Hans-Joachim Noack is one of the most celebrated political biographers in Germany, and his portraits of German chancellors have all been bestsellers.
He was a reporter for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau before joining the Spiegel, where he worked for many years, finally as the head of the politics desk. He has received many awards for his journalistic work, including the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize and the Theodor Wolff Prize. His most recent publications were Helmut Schmidt: The Biography (2008), Helmut Kohl: The Biography (2010, with Wolfram Bickerich) and Willy Brandt: One Life, One Century (2013).