Curriculum vitae Prof. Dr Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun Short bio
Prof Dr Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun (www.meier-braun.de) is the Baden-Württemberg State Chairman of the German United Nations Association (DGVN) and a member of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations in Stuttgart (ifa). He is a migration expert, consultant, moderator and author of numerous publications on the subject of migration and integration. He is an honorary professor at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen (uni-tuebingen.de). For many years he was head of the editorial department and integration officer at Südwestrundfunk (SWR). Meier-Braun is a co-founder of the Baden-Württemberg Migration and Integration Forum (www.mif-bw.de). In 2021, he was honoured with the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg for his commitment to integration work.
Further biographical notes
Prof Dr Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun combines practice and theory. He founded the specialised editorial department for migration issues "SWR International" at Südwestrundfunk in Stuttgart. He is also a professor at the University of Tübingen. As a journalist and lecturer, he believes that the media and politicians have a shared responsibility to familiarise the public with the topic of immigration. He points out integration deficits and just as clearly points out the prospects of a modern immigration policy.
Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun has been Integration Commissioner at SWR since 1995, the first Commissioner for Foreigners - as it was called at the time - at an ARD broadcasting organisation. In books and publications, he points out in a way that is understandable to the layperson that the acceptance of immigration makes social and economic sense and that more must be done for migrants living in Germany if integration is to work.
Prof Meier-Braun joined the then Süddeutscher Rundfunk in 1976, worked in the regional editorial office, at Radio Stuttgart, in regional politics and was head of the "Regional News" department. He reported on "foreigner issues" and Turkey in numerous programmes. He later built up the foreigners editorial team and in 1988 launched the media forum "Foreigners with us", a renowned institution not only within ARD, which took place for the 18th time in 2023 as the SWR Media Forum Integration.
Born to a refugee family in Leer on 25 September 1950, he grew up in Mössingen near Tübingen. Married to Margot Meier-Braun (retired teacher at a special school in Stuttgart), one son, Marvin, art historian.
Studied political science and English language and literature at the University of Tübingen (1st state examination). 1979 Doctorate on "Voluntary rotation - foreigner policy using the example of the Baden-Württemberg state government." Since 1992 honorary professor at the University of Tübingen, where he had previously worked as a lecturer, also at the University of Stuttgart. State Chairman of the German United Nations Association (DGVN) Baden-Württemberg e.V. since 2003 DGVN Baden Württemberg (dgvn-bw.de), former board member of the DGVN Federal Association.
Member of ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and on the Board of Trustees of the "Forum der Kulturen" Stuttgart Forum der Kulturen Stuttgart e. V. - Forum der Kulturen (forum-der-kulturen.de).
Member of the Council for Migration (RfM), of which he was deputy chairman for many years and during which time he helped found the Integration Media Service - information platform for media professionals (mediendienst-integration.de).
In 2002, he founded the "Wissenschaftsforum Migration und Integration Baden-Württemberg" with the then integration commissioner of the state government of Baden-Württemberg, from which the "Netzwerk Integrationsforschung Baden-Württemberg" emerged. Continued today as a cooperation model together with the State Centre for Political Education Baden-Württemberg and the Ministry of Integration by Meier-Braun, it works together with universities and civil society: www.mif-bw.de.
Various awards, including the Schader Foundation Prize for Social Sciences with Practical Relevance (1995) "for the long-standing and effective implementation of social science findings in practice in the field of migration". In 2021, he was honoured with the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg for his commitment to integration work. Minister President Winfried Kretschmann honoured Meier-Braun's work and achievements with the words: "You have made a significant contribution to ensuring that migration-related issues can be reported on and discussed in our state in an objective and comprehensible manner."
Prof Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun was a member of Working Group 3 "Business and Media as a Bridge" of the German Islam Conference (DIK) and of the State Advisory Council for Migration and Integration of the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate. In Mainz, he also co-founded the "Virtual Migration Museum" at the rlp.de homepage.
In the state parliaments of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse, he was invited as an expert by the commissions of enquiry on integration policy. He was also a member of the advisory board of the state foundation project "Mit Zivilcourage gegen Extremismus" in Baden-Württemberg.
As the initiator of the travelling exhibition "Between coming and going ... and yet staying: Guest workers in Germany between 1955 and 1973", which was on display for ten years, he set an example in terms of remembrance culture.
He has dedicated numerous meetings, events and conferences to this topic, as well as to the current debate on migration and integration. The conference "Women, Flight and Migration" on 12 October 2023 in Stuttgart was largely developed and designed by him: Women, Flight and Migration 2023 (mif-bw.de), with a special focus on the migration history of "guest workers". Meier-Braun has written a dossier on this topic Women, Flight and Migration (lpb-bw.de) as well as on many other migration topics with background material.
A particular focus is always on the history of migration, in numerous radio programmes, magazine articles and books.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Oberndörfer, founder and long-standing director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute Freiburg and the Council for Migration, honoured Meier-Braun's work with the following words, among others: "In the sum of his achievements, Meier-Braun is one of the very few people who has had a very significant impact on the academic and public discourse on migration and integration from its inception in the 1980s until today ... Professor Meier-Braun is a type of academic who is still rather rare in Germany and still not duly appreciated, who can present complicated issues in a simple and understandable way without abandoning the foundations of serious scholarship." Karl-Heinz Meier-Braun
His most recent publications include:
Meier-Braun, Karl-Heinz/Reinhold Weber (eds.): Deutschland Einwanderungsland. Begriffe - Fakten - Kontroversen, 3rd ed., Stuttgart 2017.
Meier-Braun, Karl-Heinz/Weber Reinhold: Ein Koffer voll Hoffnung. Das Einwanderungsland Baden-Württemberg, Tübingen 2019. Immigration and asylum. The 101 most important questions, 3rd edition, Munich 2017.
Schwarzbuch Migration. The dark side of our refugee policy, Munich 2018. Eliminating the causes of flight! The international community faces a task of the century, in: Todesursache Flucht, ed. by Kristina Milz and Anja Tuckermann, 3rd ed., Berlin 2023.