Christoph Sydow (February 11, 1985 – 1 June 2020) was a German journalist who worked for Der Spiegel as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East.

Christoph Sydow
Born(1985-02-11)11 February 1985
Died1 June 2020(2020-06-01) (aged 35)
Berlin, Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationJournalist
Children2

Life

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Sydow had been interested in political journalism from an early age, often carrying around issues of his later employee's magazine and impressing classmates by acting as a "walking encyclopedia".[1] While working on his degree in Islamic Studies at the Free University of Berlin, he co-founded the Alsharq [de] blog in 2005, a platform for students to publish own articles about the Middle East. In 2013, this blog was nominated for the Grimme Online Award.[2]

In 2009, he began working for zenith, an independent German magazine specialized on events in the Arab world. During the Arab Spring in 2011, Sydow first became known to a wider audience by appearing as an expert on the topic in several forms of media.[3] Sydow joined Der Spiegel in 2012 and soon became their main correspondent in the Middle Eastern region, soon acquiring an internal reputation for his particularly meticulous and precise methods.[4]

Sydow, who was married and had two children, killed himself on 1 June 2020.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Nachruf zum Tod des Journalisten Christoph Sydow". magazin.zenith.de (in German). 10 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-06-10. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Alsharq - Nominierte" (in German). Grimme Online Award. Archived from the original on 2020-06-10. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  3. ^ Sydow, Christoph (28 February 2011). "Libyen – Der Charakter "Gaddafi" und die Sanktionen des UN-Sicherheitsrates" (in German). detektor.fm. Archived from the original on 2011-03-16. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b Hans, Barbara (10 June 2020). "Zum Tod von Christoph Sydow: Mensch, Christoph!" (in German). Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 2020-06-11. Retrieved 11 June 2020.