Join the American Council on Germany and the Goethe-Institut for an installment of our Foreign Correspondent Unplugged series, which delves into current political debates on both sides of the Atlantic.
Democracy in both Germany and the United States faces mounting challenges, from rising political polarization to declining trust in institutions and practices. This event will explore how these pressures are-reshaping politics and public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Join us for a timely discussion with award-winning journalists Vladimir Balzer (Deutschlandradio) and Dr. Melanie Amann (Der Spiegel) about political trends in Germany and challenges to democracy 35 years after German unity. The event will be moderated by the President of the American Council on Germany, Dr. Steven E. Sokol.
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 “F.A.Z.” and the “F.A.S.,” she moved to SPIEGEL in Berlin in 2013. Since February 2019, she has headed SPIEGEL’s capital city bureau, together with Sebastian Fischer, Christoph Hickmann and Martin Knobbe. She has been a member of the editorial board since May 2021.
Vladimir Balzer is an award-winning radio journalist and moderator at Deutschlandradio. He 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 the Capital Studios of Deutschlandfunk in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German Television, such as ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the United States.
Dr. Steven E. Sokol (moderator) has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sokol worked at the Aspen Institute Berlin and in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He holds a Doctorate from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin.
