Wolfgang Bauer

Wolfgang Bauer (born 1970) is a German journalist and reporter for Die Zeit, who has won many prizes including the Prix Bayeux Calvados for War Correspondents. He has worked in the Arab world for many years, including in war zones in Syria and Libya.

His second Prix Bayeux-Calvados for War Correspondents was awarded for the Syrian refugee reportage in Die Zeit that formed the basis of the book Crossing the Sea: With Syrians on the Exodus to Europe (And Other Stories, 2016), in which he and photographer Stanislav Krupař went undercover as English teachers and accompanied Syrian refugees attempting to travel from Egypt to Europe.

He was a reporter for the German magazine Focus, Zeit Dossier, Neon/Nido, Greenpeace Magazine and National Geographic. In 2011 he was awarded the European Award for Excellence in Journalism Columbus.

In June 2007 Bauer reported that, when embedded with the American 82nd Airborne Division he witnessed Afghan and American soldiers, in the area of Ghazni, Afghanistan, abusing captured suspects.

Abuse reports

Bauer, and his photographer, Karsten Schoene, said they witnessed one Afghan suspect, tied a truck, and threatened that he would be dragged behind the truck if he continued to decline to answer questions.

Major Chris Belcher, speaking on behalf of the Department of Defense, stated that he was unaware of the incident.