Peter Merseburger

After graduating from high school in Leipzig, he began studying German, modern history and sociology in Halle in the immediate post-war years. However, Merseburg then moved to Marburg, where he completed his studies. In 1950 Merseburger joined the SPD. After a traineeship at the "Hannoversche Presse", Merseburger began his journalistic career there. After moving to NDR in Hamburg in 1956, he worked for the "Neue Ruhr-Zeitung". From 1960 to 1965 Merseburger worked for "Spiegel" in Hamburg. He then returned to NDR, where he directed and moderated "Panorama" until 1977. He decisively shaped the political magazine as a product of investigative, critical journalism, which often provoked censorship intervention by politicians. From 1968, Merseburger was also responsible as editor-in-chief for the NDR current affairs department. In 1977, Merseburger moved to Washington as an ARD correspondent, where he worked until 1982. However, the journalist aroused the interest of a wider television audience through his subsequent work as a correspondent from East Berlin. Through his impressive reporting on everyday life in the GDR between 1982 and 1987, he not only shaped the image of the GDR among the German public, but also the self-reflection of the GDR population. In 1987, Merseburger was appointed head of the ARD studio in London, succeeding Wolf von Lojewski. He resigned from this position when he retired early in 1991. As a journalist and documentary filmmaker, Merseburger continues to play an important role in political journalism in the Federal Republic. Merseburger received several awards for his journalistic work. His life's work was recognized in 1991 with the "Fritz Singer Prize". Since retiring from the television business, the journalist, who lives in Berlin and southern France, has worked as a freelance writer. In this role he became known, among other things, for his biographies of Kurt Schumacher, Rudolf Augstein and Willy Brandt. He received the German Book Prize in 2003 for his Brandt biography.