Georgine Kellermann (born Georg Kellermann, 21 September 1957) is a German journalist.

Biography

Career

Georgine Kellermann was born in

Ratingen Ratingen ( li, Rotinge) is a town in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf. Administration With a communal reform of 1975 the independent mu ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. From 1969 until 1978, she attended the ''Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium'' (now ''Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker'' ''Gymnasium'')

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

in Ratingen, already writing for the local editorial office of the

Rheinische Post ''Rheinische Post'' is a major German regional daily newspaper published since 1946 by the ''Rheinische Post Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH'' company, and headquartered in Düsseldorf. The Post is especially dominant in the western part of North Rhine- ...

before her graduation. In 1983, shortly after the WDR had started airing its evening program "Current Hour", Kellermann applied there and became regional

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

for

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

and the

Lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); al ...

. The final

industrial action Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike action, strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay a ...

s of steel workers in Duisburg-Rheinhausen were one of her biggest topics of coverage during this time. In 1992, Kellermann joined the newly aired ARD morning show as a producer, and as a correspondent from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Washington, D.C ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. Her work there would cause a move to Washington in 1997, as a permanent correspondent for the ARD. She then took up residence in Paris beginning in 2002 until 2006 when she began management of the ARD studio in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. Thereafter, Kellermann would take on further leadership positions, first at the WDR studio in

in 2014, and then at the WDR studio in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

in 2019.

Coming out

Kellermann had been out as transgender in her private life for a significant amount of time, including coming out to her father in the mid 1980s. Amongst her friends and family she presented femininely, yet in her capacity on television, she continued to play the part of a man. Kellermann has often voiced her frustrations regarding this in interviews, citing her fear of not being taken seriously by the public and not being accepted in her workplace as the main reasons for delaying her public coming out. While visiting the United States in 2019, she finally made the decision to make her gender identity publicly known through changing her

profile picture In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user or the user's character or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, ...

s on social media and discussing it with her colleagues upon returning to Germany. She is now listed as "Studio lead Georgine Kellermann" by the WDR. In 2020, Kellermann announced that she had gained

legal recognition Legal recognition of a status or fact in a jurisdiction is formal acknowledgement of it as being true, valid, legal, or worthy of consideration, and may involve approval or the granting of rights. For example, a nation or territory may require a ...

of her identity as a woman.

Awards

1999: Radio, TV, and New Media Prize together with Tom Buhrow, Claus Kleber and Sabine Reifenberg for ''Oh Gott, Amerika! Glaube, Seelen, Scharlatane'', a TV program about

Evangelicals Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

, travelling preachers and

sectarians Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups which are often related to the form of government which they live under. Prejudice, discrimination, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status qu ...

in the US

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kellermann, Georgine German transgender women German women journalists German LGBT journalists Transgender women writers 1957 births Living people German radio presenters German television presenters German women television presenters German women radio presenters