Takis Würger (born 1985) is a German investigative

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, author, war correspondent and staff writer for the news magazine '' Der Spiegel'', reporting from warzone locales such as

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, and throughout the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

. He was one of the few reporters spending time as an

embedded journalist Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the ...

with German military snipers in Afghanistan. He also accompanied German radical Muslims to a Madrasa in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

, Cairo. After sleeping in the apartment of the renowned

Salafist The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...

preacher Sven Lau and spending a couple of days with him, Würger had to flee the country for security reasons. Würger, who attended the Henri Nannen School for Journalism in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, received the German Reporter Award and in 2013 the

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Journalist Award Germany / Austria / Switzerland for a story about German soldiers in Afghanistan. In 2014 he received the Hansel-Mieth-Preis for a story about an old boxer. In 2010 Würger was nominated by Medium Magazin as one of the „Top 30 Journalists under 30". Würger published his first novel in 2017. It was a bestseller and won prizes in German-speaking countries. ''The Club'' begins with the childhood memories of one of the several first-person narrators in Germany, but is set primarily years later in the UK. His second novel, ''Stella'', is set in the

second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, in Germany, and deals with a Jewish woman who collaborates with the Gestapo. It was hotly debated by critics and provoked legal questions regarding the rights of the heirs of the real person the story was based on.

Novels

* ''Der Club'' (2017). ''The Club'', translated by Charlotte Collins (Grove Press, 2019). ISBN 978-0-8021-2896-6. * ''Stella'' (2019). ''Stella'', translated by Liesl Schillinger (Grove Press, 2021). ISBN 978-0-8021-4917-6. * ''Noah. Von einem, der überlebte'' (2021).

References

1985 births Living people German journalists German male journalists German male writers {{Germany-journalist-stub