Gerd Koenen

Gerd Koenen, born in Marburg in 1944, is a historian, journalist and author. He studied history and politics in Tübingen and Frankfurt am Main. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was active in the New Left and Maoist groups. He subsequently worked as a publishing editor, magazine editor, journalist and research assistant to Lew Kopelew; from 1993 to 1997, he was involved in Kopelew’s “West-Eastern Reflections” project. His books include “Die großen Gesänge” (1991), “Deutschland und die russische Revolution” (1998, with Lew Kopelew), “Utopie der Säuberung” (1998), “Das rote Jahrzehnt” (2001) and “Der Russland-Komplex” (2005). In 2007, he received the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding for “Der Russland-Komplex”.