American journalism students on 3-week fellowship to Germany
July 3, 2023
American journalism students on 3-week fellowship to Germany
The fourth annual RIAS Berlin ERP fellowship for American students in Germany got off to a flying start with dozens of meetings with German journalists, editors, directors, politicians, community leaders, experts and political analysts. The Americans will spend a total of three weeks in Germany, learning more about the role that broadcast journalism, including from the legendary Radio in American Sector Radio and TV broadcaster (RIAS), played in the peaceful conclusion to the Cold War.
The 13 students came to Germany on June 18 from universities across the Midwest, South and Southwest — such as the University of Oklahoma, Arizona State University in Phoenix, University of Arizona in Tucson, University of Miami-Ohio, University of Georgia, Elon College in North Carolina, Ithaca New York, and University of California-Berkeley. For many of the American students it was their first trip outside the United States and for some the first journey outside their home region.
The goal of the ERP program, which was created with support from a grant from the Economy Ministry, is to expand horizons, help connect young American journalism students with their peers in Germany and help aspiring journalists in both countries learn more about journalism training in each others’ countries.
The ERP program is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Economy and Energy (BMWi) Ministry.
The first week of the program was spent visiting media outlets, students and trainees at TV stations in Dresden, Erfurt and Magdeburg in formerly Communist East Germany. They visited journalists working for MDR TV in Dresden, young politicians and student leaders in Erfurt and students and ZDF correspondent Andreas Weise in Magdeburg. The second week featured meetings in Berlin with TV journalists at the commercial Welt TV network, at Deutsche Welle international broadcaster, at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, at the former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen and the former Stasi headquarters in East Berlin. They also had the chance to watch ZDF Morgenmagazin live and meet with its editor in chief Andreas Wunn. They toured the ethnic Kreuzberg neighborhood with former Greens political leader Özcan Mutlu, met American swing dance band leader Andrej Hermlin and visited the US Embassy. The young Americans also learned more about tight gun controls in Germany that have all but put an end to school shootings, and the health insurance system that covers almost everyone in Germany.
The Americans also visited the Allied Museum in West Berlin and the Tempelhof Airport in the center of the city that served as the main landing field during the 1948/49 Airlift that kept West Berlin a free city. They will also be spending a day in Leipzig and a day in Hamburg in their third and final week of the program that ends on July 8.
