Philipp Blom

Philipp Blom (1970) is a historian and author of several novels and has published works on journalism, politics and philosophy. He also works as a radio presenter, documentary film maker and a public lecturer.

Philipp was born in Hamburg and grew up in Detmold, in northern Germany. After studying history, philosophy and Jewish studies in Vienna and Oxford, he gained a D.Phil. in nationalism. During this period, he also worked in journalism, taught at a secondary school, and wrote a novel. Like many of his subsequent books, it was written in English and translated into German by him.

From 1997 to 2001, Blom and his wife, writer Veronica Buckley, lived in London, where Philipp initially worked as an editor at a publishing house and as a foreign correspondent for German, Swiss and British newspapers and magazines (Guardian, Independent, TLS, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Züricher Zeitung) and for radio stations (BBC, ORF, Deutschlandfunk). In 2001, the couple moved to Paris to concentrate on their books. They’ve lived in Vienna since 2007.

In addition to his work on history, fiction, philosophy and art, Philipp presents the ‘Punkt 1’ programme on the Austrian radio station Ö1. He wrote and presented a TV documentary and curated exhibitions for, among others, the Vienna Museum and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, where Philipp was invited to work for a year in 2010. Lecture tours and festivals take Philipp throughout Europe as well as to the USA, Canada and South America.

Philipp Blom’s books combine historical research, philosophical enquiry and an essayistic, literary approach. Among his best-selling works are The Vertigo Years and Fracture, dealing with the cultural history of the early twentieth century, A Wicked Company, about the radical Enlightenment, Nature’s Mutiny, an investigation into history and climate change in the seventeenth century and, more recently, What is at Stake, dealing with climate change, digitalisation and democracy.

Philipp’s wide-ranging work and research interests have received numerous accolades. He won several international prizes (Premis Terenci Moix, Barcelona, Groene Waterman Prijs, Antwerp, NDR Kultur Buchpreis, Wolfenbüttel), and his books have been translated into sixteen languages. From 2009–2010 he was Fellow of the IFK and in 2017 Visiting Fellow at the IWM, both in Vienna. In 2018 he opened the prestigious Salzburg Festspiele with a widely-discussed speech on the future of the Enlightenment in a time of climate change.

Philipp took on the role of director of Dachstein Dialoge in 2024. Having wanted to become a violinist early in life, he also continues to make music and presents a series of concerts at the Vienna Konzerthaus.