Podcast
Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
Hosted by American Council on Germany · EN
Join the American Council on Germany for its “Kaffeepause: What’s Abuzz in Berlin?” a regular podcast that takes stock of current events in Germany. Each week, we are joined by a journalist based in Germany to talk about the stories behind the headlines.
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Episodes
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Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Annett Meiritz
2w ago00:44:26Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol sits down with Annett Meiritz. Annett Meiritz is an International Correspondent for Handelsblatt in the Berlin office. Previously, she served as the U.S. Correspondent until October 2025. She has worked as Parliamentary Correspondent for Germany’s leading news portal Spiegel Online, based in Berlin. She holds a B.A. degree in Modern History and Media Science and was trained as a journalist at the Berlin Journalism School. She is the co-author of two books on the U.S. — “Guns ‘n Rosé: Conservative Women Conquer the U.S.” (2022) and “The Alliance of the New Right: Make Europe Great Again?” (2025).
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Nadine Lindner
Jul 600:42:24Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Deutschlandradio Journalist Nadine Lindner. Nadine Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of “Deutschlandradio” since early 2016. Among other things, Ms. Lindner is responsible for the news coverage of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the German parliament. Ms. Lindner studied Political Science at Leipzig University in Saxony and discovered her enthusiasm for radio at the training station “mephisto 97.6.” After graduating from university, she worked as a freelance journalist for “MDR sputnik” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as Deutschlandradio. She completed her journalistic training at Deutschlandradio in Berlin. In 2013, Ms. Lindner moved back to Saxony as a regional correspondent for Deutschlandradio, where she covered the early evolution of the AfD and the anti-asylum movement Pegida. In 2024, she received the prize from the Bundespressekonferenz, the association of capital studio journalists, for her reporting about the AfD and Eastern Germany.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Vladimir Balzer
Jun 2200:50:27Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Vladimir Balzer, Moderator at Deutschlandradio.Vladimir Balzer is an award-winning journalist who grew up in Leipzig and studied in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily program “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany. In 2023, he started as a correspondent at Deutschlandfunk’s capital city studio in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German television, such as ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the U.S.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Brent Goff
Jun 800:52:26Tap to summarizeOn this week's 100th Episode of the Kaffeepause podcast, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Brent Goff, Chief Anchor at DW News.Brent Goff is the Chief Anchor at DW News and Host of “The Day with Brent Goff.” He joined DW in 2000 and has become one of the most recognized on-air personalities. Prior to joining DW, Brent worked as a producer for CNN. He was both a Fulbright Scholar and a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in Germany. Brent grew up in rural North Carolina, and his first job in TV journalism was at a small TV station in Missouri. He holds an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Paul-Anton Krüger
Jun 100:53:30Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Paul-Anton Krüger, Editor at SPIEGEL’s capital city office.Mr. Krüger was the Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from September 2021 to December 2024. He previously reported on political affairs and served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department, focusing on the Middle East and international security for three years. Before that, he spent four years in Cairo as a correspondent covering large parts of the Arab world and Iran. After graduating from the Alte Landesschule in Korbach, he studied journalism in Berlin and Munich. In August 2005, he joined the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a volunteer, worked as an editor from 2008, and as head of the foreign policy department from 2011. In the fall of 2007, Mr. Krüger was a guest editor at the Chicago Tribune as part of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, the German-American journalism scholarship of the International Journalism Programs e.V.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Jim Tankersley
May 1800:47:44Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Jim Tankersley, Berlin Bureau Chief of The New York Times. Mr.Tankersley oversees the coverage of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and writes about broader trends across Europe. That includes stories about foreign policy, society, politics, migration, energy, and more. Previously, he covered economic and tax policy for the Times. In more than a decade covering politics and economics in Washington, he has written extensively about the stagnation of the American middle class and the decline of economic opportunity in wide swaths of the country. Mr. Tankersley was previously policy and politics editor at Vox and before that, an economics reporter for The Washington Post. He covered the 2008 presidential campaign for The Chicago Tribune and began his career working for The Oregonian, The Rocky Mountain News, and The Toledo Blade. He and a Blade colleague won the 2007 Livingston Award for Young Journalists for a series of stories exploring how and why the Ohio economy declined so dramatically over a generation. He was part of a Blade team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for public service. In 2018, he and two Times colleagues won the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing award for economics journalism, for a series on the effects of President Trump's trade policies on American companies and workers.A native of McMinnville, Ore., Mr. Tankersley is a Stanford graduate and a former editor-in-chief of the Stanford Daily.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Special Edition with Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger and Anja Wehler-Schöck
