Ines Pohl (born 12 April 1967, in

Mutlangen Mutlangen is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg in the Ostalbkreis district and belongs to the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region. As of 31 December 2015, it has 6,588 inhabitants. Geography Mutlangen is located between the Welzheim Fores ...

, Baden-Württemberg) is a German journalist.

Early life and education

Pohl grew up in rural

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

( East Württemberg) as the daughter of a kindergarten teacher (mother) and a skilled labour worker (father). After graduating high school (German ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'') in

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district a ...

, she studied

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

and

Scandinavian studies Scandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining to ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. In the early and mid-1980s, as a school girl and a young student, Pohl was actively involved in the German peace movement, specifically in the protest against the stationing of

MGM-31 Pershing The MGM-31A Pershing was the missile used in the Pershing 1 and Pershing 1a field artillery missile systems. It was a solid-fueled two-stage theater ballistic missile designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the PGM-11 Redstone missile as ...

missiles at a

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

Missile Storage Area at ''Mutlanger Heide'' ("Mutlangen heathland") near her hometown (as part of the

NATO Double-Track Decision The NATO Double-Track Decision was the decision by NATO from December 12, 1979 to offer the Warsaw Pact a mutual limitation of medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It was combined with a threat by NATO to d ...

Career and private life

In the 1990s, Pohl worked as a freelance journalist at a local radio station as well as for several regional newspapers; she did her traineeship at ''

Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine ''Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine'' (''HNA'') is a regional newspaper published in Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regi ...

'' (HNA) newspaper. There, she was gradually promoted up the ranks, being leading editor for politics within ten years. In 2004/2005, Pohl spent a year at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

on a scholarship of the

Nieman Foundation for Journalism The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...

. In 2008, Pohl went to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

to work as a correspondent for the ''Ippen'' publishing house. From July 2009 until September 2015 she was editor in chief of the left-wing newspaper ''

Die Tageszeitung ''Die Tageszeitung'' (, “The Daily Newspaper”), is counted as being one of modern Germany's most important newspapers and amongst the top seven. taz is stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a cooperative-own ...

,''. During her time at the newspaper, her brief was to return the paper to its left-wing roots after a much-criticised foray into more popular journalism. In 2016, Pohl joined German international broadcaster ''

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

'' in 2015, where she worked as Washington correspondent. Soon after, she was appointed editor-in-chief, from 1 March 2017. Pohl lives together with her spouse in Berlin.

Other activities

* Jugend gegen AIDS, Member of the Advisory Board * International Journalists' Programmes, Member of the Board of Trustees * Reporters Without Borders Germany, Member of the Board of Trustees (2010–2016)

Recognition

In 2009, Pohl was awarded the prize "Best journalist of the year" in the category "newcomer" by the ''Medium Magazine''.''Die Journalisten des Jahres 2009''
In: ''Medium Magazin'' online on 21 December 2009, seen on 14 January 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pohl, Ines 1967 births Living people People from Mutlangen German women journalists German newspaper journalists German television journalists Die Tageszeitung people Deutsche Welle German LGBT journalists 21st-century German journalists 21st-century German women