Martin Hans Sonneborn (born 15 May 1965) is a German politician and

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP). He is a founder and federal chairman of

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

. He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...

'' from 2000 to 2005 and works for ''

Spiegel Online ''Der Spiegel (online)'' is a German news website. Before the renaming in January 2020, the website's name was ''Spiegel Online'' (short ''SPON''). It was founded in 1994 as the online offshoot of the German news magazine, '' Der Spiegel'', w ...

'' and '' ZDF''.

Family and early life

Sonneborn grew up with his brother as a son of the career counselor and later presidential candidate Engelbert Sonneborn and a housewife. He went to school in

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

, where he passed the

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 ye ...

exam. After

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require ...

and a successful apprenticeship as an insurance salesman, he studied communication, German and Politics in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

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 constitu ...

. His

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

thesis covered the satirical magazine ''

and the complete lack of effectivity of satire''. Sonneborn's father was an independent candidate in the 2017 German presidential election. Sonneborn has two daughters and is married to a woman of Armenian descent.

Career

After undertaking an internship at satirical magazine '' Eulenspiegel'' in 1995, Sonneborn started writing for ''Titanic'', whose editor-in-chief he became in 2000. He was superseded by Thomas Gsella in October 2005, but remained column writer until April 2012. He has been co-editor of ''Titanic'' since 2006. Sonneborn was staff leader of satirical column ''SPAM'' at ''

'' since November 2006 and reporter for the satirical TV programme '' heute-show'' on '' ZDF'' from May 2009 to September 2014. On 2 August 2004 Sonneborn founded, along with other editors of ''Titanic'', the satirical political party

, one of whose aims is to rebuild the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...

. He has been its chairman since 2004 and was the lead candidate in the

2011 Berlin state election The 2011 Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011 to elect the members of the 17th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent government consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Left lost its majority. The SPD lost five ...

. During the election campaign in 2005 Sonneborn appeared in a number of TV campaign commercials. Along with director Andreas Coerper, Sonneborn filmed a documentary about the party's development and activities from foundation until 2009. Martin Sonneborn PARTEI

He regularly holds readings both solo and as part of the trio ''Titanic Boygroup'', together with Thomas Gsella and Oliver Maria Schmitt who preceded Sonneborn as editor-in-chief. After joining the European Parliament in 2014, he had to quit his jobs at Spiegel Online and ZDF since both companies wanted to stay objective in presenting politics. He is a member of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), member of the

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

-delegation and substitute of the European Parliament Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT). Martin Sonneborn

Controversy

In 2000 he became famous for a bribery affair regarding the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

assignment to Germany, in which he offered FIFA officials a small gift for their vote in favor of Germany. In late 2009, he was criticized in a Chinese newspaper for "

hurting the feelings of the Chinese people "Hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" () is a political catchphrase used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, in addition to Chinese state media organisations and Chinese Communist Party-affiliated newspap ...

" in a broadcast about the 2009

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...

on the ''heute-show''. In September 2011 he was criticized by UK media for a blackface Obama billboard "Ick bin ein Obama." (I am an Obama.) in the Berlin election campaign, a satirical reference to a speech by

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

Bibliography

* ''"Ich tat es für mein Land." Wie TITANIC einmal die Fußball-WM 2006 nach Deutschland holte: Protokoll einer erfolgreichen Bestechung''. Bombus, München 2005, . * ''Das PARTEI-Buch: Wie man in Deutschland eine Partei gründet und die Macht übernimmt''. Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, Köln 2009, . * ''Das PARTEI-Hörbuch''. Gelesen von Serdar Somuncu, Realisation Pe Simon. WortArt, Köln 2009 (2 CDs + Booklet), . * ''Heimatkunde: Eine Expedition in die Zone''. Ullstein Hc, 29. September 2010, . * ''Ich will auch mal Kanzler werden''. Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, Köln 2011, . * with Benjamin Schiffner: ''Quatsch...und mehr''. Kiepenhauer & Witsch, 2012, . * with Georg Behrend: ''Beerdigung von Herrn Krodinger im Biergarten: Ein Schild sagt mehr als 1000 Worte''. Kiepenhauer & Witsch, Köln 2015, . * with Thomas Gsella and Oliver Maria Schmidt: ''Titanic BoyGroup Greatest Hits - 20 Jahre Krawall für Deutschland''. Rowohlt, Berlin 2015, .

Filmography

* 2008: Heimatkunde * 2009: Die PARTEI * 2010: The Final Fax * 2013: Sonneborn rettet die Welt * 2014: Sonneborn rettet die EU at ''SpiegelTV''

References

External links

Martin Sonneborn's webpage
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sonneborn, Martin Living people 1965 births German satirists German male non-fiction writers Die PARTEI MEPs MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 Der Spiegel people