and the 2015 Special Prize of the Salus Media Prize on October 13, 2015 .

Steffens received the Görlitzer Meridian Naturfilmpreis 2015 on March 19, 2016 from the support group of the Naturkundemuseum Görlitz. It is the only nature film award in Germany that honors the life's work of nature filmmakers.

On October 28, 2016, he received the Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz Sustainability Award from the Saxon Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz Society for his commitment to maintaining biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources . V. to promote sustainability.

In 2019 Steffens received the German Television Award in the category “Best Documentary Multi-Part” for the Terra X documentary Die Reise der Menschheit as well as the Golden Camera in the category “Best TV Documentation Nature and Environment” for the ZDF documentary series Terra X: fascination with earth .

On November 14, 2019, Dirk Steffens was awarded the Heinz Sielmann Prize . This has been awarded by the Heinz Sielmann Foundation since 1994 to individuals, public institutions, research institutions or companies who have made a contribution to nature conservation and the preservation of biodiversity.

The Faculty of Biology , Chemistry and Geosciences at the University of Bayreuth awarded Steffens an honorary doctorate in spring 2020 . In doing so, she recognized "his outstanding achievements in conveying complex scientific content in the fields of geosciences, biogeography and ecology and his services to the preservation of biodiversity ".

Radio and television

Dirk Steffens while filming Terra X in Brazil (2014)
  • until 1995: news editor Deutschlandfunk (DLF)
  • until 2000: Südwestfunk (SWF3)
  • 2005–2006: Tierzeit, Voxtours, Wolkenlos (VOX)
  • since 2007: Terra X, Steffens discovered, Terra Xpress u. a. (ZDF, ARTE, 3sat)

Books

  • ABOUT LIFE - The future question of species extinction: How we can overcome the ecological crisis . Penguin, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-328-60131-9 .
  • Animal! Expeditions to the edge of creation . Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek 2007, ISBN 978-3-499-62308-0 .
  • The animal curiosity cabinet . Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-62537-4 .
  • Fascination earth. From the reefs of the South Seas to the volcanoes of Siberia . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2010, ISBN 978-3-498-06412-9 .

Private

Dirk Steffens is married and lives in Hamburg . As honorary consul, he represented the Republic of Palau in Germany from 2008 to 2018.

Web links

Commons : Dirk Steffens  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dirk Steffens - moderator. Retrieved February 1, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Appointment of the UN Decade Ambassador. Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), accessed on October 20, 2016 .
  3. ↑ New management at Green Screen: Geralt Grote hands over to ZDF presenter Dirk Steffens. Eckernförder Zeitung, accessed on November 7, 2016 .
  4. ↑ German Future Prize 2018 in the ZDF press portal accessed on February 1, 2019
  5. ^ Biodiversity Foundation , accessed on Aug. 22, 2018
  6. ^ Walter Scheel Prize. (No longer available online.) Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; accessed on September 30, 2014 .
  7. ^ Herbert Quandt Media Prize. (No longer available online.) Johanna Quandt Foundation, archived from the original on August 15, 2015 ; accessed on June 24, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Salus Media Prize. (No longer available online.) SALUS Haus Dr. med. Otto Greither Nachf. GmbH & Co. KG, archived from the original on November 22, 2015 ; accessed on October 14, 2015 .
  9. ↑ The Meridian Nature Film Award. Support group of the Natural History Museum Görlitz, accessed on March 21, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Press release of the Carlowitz Society , accessed on October 31, 2016
  11. ↑ German TV Prize. Retrieved February 1, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Golden Camera. Accessed March 31, 2019 .
  13. ^ Press Heinz Sielmann Prize , accessed on Nov. 18, 2019
  14. ^ Honorary doctorate from the University of Bayreuth for science journalist Dirk Steffens. University of Bayreuth , accessed on May 12, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Steffens, Dirk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steffens, Dirk Peter Jörg (full name); animal time
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and TV presenter
DATE OF BIRTH 5th December 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Stade