We had an incredibly early start today to be part of the audience for ZDF Redaktion Morgenmagazin, a morning magazine show, and it was definitely worth it. Not only did we participate as audience members, which the students can tell you more about, but we had several surprises. I sat with two lovely German women who despite our language difficulties (more mine than theirs) made me feel very welcome to their table and explained to me that all the pretty young women wearing German traditional garb and crowns were pageant contestants in a Bavarian wine festival. We met a group of intelligent and insightful young Palestinian women studying to be diplomats with their professor and a German foundation representative, and they joined us for a roundtable with Wulf Schmiese, one of the show’s presenters afterward.
First, he was incredibly candid with us and welcoming. Second, the Palestinian women asked him some great questions about German’s non-recognition of Palestine as a nation and not a territory, pressing him, ever so diplomatically, on the ties and relationship to Israel. We had a history lesson about their struggles, down to the significance of what they were wearing today to commemorate the ouster of their family members from their homeland in 1948. I told them I hoped they can change the world someday.
Wulf has made the switch from a print political journalist to broadcast television, and he was very frank with the us about how he had to learn, the differences in his work, and how he brings his writing and editing skills to better his performance. I find it so interesting that the broadcasters here call themselves presenters and not anchors. That’s a term I had not heard before.
Our next top at the Germany press agency dpa exceeded my expectations. I teach students every year in our Survey of Mass Communication class what a wire service or news agency is, and every year they don’t quite get it. I hope our students today understood what this fourth largest news service in the world does. It provides news, photographs, video, multimedia content to Germany and the world, working with German media, European news agencies, the Associated Press and Agence France Presse, as well as other clients.
Christian Rowekamp, head of corporate communication and a former dpa editor, and Michael Kappeler, chief photographer, Berlin, thoroughly described the operations. Both were well prepared for our visit, graciously answered our questions and led us on a tour of their marvelous newsroom.
What stood out to me: Christian conveyed passionately that dpa plans to take its service to a higher level. Yes, dpa provides content, but it also strives to present the most credible, accurate and fast service to its clients, ensuring they inform the public on all matters. This news service does not directly serve the public, but it takes its role across the nation and world seriously and has revamped its operations to include as much multimedia as possible and ensure that happens. I always love listening to photographers, and Michael told us wonderful anecdotes about his work. We all enjoyed his retelling of covering Pope Benedict’s decision to resign and the election of the new pope. He decided to focus on the pope’s ring, a piece of jewelry that was set to be destroyed with the election of the new pontiff. I know I have seen this photograph, possibly in Time magazine, and now I need to look for it again and see if his credit line is attached. As he explained he took a chance, striving for something that was creative and stood out, not just for him but for his news service and its clients.
We ended tonight with a visit to the Reichstag Rooftop Terrace and Dome, a perfect spot to view this gorgeous city on a warm May night. I loved learning more about this structure, which had burned right before Hitler came to power and was bombed heavily during World War II. The fact that this building was rebuilt paying homage to its past and creating a place that provides a beautiful panorama of the capital city speaks volumes to me about the resilience of the German people. Think about what they have lived through here: two world wars, a city and country divided, two dictatorships, and a Holocaust of unbelievable trauma and loss.
Before Jan and I had headed to a quick dinner in between the media visits and the Reichstag visit, I headed back to the Topographie of Terrors to finish what we had started on Monday night. The display of the Nazi atrocities and attempted extermination of the Jews and other undesirables, the complicity of the German people in Hitler’s terrible vision of Aryan dominance, and the inability of the Allies to end the war sooner and save these people from such a horrible fate is a must-see for everyone. I found myself fighting back tears several times as I studied the photographs and read the text. But I forced myself to get to the end, the Nuremberg trials and the execution of Nazi and Gestapo leaders. So many of the guards and the secret police and military who carried out the murders of all these people still managed to find their way back into jobs and places in German society. Some escaped, too, and some committed suicide rather than face the trials. The display explained to me why some still want to bring the now 80- to 90-year-old guards and officers to trial and justice for their horrible roles in this awful chapter in history. But will that ever be enough?
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