Born in 1952 in Bonn, Reemtsma lives in Hamburg.

Founder of the Institut für Sozialforschung, the Arno Schmidt Stiftung and Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur. Literary scholar and Professor of German literature at the University of Hamburg since 1996.

Reemtsma received several awards, among others the Lessing Preis in 1997, Teddy Kollek Prize in 2007 and Schillerpreis in 2010.