© Martin Lettmayer 2008-2021
Austrian-born Martin Lettmayer started his journalistic
career as a student in Guatemala in the middle of the
80ies. From there, he reported for German and Austrian
papers about the revolutionary movements in Central
America. He portrayed and took interviews with the
Salvadorian guerillera Ana Guadalupe Martinez, with
General Rios Montt of Guatemala, with human rights
activist Bruce Harris and many others.
In the 90s, he initiated his career as a filmmaker and TV journalist. First, he was in the limelight with
a tv-report about Neo-Nazi Gottfried Küssel. He accompanied him at paramilitary exercises in
Langenlois in Lower Austria. After this report had gone on air on German TV Küssel, the leading
figure of the Austrian Neo-Nazis was arrested and sentenced to jail. Later on, Austrian TV showed
the report, and it was selected by the Austrian viewer community as the best report of the year.
From 1991 onwards, Martin Lettmayer cooperated with the Bavarian producer, Janos Zolcer, and
reported for the European TV channels as a war reporter from the Balkan conflict and the transition
in Eastern Europe. He and his camera operator, Bozo Knezevic, who later died in a mysterious car
accident, were the first to film in a Serbian concentration camp – "Manjaca". Together with the
American George Bogdanic, he co-produced the internationally recognized documentary, "Yugoslavia:
The Avoidable War". All the important players of this time, for example, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Lord
Carrington, and Lord Owen gave interviews for this movie. The film won an award at the New York
Independent Film Festival.
The main focus for Martin Lettmayer was always on human interest and the environment.
His documentary about the first nuclear disaster in Tscheljabinsk, Ural, was nominated for Germany's
most prestigious television award, the Grimme Award. The film achieved another award, the
"Premiere Documentary Award." In the year 2000, he put his journalistic focus on cocaine abuse in
Germany. Together with leading German pharmacologist Prof. Fritz Sörgel, he revealed that even in
the German parliament, one can find cocaine traces. This investigative report, which has shown that
cocaine is also consumed in the German Parliament, gained worldwide attention.
His work achieved various other nominations and awards:" Klagenfurter Publizistik Preis", Golden
Nymph – Monaco, Highgate Film Festival London, Journalistenpreis des Dt. Mittelstandes...