Biography

Christoph Feurstein moved from the West-Austrian province of Vorarlberg to Austria's capital to pursue studies in German and Theatre History at the University of Vienna. At age 18 - in addition to attending academic classes - he began to work as an Assistant Director for the independent theatre company W.U.T.

In 1994 he began to create segments for Austrian television's (ORF) youth magazine "X-Large."
In a co-production, Christoph Feurstein developed and realized the series "Rollentausch" ("Role Swap") about young people from different backgrounds swapping lives for a few days.

He created many segments on socio-political topics for the youth broadcast "nitebox".
For a series called "City Guide" he generated documentaries about various European capitals. While working for "nitebox", he also gathered experience in directing broadcast-presentation.

In 1997, he was invited to serve as an editor and creator as part of the editorial staff for "Thema". For his report "Satanism, a youth cult" he was awarded the "Austrian State Prize for Journalistic Achievement in the Interest of Youth" in 1998.

One year later, he uncovered the sexual abuse of a severely mentally handicapped man at the "Haus of Barmherzigkeit" ("House of Mercy") by a clergyman.

This discovery led to fundamental personnel and organizational changes within the catholic institution.

In 2000, Christoph Feurstein was awarded the "Oesterreichischen Volksbildungspreis" ("Prize for the Education of the Austrian People") for his report "Der Fall Gross" ("The Case of Gross") about Nazi Physician Heinrich Gross. That same year, he also stepped in for Barbara van Melle as anchor of the broadcast "Thema".

From October of 2002 until November 2004 Christoph Feurstein anchored the lifestyle magazine "25- Das Magazin."

In September of 2005 - on three of his days off- he also was the anchor of the broadcast series "Mystery" for ORF2.

30 years after the terrorist attack on OPEC in Vienna, Feurstein produced the 45-minute dramatized documentary "Tage des Terrors" ("Days of Terror"), which was broadcast on ORF in December of 2005 and was sold to many TV-stations around the world thereafter.

In April of 2006, ORF showed a "Thema" special report created by Christoph Feurstein to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.