He previously worked as an editor for Die Zeit and was head of arts and culture at Der Spiegel. The topics of his books range from the Beatles and the Stones to left-wing violence and Arab nationalist terrorism in the 1970s and 80s. His most recent book is Deutschland, eine Winterreise (2014). He is the recipient of the Ben Witter Prize (1998), the Otto Brenner Prize for Critical Journalism (2010), and the Michael Althen Prize (2013).