Andrea Böhm

Andrea Böhm (born 1961) is a German award-winning journalist and writer. She is mainly known for her reports and essays in German about political affairs and society in the United States, Germany, the Near East and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Her non-fiction books have covered socio-political aspects of the USA, the crisis of the international world order, her travels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and historical accounts of women who have fought for their rights.

Life and career Böhm studied political science in Berlin and the United States, and later completed her training at the German School of Journalism. Following this, she worked as America correspondent for Die Tageszeitung from 1989, also writing for German publications such as Die Zeit, Geo, and others.

As a freelancer working from New York City, she wrote reports about the United States for more than 10 years. Since 2006 she has been reporting about political affairs for Die Zeit. From 2013 until 2018, she was stationed for the same weekly in Beirut as their correspondent for the Near East.

Her areas of interest include the Near East, Eastern Asia, Africa, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), civil wars, war crimes, the International Criminal Court and the crisis of the international world order. She has authored books based on her experience in four continents, the United States and the DRC. For her 2011 travelogue Gott und die Krokodile. Eine Reise durch den Kongo (God and the Crocodiles. A Journey through the Congo) she was shortlisted for the 2011 Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the category Non-fiction/Essay.

Böhm has been awarded prestigious German journalism awards, such as the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Hansel Mieth Prize, in memory of German-American photojournalist Hansel Mieth of Santa Rosa, California (1909–1998).

Reception Reviews in leading German media of Böhm's non-fiction books and reports have mentioned her profound knowledge of the countries described, a lively and straightforward narrative style as well as special empathy for ordinary people.

Due to more than 10 years as foreign correspondent in New York and her numerous trips into the lesser known regions of the United States, Böhm published the non-fiction book Die Amerikaner: Reise durch ein unbekanntes Imperium (The Americans: Journey through an Unknown Empire) in 2004. In her essays about members of the upper class as well as about the social marginalization of many underprivileged Americans, Böhm combined "biographical, historical and political aspects into a comprehensive analysis."

Her 2017 book Das Ende der westlichen Weltordnung (The End of the Western World Order) was described as providing insight into the crisis of the international order as defined by the Western world. Meeting ordinary people in Somalia, Libya, Baghdad or China, she wrote about people who are mastering their lives, developing civil courage and living outside of the so-called global economy.

In a December 2022 article for the Frankfurter Rundschau on the occasion of Böhm's award of the Werner Holzer Prize for Foreign Journalism, her former colleague at Die Zeit, Özlem Topçu, wrote that Böhm always had both geopolitical and climate policy in mind, challenged the "white view of the African continent" and portrayed people in the global South as "acting subjects".

Awards

2004 Theodor Wolff Prize 2010 Hansel Mieth Prize 2022 Werner Holzer Prize for Foreign Journalism

Publications

Non-fiction books in German Die Amerikaner: Reise durch ein unbekanntes Imperium. Herder: Freiburg 2006 Gott und die Krokodile. Eine Reise durch den Kongo. Pantheon Verlag: Munich 2011 Das Ende der westlichen Weltordnung. Eine Erkundung auf vier Kontinenten. Pantheon Verlag: Munich/Berlin 2017

In English

Magazine articles

Literature