Rocco Thiede, born in Cottbus in 1963, studied art history and archaeology in Leipzig, Berlin and Rome. He dedicated his final thesis to the Romantic landscape painter Carl Blechen's trip to Italy in 1828/29.

Professionally, Thiede worked as an editor for DIE WELT, SAT.1 and Bertelsmann in Gütersloh. He works as a reporter and photographer for daily and weekly newspapers, ARD radio, Deutschlandfunk and various online media.

As a publicist, he is the editor and author of 12 non-fiction books that deal with socio-political and socio-religious issues. His works have been published by renowned publishing houses such as Herder, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, St. Benno-Verlag, Hentrich und Hentrich and Aufbau-Verlag.