Virtual Speaker Series - US-German Relations Under Angela Merkel and Joe Biden - René Pfister

US-German Relations Under Angela Merkel and Joe Biden

Speaker: Der Spiegel Reporter René Pfister

After arriving in the U.S. as Washington Bureau Chief for Der Spiegel, René covered American politics and the 2020 election. Having covered Angela Merkel for 10 years while in Berlin, he now is focusing on U.S. German relations under the Merkel and Biden Administrations, with Merkel at the end of her Administration and Biden at the beginning of his.  René will share what it is like to be a foreign correspondent in Washington during these unsettling political times.

René Pfister was born in 1974 in Müllheim/Baden, Germany. He studied political science and journalism at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. In 2000, René moved to Berlin where he worked as a political reporter for the news agencies ddp and Reuters.  He started working as a correspondent for Der Spiegel’s Berlin bureau in 2004, becoming Deputy Bureau Chief in 2010, and Bureau Chief in 2015.  In 2019, he moved with his family to DC to work as Der Spiegel’s Washington Bureau Chief.  Der Spiegel is Europe’s largest news magazine with a weekly circulation of 800,000 copies. With its German and English website, Der Spiegel reaches an audience of 20 million readers.

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