Carolin Emcke, Germany

Journalist, Writer, Philosopher * 1967
Von den Kriegen. Briefe an Freunde

“In the letters I tried to express something that is not found in traditional news coverage. The genre of the letter allowed me to combine different forms of narration: personal passages are followed by essayistic reflections; political commentary is interspersed with travelogues. I could not have written for publication in this way.”

Carolin Emcke studied philosophy, politics and history in London, Frankfurt am Main and Harvard, and has a doctorate in philosophy.

During her studies Emcke was already working as a journalist for German television. She has worked for Der Spiegel since 1998, first reporting on German politics, and from 1999 working as a foreign correspondent in numerous conflict zones, including Kosovo, Lebanon, Romania, Nicaragua, Colombia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2000 Emcke published Kollektive Identitäten. Sozialphilosophische Grundlagen (Campus). After examining different models for the creation of collective identities, she breaks down the concept of equality and questions the value given to “recognition“ in modern democracy.

Her book Von den Kriegen. Briefe an Freunde was published in 2004 (S. Fischer). The book arose from a number of letters Emcke wrote to friends when she returned home from covering conflicts, in an attempt to convey what she had witnessed. Emcke’s academic work on the nature of violence allowed her to formulate her own view on war and apply them to her work as a journalist. In her personal and self-reflexive tone, Emcke exposes the reader to the panorama of horrors that she encounters as a war correspondent. The book was awarded the prize Das politische Buch by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in 2005.

In the summer of 2003 Emcke worked as an adviser on the production of Insideout, a dance piece by Sasha Waltz. In the 2003/2004 academic year she was a visiting lecturer in political theory at Yale University.

She has held many readings and lectures on her experiences in conflict zones, including those at the University of Potsdam and the Luise Rinser Foundation.

Carolin Emcke lives in Berlin.