Ulrike Schmitzer

Ulrike Schmitzer (* 1967 in Salzburg ) is an Austrian science journalist , author and freelance filmmaker .

life and work

Ulrike Schmitzer was born in Salzburg. She studied journalism and communication science as well as art history at the University of Salzburg . She began her journalistic career at the Austria Press Agency (APA) and at ORF Salzburg. Schmitzer now lives in Vienna . She is science editor at Ö1 , a radio program of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). Her reports for Ö1 led her a. a. to Albania, China, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Uganda, Belarus. She also creates documentaries for the TV station 3sat on art, architecture and science.

In 2008 Ulrike Schmitzer graduated from the Leondingen Academy for Literature (by Karin Fleischanderl and Gustav Ernst ). Her stories appeared u. a. in the literary journals kolik , literature and criticism , SALZ .

Her literary debut The False Widow (2011) deals with the then unexplored denazification camp Glasenbach ( Camp Marcus W. Orr ) in Salzburg and the reappraisal of the Nazi perpetrators by three generations of women. She also made a film about this (3sat, 2010). The story Die Flut (2013) is your entry into the genre of science fiction . The book was created at a workshop with the writer Georg Klein , before the real catastrophe in western Hungary, which swept a red tide over the country. Her most successful book to date is the story of an astronaut. She was nominated for the hotlist for the novel It's Gravity That Kills Us (2014). The European Science Fiction Society nominated the novel It's the gravity that kills us as the best Austrian book for the ESFS Award 2014. In 2016 it received the special prize of the Austrian State Prize for Science Journalism. The stolen memory (2015) is about the history of the Danube Swabians , it is a very personal road trip into the past. The Silence of the Glaciers (2017) is a science thriller in the new genre of Climate Fiction / CliFi : Crime, climate change and melting glaciers are linked to an exciting plot in the near future. In autumn 2018 she published the book Houston, Wir haben ein Problem together with the cultural journalist Martin Thomas Pesl . In it, the duo of authors brings together curious stories from space travel , with Ulrike Schmitzer telling real stories, while Martin Thomas Pesl has examined literature, film and music. All books are published in Edition Atelier .

Her film work (together with RAUM.FILM) ranges from coming to terms with the Nazi era , to artist portraits and space . The Löhner cause. The Desperate Struggle of a Woman (3sat, 2011) is a documentary about the expropriation of Villa Schratt in Bad Ischl and the murder of its owner Helene Löhner . Ignition-up. The Roar of the Century (2002) or The Archistrator. Heidulf Gerngross (2004) are portraits in the field of tension between architecture and art. On space, she designed the documentary films Space Architecture (3sat, 2006) - which was successfully sold to TV broadcasters around the world - and Space Medicine (3sat, 2010).

Awards (excerpt)

2003: Journalist Prize from the Austrian Hagel Insurance for articles on climate change

2005: Radio Prize of Adult Education for Ö1- "Diagonal" about precarious work

2006: Adult Education Radio Prize for Ö1 "Dimensions", a report on trafficking in women in Albania

2012: Inge Morath Prize for Science Publishing

2016: Special award as part of the Austrian State and Promotion Prize for Science Journalism

2016: Working grant from the Austrian Federal Chancellery

2016: Author's grant from the Literar Mechana anniversary fund

bibliography

The false widow. Novel. Edition Atelier , Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-902498-41-0 .
The flood. Narrative. Edition Atelier, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-902498-87-8 .
It's gravity that kills us. Novel. Edition Atelier, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-902498-87-8 .
The stolen memory. Novel. Edition Atelier, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-903005-03-7 .
The silence of the glaciers. Novel. Edition Atelier, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-903005-25-9 .
with Martin Thomas Pesl: Houston, we have a problem. Curious stories from space travel. Edition Atelier, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-903005-43-3 .

as editor

Elisabeth J. Nöstlinger, Ulrike Schmitzer (eds.): Susan Sontag. Passionate intellectuals. An introduction. Mandelbaum Verlag , Vienna 2006. ISBN 978-3-85476-201-0 .
Elisabeth J. Nöstlinger, Ulrike Schmitzer (ed.): Bourdieus heirs. Social elite education in Germany and Austria. Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-85476-201-0 .