On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Clay Risen, a Reporter and Editor at The New York Times.

Mr. Risen is also the author of Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America. He reported for the Times from Berlin for the month of May. Mr. Risen has been at The New York Times since 2010. Before writing obituaries, he was a Senior Editor on the 2020 politics team, and before that an Editor on the Opinion desk, most recently as the deputy Op-Ed editor. Before joining the Times, he worked at The New Republic and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. He has written eight books, some about U.S. history, some about whiskey. They include American Rye and The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century. He holds a degree in International Relations from Georgetown University and a Master’s in Social Science from the University of Chicago. 

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Gordon Repinski, Executive Editor for Politico in Germany.

Mr.Repinski joins from The Pioneer, where he served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief responsible for the newsletter and podcast “Hauptstadt – DAS Briefing”. Before that, he worked as deputy chief editor and head of the politics department at the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland and was a correspondent for Der Spiegel in Berlin and Washington D.C. He embarked on his journalistic career after training at the Deutsche Journalistenschule in Munich, starting at the national newspaper taz. Mr. Repinski was a recipient of the Arthur F. Burns Award for transatlantic reporting in 2011. In his new role, he will report to Jamil Anderlini, Editor-in-Chief of POLITICO in Europe.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Anja Wehler-Schöck, International Editor of the German newspaper Tagesspiegel and 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 editor-in-chief of IPG Journal, a debate forum for international and European policy. Previously, she worked as Political Counselor at the German Embassy in Washington, DC and headed the Amman office of the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) as Country Director for Jordan and Iraq. She has published extensively and 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Sabine Rennefanz, award-winning journalist, author, and columnist for DER SPIEGEL.

Ms. Rennefanz has written extensively about the fall of the wall, the transformation and the challenges of the unified Germany. Her book „Eisenkinder. Die stille Wut der Wendegeneration“ — a coming-of-age-memoir about the 1989/90 change — was a bestseller in 2013 and is going to be republished next year. She was born in 1974 close to the Polish border.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Dr. Melanie Amann, Member of the Editorial Team at SPIEGEL.

She 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief in Germany for the Neue Züricher Zeitung.

Marc Felix Serrao has been the Head of the Berlin office since July 2017 and Editor-in-Chief of the Neue Züricher Zeitung in Germany since 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Nette Nöstlinger, Political Reporter for Politico Europe. 

Nette Nöstlinger is a Politics Reporter for Politico Europe in Berlin, where she keeps an eye on all things relevant to an international audience interested in the EU’s biggest economy. Her coverage has ranged from the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to Germany’s fiscal and military U-turn in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She was trained at Reuters with stints in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Brussels. She grew up in Antwerp with a Belgian father and an Austrian mother. 

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by ACG Fellowship alumna Miriam Hollstein, Chief Political Reporter for Stern.

Miriam Hollstein serves as the Chief Political Reporter for Stern. Before this, she was the Chief Report from January 2022 to Septepmber 23 atT-Online in Berlin. Prior to this position, she served as the Chief Political Reporter for FUNKE Zentralredaktion from November 2020 to December 2021. She wrote for the Berliner Zeitung while still a student and worked as an editor for Internationale Politik. She worked as a foreign reporter for the Welt am Sonntag, and from 2006-2014 was a WELT-Gruppe’s domestic policy editor and reporter. From 2015 to 2020, she worked for the Bild am Sonntag, first as a domestic policy and then from 2018 as chief reporter of politics. Her reporting brought her into regular contact with the office of the German Chancellor. Since March 2020, she has worked as a freelance writer and moderator.

In 2009, she published the first graphic biography of Angela Merkel, entitled “Miss Tschörmanie,” together with illustrator Heiko Sakurai. She appears regularly on the German news program “Phoenix,” where she speaks on political and societal issues. She regularly travels internationally for reporting assignments. In addition, she was a 2005 Marshall Memorial Fellow, a 2008 ACG McCloy Fellow, and was recognized in 2015 by the DEFA Stiftung (German Film Corporation Foundation) for her contribution to preserving German film heritage.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Anja Wehler-Schöck, International Editor for Der Tagesspiegel.

Anja Wehler-Schöck joined the Editorial Board of Der Tagesspiegel as the International Editor in January 2025. She has been Head of International Politics at Der Tagesspiegel since August 2022. Prior to that, she worked as editor-in-chief of the IPG Journal, a debate platform for issues of 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Paul-Anton Krüger, Editor for Der Spiegel. 

Paul-Anton Krüger has been an Editor at SPIEGEL’s capital city office since January 2025. He 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Deutsche Welle's Washington Bureau Chief, Ines Pohl.

