Christoph Tiemann (born December 1977) is a German actor, writer, playwright, audio theatre producer and broadcaster. He began his career in radio broadcasting in the late 1990s at the University of Münster and went on to work for WDR as a presenter on several radio programs since 2003. He is also known for his work in audio theatre in a variety of roles, acting and producing several audio plays since the 2000s and forming the ensemble Theater ex libris with their debut in 2010.
Life and career Early life and education Tiemann was born in December 1977 in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia and grew up in Selm to a Protestant family, the son of a civil servant and chemical laboratory technician. He attended Gesamtschule (comprehensive school) in Lünen and later went on to graduate from the University of Münster in 1998, studying psychology and religion. During his studies, he began his broadcast radio career as a presenter for , a campus radio station in Münsterland.
Early radio and acting career
Tiemann began his professional radio career in 2003 on 1LIVE, a radio station part of North Rhine-Westphalian public broadcaster WDR. He then joined the satirical radio program on WDR 2 since 2004. He was a writer and an actor on radio play crime series Eins Live Dekoder in 2005 on Deutschlandfunk. Since 2005 he has been a member of the Münster-based improvisational theatre placebotheater and has been an actor since 2006 at various theatre productions held at Theater Münster and Theater Oberhausen. Between 2007 and 2008 he produced the video podcast Das W-Team for Funke Mediengruppe. He also produced the radio play Mutabor in 2008, which was nominated for an award during the ARD Radio Play Days the same year. Since 2009, Tiemann began broadcasting on WDR 5 with his weekly column Tiemanns Wortgeflech, in which he entertainingly explains the origins of idioms and proverbs. For the 200th episode, he published a book version of the column titled Gebratene Störche mit phatten Beats.
Audio theatre and later broadcasting career
In 2010, Tiemann debuted his solo cabaret Kabarettverbot and was awarded the prizes and the by the cities of Reinheim and Melsungen in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He made his debut with his ensemble Theater ex libris with an adaptation of the American children book series Three Investigators in 2010 and since then have produced and performed over one hundred readings by 2016. Adaptations of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and A Christmas Carol have also been produced as live audio plays by Tiemann and Theater ex libris since 2017. The basis for the audio plays have been from the various authors' original texts which he edits and adapts for live audio performing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Tiemann introduced live streaming of selected audio plays in 2020 and 2021 after several cancelations of in-person performances. He released the first studio-recorded audio play adaptation of A Christmas Carol on CD in May 2021. In 2023, he debuted a new podcast about his ensemble and the first episode was released on 5 March.
Works Audio theatre Year Title Format Notes 2010–2018 Three Investigators Readers theater 2013–present Until the blood freezes Readers theater 2017–present "just one word” – a short story of love in 9 1/2 chapters Readers theater 2017–present The Little Prince Readers theater 2017–presentA Christmas Carol Live audio play 2019 Men's Stories Readers theater2019–present The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Live audio play2019–presentDracula Live audio play 2020–present Alarmstufe Mond Live audio play Original play created by Tiemann. 2020–presentTreasure IslandLive audio play2021–present FrankensteinLive audio play2021–presentThe Night of WishesLive audio play
Bibliography
Radio Year Program Station Notes 2004–present WDR 2 Contributor 2005 EinsLive Dekoder Speaker and author, radio play series 2009–present Tiemanns Wortgeflecht WDR 5 2011 Im Beichtstuhl WDR 5 2015 Zukunftsträumereien WDR 5 2016 3, 4, 7, 12, 13, 23 … Magisch, oder? WDR 5 2016 50 Jahre Star Trek WDR 5 2016 Kirk Douglas wird 100 WDR 5 2016–present Tiemanns Meldung der Woche WDR 5 Series 2019 Alexander von Humboldt: Feature 250 WDR 5
Stage As actor Year Title Location Notes 2006 The Broken Jug Städtische Bühnen Münster 2006 Minetti Städtische Bühnen Münster 2006 Betrogen Städtische Bühnen Münster 2007Richard IIIStädtische Bühnen Münster2007 King Arthur Städtische Bühnen Münster2008 At the Arche at EightTheater Oberhausen 2009 “O wide valleys, o heights”Städtische Bühnen Münster
As playwright Year Title Notes2003Waiting for Bobby Watson 2004Othello – Away from Africa2006The All American Arztroman2015MOON ROCKET MASSACRE, A Retrofuturistical2015The Martian Chronicles2017The SOAP thing
Awards Tiemann received the 2020/2021 Münsterland Journalism Award in Culture/Tourism for his broadcast series Tiemann testet from WDR Lokalzeit Münsterland. He has also received in 2016 the Economic and Cultural Promotion Prize by the city of Selm, his hometown.
References
External sources
Christoph Tiemann official website
Christoph Tiemann at Stadtensemble Münster