Bascha Mika (born 17 January 1954) is a German journalist and publicist. From 1998 to July 2009, she was editor-in-chief of ''

Die Tageszeitung ''Die Tageszeitung'' (, "The Daily Newspaper"), stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a German daily newspaper. It is run as a cooperative – it is administered by its employees and a co-operative of sharehol ...

'' and has held the same post at Frankfurt Rundschau since April 2014. At ''Die Tageszeitung'', Mika was the only female editor-in-chief of a national newspaper in Germany.

Biography

Born Barbara Mika in

Komprachcice Komprachcice is a village in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Komprachcice. It lies approximately south-west of the regional capital Opole. 11 Polish citizens ...

, near

Opole Opole (; ; ; ) is a city located in southern Poland on the Oder River and the historical capital of Upper Silesia. With a population of approximately 127,387 as of the 2021 census, it is the capital of Opole Voivodeship (province) and the seat of ...

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

in 1954, her family moved to

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

in 1959. Mika completed a bank apprenticeship after graduating from school. She spent three years working in

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

in Aachen. Mike then went to University in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

, where she studied Africa, philosophy, German and ethnology. During college Mika worked in radio and various newspapers. In her thirties, she changed her career to journalism. In 1988, Mika began working for ''

''. Ten years later, she became one of the editors-in-chief in 1998 and the following year Mika became the sole editor-in-chief. She left the paper in mid-July 2009. Mika has worked as a professor at the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the second largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research uni ...

since 2007 and was joint head of the cultural journalism course until March 2014. Since leaving that position Mika has been editor-in-chief of the ''

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (''FR'') is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. The ''Rundschaus editorial stance is social liberal. It holds that "independence, social justice and fairness" underlie its journalism. In Post-wa ...

''. Initially she was working with Arnd Festerling but since March 2019 it has been with Thomas Kaspar. Mika wrote a biography of

Alice Schwarzer Alice Sophie Schwarzer (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal '' EMMA''. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-ab ...

which was published in 1998. The work created some controversy due to her ambivalent analysis of Schwarzer. Despite her services to the women's movement Mika claimed Schwarzer also showed contempt for women and was somewhat hostile. Mika was a member of the Media Council of the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Institute from 2003 to 2009. She is also on the board of trustees of Journalists Network and from 2018 she's been on the Board of Trustees for the Peace prize,

Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. The prize has been awarded since 1950. The re ...

Awards

*1994 Emma Journalist Award *2012 Luise Büchner Prize for Journalism *2017 Hedwig Dohm certificate

Bibliography

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References and sources

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mika, Bascha 1954 births Living people German women journalists German newspaper journalists People from Opole County Die Tageszeitung people German newspaper editors German women newspaper editors Silesian-German people Academic staff of the Berlin University of the Arts