From 1998 to July 2009, she was editor-in-chief of Die Tageszeitung and has held the same post at Frankfurt Rundschau since April 2014.

At Die Tageszeitung, Mika was the only female editor-in-chief of a national newspaper in Germany.

Born Barbara Mika in Komprachcice, near Opole in Upper Silesia in 1954, her family moved to Aachen in West Germany in 1959.

Mike then went to University in Bonn and Marburg, where she studied Africa, philosophy, German and ethnology.

Mika has worked as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2007 and was joint head of the cultural journalism course until March 2014.