Christian Liebig

Unlikely war reporter

Christian Liebig, journalist: born Offenbach am Main, Germany 31 March 1968; died near Baghdad 7 April 2003.

On day 12 of the Iraq conflict, Christian Liebig celebrated his 35th birthday among strangers in the Iraqi desert. He was travelling northwards towards Baghdad with the US 3rd Infantry Division, one of the few German journalists "embedded" with coalition troops. Liebig felt that it was important to witness and analyse events at first hand, a controversial viewpoint among many of his compatriots, who demonstrated their distaste for the war by keeping their distance.

Liebig's birthday went largely unremarked. The convoy was surviving on reduced rations, after overindulging in the first week, and progress through sandstorms and rains had been slow. Liebig had already heard from colleagues in Munich about one present that awaited on his return: the Editor-in-Chief of Focus, Helmut Markwort, promised him paid leave in honour of his excellent work.

His sober reporting from Iraq deserved this plaudit. Liebig managed to convey the human realities of conflict without placing himself centre-stage. Only in conversation with friends and colleagues did he discuss his own fears, which grew, rather than diminished, as days passed. He had imagined a more organised conflict, with defined fronts, where reporters could determine to some extent the level of risk they were prepared to endure. Instead, he found himself under frequent fire. He slept wearing the trousers of his chemical protection suit with essentials stowed in its pockets – notebooks and multiple pens, penknife, torch and cigarettes.

On Day 19, Liebig remained at base camp with a Spanish colleague, Julio Anguita Parrado, rather than accompanying troops on a raid into the centre of Baghdad. He took this decision, as he ruefully admitted, because "security takes precedence". He died when an Iraqi rocket struck the camp, also killing Parrado and two American soldiers.

That Liebig did not revel in the quasi-military life of an embedded journalist came as no surprise. Central casting would never have selected him as a war reporter. His wry humour and wire-rimmed glasses suggested an academic bent. He had, indeed, written a postgraduate thesis on "The Image of Germany in Time and Newsweek". His father was a manager for Lufthansa and Christian looked set to follow him into management. After a year's national service in the tank division of the German army, he studied Business Administration at Bayreuth University for two years before switching courses. He spent five years, 1990-95, studying Communications, Political Science and Economics at the University of Essen.

During his studies, he not only completed placements with a number of news organisations, but also organised trips into conflict zones including East and West Slavonia and Croatia. He had a gift for languages and spoke fluent English, French and Spanish and basic Serbo-Croat.

His awareness of the problematics of foreign reporting informed his career as a journalist, first for Associated Press in Germany and, since 1999, for the weekly news magazine Focus, covering subjects as diverse as famine in East Africa and the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

He was a devoted fan of the football team Eintracht Frankfurt and leaves a longterm partner, Beatrice von Keyserlingk.

Catherine Mayer