Education
Sonneborn went to school in Osnabrück and studied Communication, German and Politics in Münster, Vienna and Berlin.
Sonneborn went to school in Osnabrück and studied Communication, German and Politics in Münster, Vienna and Berlin.
He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Titanic from 2000 to 2005 and works for Spiegel Online and ZDF.
His magister thesis covered the satirical magazine Titanic "and the range of effectivity of satire". After undertaking an internship at satirical magazine Eulenspiegel in 1995, Sonneborn started writing for Titanic, whose editor-in-chief he became in 2000. He was superseded by Thomas Gsella in October 2005, but remained column writer until April 2012.
He has been co-editor of Titanic since 2006.
He has been its chairman since 2004 and was top candidate in Berlin state election, 2011. Along with director Andreas Coerper, Sonneborn filmed a documentary about the party"s development and activities from foundation until 2009.
Sonneborn is staff leader of satirical column SPAM at Spiegel Online since November 2006 and reporter for the satirical television programme heute-show on ZDF from May 2009 to September 2014. He regularly holds readings both discretely and as part of the trio Titanic Boygroup, together with Thomas Gsella and Oliver Maria Schmitt who preceded Sonneborn as editor-in-chief
After joining the European Parliament in 2014, he had to quit his jobs at Spiegel Online and ZDF since both companies wanted to stay objective in presenting politics.
In late 2009, he was criticized in a Chinese newspaper for "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" in a broadcast about the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair on "heute-show". In September 2011 he was criticized by United Kingdom media for a blackface Obama billboard "Ick bin ein Obama." (I am an Obama) in the Berlin election campaign, a satirical reference to a speech by John F. Kennedy.
In August 2004, Sonneborn founded the satirical political party Die PARTEI, one of whose aims is to rebuild the Berlin Wall around Germany.
He is member of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education (CULT), member of the of Korea-delegation and substitute of the European Parliament Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT).
