Petra Reski

Petra Reski (* 1958 in Unna ) is a German journalist and writer .

Petra Reski (Photo: Paul Schirnhofer) (2017)

Life

Petra Reski's father came from Reussia in Warmia and her mother from the area of Wroclaw in Silesia . She grew up in the Ruhr area. After studying Romance languages and social sciences in Trier, Münster and Paris, she attended the Henri Nannen School . In 1988 she started working as an editor in the international department of stern . Reski has lived in Venice since 1991 . There she worked for German-language magazines and wrote several books. She has received several awards and nominations for her literary and journalistic work.

Working on the mafia, legal battles

In 1989 Petra Reski wrote about the Mafia for the first time and has published several novels and non-fiction books on the subject . She became more popular with her anti-Mafia book Mafia in 2008 . Known by godparents, pizzerias and false priests , which received particular media coverage. The Italian restaurateur Spartaco Pitanti obtained an injunction from the Munich Regional Court against the allegation contained therein that he was engaged in money laundering . The book was then blackened in the relevant places . Two further lawsuits pending in 2008 were decided in favor of plaintiffs Spartaco Pitanti and Antonio Pelle, Duisburg hotelier. The subject of the Pelle case was a passage in the book according to which the internationally wanted clan leader Antonio Romeo had been hiding in the hotel for a while. These accounting offices, as evidenced by the investigation files of German and Italian public prosecutors and BKA files, had to be blacked out later. Media and press lawyers such as Markus Kompa and Bernhard von Becker criticized these judgments when they proved that it was not possible to report suspicions in Germany .

In 2008, at a reading in Erfurt , a well-known center for money laundering of the 'Ndrangheta , threats were made against the author. She was also threatened publicly several times in the courtroom. Reski said she saw it as an indication of how safe the Mafia felt in Germany.

In an interview with Spiegel in December 2008, she announced for the first time that the Mafia had bought up real estate, shops and restaurants on the German Baltic Sea coast in addition to the previously known German cities and / or used them to conduct money laundering. Because of the more liberal laws and the restricted eavesdropping practice, which have so far offered them a great deal of protection from investigations, the mafia is preferably investing in Germany. As has been the case for a long time in Italy, municipal officials are also bought or bribed in Germany.

In a Zeit report in January 2010, she reported on her Italian colleagues who write about the Mafia and thus risk their professional existence and their lives.

In 2010 her book From Kamen to Corleone was published . In it she revealed how well the Mafia has established itself in Germany for 40 years and how politicians ignore this fact. She also portrayed the involvement of the Mafia in the Ruhr area , where six people were shot in the 2007 Mafia murders in Duisburg , and also discussed Berlusconi's dodgy negotiations with Mafia bosses.

In 2017 Reski lost a civil case against an Italian restaurateur based in Erfurt. This saw in an article that Reski had written for the weekly newspaper Der Freitag , violated his personal rights. Reski had quoted an earlier judgment of the Leipzig Regional Court in favor of this restaurateur in a dispute with the MDR. Although the court initially held the lawsuit against Reski inadmissible because it was questionable whether it was more a question of court reporting than reporting on suspicion, the lawsuit was finally upheld: Petra Reski was sentenced to refrain from disclosure. After the court decision, she accused the Friday publisher Jakob Augstein of not having given her legal support in the proceedings. In return Augstein accused her of inadequate research, Reski sued him for it. To raise the legal and legal fees, Reski launched a crowdfunding campaign because her case set a precedent for freedom of the press. German law makes it very easy for the mafia to sue journalists.

At the end of 2017, Reski was partially defeated in the proceedings against Augstein.

Petra Reski is a member of the Freischreiber e. V. and at the PEN Center Germany .

Theses on the Mafia

In a newspaper article in December 2008, Reski listed the "eight greatest mistakes the Germans made" about the mafia. She described it as a serious shortcoming that there is still no criminal offense of “belonging to the Mafia” as in Italy. The law enforcement authorities can only take action if the investigators manage to prove that one or more Mafiosi have prepared a specific crime. The money laundering to play a central role in the real estate business, and would still not taken seriously. This applies above all to the (then applicable) laws against money laundering , as it later made clear.

A still widely cultivated image of the Mafia as a problem of backward, southern Italian villages found her criticism: "Because the Mafia can no longer deny its existence, it tries to transfigure itself into folklore: a secret society that sings and dances in its hiding places." Reski also played on the CD series La Musica della Mafia by Mimmo Siclari. Reski often pointed out in newspaper articles how much Germany in particular has become the playing field for the Italian Mafia.

