Joachim Sartorius, born 1946 in Furth / Franconia, grew up in Tunis, studied law and political science in Munich, London and Paris (doctor of law). He served as a diplomat in New York, Istanbul, Prague and Nicosia until 1986. After holding various positions in the field of international cultural policy, he acted as head of the Goethe-Institute world-wide and (since 2001) has been Director General of the 'Berlin Festivals'. He has received grants from the DAAD, the Rockerfeller foundation and Collegium Hungaricum, won the Scheerbart prize for his translations of contemporary American poetry (1998), and is a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature, Darmstadt. Sartorius holds a professorship at the University of Arts in Berlin, where he teaches cultural theory.