Anton Austermann, Prof. Dr.

Prof. Dr. phil. Anton Austermann holds the position of ombudsman at the HIIG. In this role he acts as the Institute’s independent consultant and mediator.
Born in Wilhelmshaven in 1945, he has lived in Münster since 1964, and intermittently in Berlin since 1986.
He holds a degree in German Studies, History, Pedagogy and Philosophy and graduated with a higher education teaching certificate in 1970. He earned his PhD with a doctoral thesis on film and television education in 1974, and was awarded the venia legendi in 1982 for his postdoctoral research on the journalistic work of Kurt Tucholsky.
He was appointed Professor of Educational Science and Media Pedagogy at the University of Münster in 1983, and joined the Berlin University of the Arts in 1986, where he has served as Emeritus Professor since 01.04.2013. He became a founding member of the Department of Cultural Journalism in 2001 and of the Berlin Career College (Zentralinstitut für Weiterbildung -ZIW).
He turned down an offer from Heidelberg in 1993; long-serving Dean and Vice-Dean of the former Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences at the Berlin University of the Arts.
He has played an active part in advanced training for journalists since 1982 – on behalf of the Federal Agency for Political Education (bpb) as well as for publishers‘ and journalists‘ associations and independent newspaper publishers ranging from the Flensburger Tageblatt to the Konstanzer Südkurier.