Thomas Kielinger Keynote Speaker

Thomas Kielinger OBE is an authoritative political commentator and historian.

In 1971, Thomas joined the prestigious German daily newspaper ‘Die Welt’ in Hamburg as its literary critic. In 1977, he was made Die Welt’s chief correspondent in Washington DC to coincide with the inauguration of the United States President Jimmy Carter, and later in the era of Ronald Reagan.

After his time in the US, he became Editor-in-Chief of the German weekly newspaper Rheinischer Merkur from 1985 to 1994. From 1994 to 1998 he pursued his own business as writer, broadcaster and political consultant. In 1998 he was invited to rejoin Die Welt, to become the paper’s correspondent in London, a position he still holds.

Several books testify to his abiding interest in Anglo-German history: “Crossroads and Roundabouts: Junctions in German-British Relations” (1997), “Großbritannien”, a country portrait as part of a series called “Die Deutschen und ihre Nachbarn” (The Germans and Their Neighbours, 2009), as well as a biography of Queen Elizabeth II – “Das Leben der Queen” (2011). He published “Winston Churchill: Der Späte Held” (Winston Churchill: The Late Hero) in 2014.

Thomas is a regular panelist on the BBC News weekly news discussion programme Dateline London, featuring a roundtable panel of foreign and British journalists.