May 600:54:18Tap to summarizeOn this Special Edition of the Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by journalists Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger and Anja Wehler-Schöck.Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger was the Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His writings deal especially with the United States, European, transatlantic, and international politics. He holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, Economics, and American Studies from Frankfurt University. He joined the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s leading national daily, in 1986, and served in various capacities, as European, International, and Editorial Page Editor. Mr. Frankenberger was a Member of the Trilateral Commission and of the Scientific Council of the Institute for European Politics in Berlin. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin and is associated with several organizations that deal with the transatlantic relationship.Anja Wehler-Schöck is the International Editor of the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel and a member of its Editorial Board. In 2022, she founded the paper’s international affairs desk, which she subsequently headed until the end of 2024. Prior to that, she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the IPG Journal, a debate platform on international and European politics. She previously worked as a social affairs officer at the German Embassy in Washington and headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s office for Jordan and Iraq in Amman from 2012 to 2017. Ms. Wehler-Schöck is a frequent commentator on international affairs, European politics, transatlantic relations, and security policy. From 2005 to 2007, she served as Adjunct Lecturer at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Sciences Po in Paris, France and the Free University of Berlin
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Dr. Melanie Amann
Apr 2700:34:06Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Dr. Melanie Amann, Member of the Editorial Team, DER SPIEGEL.Dr. Melanie Amann studied Law in Trier, Aix-en-Provence, and Berlin, and received her doctorate from the LMU Munich. From 2003 to 2004, she spent a year at the German School of Journalism in Munich. After working as an editor at the Financial Times Deutschland, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, she moved to SPIEGEL in Berlin in 2013. From February 2019 until September 2025, she headed SPIEGEL’s capital city bureau, together with Sebastian Fischer, Christoph Hickmann, and Martin Knobbe. She was a member of the editorial board from May 2021 until September 2025.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Marc Felix Serrao
Apr 2000:44:45Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Marc Felix Serrao, Global Report for Axel Springer.Marc Felix Serrao joined Axel Springer as a Global Reporter in January 2026. Prior to that, he was the Editor-in-Chief Head for the Neue Züricher Zeitung from 2021 until 2025 and Head of the Berlin office from July 2017 until January 2021. After military service, he studied political science in Berlin. In 2004/05, he was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York. He graduated in 2006. Mr. Serrao worked for the Süddeutsche Zeitung from 2007 to 2016 – first as a trainee, then as deputy head of the society and style department. In 2015, he began a part-time Executive MBA at the Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung (WHU) and the Kellogg School of Management. From 2016 to 2017, he served as the Business editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Transcribe →Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin? - Dr. Anna Sauerbrey
Mar 900:43:30Tap to summarizeOn this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Dr. Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Editor at Die Zeit.Dr. Anna Sauerbrey is the Foreign Editor at the German largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Before assuming this position, she was Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Der Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper based in Berlin. She has written about German politics in The New York Times and comments on German and international politics on public German radio and television programs. She has also appeared on German television and on CNN and the BBC world service. She is the author of Machtwechsel. Wie eine neue Politikergeneration das Land verändert (Rowohlt Berlin, 2022) a book on the generation of German policymakers succeeding Angela Merkel. Dr. Sauerbrey received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Mainz in 2009. She has also studied Political Science and Journalism. She was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 and has extensively written about transatlantic relations and U.S. domestic politics since. She was a ACG Kellen Fellow in 2018.
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