Maybrit Illner


Maybrit Illner is a German journalist and TV presenter.

Education

Illner went to school in the Friedrichshain area of Berlin and studied journalism at the University of Leipzig from 1984 to 1988. She joined the SED in 1986 and left it in 1991.

Career

After university, Illner worked as a television journalist at Deutscher Fernsehfunk, East German state television, until it was dissolved in 1991. She joined German broadcaster ZDF and co-presented Morgenmagazin, a weekday morning show from 1992. She became the head of the Morgenmagazin in 1998.
From October 1999 Illner presented an evening talk show originally titled Berlin Mitte but changed in March 2007 to Maybrit Illner. Besides, she moderated the TV election debates between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his challengers Edmund Stoiber and Angela Merkel. In 2006, she interviewed President of Russia Vladimir Putin. She also interviewed Merkel shortly before the 2009 elections.
As successor to Steffen Seibert, Illner anchored ZDF's news show heute-journal from September 2010 until December 2012, in rotation with Claus Kleber and Marietta Slomka.
Since 2013, Illner has been focusing on her own political talkshow Maybrit Illner. Alongside Anne Will, Peter Kloeppel and Stefan Raab, she also moderated the only TV election debate between incumbent Merkel and her competitor Peer Steinbrück ahead of the 2013 elections, which was aired live on four of Germany's most-watched television channels during prime-time. Ahead of the 2017 elections, she moderated the debate between Merkel and Martin Schulz, this time with Kloeppel, Sandra Maischberger and Claus Strunz.

Personal life

She was married to fellow television journalist Michael Illner from 1988 to 2007. She married René Obermann, at that time CEO of Deutsche Telekom, on 14 August 2010 at Schloss Ulrichshusen. They live in Berlin and Bonn.
For the German Red Cross, Illner has travelled to Iraq in 2003 and Pakistan in 2004. In 2018, she chaired the jury for the annual Ludwig-Börne-Preis, which awarded the prize to journalist Souad Mekhennet.

Awards