Ines Pohl served as the Editor in Chief of Deutsche Welle from 2017-2020. During her three-year tenure, she focused on increasing DW’s social media presence and the exclusive content of all 30 language services. She joined DW in 2015 as a correspondent in the Washington Bureau. As a journalist, she is particularly interested in questions of democratic legitimacy and transition and is passionate about human rights and the role of democratic structures in developing countries. Ms. Pohl strongly advocates using social media to enhance the connection between audiences and journalists in the digital age.

She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2005, where she spent the year focused on immigration and the impact of religion and leadership. She currently serves on the board of trustees for Reporters without Borders and Youth Against AIDS. From 2009-2015, Ms. Pohl was the editor-in-chief of Die Tageszeitung "taz," a national daily German newspaper, where she launched a new weekend edition and restructured www.taz.de, now one of Germany’s popular news sites.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Nette Nöstlinger, Political Reporter for Politico Europe. 

Nette Nöstlinger is a Politics Reporter for Politico Europe in Berlin, where she keeps an eye on all things relevant to an international audience interested in the EU’s biggest economy. Her coverage has ranged from the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to Germany’s fiscal and military U-turn in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She was trained at Reuters with stints in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Brussels. She grew up in Antwerp with a Belgian father and an Austrian mother.  

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Malte Lehming, Columnist for Tagesspiegel. 

From late 2000 to 2005, Mr. Lehming was the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the Tagesspiegel in 1991 as foreign policy editor — focusing on security policy, transatlantic relations, and the Middle East. From 1989 to 1991, he worked as a personal assistant and speechwriter for former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Mr. Lehming studied philosophy, German literature, and European history in Hamburg.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Stephan Detjen, Chief Correspondent for Deutschlandradio and the head of the station’s capital city studio in Berlin.

Previously, Mr. Detjen worked as Deutschlandfunk’s Editor-in-Chief in Cologne and as a legal policy correspondent in Karlsruhe, among other positions. Mr. Detjen is a member of the board of the Bundespressekonferenz and was a member of the foundation board for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade from 2013 to 2018. He studied Law and History in Munich, Aix-en-Provence, and Speyer.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by former Foreign Editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Nadine Lindner, Correspondent with Deutschlandradio.

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. 

Nadine Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of “Deutschlandradio” since early 2016 and is responsible, among other things, for covering the AfD and transport policy. Before that, she was a Correspondent in the Free State of Saxony for two and a half years and followed the rise of Pegida there. She studied Political Science, Journalism, and African Studies in Leipzig and discovered her enthusiasm for radio there 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by ACG Fellowship alumna Miriam Hollstein, Chief Political Reporter for Stern.

Before this, she was the Chief Reporter from January 2022 to Septepmber 23 at T-Online in Berlin. Prior to this position, she served as the Chief Political Reporter for FUNKE Zentralredaktion from November 2020 to December 2021. She wrote for the Berliner Zeitung while still a student and worked as an editor for Internationale Politik. She worked as a foreign reporter for the Welt am Sonntag, and from 2006-2014 was a WELT-Gruppe’s domestic policy editor and reporter. From 2015 to 2020, she worked for the Bild am Sonntag, first as a domestic policy and then from 2018 as chief reporter of politics. Her reporting brought her into regular contact with the office of the German Chancellor. Since March 2020, she has worked as a freelance writer and moderator.

In 2009, she published the first graphic biography of Angela Merkel, entitled “Miss Tschörmanie,” together with illustrator Heiko Sakurai. She appears regularly on the German news program “Phoenix,” where she speaks on political and societal issues. She regularly travels internationally for reporting assignments. In addition, she was a 2005 Marshall Memorial Fellow, a 2008 ACG McCloy Fellow, and was recognized in 2015 by the DEFA Stiftung (German Film Corporation Foundation) for her contribution to preserving German film heritage.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by award-winning journalist and ACG fellow Vladimir Balzer.

Vladimir Balzer is a moderator at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. He grew up in Leipzig and studied German, art history, and journalism in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He studied abroad in Italy and the United States. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily programs “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” and “Studio 9” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief in Germany for the Neue Züricher Zeitung.

Marc Felix Serrao has been the Head of the Berlin office since July 2017 and Editor-in-Chief of the Neue Züricher Zeitung in Germany since 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Paul-Anton Krüger, Editor for Der Spiegel.

Mr. Krüger has been an Editor at SPIEGEL's capital city office since January 2025. He 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.

On this Special Edition of the Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, former Foreign Editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Nadine Lindner, Correspondent with Deutschlandradio.

Mr. Frankenberger's 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.

Ms. Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of "Deutschlandradio" since early 2016 and is responsible, among other things, for covering the AfD and transport policy. Before that, she was a Correspondent in the Free State of Saxony for two and a half years and followed the rise of Pegida there. She studied Political Science, Journalism, and African Studies in Leipzig and discovered her enthusiasm for radio there 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.