Meike Rötzer

Meike Rötzer was born in 1971 in Westphalia. She spent a school year in the United States and completed her Abitur at the Birklehof boarding school. From 1992 to 1996, she studied acting at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. She then held permanent engagements at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the Städtische Bühnen Kiel, followed by freelance productions at the Sophiensaele in Berlin, Theaterdiscounter, and the Altonaer Theater in Hamburg. She also appeared in television productions such as Hinter Gittern, Die Heiland, SOKO Leipzig, and Ich will (k)ein Kind von Dir.

Starting in 2008, Rötzer worked as a fiction editor at Matthes & Seitz Berlin, where she collaborated with authors such as Frank Witzel, Angela Steidel, and Zora del Buono. She played a key role in the Naturkunden series, which helped establish nature writing in the German-speaking literary world. Alongside this, she returned to the stage, gave readings, and wrote and narrated radio features and audiobooks.

Since 2021, Rötzer has been producing the podcast Naturerkunden, with episodes such as Missing Baobabs and Discussing Rats. In 2022, she founded the publishing house Erzählbuchverlag, which transforms classic literary and theatrical works into modern narrative forms. She has adapted works such as Penthesilea, The Robbers, To the Lighthouse, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

In 2023, Rötzer was nominated for the German Audiobook Award in the category “Best Female Narrator.” Her solo piece The Magic Mountain was performed with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2025, her collaboration continued with Orlando and, in October, with Anna Karenina.