Theo Sommer

Theo Sommer is editor-at-large of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. He gained a PhD in history, began his career as a journalist in 1952, and has been with DIE ZEIT since 1958. He was its editor-in-chief from 1973 to 1992, and together with Marion Gräfin Dönhoff and Helmut Schmidt one of its publishers until April 2000. He is primarily interested in foreign policy and defence topics. In 1969-70 he was head of the planning staff at the West German Ministry of Defence under Helmut Schmidt, and in 1970-1972 and 1999-2001 served as a member of the German government's Defence Structure Commission.