Bright future for RIAS Berlin Commission thanks to vibrant alumni

Dear friends and alumni of the RIAS Berlin Commission

Exactly five years ago I stepped into the very big shoes left behind by my towering predecessor Rainer Hasters, who was the first and only executive director of this fantastic German-American exchange program for broadcast journalists for its first

quarter century. Without being sentimental, it nevertheless seems like the right time to reflect briefly on these past five years and look ahead towards the next five years.

As always, our most important aims remains to keep alive the spirit of Radio in American Sector (RIAS) — “a free voice of a free world” that beamed news, information and music into Communist East Germany during the Cold War.

Despite the prolonged period of extremely low interest rates and dwindling investment income that has made things difficult for all foundations like ours, the RIAS Berlin Commission has managed to actually expand the numbers of its transatlantic exchange programs in recent years — thanks in part to your generous donations as well as new student programs that are largely funded by a grant from the German government’s ERP program and student own-contributions. In 2022 we are hoping to have about 100 participants on seven different programs — including a program for 30 German alumni next October just before the midterm elections. That is nearly twice as many participants as previously despite the challenging financial environment. Thanks to streamlining efforts, modest cutbacks, centralized operations in Berlin, a greater reliance on public transportation, and own-contributions from exchange program participants, RIAS Berlin Commission has weathered the difficult conditions without sacrificing quality or depth of our programs. That’s something we can all be proud of.

In these past five years RIAS Berlin Commission has worked to fill a key goal outlined by the RIAS Berlin Commissioners, a distinguished 10-member board of directors made up of five Americans and five Germans. They wanted this truly binational organization to try to find new ways to better connect our 1,900 alumni members. It’s not been always easy with two steps forward one step backwards, but there are now seven thriving RIAS alumni chapters led by enthusiastic volunteers in Berlin (Vladimir Balzer, Petra Gute, Anja Heyde), Hamburg (Michail Paweletz, Nadine Gries), Cologne (Martin Richter), Mainz (Anna-Maria Schuck), Munich (Lydia Leipert), New York (Michael Gargiulo) and Washington (Larry Miller). They are doing tremendous things to help keep the spirit of of RIAS alive. These chapters host regular meetings, invite guest speakers and are always ready to meet the next group of American or German fellows visiting their cities. These alumni reunion get-togethers have become eagerly-awaited fixtures of our RIAS programs in Washington, New York, Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg.

Looking forward, RIAS Berlin Commission aims to improve and streamline its three main types of programs: the standard two- to three-week programs, the three-week student programs and the one-week alumni programs. We hope to use social media and state-of-the-art technology to better connect our alumni in the United States and Germany. In Germany we hope to recruit more journalists from the east, more journalists from commercial networks and more journalists whose families originated in foreign countries for our programs to the United States — and especially journalists who have never been to the USA before. In the United States we hope to recruit more journalists from the Midwest, the South, and the Western mountain states for our programs to Germany — also especially those who have never been to Germany before.

Thanks again for all your support over the last five years and please continue to help us keep the spirit of RIAS alive over the next five years.

Sincerely

Erik Kirschbaum