Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Jim Tankersley, Berlin Bureau Chief for The New York Times.

Jim Tankers 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Vladimir Balzer, Moderator at Deutschlandradio.

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 Deutschlandradio’s main studio 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.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Marc Felix Serrao, Global Reporter for Axel Springer.

Marc Felix Serrao is a correspondent with the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which includes POLITICO. Based in Berlin, he focuses on German politics and the pressures reshaping liberal democracy in Europe. Marc previously worked at Süddeutsche Zeitung (2007–2016) and served as business editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (2016–2017). He later led the Berlin bureau of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung before becoming Editor-in-Chief of NZZ Germany (2021–2025). He studied political science at Freie Universität Berlin, was a visiting scholar at Columbia University, and completed an Executive MBA at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and the Kellogg School of Management.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Luise Evers, Geopolitical Journalist for the Berliner Zeitung and Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

Luise Evers covers geopolitics for the Berliner Zeitung and the Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Her reporting focuses on international security, the Middle East, and technology. She studied Communication in Berlin and earned her Master’s Degree in Security and Diplomacy from Tel Aviv University. She has also spent time working abroad, including in Amsterdam, Athens, and New York. She learned the craft of journalism at the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). Before turning to journalism, Ms. Evers worked at the Bundeswehr’s Cyber Innovation Hub and as a staffer in the Bundestag. She lives in Berlin.

On this week's Kaffeepause, Dr. Steven E. Sokol is joined by Dr. Christoph von Marschall. 

Dr. Christoph von Marschall is the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel, the leading daily in Berlin, and a frequent guest on television shows as an expert on Central and Eastern Europe, the United States, transatlantic relations, and Great Power Competition. Since 1991, he has worked for Der Tagesspiegel, where his prior positions have included Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent (2005‐2013), as well as Editorial Page Editor (1995‐2005). In 1989, he joined the Süddeutsche Zeitung and covered the regime changes in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

From 2017 to 2018, Dr. von Marschall was the inaugural Helmut Schmidt Fellow of the Zeit Foundation and the German Marshall Fund of the United States, based in Washington, DC. Informed through his access to the White House as a member of the Press Corps during Donald Trump’s first term, he wrote a book about the future of Germany’s foreign policy: Wir Verstehen die Welt Nicht Mehr. Deutschlands Entfremdung von Seinen Freunden (“We Don’t Understand the World Anymore. Germany’s Estrangement from Its Friends”). Dr. von Marschall was awarded an ACG Kellen Fellowship in 1999. He studied East European History and Political Science in Freiburg, Mainz, and Krakow, Poland, culminating in a Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg.

On 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).

On 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.

On 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.

On 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.

On 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.