With "M. is dead" Nastassja von der Weiden wins the prize for best piece at the Leipzig Radio Play Summer 2025

Nastassja von der Weiden works at the intersections of culture, society, and politics. At the Radio Play Summer Competition 2025, her radio play "M. is dead" was awarded as the best piece (Program Leipzig Radio Play Summer 2025: https://hoerspielsommer.de/programm/).

Von der Weiden is a freelance journalist with thematic focuses that reach directly into social debates: she writes and speaks about cultural-political and feminist issues; her research work deals, among other things, with victim protection, self-determination, and gender diversity. She works for several editorial offices, including MDR Kultur, MDR Sputnik, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, tagesschau.de, and MDR AKTUELL.

A freelance journalist with a clear profile

In her work, von der Weiden combines classic reportage and research formats with subject areas that are often politically contested: How are those affected protected? What responsibility do institutions bear? And how do terms, rights, and visibility change in a diverse society? These very questions shape her journalistic line – and explain why her contributions regularly appear where cultural and social topics are not treated as "marginal issues" but as political present.

Her professional background includes a master's degree in communication and media studies. She is also described as the editor of a Leipzig magazine on electronic music – an indication that she is also anchored in the environment of music culture and scene publics. Her interest is particularly in the intersections of society, culture, social space, and politics.

Award for "M. is dead" at the Radio Play Summer 2025

With "M. is dead" von der Weiden is visible not only journalistically but also artistically. The program of the Leipzig Radio Play Summer 2025 lists the piece as a twelve-minute production in which she took on the text, direction, and the speaker's role; editing and sound are attributed to Heather Karing. As a production, it is listed as a co-production by Nastassja von der Weiden and Heather Karing (https://hoerspielsommer.de/programm/). The performance is scheduled in the festival program for July 12, 2025.

The fact that a short, self-produced piece is awarded in a competition is also a signal: radio play work is no longer created only within broadcaster structures, but increasingly in small teams where author, direction, and voice come together closely. In such constellations, a subject can have a particularly immediate effect – and at the same time carry the author's signature more clearly.

Between journalism, culture, and club context

The awarding of the prize fits into a professional profile that combines research, cultural policy, and scene knowledge. Especially those who write about vulnerable spaces, power relations, and self-determination benefit from experience in milieus where questions of protection, boundaries, and responsibility become practical – not just theoretical. Von der Weiden's work thus moves between editorial public and cultural field: she reports on social lines of conflict and simultaneously develops forms that work beyond the classic article.

The award for "M. is dead" expands this profile by an artistic level – and underlines that von der Weiden can also sharpen topics she works on journalistically in auditory narrative forms: as an audio piece that relies on condensation, rhythm, and voice instead of the argumentative logic of a text.