LMU alumna Carolin Matzko: “If your path supports you: Go for it”

Ms. Matzko, at this year’s LMU Foundation Day celebration, you moderated the round table entitled “More Women. More Science.” What changes would you like to see to enable more women to reach top positions?

Carolin Matzko: Universities were originally created for men. And some of this “fortress mentality” seems to have survived to the present day. Men still have strong professional networks. I’m also well aware of this from the entertainment industry, where women are often still regarded as outsiders. For a long time, I found this incredibly tiresome and degrading. That’s why I think it’s fantastic that LMU’s new president, Matthias Tschöp, has expressed his desire to see more women engaged in science.

You studied political science, communication science, and sociology at LMU. What do you remember about your time as a student?

Matzko: At the time, I felt completely lost at this huge university. It took me several semesters before I stopped walking into the wrong classrooms. (Laughs) But because there were two other clueless students standing outside the wrong lecture room just like me, I ended up making two really good friends. Looking back, I wish I’d had more guidance and known at a much earlier stage what studying at university actually entailed. For a long time, I didn’t even understand what I was expected to do. Back then, I thought I simply wasn’t clever enough to be at university. But that wasn’t true – I did at least manage to complete my degree. So if there’s anyone reading this who is going through a similar crisis, my message to them is simple: If I managed to do it, you can do it too!

If you reflect back on your degree, what aspect of it has been especially useful in your professional career, and what do you feel you missed out on?

Matzko: Honestly, not that much. To be truthful, when I left high school, I didn’t have the inner calm or the level of maturity I needed to focus on a university degree. That’s why it was a good decision after two semesters to put my political science degree on hold for a little while and join the SWR youth radio station Dasding in Baden-Baden. I was very much thrown in at the deep end when I first arrived, but I realized that it was exactly the right place for me. Fortunately, there was a stipulation at the time that you had to complete your degree within two years, so that’s what I did. At university, I picked up the basic knowledge I needed to understand politics and society. What has really stayed with me has been my sociology thesis on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of distinction. I even had his name printed on a T-shirt and wore it on the TV show Ringlstetter. I received lots of positive messages from sociology fans after I did this.

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You’ve worked as a radio presenter on Bayern 2, hosted youth television programs on BR-alpha, presented around 800 science programs on ARTE and ARD, and spent nine years working as Hannes Ringlstetter’s sidekick on his TV show. Did you intend to work this much or did you have to?

Matzko: I was told from an early age, “No one is going to take on financial responsibility for you or your life, so make sure you have a broad range of work.” As I have ADHD, I have a keen interest in everything and so I’ve never specialized in one particular area. At university, I learned that no matter how obscure a subject might seem, once you immerse yourself in it, a whole new universe opens up. If I’d not adopted this versatile approach, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to live in Munich.

You spent nine years working on Hannes Ringlstetter’s talk show before the program ended last year. What’s your next project?

Matzko: I’ve just released five episodes of my new TV format “Die Supertiere” (“The Super Animals”), available in the ARD Media Library, and I’ve launched my new podcast entitled “Zitronen-Leben am Limo” on ARD Sounds. In addition, I host the podcast Science Tea Time, write as a guest columnist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and I’m currently pitching my third book. Unfortunately, life is becoming more difficult for people who work in the media. I was fortunate enough to experience television during its golden years, when long-running formats were still common. But as I’m almost 47, you have to keep moving along. If you sit around waiting for someone to roll out the red carpet and offer you the perfect tailor-made job, that’s not going to happen. Fortunately, I get bored easily, so I’m always trying new things. I find my work meaningful, and these days I also only work with people I genuinely like.

You also teach at the German School of Journalism. What tips do you try to pass on to your young students?

Matzko: This academic year, I’ve teamed up with the school’s director, Henriette Löwisch, to launch a workshop entitled “Tolerating Different Opinions.” We examine the diversity of opinion in journalism and how journalists should handle representatives of extremist political parties. Working with young aspiring journalists means a great deal to me, and engaging with them reminds me why I chose this profession in the first place. The German School of Journalism attracts the very best young talent, yet despite having such an excellent springboard, many of them are deeply anxious about their professional future. I firmly believe that journalism is one of the greatest professions in the world and I try to encourage them. Their worries genuinely cause me pain. The disruption caused by AI is still in its infancy. But I believe in journalism created by human beings and in natural intelligence. The passion that my students have makes me determined and fills me with hope. I’m not interested in a constant sense of doom and gloom. If this is the job you really want to do and you’re passionate about it: Go for it.

From your perspective, have the challenges facing women changed over recent years?

Matzko: In radio and print journalism, I’ve not had any negative experiences. What matters there is still the spoken or written word. But when it comes to entertainment on television, the people on camera have their appearance judged, especially women. Whatever you look like, you’ll increasingly be judged against aesthetic and sexualized criteria. And one thing that has always troubled me is the fact that women often attack other women on social media. This doesn’t help us move forward. Instead of putting obstacles in each other’s way, we should stick together more.

In your book entitled Alte Wut (Old Anger), published by PIPER Verlag, you recount your own family’s story, the impact of the Second World War on your family, and your own experiences of mental illness. What inspired you to write such a personal book?

Matzko: For me, it was an obvious decision to tell my family’s story because politics and our private lives have always been closely intertwined in our family. After all, my father is a member of the Alternative für Deutschland political party. I wanted to write a book about the transgenerational transmission of trauma that also serves as a road movie and highlights the psychological factors behind radicalization. Choosing an extremist party or casting a protest vote is very much linked to a sense of disappointment and a feeling of inferiority and victimhood. I’ve been heavily influenced by the sociological study by Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey that was published in the book “Zerstörungslust” (“Desire for Destruction”). Many of the reasons they identified for why people become radicalized were things I also recognized in my own family. But I’m not an expert on radicalization and I didn’t want to write an academic book. I simply wanted to tell our story in an engaging way and contribute to the wider public discourse.

You were a member of Germany’s Federal Convention that elected the Federal President in 2022 and your book received the “Bridge Builder” Award from the SPD parliamentary group in the Bavarian state parliament. Have you ever considered a political career?

Matzko: (Laughs) No, definitely not. I’m far too undiplomatic and I tend to speak my mind. I honestly don’t know why the SPD nominated me back then. Maybe they knew me from the Ringlstetter show, or maybe they just wanted to go for a drink with me. That’s a perfectly good reason too. But I’m glad the SPD still exists in Bavaria.