Michael Thumann

Icy silence downstream. A journey from Moscow to Berlin.

In dialog, literature

Based on his latest book, Michael Thumann describes his journey from Moscow across Russia's heavily guarded external borders, first eastwards towards Central Asia, then westwards via the Baltic states and Poland to Germany, in vivid reports and eyewitness accounts. On his way from East to West, he meets people from all over Eastern Europe and describes their fears of Russia's revanchism and belligerence. Or their hasty submission in the face of Putin's incessant expansionism. Michael Thumann also looks back on his own family history, the fall of the Berlin Wall and his shattered dreams in the Putin era. He traces the reasons for the precarious German-Russian relationship in the past and present.

Michael Thumann is a foreign affairs correspondent for DIE ZEIT, working from Moscow and Berlin. He has been reporting from Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East for DIE ZEIT since the 1990s. His bestseller Revanche was published in 2023. Wie Putin das bedrohlichste Regime der Welt geschaffen hat (C.H. Beck). His latest book Eisiges Schweigen flussabwärts has been nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize 2025.