Until 1991 Holger Stark studied journalism in Munich and Berlin before he started working as an editor for the Berliner Zeitung. From 1993 until 1998 he studied political science at the Otto-Suhr-Institute at the Free University of Berlin and besides his studies he continued working as a journalist for Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg and Radio Fritz in Babelsberg. After three years as editor at the Berliner Tagesspiegel Stark started working for “Der Spiegel” magazine where he was – amongst other functions – head of the Germany department as well as correspondent for the USA in Washington D.C. before he moved on to become a member of the editorial board of Die ZEIT where he is responsible for investigative research.