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. 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 before her graduation. In 1983, shortly after the
WDR had started airing its evening program "Current Hour", Kellermann applied there and became regional
correspondent for
Duisburg and the
Lower Rhine. 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
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
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 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.
Thereafter, Kellermann would take on further leadership positions, first at the
WDR studio in
Duisburg 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 pictures 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 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