To avoid further legal disputes, Reski went on to write about the Mafia in novel form. In 2014, the first volume of her crime series was published, in which the courageous public prosecutor Serena Vitale plays the lead role: Palermo Connection . The Faces of the Dead followed in 2015, and with all love in 2017 .

Works (selection)

• with Sven Fennema (photographer): Melancholia. Magic of forgotten worlds . Frederking & Thaler , Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-95416-263-5 .
• With all love . Novel. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2017. ISBN 978-3-455-00158-7 .
• The faces of the dead - Serena Vitale's second case . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-455-40472-2 (novel).
• Palermo Connection - Serena Vitale is investigating . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-455-40471-5 (novel).
• From Kamen to Corleone. The Mafia in Germany. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-455-50163-6 .
• Mafia. From godparents, pizzerias and false priests. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-426-27466-8 , reading sample, 11 pages , ( PDF ; 71 kB).
  • Santa mafia: da Palermo a Duisburg: sangue, affari, politica e devozione . Foreword by Vincenzo Macrì. Translation of Valentina Tortelli. Modena: Nuovi mondi, 2009 ISBN 978-88-89091-65-4
• with Anna von Münchhausen, Stefanie Sonnentag, Dieter Richter , Ulrich Schuch: Once Capri - Always Capri. Capri stories from today. Azur, Überlingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-934634-41-1 .
• The Italian by my side. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-426-77980-4 (autobiography).
• with Johannes Thiele: Everything about Venice. Thiele & Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-85179-005-4 .
• My mother and I. Ullstein Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-548-60490-9 .
• Venice. Construction site art. In: du , Zurich 2003, ISBN 978-3-908515-72-2 .
• A country so far. East Prussian memories. Ullstein Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 978-3-548-60154-0 .
• Palazzo Dario . Roman, List Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-471-78562-0 .
• No tiger far and wide. 32 new diatribes to the man . Bastei Lübbe, Cologne 1998, ISBN 978-3-7857-0926-9 .
• Read Missfits. A princess never pays herself . Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1997, ISBN 3-7857-1022-4 .
• A princess never pays herself. 32 Diatribes to the man . Bastei Lübbe, Cologne 1995, ISBN 978-3-7857-0811-8 .
• Rita Atria . A woman against the mafia. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-455-08596-2 .

Awards (excerpt)

• 2010: Emma Journalist Prize
• 2008: Awarded “Reporter of the Year” by Medium Magazin
• further awards and nominations
• 2018 Frauenbrücke Prize for the internal unity of Germany

Movies

• A German against the Mafia - How the journalist Petra Reski fights against the myth. TV report, Germany, 2010, 6:42 min., Director: Stefanie Appel, production: hr , editing: ttt - titel, thesen, temperamente , September 19, 2010, film text ( Memento from August 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , Film on Youtube .
• Racconti di vita - Petra Reski. Talk, Italy, 2009, 9:08 min., Production: Rai Tre , first broadcast: January 18, 2009, online video , (Italian).
• Petra Reski: Mafia. TV report, Germany, 2008, 6:42 min., Production: ZDF , editing: aspekte , first broadcast: September 12, 2008.
• Literature live. Donna Leon and Petra Reski. Reading in the Babylon cinema and interview, Germany, 2008, 6 min., Production: Droemer Knaur , online video .
• From Kamen to Corleone. Documentation, Germany, 2011, 45 min., Script and direction: Mathias Werth and Julia Krittian, production: WDR , series: die story, first broadcast: February 14, 2011, synopsis from WDR, online video .

Web links

• Literature by and about Petra Reski in the catalog of the German National Library
• Petra Reski in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website of Petra Reski
• Petra Reski: Reunion in Wrzesina ( Memento from December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) GEO , 2007, No. 5
• Petra Reski at filmportal.de

Interviews

• "Petra Reski, Mafia expert" , Bayern 3 , November 10, 2008, interview, MP3 file, 38:34 min.
• Peter Carstens: The Mafia does not send threats ( memento from May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ); GEO , November 28, 2008, with links to further reports.
• Susanne Beyer: Mafia is always great drama ; Der Spiegel , December 1, 2008, conversation with Donna Leon and Petra Reski.
• M. Kolb: "Pizzerias are ideal bases for the Mafia" ; Süddeutsche Zeitung from February 8, 2010.
• Carin Pawlak: Petra Reski: “I understood the threat” ; Focus from September 27, 2010.
• Katja Herzberg: Germany is in the Stone Age when it comes to Mafia . In: Neues Deutschland from 2/3 September 2017, pp. 18–19.

