Martin Ahrends

Martin Ahrends was born in 1951 in Berlin-Zehlendorf and moved with his parents to Kleinmachnow in East Germany in 1957. After completing secondary school in Potsdam in 1970, he studied music, philosophy and theatre directing in Berlin. He worked there as an editor for a magazine devoted to serious music and as a research assistant at the Komische Oper. Following a politically motivated professional ban, he applied to leave East Germany in 1982; the application was approved in 1984. From 1986 to 1994, he worked in Hamburg as an editor and freelance contributor for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. He published journalistic and literary works, including short stories, essays and a novel.