Axel Brüggemann was born in Bremen on December 19, 1971. He studied history, musicology and art history at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg. During his studies he worked for Die Welt, and the Frankfurter Rundschau as an opera critic, and also for Deutschlandfunk and the BBC. As culture editor and head of copywriting, Brüggemann was part of the editorial team at Welt am Sonntag before deciding to go freelance. He has published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Stern and other papers. Brüggemann has made numerous films as a director and writer, including the series Epochs in Music History for arte, numerous documentaries for ARD, such as on The Magic Flute or Für Elise, and the documentary Der heilige und der Papst (ZDF). Brüggemann also created the most successful SKY docu-series in 2019, the six-part Porn Culture. Brüggemann has developed numerous TV concepts, including for Stars of Tomorrow (arte/ZDF), and for his own show from the Bayreuth Festival on SKY he was awarded the Bavarian Television Prize and nominated for the Grimme Prize. 2022 saw the release of his feature film Wagner, Bayreuth and the Rest of the World, which was nominated for the German Documentary Film Award. Brüggemann has written numerous books, including the autobiography of Franz Welser-Möst Möst Wie ich die Stille fand, which was number one on the bestseller list in Austria. Brüggemann has also written two Wagner biographies, a Mozart book, a music history for young people (Wie Krach zu Musik wird / Beltz&Gelberg) and books on politics and society (Landfrust, Wir holen uns die Politik zurück).His concept for the DG series Der Kleine Hörsaal was awarded the ECHO-Klassik.Brüggemann hosted a program on Klassik-Radio and now runs the weekly podcast Alles klar, Klassik? for the Liz Mohn Stiftung. He also has a classical music column on SWR2. His weekly newsletter Die Klassik-Woche for Crescendo is one of Germany's most successful classical music newsletters. Brüggemann now writes for numerous media, including the Jüdische Allgemeine, Focus, Stern, Der Freitag and Cicero.