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After school, Heidenreich studied German, journalism, religious studies and theater history at the universities of Munich, Hamburg and Berlin from 1963 to 1969. In 1965 she married Gert Heidenreich, later separated from him and in 1972 married Bernd Schroeder, from whom she is now also separated. From 1970 she worked as a freelancer for SWR television and radio. For example, in 1971 the radio play "The Birthdays of Gaby Hambacher" was created together with her husband, the writer and screenwriter Bernd Schröder. For seventeen years, from 1983 to 1999, she wrote a column in the magazine "Brigitte"; The title "Also" was characteristic. She wrote scripts for TV films and TV series for the broadcasters ZDF, WDR, SWF, SFB and BR. In 1972 she wrote the screenplay for the film "Nestwärme".
In 1983 she wrote the original for the TV film "Under German Roofs" and in 1987 for the TV title "Dreifacher Rittberger". She also wrote the play "Noah's Arch Enterprise" (1986). She also co-wrote the screenplay for the film "When Winter Comes". Elke Heidenreich later moderated talk shows such as "Kölner Treff" for WDR, "Leute" for SFB and "live from the opera" for ZDF. She also directed the program "Literaturclub" on Swiss television and the children's program "Überblick". Heidenreich also made a name for herself as a children's book author; For example, she wrote the cat story "Nero Corleone". In 1997 she was awarded the Dutch "Vlag en Wimpels" prize for this title, which was considered the most beautiful children's book of the year for children over six years old. In the same year, the title was honored with the French "Prix de la Lecture à Deux Voix" by the Ministry of Culture and Education as the most recommended children's book for 7 to 10 year olds. The cat stories are Elke Heidenreich's greatest literary success.
She became known to a wider audience as the butcher's wife "Else Stratmann" on radio, who glossed over contemporary events for a total of twelve years. In 1992 her first volume of short stories entitled "Colonies of Love" came out. In 1998 the children's and young people's book "At the South Pole - you think - it's hot" was published, which was on the children's and young people's book list of the Saarland Radio, WDR and Radio Bremen in the same year. The following year, her next work, "Sonst noch was", which she wrote together with Bernd Pfarr, was published. Together with her husband she wrote cheerful and melancholic stories under the title "Rowing Dogs". Elke Heidenreich's other awards include the Media Prize for Language Culture from the German Language Society in 1996. In the justification for the prize, her use of the language was described as creative and understandable. In 1999, the magazine "Eselsohr" awarded Heidenreich's work "Sonst noch was" with the rating "Falls out of the ordinary".
In 2001, her title "The World's Back", a volume of short stories, was published, which received good reviews. In April 2003, Elke Heidenreich began presenting the ZDF program "Reading". Six to eight times a year she takes you through the jungle of new literary releases and, together with her guests, recommends books that are particularly worth reading. For this program and her commitment to bringing reading back to young people, the presenter was awarded the "Bambi" in the "TV Presentation" category in November 2003. She was also honored with the honorary Adolf Grimme Prize in April 2006. On the occasion of Marcel Reich-Ranicki's sensational criticism of the program quality of public television, Elke Heidenreich supported him in an article in the FAZ. She also criticized ZDF.
On October 23, 2008, ZDF director Markus Schächter and program director Thomas Bellut terminated Heidenreich's employment contract. They interpreted Heidenreich's criticism as a labor law conflict. However, there was no statement on the quality debate. In 2010 she was awarded the Julius Campe Prize. Since 2012 she has been part of the criticism team of the Swiss "Literature Club", which she moderated from 1993 to 1994. In 2021, Heidenreich was awarded the Ernst Johann Literature Prize.
