Daniel Funke (born 23 July 1981) is a German journalist. Since 2019 he has been the head of the

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

office and

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

at BurdaVerlag, a division of German media company

Hubert Burda Media Hubert Burda Media Holding is a German media group with headquarters in Offenburg. It originated as a small printing business, founded by Franz Burda Snr in Philippsburg, in 1903. In 1986, the corporate group was divided up between Franz Jnr ...

. From 2002 to 2009, he studied

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German ...

("Germanistik") and history at Humboldt-Universität Berlin. Between 2004 and 2007, he also worked at the private TV channel

Sat. 1 Sat.1 is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group. It is considered the first privately owned television network in Germany, having been launched in January 1984 as ''PKS'' ''(Programmgesellschaf ...

and the magazine ''Blitz'' ("Flash"). In 2007, he became an editor at ''

Bunte ''Bunte'' (company's preferred spelling in capital letters) is a German-language weekly celebrity gossip magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. The first edition was published in 1948 under the name ''Das Ufer''. Under the leadership of Hube ...

'', a German people magazine, and in 2012, the head of its Berlin office.

Personal life

Funke has been married to German politician and former federal secretary of health Jens Spahn ( CDU) since 2017.

General

Funke caused controversy with a story he wrote for ''Bunte'' magazine about the then-new US ambassador Richard Grenell, which presented Grenell in a very positive light. The story didn't reveal that Funke and Spahn were friends with Grenell and his partner Matt Lashey and could therefore be seen as a political favour to ease Grenell's entry into German politics.

FFP 2 masks dealings

Funke again caused controversy in March 2021 when it was revealed that his employer had sold 570,000 FFP 2 masks without a formal bidding process conducted by the Federal Ministry of Health, which was led by his husband, Jens Spahn.

References

1981 births Living people Gay men German male journalists {{Germany-journalist-stub