The Austrian-Swiss orientalist, theologian, journalist and non-fiction author Heinz Gstrein is dead. He died on Friday shortly before his 82nd birthday in Vienna, as his family announced on Sunday. The burial will take place according to the Greek Orthodox rite.
Gstrein, born on December 6, 1941 in Innsbruck, studied Oriental studies, Slavic studies and theology in Innsbruck, Istanbul, Vienna and Paris. For decades he worked as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where he reported for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), the Swiss radio DRS, the German Catholic News Agency (KNA) and also for Kathpress.