Frank A. Meyer awarded the Federal Cross of Merit

The citation states, among other things: "Thanks to his media presence in Germany and Switzerland and his regular columns in magazines in both countries, Frank A. Meyer is a widely respected voice in the German-speaking world, dedicating himself with great journalistic commitment to current, sometimes controversial, cross-border issues and thus making an important contribution to a better understanding of the problems and challenges of the respective neighboring countries as well as in the pan-European context."

Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, presented Frank A. Meyer with the Cross of Merit at a ceremony in Berlin today.

Publisher Michael Ringier on Frank A. Meyer: "The most highly regarded publicists oppose the zeitgeist, which they also represent. Frank A. Meyer is one of them. An exceptional profile in journalism also involves polarizing. Frank A. Meyer never shies away from the risk of being caught between a chair and a bench. He resolutely defends his point of view and has thus shaped Swiss journalism for half a century. His columns in SonntagsBlick and Cicero magazine are still an event to this day."

Frank A. Meyer, born in 1944 in Biel/Switzerland, grew up in a family of watchmakers and completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter. From 1968 to 1980, he was a partner in the Biel media company "Büro Cortesi". From 1972 to 1980, Frank A. Meyer shaped local politics as President of the "Freie Bieler Bürger", and from 1976 to 1980 he was a member of Biel's city parliament.

His journalistic career for the Ringier media house began in 1972 as a journalist for Schweizer Illustrierte. In 1978, he co-founded the bilingual weekly newspaper Biel-Bienne and wrote as a columnist for theSonntagsBlick.

From 1970 until the 1990s, Frank A. Meyer was considered the most influential political journalist in Switzerland. In 1985 he became a member of the Ringier Group Executive Board and in 1989 a lecturer in media culture at the University of St. Gallen.

Meyer hosted the 3sat program Vis-à-vis, produced by Swiss television, for 36 years. In 2004, he co-founded the magazine for political culture "Cicero" in Berlin. Since then, he has been attracting attention on the German political scene with his column.

Frank A. Meyer has been President of the Hans Ringier Foundation, which includes the Ringier School of Journalism, since 1997. On his initiative, the foundation has been awarding the European Prize for Political Culture since 2006.

Frank A. Meyer has lived in Berlin with his wife, cultural journalist Lilith Frey, for more than ten years.