Ullrich Fichtner
Ullrich Fichtner is a senior German journalist and reporter-at-large of Der Spiegel magazine.
Work
Ullrich Fichtner started his career during high school, contributing articles to local newspapers. During his university studies in Bremen and Berlin he worked as a freelance journalist for The Associated Press, covering the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the breakdown of the communist-led East German State.As a Berlin correspondent of the national daily Frankfurter Rundschau, he followed Germany's reunification process and portrayed Berlin as an emerging capital city of Europe. In 2000, he joined the national weekly Die Zeit as a junior editor.
In 2001, he was hired as a reporter-at-large by Der Spiegel, one of Europe's largest and most influential news magazines. He contributed largely to Spiegels in-depth investigation of the 9/11 terror attacks, focussing on Mohamed Atta's leading role in the plot.
As a world affairs reporter, he intensely covered the Iraq and the Afghanistan Wars, portraying the commanding US general David H. Petraeus on several occasions. His features were widely discussed not only in Europe, but also in the US. Other main stories dealt with the Middle Eastern peace process and the impact of China's rise.
Based in Paris, France, from 2002 to 2010, he was Spiegels New York correspondent from 2011 to 2013. From 2014 to 2016, he was in charge of Spiegels reportage department and then returned to the field as a reporter-at-large. Since 2019, he has again been based in Paris.
He is an author and co-author of several books. His essay "Tellergericht", a critical survey of Germany's food culture, helped foster a nationwide debate over culinary habits.