Author / Hamburg
Environment, Science, Social
Contact us
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
-
Markus Wanzeck, ReportageThe 30th Commandment
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographers Sudharak Olwe & Helena Schätzle
Published in „Nature“ 09/18In the Thar Desert, in northwestern India, the Bishnoi people have lived for centuries. Their religion is rooted in a love for nature. To protect trees and animals, they risk a great deal – sometimes their lives.
-
Interview, Markus Wanzeck„We need intelligent ways“
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Florian Lang
Published in „Nature“ 05/18Visiting Sunita Narain, India's most influential environmental activist. Her favorite environmental issue? Air pollution. Germany's auto industry addiction? Pitiful. Great Britain as India's role model? Absolutely not! Fourth part of the „Environmental Power India“ nature series.
-
Interview, Markus WanzeckA walk with... Alfred Platow
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Frank Schultze
Published in „Nature“ 09/17The CEO of Ökoworld is probably the most unusual
Germany's asset manager. He once helped squatters, today
Homeowners – provided they want to invest their money with a clear conscience. -
Interview, Markus WanzeckA walk with... Harald Welzer
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Rainer Kwiotek
Published in „Nature“ 04/17As Director of the Futurzwei Foundation, he is committed to the „project of a sustainable, future-proof society for future generations.“ A moving conversation about disgusting cars, the allure of the analog - and sustainability gymnastics.
-
Interview, Markus WanzeckTravel into the future with… Claudia Kemfert
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Sascha Montag
Published in „Nature“ 02/17What is the turning point for energy? When will the last coal-fired power plant go offline? Does the automotive future lie in China? An electrifying Berlin tour with the German Institute for Economic Research's energy expert.
-
Interview, Markus WanzeckA Walk with... Gülcan Nitsch
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Sascha Montag
Published in „Nature“ 06/16The biologist founded Yesil Çember in Berlin-Kreuzberg in 2006, the first Turkish-language environmental protection initiative in Germany. Over the past ten years, she has built an intercultural network that is now active nationwide.
-
Interview, Markus WanzeckA walk with... Klaus Töpfer
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Paul Hahn
Published in „Nature“ 11/15Before the Paris Climate Conference: A conversation about Germany's contribution to the global energy transition. About water and wine. And about beer from Duisburg.
-
Markus Wanzeck, ReportageAgriculture red-green
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Katharina Hesse
Published in „Nature“ 04/15China's agriculture and food industries are in a crisis of trust. The organic movement is growing. Particularly well-educated city dwellers are the ones who shop more consciously, grow their own vegetables—or start a whole new life.
-
Markus Wanzeck, ReportageLetters from a Stranger
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Kathrin Harms
Published as a series in „FAS,“ November/December 2013A few lines, and a young woman from Münsterland knows that her past was a fairy tale. She is not an orphan. Her mother is still alive in Nepal. The story of a shock.
-
Markus Wanzeck, ReportageThe murderers are among us again
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Éric Vazzoler
Published in „Cicero,“ December 2011Since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has been a wounded nation. A small organization is trying to bring victims and perpetrators together.
-
Markus Wanzeck, ReportageSmoking harms your health.
Author Markus Wanzeck, Photographer Oliver Reinhardt
Published in „Neon“ 03/2011Tens of thousands of children work in the tobacco industry in Malawi. Handling the leaves makes them sick. But in a country dependent on the nicotine business, they have no choice.
-
Markus Wanzeck, ReportageGet your money's worth, leper!
Author Markus Wanzeck, photographer Sally Bierman
Published in „Brand eins“ 09/10Dortmund resident Marianne Grosspietsch spontaneously founded a charitable organization in Nepal. With love, an iron will, and humor, she turned it into a model enterprise. Because work can heal.
Published in Brand Eins and on Brandeins.de.