The Most Famous

JOURNALISTS from Germany

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This page contains a list of the greatest German Journalists. The pantheon dataset contains 196 Journalists, 11 of which were born in Germany. This makes Germany the birth place of the 4th most number of Journalists behind United Kingdom, and France.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary German Journalists of all time. This list of famous German Journalists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of German Journalists.

Photo of Gerda Taro

1. Gerda Taro (1910 - 1937)

With an HPI of 71.38, Gerda Taro is the most famous German Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 37 different languages on wikipedia.

Gerta Pohorylle (1 August 1910 – 26 July 1937), known professionally as Gerda Taro, was a German war photographer active during the Spanish Civil War. She is regarded as the first female photojournalist to have died while covering the frontline in a war. Taro was the companion and professional partner of photographer Robert Capa, who, like her, was Jewish. The name "Robert Capa" was originally an alias that Taro and Capa (born Endre Friedmann) shared, an invention meant to mitigate the increasing political intolerance in Europe and to attract the lucrative American market. Therefore, a significant amount of what is credited as Robert Capa's early work was actually created by Taro.

Photo of Beate Klarsfeld

2. Beate Klarsfeld (b. 1939)

With an HPI of 66.88, Beate Klarsfeld is the 2nd most famous German Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Beate Auguste Klarsfeld (née Künzel; born 13 February 1939) is a Franco-German journalist and Nazi hunter who, along with her French husband, Serge, became famous for their investigation and documentation of numerous Nazi war criminals, including Kurt Lischka, Alois Brunner, Klaus Barbie, Ernst Ehlers and Kurt Asche. In March 2012, she ran as the candidate for The Left in the 2012 German presidential election against Joachim Gauck, but lost by 126 to 991.

Photo of Aenne Burda

3. Aenne Burda (1909 - 2005)

With an HPI of 64.79, Aenne Burda is the 3rd most famous German Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Aenne Burda (28 July 1909 – 3 November 2005), born Anna Magdalene Lemminger, was a German publisher of the Burda Group, a media group based in Offenburg and Munich, Germany. She was one of the symbols of the German economic miracle.

Photo of Thomas Nast

4. Thomas Nast (1840 - 1902)

With an HPI of 60.97, Thomas Nast is the 4th most famous German Journalist.  His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Thomas Nast (; German: [nast]; September 26, 1840 – December 7, 1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was a sharp critic of "Boss" Tweed and the Tammany Hall Democratic Party political machine. He created a modern version of Santa Claus (based on the traditional German figures of Saint Nicholas and Weihnachtsmann) and the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party (GOP). Contrary to popular belief, Nast did not create Uncle Sam (the male personification of the United States Federal Government), Columbia (the female personification of American values), or the Democratic donkey, although he did popularize those symbols through his artwork. Nast was associated with the magazine Harper's Weekly from 1859 to 1860 and from 1862 until 1886. Nast's influence was so widespread that Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Thomas Nast was our best teacher."

Photo of Marta Hillers

5. Marta Hillers (1911 - 2001)

With an HPI of 59.54, Marta Hillers is the 5th most famous German Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Marta Hillers (May 26, 1911 – June 16, 2001) was a German journalist, and the author of the memoir Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin), published anonymously in 1959 and 2003 in German. It is the diary of a German woman from 20 April to 22 June 1945, during and after the Battle of Berlin. The book details the author's rape, in the context of mass rape by the occupying forces, and how she and many other German women chose to take a Soviet officer as a protector. The book was first published in English in 1954 in the United States. When it was published in Germany in 1959, the author was accused of "besmirching the honor of German women." Hillers refused to have another edition published in her lifetime. Having married and moved to Switzerland, Hillers left journalism and did not publish another major work. She died in 2001. A new edition of her book was published posthumously in Germany in 2003, again anonymously. It met wide critical acclaim and was on the bestseller list for weeks. A controversy broke out when a literary editor revealed the author as Hillers. No one else has been suggested. New English editions were published in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2005, as well as in seven other languages. The book was adapted as a film and released first in 2008 in Germany and Poland. In the United States it is known as A Woman in Berlin. Coincidentally, also in 2008, the English translation of the book by Philip Boehm (Virago, 2005) was dramatised as a one-woman monologue, by the playwright Iain McClure, and staged at the New Works, New Worlds Festival at the Arches Theatre, Glasgow, in 2009.

