Newsroom/News·December 1, 2018·3 min read

RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION mourns death of co-founder Bush

George H.W. Bush, who founded the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION together with Helmut Kohl

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who founded the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION together with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl 26 years ago, has died at the age of 94.

The two leaders, who worked together to end the Cold War and pave the way for German unification in 1990, were also jointly behind the creation of the German-American exchange program for broadcast journalists in 1992 that has carried on the spirit of the famous Cold War-era Radio In American Sector (RIAS) broadcasting network that had served listeners in Berlin and beamed news and music across the border into East Germany until 1992.

More than 1,600 broadcast journalists…

…have taken part in RIAS exchanges over the years.

Dr. Hildegard Boucsein attended the Conference “25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Collapse of the Soviet Union” at the George Bush Library, College Station.

“George Bush and Helmut Kohl had incredible foresight when they created the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION exchange program 26 years ago,” said the program’s executive director Erik Kirschbaum in a statement mourning Bush’s death on Friday. “And they both remained genuinely interested in the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION they launched even many years after leaving office. The program has broadened the horizons of nearly 2,000 journalists in both Germany and the United States, but it has touched and even changed many lives as well.”

Bush had met with a number of German broadcast journalists…

…on RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION exchange programs to the United States over the years.

Bush with Former Rias Executive Director Rainer Haster

Kohl had died last year at the age of 87. He was the chancellor of West Germany from 1982 to 1990 and then the leader of reunited Germany until 1998. Bush had praised Kohl, who was often called the architect of German unification, for strengthening institutions of democracy in Germany and beyond in a statement mourning his passing last year. “Throughout our endeavors, Helmut was a rock — both steady and strong. We mourn his loss today even as we know his remarkable life will inspire future generations of leaders to achieve greatly.”

Hasters and Boucsein with Fellows in Texas.

Dr. Hildegard Boucsein at Bush’s office in Houston recently and expressed to her his heartfelt congratulations to the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION for its first 25 years of transatlantic exchanges.

More than 1,600 American and German broadcast journalists have had the chance to spend time learning about each other’s respective country on the transatlantic exchange programs operated by the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION over the last 26 years thanks to the endowment set up by the German and U.S. governments under Kohl and Bush in 1992.

Kohl and Bush had both sent letters of congratulations to the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION six years ago on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

Bush and Boucsein – Handover of the piece of wall to Bush for the Presidential Library.

Bush wrote of RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION in 2012: “We share your pride in the fact that more than one thousand American and German journalists from hundreds of radio and television stations have already participated in this program, and we wish you continued success in the years ahead. Keep up the good work.”

Kohl wrote in 2012: “I’d like to express my thanks to all those who have helped to make the BERLIN RIAS COMMISSION the successful project that it has become.

” Kohl noted that more than 1,000 journalists from both countries had participated to that point in exchanges. “You’ve got a special responsibility as multipliers in your daily work in helping to actively promote a better understanding of each other’s country.

That was the hope that George Bush and I had when we founded the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION 20 years ago. Our hopes are as important today as 20 years ago.”

More stories