Author / Hamburg
Environment, Science, Social
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Life
Markus Wanzeck has been with Zeitenspiegel Reportagen since 2011, working as a reporter, editor, and project manager. Since March 2025, he has been a member of the editorial team for the environmental magazine. Atmosphere. From 2014 to 2023, he held various roles (Editor-in-Chief, Editor, Reporter) at the environmental magazine Nature. From 2008 to 2011, he worked at the journalism agency Textsalon Berlin, which he co-founded. He studied philosophy and sociology in Munich and Sydney, Australia, and attended the Zeitenspiegel reportage school in Reutlingen.
For his journalistic work, he has received several grants and awards and was nominated for the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize and the German Reporter Prize. As a media ambassador fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation, he was a guest journalist at the daily newspaper in 2009. China Daily in Beijing and in 2017 with the Indian environmental magazine Down to Earth in Delhi. In 2024, he was a visiting journalist at the Hungarian online magazine as part of an IJP scholarship Bordeaux in Budapest.
Research took him to Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Australia, China, India, Iceland, Italy, Malawi, Nepal, Austria, Rwanda, Sweden, Hungary, and Vietnam, among other places; for some years now, he has only traveled terrestrially.
His articles appear in, among others, Atmosphere, NZZ on Sunday Switzerland, Profile (Austria), Spiegel Knowledge, Stern and The time.
He is on the board of the German-Chinese Media Network (from 2011 to 2023 as Chairman) and, since its founding in 2008, a member of Freelance writer, the professional association of freelance journalists. Together with Anne Klesse, he heads the Hamburg Independent Writers Regional Group. Since 2023, he has been on the board of Gabriel-Grüner-Stipendium e.V., which manages the scholarship of the same name and the Hansel-Mieth Prize forgives.
Awards and Scholarships:
- 2025 „SoJo Europe“ Research Grant from Journalismfund Europe
- 2024 German-Middle Eastern Scholarship Program of the International Journalists' Programmes e.V. (IJP)
- 2017 Media Ambassadors India – Germany Journalist Exchange Program Scholarship
- 2016 Nomination for the Henri Nannen Award / Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for Reportage
- 2014 Nominated for „Best Freelance Reporter“ at the German Reporter Award
- 2014 German-Asian Scholarship Program of the International Journalists Programs (IJP)
- 2012 Nomination for the Kindernothilfe Media Award
- 2011 Gabriel-Grüner Scholarship for Dedicated Photo and Text Reportage
- 2010 Research Program „Germany and China – Moving Together“
- 2009 contextual research grant
- 2009 Journalist Exchange Program Media Ambassadors China-Germany Scholarship
- 2008 Selection for the „Top 30 under 30“ by the Medium Magazine
- 2007 Marion Dönhoff Award from the Robert Bosch Foundation
Projects
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageThe sun shines for everyone
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Philipp Meuser
Published in „Atmo“ 5/2025The energy transition, a project for the elite? Although climate protection ultimately benefits everyone: many subsidies primarily benefit those who are already well-off. In Hamburg, solar power initiatives show how the energy transition can become more inclusive and equitable.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportThe German Environment Minister also has PFAS in his blood
Author Markus Wanzeck
Published on „Zeit Online“ on October 12, 2025Whether in frying pans or rain jackets: PFAS are useful – but you can never get rid of them. The EU wants to ban the harmful chemicals. And even tested ministers' blood.
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Interview, Markus Wanzeck„My emergency bag is always packed“
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Isabella Finholdt
Published in „Die Zeit“ 35/2025The earthquakes in the Naples area are becoming more intense and frequent. Three million people live there. Is a major volcanic eruption looming? The region is poorly prepared, warns volcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageDigging for the Future
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Ben Kilb
Published in „Atmo“ 1/2025For years, a civil engineer in the Vogelsberg has been digging ponds like a madman. About a world-improver with a heart – and hearts.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageThe Curse of the Teflon Pan
Author Markus Wanzeck
Published in „Die Zeit“ 09/2025They repel dirt and water. But they can also cause cancer. Can our groundwater be protected from so-called "forever chemicals"?
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageFull throttle always, reverse gear never
Author Markus Wanzeck
Published on „Zeit Online“ on July 2, 2024With a quasi-socialist planned economy, Viktor Orbán wants to make Hungary a battery superpower. What this means for local residents and the environment is already becoming apparent.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageHow to make tofu delicious
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Isabella Finholdt
Published on „Zeit Online“ on April 1, 2024It grows rapidly and does without artificial flavors: the root system of mushrooms. A Hamburg-based company is cultivating a completely novel meat substitute in a bioreactor.
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Interview, Markus WanzeckHow fair is Fairtrade?
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Frank Schultze
Published on „Stern.de“ on March 27, 2024One of them, Friedel Hütz-Adams, is an expert on cocoa supply chains. The other, Claudia Brück, is president of Fairtrade. Both want better working conditions for farmers in West Africa – but how? They have different opinions on this. The occasion for a debate.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageVolunteers, step up!
Author Markus Wanzeck
Published in „Die Zeit“ 11/2024For room and board, Markus Wanzeck helps a biological winemaker on the Kaiserstuhl with the harvest – because the wine simply tastes even better when you pick the grapes yourself.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageResurrection from peat ruins
Author Markus Wanzeck
Published in „Nature“ 11/23For Germany to achieve its climate goals, a peatland turnaround is needed: an end to peat extraction, the rewetting of drained peatlands, and a reinvention of agriculture there. A mammoth task like the coal phase-out. Visiting places where it is already being tackled.
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Markus Wanzeck, ReportageVacation for the environment
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographers Karl-Josef Hildenbrand and Markus Wanzeck
Published in „Nature“ 09/23Combining the pleasant with the helpful - that's the idea behind voluntourism, volunteer work during vacation. There are increasingly more offers for this, also in the environmental sector. Why does one become an eco-voluntourist? And what does giving provide? A personal experiment.
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Markus Wanzeck, Reportage, Sascha MontagFischer's Heat
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Sascha Montag
Published in „Greenpeace Magazine“ 04.23Global warming is particularly affecting ecosystems that have received little attention so far: lakes. Inland fishermen are already noticing profound changes. Researchers are trying to understand what is happening beneath the surface of the water.