Susanne Koelbl is a German journalist, lecturer and
foreign 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 ...
.
Koelbl has reported from war zones and crisis centers in the
Balkans, the Middle East,
South Asia and
Northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
.
Life
Susanne Koelbl was born in
Munich in 1965 as the daughter of the photographer and documentary filmmaker
Herlinde Koelbl
Herlinde Koelbl (born 31 October 1939) is a German photographic artist, author and documentary filmer.
Her comprehensive work is characterized above all by long-term photographic projects, often complemented by in-depth interviews. She is particu ...
. After graduating from the Bertolt-Brecht-Gymnasium (BBG) in Munich-Pasing, Koelbl studied languages at the
Université Catholique de l'Ouest (UCO) in
Angers in France and politics and history at the
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU). Koelbl did her journalistic training in Munich. She volunteered at the evening newspaper, for which she then worked as an editor and then went to ''
SZ-Magazin'' as an author and co-founder.
In 1991 she switched to ''
Spiegel
Spiegel is German, Yiddish, and Dutch for "mirror". More specifically, it may refer to:
Publications
* '' Der Spiegel'', a weekly German magazine
* Der Spiegel (online), the online sibling of ''Der Spiegel''
Political
* Spiegel scandal, a 1962 ...
'' in Hamburg
and reported from war and crisis regions from the end of the 1990s, including from the former
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Iraq,
Iran, Syria, and
North Korea. She also conducted several interviews with heads of state and government, including Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
, Sudanese President
Umar al-Bashir, former Presidents
Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan),
Pervez Musharraf and
Asif Ali Zardari (Pakistan) and Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi (Iraq).
In April 2008 it became known that the
Federal Intelligence Service was monitoring Afghan Trade and Industry Minister Amin Farhang in 2006 and had also recorded e-mails from Koelbl.
On a Knight Wallace Fellowship, she studied at the
University of Michigan at
Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...
in the United States of America. During a
sabbatical
A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work.
The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...
, she worked on a study on Syria in 2011/12 and gave guest lectures on the war in Afghanistan. Koelbl is also a fellow of the German-French Youth Office (DFJW) and a fellow of the German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange of the
Bertelsmann Foundation
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself h ...
. In 2011, she spent three months in
Beijing, China, as the China-Germany media ambassador for the
Robert Bosch Foundation.
She was also a lecturer in the journalism department at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at the
University of Leipzig.
Awards
In 2014 she won the
Liberty Award for her reports on the civil war in Syria and North Korea.
Writings
* Susanne Koelbl, Olaf Ihlau : ''War in the Hindu Kush: People and Powers in Afghanistan''. Random House, Pantheon Verlag, Munich 2009, .
* Susanne Koelbl, Olaf Ihlau: ''Beloved, dark country. People and powers in Afghanistan''. Siedler Verlag, Munich 2007, .
* Susanne Koelbl: 1''2 weeks in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia between dictatorship and new beginnings''. Deutsche-Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2019, .
* Behind the Kingdom's Veil: Inside the New Saudi Arabia Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koelbl, Susanne
German women journalists
German journalists
German women writers
1965 births
Living people