Journalists from the United States and Germany connected for several alumni get-togethers in Germany and Brussels during the last two weeks. The 13 US journalists were on a whirlwi
Journalists from the United States and Germany connected for several alumni get-togethers in Germany and Brussels during the last two weeks. The 13 US journalists were on a whirlwind two-week trip to four different cities — Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Brussels — and met their German counterparts in Berlin and Brussels.
The high-spirited and good-natured alumni reunions with the visiting U.S. fellows were organized by alumni chapter leaders in Berlin and Brussels.
The Americans also had the chance to talk with experts at NATO headquarters in Brussels, learning more about the challenges and different views within NATO on defense spending, David Herszenhorn.
Before flying to Brussels from Prague, the American journalists spent a busy 24 hours in Prague learning more about Radio Free Europe and the important work that the journalists there are doing for radio/tv/social media productions. Radio Free Europe is the closest thing out there to what RIAS did during the Cold War — beaming news, information and music into Communist East Germany from its offices in West Berlin.
In Prague the Americans also visited the German embassy, site of the famous October 1989 events that contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and met with an enterprising German journalist, Kilian Kirchgessner, who covers the Czech Republic and Slovakia for various German media outlets.
While still in Germany, the Americans spent 24 hours in Dresden learning more about the Frauenkirche church in the heart of Dresden that was painstakingly rebuilt in recent decades after being destroyed by Allied bombers in 1945. They also learned more about the rebuilding efforts continuing in Dresden, a grand city on the Elbe River that has been compared with Florence in Italy. They also visited a Volkswagen factory in the heart of Dresden that is now producing electric Golfs.
While in Berlin, the Americans had a fascinating tour of the Neukoelln section of town where many refugees from Syria and the Middle East have settled, turning the Main Street once known as Sonnenallee into Arab Street. They also toured the section of Kreuzberg with local Greens political leader Oezcan Mutlu, which has long been a multicultural neighbourhood where many Turkish immigrants to Germany live.
The Americans also had lively discussions with a leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and with journalists working at RBB InfoRadio station with Benjamin Eyssel and Maria Luz from Deutsche Welle. They also had the chance to learn more about the work of Deutsche Welle in Berlin with editor-in-chief Ines Pohl.
ARD anchor Ingo Zamperoni stopped by to talk to the American fellows along with Economist correspondent Tom Nuttall and Berlin political consultants Julius van de Laar. German-Iranian artist Kani Alavi told the story about the East Side gallery and how he and courageous artists from around the world quickly painted their artworks on the east side of the Berlin Wall before it could be torn down – and how the East Side Gallery has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Berlin.
