Daniel Funke (born 23 July 1981) is a German journalist. Since 2019 he has been the head of the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

office and

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

at BurdaVerlag, a division of German media company Hubert Burda Media. From 2002 to 2009, he studied German studies ("Germanistik") and history at

Humboldt-Universität Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. Between 2004 and 2007, he also worked at the private TV channel Sat. 1 and the magazine ''Blitz'' ("Flash"). In 2007, he became an editor at ''

Bunte ''Bunte'' (company's preferred spelling in capital letters) is a German-language weekly celebrity gossip magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. The first edition was published in 1948 under the name ''Das Ufer''. Under the leadership of Hube ...

'', a German people magazine, and in 2012, the head of its Berlin office.

Personal life

Funke has been married to German politician and former federal secretary of health

Jens Spahn Jens Georg Spahn (born 16 May 1980) is a German politician who served as Federal Minister of Health in the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he has bee ...

( CDU) since 2017.

General

Funke caused controversy with a story he wrote for ''Bunte'' magazine about the then-new US ambassador

Richard Grenell Richard Allen Grenell (born September 18, 1966) is an American political operative, diplomat, TV personality, and public relations consultant who served as Acting Director of National Intelligence in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in 2020. ...

, which presented Grenell in a very positive light. The story didn't reveal that Funke and Spahn were friends with Grenell and his partner Matt Lashey and could therefore be seen as a political favour to ease Grenell's entry into German politics.

FFP 2 masks dealings

Funke again caused controversy in March 2021 when it was revealed that his employer had sold 570,000 FFP 2 masks without a formal bidding process conducted by the Federal Ministry of Health, which was led by his husband, Jens Spahn.

References

1981 births Living people Gay men German male journalists {{Germany-journalist-stub