Music makes us happier, healthier, smarter and nicer – and we need more of it in our lives.

DIE MACHT DER MUSIK
(The Power of Music)
by Ullrich Fichtner
DVA/PRH Germany, November 2025

Music has an extraordinary effect on us: it can give us goosebumps and butterflies, it can make our hearts beat faster, it can cheer us up and make us sad, can bring our stress levels down and ease pain. Not just that, but the latest findings from neuroscience and brain science show that it can have a positive impact on our health, psyche and social skills, and help develop and reinforce cognitive skills in both the young and the old.

In DIE MACHT DER MUSIK, the multi-award-winning Spiegel reporter and music aficionado demonstrates that music has huge tangible benefits. Using his wide-ranging experience with music and musicians in all genres around the world, as well as the latest scientific studies, he reveals how and why music is so important both for us individually and society at large, how it works, its enormous potential as a social tool, and how it can help us live a healthier, happier, more peaceful – in short: better – life.

Ullrich Fichtner was born in 1965 and is a Spiegel reporter based in Paris. With three Egon Erwin Kisch and three Henri Nannen prizes to his name, he is one of the most award-winning German journalists. His latest book, « Geboren für die großen Chancen » (‘A future of opportunities’) was shortlisted for the German Non-Fiction Prize.