Photo of Bill Brandt

6. Bill Brandt (1904 - 1983)

With an HPI of 57.42, Bill Brandt is the 6th most famous German Journalist.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Bill Brandt (born Hermann Wilhelm Brandt; 2 May 1904 – 20 December 1983): 14  was a British photographer and photojournalist. Born in Germany, Brandt moved to England, where he became known for his images of British society for such magazines as Lilliput and Picture Post; later he made distorted nudes, portraits of famous artists and landscapes. He is widely considered to be one of the most important British photographers of the 20th century.

Photo of Norbert Haug

7. Norbert Haug (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 55.64, Norbert Haug is the 7th most famous German Journalist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Norbert Friedrich Haug (born 24 November 1952) is a German journalist and the former vice president of Mercedes-Benz motorsport activity, including Formula One, Formula 3 and DTM. Under his direction, Mercedes-Benz enjoyed considerable success in all categories, winning multiple races and championships.

Photo of Bogna Koreng

8. Bogna Koreng (b. 1965)

With an HPI of 47.01, Bogna Koreng is the 8th most famous German Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Bogna Koreng (Upper Sorbian: Bogna Korjeńkowa; 1965 in Bautzen, East Germany) is a Sorbian journalist and TV presenter.

Photo of Anja Niedringhaus

9. Anja Niedringhaus (1965 - 2014)

With an HPI of 46.85, Anja Niedringhaus is the 9th most famous German Journalist.  Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Anja Niedringhaus (12 October 1965 – 4 April 2014) was a German photojournalist who worked for the Associated Press (AP). She was the only woman on a team of 11 AP photographers that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War. That same year she was awarded the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism prize. Niedringhaus had covered Afghanistan for several years before she was killed on 4 April 2014, while covering the presidential election, after an Afghan policeman opened fire at the car she was waiting in at a checkpoint, part of an election convoy.

Photo of Yury Dud

10. Yury Dud (b. 1986)

With an HPI of 44.10, Yury Dud is the 10th most famous German Journalist.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Yury Aleksandrovich Dud (Russian: Ю́рий Алекса́ндрович Дудь, Russian pronunciation: [dutʲ], also spelled Yuri Dud; born 11 October 1986) is a German-born Russian journalist known primarily for his informational online videos he distributes as a YouTuber. He has been deputy director-general of the sports website Sports.ru since 2018, having previously served as the editor-in-chief from 2011 to 2018. In 2017, Dud launched his YouTube channel, vDud (Russian: вДудь), where he interviews individuals from Russia and other post-Soviet states. He is one of the most popular YouTubers in Russia, with vDud having over ten million subscribers as of early 2022. His series of socio-political interviews have included multiple opponents of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related foreign policies of the nation. This has brought him attention from worldwide audiences and opposition from Vladimir Putin's government. On 11 April 2022, Dud released Человек во время войны (English: Man in the Time of War / Man in War), a film project based upon his research into the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

People

Pantheon has 11 people classified as German journalists born between 1840 and 1986. Of these 11, 5 (45.45%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living German journalists include Beate Klarsfeld, Norbert Haug, and Bogna Koreng. The most famous deceased German journalists include Gerda Taro, Aenne Burda, and Thomas Nast. As of April 2024, 2 new German journalists have been added to Pantheon including Marta Hillers, and Yury Dud.

Living German Journalists

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Deceased German Journalists

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Newly Added German Journalists (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Journalists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 6 most globally memorable Journalists since 1700.