Konrad Adenauer, Romy Schneider, Orson Welles – just three of the countless interviewees Georg Stefan Troller has had in front of the microphone during his eight-decade career as a television journalist.
Born in Vienna, he learned bookbinding before being forced to flee the newly expanded German Reich as a Jew in 1938. Later, as a U.S. soldier, he was part of the unit that liberated the Dachau concentration camp. After his studies in the U.S., a Fulbright scholarship took him to the Sorbonne. In the following decades, he became a Paris correspondent, first for RIAS, then for WDR and ZDF. In the series »Personenbeschreibung« (Description of Persons), he transformed the journalistic technique of the interview into a high art form that became influential and continues to shape journalists today.
He went on to publish numerous books, the most notable of which is his autobiography, »Selbstbeschreibung« (Self Description). He is still active as a publicist and publishes the monthly column “Trollers Jahrhundert” in the Literarische Welt.
Georg Stefan Troller turns 102 this year. We are delighted to welcome him as an honorary member of PEN Berlin.