Макс Шталь: Журналист, запечатлевший рождение нации

British journalist and television presenter (1954–2021)

Max Christopher Wenner, known as Christopher Wenner and later as Max Stahl (6 December 1954 – 28 October 2021), was a British journalist and television presenter. He was best known for filming an East Timorese demonstration and its aftermath that became known as the Santa Cruz massacre. His coverage of East Timor's struggle for independence is listed in Unesco's Memory of the World register as a "turning point" in the birth of a new nation.

Wenner was born in Kensington, West London, England. and Gunnilla Ståhle (1931–1986), who was Swedish. The surname he later used as a war correspondent was a variation on his mother's maiden name. a boarding independent school near Clitheroe in Lancashire, which he left in 1973,

On 14 September 1978, Wenner joined the British children's television programme Blue Peter, replacing John Noakes, who had left three months earlier. However, he left on 23 June 1980 (on the same day as his co presenter Tina Heath), after the production team decided not to renew his contract as he was "deeply unpopular with the viewers." In 1999, Wenner returned to East Timor under the name "Max Stahl". He entered the country covertly by hiring fishing boats, in order to avoid the Indonesian military. In 2013, Wenner's audio visual material on East Timor's struggle for independence has been listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as "On the birth of a nation: turning points". Since then, the archive has been accessible for research and educational projects. In December 2019, the National Parliament of Timor Leste voted unanimously to grant Wenner Timorese citizenship in recognition of his role in the fight for Timorese liberation. Wenner was one of the first Western journalists to recognize the scope of tensions in Chechnya. He travelled there with cameraman, filmmaker and author Peter Vronsky in 1992 to report on the break away republic and nuclear weapons materials smuggling for the Canadian produced television special The Hunt for Red Mercury. In 1998, whilst working as an ITN journalist for Channel 4, Wenner was beaten by Serb civilians during a mass protest.

On 22 November 2019, Wenner was awarded the Order of Timor Leste by President Francisco Guterres. In 2000 he won the Rory Peck award for his reports.

Wenner was a father of four, and ran his own production company while continuing his career in journalism. In April 2012, it was reported that he had been receiving treatment for throat cancer. On 28 October 2021,the President of Timor Leste, José Ramos Horta, announced that Wenner had died from cancer at a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, at the age of 66.