swell

1. ↑ Vera-Maria Stoll: A country so far. Visitator Ermland, Münster, November 9, 2009, accessed on November 6, 2013 . 
2. ^ Andreas Rossmann: In the evening flight to Palermo ; Discussion of godparents, pizzerias and false priests in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , issue of October 13, 2008.
3. ↑ Paul Kreine: No more protection money ; Discussion of godparents, pizzerias and false priests in Der Tagesspiegel , issue of November 3, 2008.
4. ↑ Jürgen Busche: Petra Reski: Mafia - From godparents, pizzerias and false priests  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Reviewed in: Cicero , October 2008.  
5. ↑ Further press reviews on the author's website : www.petrareski.com
6. ↑ Christof Siemes , Christian Denso: Shut up - the journalist Petra Reski is in trouble because of a Mafia book ; in Die Zeit , November 27, 2008, edited April 16, 2009
7. ^ "Mafia is a European problem" , Hamm Live, August 27, 2010
8. ↑ Ijoma Mangold: "We know where you live!" In: Die Zeit, November 12, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Petra Reskis “Mafia. From godparents, pizzerias and false priests ”is censored
10. ↑ Note on OLG Munich, judgment of April 7, 2009 - 18 U 1704/09 in Verlag CHBeck , only available if you are logged in to Beck-online
11. ↑ Link to the office
12. ↑ Torben Waleczek: Mafia in Germany: money laundering and drug trafficking are their business ; Tagesspiegel, August 16, 2007.
13. ^ Droemer-Verlag: Petra Reski's "Mafia" book with blackening still available. In: Buchmarkt, November 20, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2016 . 
14. ↑ Dangerous compliment. The journalist Petra Reski presents her Mafia book in the Literaturhaus ; Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 17, 2008.
15. ↑ Ijoma Mangold: "We know where you live!" In: Die Zeit, November 12, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2016 . 
16. ^ ^{A b} Stefan Ulrich : Germany, Mafialand ; in Süddeutsche Zeitung from 13./14. December 2008, PDF for download on the author's website
17. ↑ Susanne Beyer: Mafia is always great drama ; Der Spiegel , December 1, 2008
18. ↑ Petra Reski: Mafia against journalists: kill me, you bastards ; Die Zeit , January 28, 2010.
19. ↑ Learning from the Mafia means learning to be silent faz.net , April 1, 2017.
20. ↑ Jakob Augstein's “Friday” Is the Mafia the winner now? faz.net , April 9, 2017.
21. ↑ FAZ.net June 7, 2017: Petra Reski sued Jakob Augstein
22. ↑ NDR June 6, 2017: Petra Reski sued Jakob Augstein
23. ↑ Freedom of the press is not a word. It is an act. ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
24. ↑ Judgment instead of mediation: Friday publisher Jakob Augstein is allowed to continue to call Petra Reski's work “poor” online magazine Meeedia . Retrieved July 11, 2019
25. ↑ Petra Reski at Freischreiber e. V.
26. ↑ Petra Reski: The Germans underestimate the Mafia ; Tagesspiegel .de, December 21, 2008.
27. ^ "Expert: Mafia does business in the north too" ( Memento of October 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), NDR , October 5, 2010, interview.
28. ↑ Ambros Waibel: Calabrian Mafia Folklore - A man, his honor and a fight ; in Die Tageszeitung on November 17, 2012
29. ^ Petra Reski: Criminals on summer vacation. In: taz.de , April 11, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2016 . 
30. ↑ Petra Reski: The Mafia loves Germany! In: taz, December 30, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2016 . 
31. ↑ "Mafia? Always the others! " ; The mirror 37/2017
32. ↑ Dirk Hansen: Read Reski!
33. ↑ Kristina Maidt-Zinke: Germany and the Mafia - Heroes for a Day ; Review in Süddeutsche Zeitung on November 9, 2015
34. ↑ Radio Bremen: Two to one: Conversations with celebrities and contemporary witnesses from culture, politics and business
35. ↑ On May 17, 2010, the 11th Journalist Prize will be awarded in Cologne , EMMA
36. ↑ Vita , petrareski.com
37. ↑ Manfred Stolpe honored with the German Internal Unity Award. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .