German Non-Fiction Prize – the Pre-Award event

Bettina Baltschev was born in 1973 in Berlin, and studied cultural studies, journalism and philosophy in Leipzig and Groningen. She is executive director of the Saxony Literature Council, an author and editor for the public broadcaster MDR, and commutes between Leipzig and her second home in Amsterdam. Her previous book, entitled ‘Hölle und Paradies. Amsterdam, Querido und die deutsche Exilliteratur’ (Hell and Paradise. Amsterdam, Querido and German Literature in Exile), was published by Berenberg in 2016.

Alice Bota was born in 1979 in Krapkowice, Upper Silesia, Poland, and emigrated to northern Germany in 1988. After studying politics and modern German literature, she attended the Deutsche Journalistenschule. She has worked as an editor for Die Zeit since 2007, and is a member of the foreign affairs team. She has been head of the Die Zeit office in Moscow since 2015, with responsibility for the post-soviet region. She regularly travels to Belarus, Ukraine and the South Caucasus. Alice Bota has been recipient of numerous awards, including the Axel Springer Prize and the Deutscher Journalistenpreis. Her book ‘Wir neuen Deutschen’ (We, the new Germans), written with Khuê Pham und Özlem Topçu, was published in 2012.

Stefan Creuzberger was born in 1961 in Calw and is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Rostock and Director of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Research and Documentation Centre for the History of Dictatorships in Germany. He publishes works on German and Russian history in the 20th century, and is co-editor of the Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (AAPD) and a member of the Joint German-Russian History Commission.

Samira El Ouassil was born in 1984 in Munich, and is a German author, actress, musician and politician (Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative). She has written the ‘Wochenschau’ column for the online portal Übermedien since September 2018, and has co-hosted the Audible philosophy podcast ‘Sag niemals Nietzsche’ with Christiane Stenger since 2019. In 2020, she began writing an online column for Der Spiegel. Since 2020 she has also been co-host, together with Friedemann Karig, of the podcast ‘Piratensender Powerplay’. El Ouassil is a singer in the band Kummer, and a Mensa member.

Friedemann Karig was born in 1982 and studied media studies, politics, sociology and economics. He now writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, SZ-Magazin, Die Zeit and jetzt. He has hosted ‘Jäger & Sammler’ – a programme which has been nominated for the Grimme Prize – on funk, the online youth channel from ARD and ZDF. His literary debut was entitled ‘Dschungel’ (Jungle), and his book ‘Wie wir lieben. Vom Ende der Monogamie’ (How We Live. The End of Monogamy) was published in 2017. Karig lives in Berlin and Munich.

Ludwig Huber was born in 1964, and is a professor and director of the interdisciplinary Messerli Research Institute of Human-Animal Studies at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna. He is founder and head of the Department of Comparative Cognition, which focuses on research into the cognitive and emotional abilities of animals.

Stephan Malinowski was born in Berlin in 1966, and has studied and taught history in Berlin, France, Italy, the USA and Ireland. He has taught European history at the University of Edinburgh since 2012. His book ‘Vom König zum Führer’ (published in English as ‘Nazis and Nobles’), about the German nobility and the Nazi movement, was awarded the Hans Rosenberg Prize. His expert report prepared on behalf of the state of Brandenburg in 2014 continues to play an important role in discussions over the restitution claims presented by the ‘head of the house’ of Hohenzollern.

Steffen Mau teaches macrosociology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His most recently published books are ‘Das metrische Wir. Über die Quantifizierung des Sozialen” (The Metric Us. Quantifying the Social) (2017) and “Lütten Klein. Leben in der ostdeutschen Transformationsgesellschaft” (Lütten Klein. Life in East German Transformation Society) (2019). In 2021, he was awarded the Leibniz Prize by the German Research Foundation.

Natan Sznaider was born in 1954 in Mannheim, and has worked as Professor of Sociology at the Tel Aviv Academic College since 1994. His most recent publications include: ‘Gesellschaften in Israel: Eine Einführung in zehn Bildern’ (Communities in Israel: An Introduction in Ten Images)(Suhrkamp 2017), ‘Neuer Antisemitismus? Fortsetzung einer globalen Debatte’ (New Antisemitism? Continuing the Global Debate)(edition suhrkamp 2019, with Christian Heilbronn and Doron Rabinovici) and ‘Politik des Mitgefühls. Die Vermarktung der Gefühle in der Demokratie’ (The Politics of Compassion. Democracy’s Commercialisation of Emotions) (Beltz Juventa 2021).

Shelly Kupferberg was born in 1974 in Tel Aviv, and grew up in West Berlin. She studied journalism, theatre and musicology at the Freie Universität Berlin, and began working as a journalist for public broadcasting services while still a student. In addition to numerous contributions for ARD, she has presented cultural, literary and community magazine programmes for over 25 years, works as a freelance editor and presenter for Deutschlandfunk Kultur and presents daily live cultural programmes on rbbKultur.

In addition to culture, her work focuses on themes including education, cultural mediation, digitalisation, civil society, intergenerational issues, democracy and participation, discrimination and migration issues, and provenance research. From 1997-2007, she worked for the Berlin Days of Jewish Culture, curating her own series. In addition to her regular live radio broadcasts, she hosts numerous readings and conferences, film screenings and high-profile events for various foundations, ministries, cultural institutions and festivals. She also works as a voluntary presenter for Terre des Femmes. Her literary debut ‘Isidor’ will be published by Diogenes Verlag in August.

Hadnet Tesfai is an old hand in the media landscape – though you may not think it when you look at her! By the age of 20, she had gained her first experiences as a radio presenter, and had been working for some time presenting on Radio Fritz in Berlin. Her greatest passion is music, so her transfer to MTV came as no surprise. Her professionalism, warmth and expertise quickly made her a well-known face on the channel, presenting shows such as urban TRL, brandneu, and Beck’s Most Wanted Music, as well as specials such as Red Carpet for the MTV Europe Music Awards. Hadnet has also worked for public broadcasters, presenting Red Carpet at the Echo Awards from 2010 to 2014 for the broadcaster ARD. In March 2012, Hadnet joined the presenting team at ZDFkultur. While there, she took the helm on the daily pop culture magazine programme DER MARKER, presented from music festivals such as the Isle of White and Splash, and was a fearless presence at the heavy metal festival Wacken and the music programme Delikatessen Charts. She continues to present from festivals such as Hurricane and Wacken for 3sat. For public service broadcaster Arte, she presented Palace of Groove – a documentary on the legendary Soul Train music show and one of Hadnet’s all-time favourite projects – as well as The Music of the 90s, a 6-part series devoted entirely to the MTV unplugged archives, and the documentary 30 Years of Techno. Hadnet regularly interviews Hollywood greats such as Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Lady Gaga for the ProSieben network. Her ability to speak English like a second native language, and her boundless empathy and charm make her the perfect choice for the role.

Hadnet’s second greatest passion is sport, and football in particular. Her in-depth knowledge of the beautiful game is second to none! She has even reported from the touchline at the European Qualifiers for the RTL channel. In 2020, together with Aminata Belli, she launched the highly acclaimed Instagram talk series ‘Sitzplatzreservierung’ in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the way it is presented in the German media.

Jörg Thadeusz is a presenter, author and journalist. He has presented Thadeusz and Talk aus Berlin for rbb, and is currently the presenter of the political discussion programme Thadeusz und die Beobachter. He can also be heard on Jörg Thadeusz, a talk radio programme broadcast four times a week by WDR 2, where he talks to celebrities and leading thinkers. He acts as host at a variety of events, including the Theodor Wolff Journalism Award, German Industry Day and the German Reporter Award.