Michael Sontheimer, born 1955, studied history, politics and mass communications. In 1979 he co-founded the newspaper tageszeitung; after this he was an editor and contributor at Die Zeit. From 1992 to 1994 he was chief editor of the tageszeitung, and since 1994 he has been an editor at Der Spiegel. He has published numerous books, including Antes & Co.-Geschichten aus dem Berliner Sumpf (‘Antes & Co.-Tales from the Berlin morass’), Berlin, Berlin. Der Umzug in die Hauptstadt (‘Berlin, Berlin. The move to the capital’) and Bilder des Zweiten Weltkriegs (‘Images of the Second World War’).

Foto: © Sabine Sauer