RIAS fellows air series of stories from their fellowship in Brussels, Cologne, Erfurt and Berlin

Monica Quintero from Fox KPEJ in Odessa, Texas and David Wagner from KLSTV TV in San Angelo, Texas worked together on their RIAS Berlin Commission fellowship in September for a 30-minute documentary on their experience and findings during their two-week tour of Brussels, Cologne, Erfurt and Berlin.

They grabbed many of the guest speakers for interviews in between appointments and dragged German alumni members out of German-American get-togethers to get their views on a variety of issues that touch both Germany and the United States — the Berlin Wall and the wall between the United States and Mexico, gun control, anti-Semitism, the East Side Gallery open air museum, the Cologne cathedral and other issues.

There were several other reports done by fellows on the September program. Erik Runge from WGN in Chicago did a two-part series on the Berlin Wall that was aired in Chicago in November to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. here is Erik Runge’s first part of his Berlin Wall series and here is the second part of his Berlin Wall series.

And Alex Presha of NBC 7 in San Diego did this interesting “Food for Thought” Commentary and the end of his weekly Politically Speaking show. He explained why he had missed the show the last two weeks and observed the similarities in issues in Germany and the United States — how both countries are struggling with their own asylum debates and how Berlin infamously once had a Wall while the United States was building one. “Over my time there, one German journalist pointed out the difference between us and them. He mentioned that Germans were deeply reflective of the past. they have to be because of their nation’s history. Americans are always forward-thinking, a short memory and always what’s next. It’s not a bad thing. but it explains our differences. It’s just some food for thought.”