Translator, essayist, columnist. He studied Slavic literature and the history of Eastern Europe in Vienna and Warsaw. Until 1998, he worked as an editor and correspondent for the journal Der Spiegel. Pollack has won many prestigious awards. For the book “The Dead Man in the Bunker: Discovering My Father” he received the Angelus Central European Literary Award, for which he was again nominated for his collection of essays Topographies of Memory. He is also a laureate of the Karl Dedecius, awarded to the best translators of Polish literature into German and German into Polish, the Upper Austria Cultural Award in the field of literature, the Ryszard Kapuściński’s Translation Award for lifetime achievement in translation, and the Johann-Heinrich Merck in the field of essay writing and literary criticism. In 2017, he also received the Dialogue Award for merits in the development of Polish-German relations.