Dick Wittenberg

Dick Wittenberg (1953) is a Dutch journalist and writer. His ambition to write started when he was about seven years old and the urge never stopped. Three years ago, after working for 30 years as a journalist for several newspapers, he decided to focus more on writing non-fiction books. This resulted in three books: Prikkeldraad (Barbed wire) 2015, Het gezicht van armoede (The face of poverty) 2015, and Binnen is het donker, buiten is het licht (inside it’s dark, outside it’s clear) 2013. The last book was crowned with the Bob den Uyl prize and the Dirk Scherpenzeel prize. He now works as correspondent ‘worldsavers’ at the online journalistic platform The Correspondent.

Career

It was early in life that Wittenberg knew he wanted to become a writer. Although his dad passed away when he was still young, Wittenberg remembers sitting beside him in the living room watching him write. From that moment on he wanted to become a writer too. As his dad was an accountant it seems more likely that he was noting numbers instead of writing stories but these domestic scenes resulted in Wittenbergs desire to become a writer. In the assumption that writers and journalists were the same thing he left for Utrecht to study journalism.

The educational innovations of the seventies that implied democratization of education did not work well for Wittenberg. For a young man that wanted to do well, the project based subjects and excessive freedom did not give him the descent foundation he would have liked. What did help to gain writing skills was his range of correspondence friends that made him write six to seven letters a day.

‘Writing, even when you only write small letters, is always useful.’

But even though his study didn’t provide him with a good set of skills he never worried about getting a job. He just wanted to get started and learn the profession by experience. He returned to Eindhoven and applied for the first job he could find from there on he applied for other jobs. Wittenberg ended up at the Institute of social research for Surinamese. Maybe this is where his affection with minorities started but because of an incident with corrupt management this job ended.

A while after the resignation he started at NRC Handelsblad as a correspondent Eindhoven, reporting the news of Philips and PSV. It seems characteristic for the unruly attitude of Wittenberg that he moved to the sports department when he wanted something else. In the time the department was highly unpopular and conservative. Because he wasn’t interested in just reporting games he shone a new light on the department by publishing background stories of sportsmen and analysing sports behaviour instead of just reporting a match.

Due to the NRC Handelsblad he also ended up as a reporter in London. In the contrary of his preference to be situated in a place in the shadow he was now staged in the spotlights. This pressure weighed heavy on him; besides long working hours and a baby at home, he felt the responsibility towards his paper because of the enormous financial outlay for his correspondence.  With unstable politics and the death of princess Dianna it were tempestuous times for England and consequently also for Wittenberg. Publishing everyday worked addictive and ego flattering but eventually also caused a burnout.

‘Publishing everyday worked addictive and ego flattering but eventually also caused a burnout.’

When he returned to the Netherlands he could start as an editor on the foreign department focussing mainly on Africa. Although he never thought of it himself, it appeared to be spot on. In this position he could fly to Africa four times a year, write background stories while not being obligated to bring the daily news. Obviously he mainly visited countries nobody was originally interested in, and reported stories that would otherwise not be told.

But the times are over that newspapers had the financial resources to fly reporters all over the world several times a year. As we come to talk about contemporary journalism and how digitalization influenced journalism does Wittenberg make clear that he doesn’t see a substantial difference between pressed or digital journalism. But he does observe an increasing level of snack-content in articles. I'm not sure if he is joking when he talks about some contemporary journalist as ‘modern vampires’. By this term he means journalists who are reporting gossip and celebrity news instead of covering the role of a trustable guide, as he likes to see the true journalist.

Books

The ideas for his books were born during his last years of employment at the NRC. Because of a shrinking budget there was no money available for thorough research and long background stories. But Wittenberg stayed occupied with his ideas and decided to quit his job and become a freelancer. With some rough ideas for his books he found a publisher and raised the necessary funds. This way he created a particular certainty for himself and enabled himself to become a book writer after all. Simultaneously Rob Wijnberg started the online platform The Correspondent and Wittenberg decided to join on a freelance basis. 

The research for his books turned out to be a fantastic experience for him. In the contrary to writing for a newspaper he experienced the freedom to follow side-tracks and didn’t feel the pressure of tight deadlines. For his book Prikkeldraad he visited the place in America where barbed wire was invented and ended up in an elderly home that was funded by money made in the barbed wire industry. This home fascinated him so much that he stayed there for almost his whole stay. His eyes twinkle when we talk about his ‘barbed wire journey’.

Wittenberg wants to create decent and enjoyable pieces of writing and by doing so he wants to contribute to society 

Later it becomes clear that twinkling eyes are the highest profit you get from publishing non-fictional books about subjects most people walk past. His previous books were on the Malawian village Dickisoni that Wittenberg follows for over 10 years. The daily poverty that is normal to half of the world’s population. The connection between this village and Wittenberg is strong and he tries to return every year.  He sais that it keeps him grounded and reminds him to all that is good in life. It’s one of the greatest privileges of his career that he was able to travel so much for his work and is accepted in a culture that is so different from our own.

When I ask about the origin of his engagement to minority groups and subjects Wittenberg refers to his youth. He grew up in de Bennekel, a deprived urban area in Eindhoven. Because of the choices and support of his mom he was able to escape this milieu but never forgot where he grew up. He always stayed connected to minorities in the shadow of society. But this is not the goal of his writership. Wittenberg wants to create decent and enjoyable pieces of writing and by doing so he wants to contribute to society  Additionally he emphasizes that he doesn’t want to write about celebrities and superficial media events. He prefers to write background stories that the reader doesn’t read every day and in doing so enlighten people and events that are usually left aside.  

In his writing Wittenberg doesn’t necessarily looks out for stories; he comes across subjects that interest him and keeps an archive. (A small part of this archive is displayed on the title photo.) He later states that he doesn’t see himself as a journalist but more as an archivist, a storyteller and collector. Now he becomes older he also likes to share his knowledge with young journalists and likes to mentor writers with ambition.  After his books he decided to put his writing on the back burner but if it’s up to him he keeps writing and collecting stories till the end.