Harald Martenstein

Harald Martenstein, born in Mainz in 1953, is a German journalist and author. After studying history and Romance languages, he worked for the Stuttgarter Zeitung and later for the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel, where he also served as a senior editor. From 2002 onward, he wrote the “Martenstein” column for Die Zeit and ZEITmagazin; several collections of his columns were subsequently published as books. His novels include Heimweg and Gefühlte Nähe. Martenstein has received, among other honors, the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize (2004), the Corine Debut Prize (2007), the Henri Nannen Prize (2008), the Curt Goetz Ring (2010), and the Theodor Wolff Prize (2012). After finishing school, he spent some time working on a kibbutz in Israel.