Hasnain Kazim was born in 1974 in Oldenburg and is the son of Indian-Pakistan immigrants. He grew up in Hollern-Twielenfleth in the area of Altes Land, just outside Hamburg, and in Karachi in Pakistan, studied political science and started his career as a naval officer.
He learned the journalistic ropes in the German federal State Swabia at regional daily newspaper “Heilbronner Stimme”, he used to write for the South Asian office of dpa in Delhi, and between 2004 and 2019, for „Spiegel“. Doing so, he spent most of his time as foreign correspondent in Islamabad, Istanbul and Vienna.
Kazim has published multiple books, including “Grünkohl und Curry” (Kale and Curry), “Plötzlich Pakistan” (Suddenly Pakistan), “Post von Karlheinz” (Mailingy by Karlheinz) and the satire work “Mein Kalifat” (My Caliphate). He mostly publishes books, but also writes for German magazine “Spiegel”, daily newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, daily newspaper “taz”, Deutschlandfunk and other media outlets. He is based in Vienna.