From Campus to the Television Studio

32,000 euros and an unforgettable experience – that’s the outcome of Sophia Rishyna’s run as a contestant in the gameshow Wer wird Millionär?, the German edition of the international TV franchise Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which airs Monday nights on RTL. For the doctoral student at the Mannheim Chair of Economic History, it only took three applications to be chosen to sit on the coveted hot seat in a TV studio near Cologne. “I must admit I had already forgotten I had submitted another application,” Rishyna says with a laugh when recalling the moment she was notified of her acceptance. “So it was kind of a surprise.”

And yet, her acceptance was a childhood dream come true for the historian. “When watching the show as a kid, I used to say, I’m going to apply there when I’m 18.” And that’s what she did. However, several years passed between her initial application and her recent acceptance – years she spent studying at the University of Mannheim. “In 2016, I started doing my bachelor’s here in history. Right after that I got my master’s and in September 2021, I started working on my doctorate,” she explains. Her dissertation is part of the DFG project “Lack of economic freedom and innovation: Patent activities in the ‘Third Reich’ and in the GDR,” headed by economics professor Dr. Jochen Streb.

Streb also had a major role in the gameshow, serving as one of Rishyna’s three phone-a-friend lifelines – and he actually got to play. What made her choose her doctoral supervisor? “He has a good grounding in general knowledge,” Rishyna explains, “and he is also super knowledgeable about cycling and about economic issues, of course.” The question that prompted her to call him, however, was a literature question worth 32,000 euros. Streb was a good choice for this one as well: “He is very well-read and likes to give us doctoral students books for Christmas.”