About Me | GERALD DRISSNER

About me
About my life

Gerald Drißner (Drissner), born in 1977, grew up in Austria in a mountain village in the Arlberg region. He is a graduate economist and Arabist. He learned the craft of journalism at the Henri Nannen School of Journalism.

Gerald Drißner has lived in more than half a dozen countries. He is currently based in Berlin, Germany.

Alpine village

Gerald is an experienced skier and alpinist, having grown up in one of the most challenging ski resorts in the world, the Arlberg.
He has been programming since his youth and was connected to the outside world via his mailbox (BBS) even before the Internet.
Gerald went to secondary school in Innerbraz in Klostertal.
He later graduated from the commercial academy in Bludenz.
He then studied economics at the Universities of Innsbruck and Münster (graduating in 2003 with a degree in economics; Mag. rer. soc. oec.).

Journalism

Gerald has more than twenty years of experience in magazine and newspaper journalism and has been working as a freelance journalist for more than 15 years.
He started working as a freelancer for the Vorarlberger Nachrichten at the age of 16.
During his studies, he worked as a trainee at the Austrian news magazine profil in Vienna.
After completing his training at the Henri Nannen School of Journalism (2004/05) in Hamburg, he was employed as an editor at Stern magazine in the Germany section (D2).
Gerald later left the job at his own request to study Arabic in Egypt.
In Cairo, Gerald worked as a guest editor for the Egyptian daily newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.

Arab World

Gerald has lived abroad for more than twelve years – in the Middle East, North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia), Turkey and Greece.
Gerald studied Arabic at the University of Alexandria/Egypt (2007 – 2012).
He has traveled to the most important Arab countries.
He was one of the few German-speaking journalists to experience the Arab Spring in Egypt at first hand, as he was studying Arabic in Alexandria at the time.
During the financial and refugee crisis, Gerald lived in Athens for two years and dealt intensively with the economic and social consequences.