On Wednesday, January 6, the world was watching as thousands of pro-Trump protesters convened outside the U.S. Capitol. They disrupted a joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes and formalize Joe Biden’s election victory. After breaching the perimeter, the rioters occupied and vandalized parts of the building.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Juliane Schäuble, the U.S. Correspondent for the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, covered the developments. From Berlin, NPR’s Rob Schmitz reported the response to the day’s events by Europeans.
Join the American Council on Germany and the Freunde des American Council on Germany e.V. on Wednesday, January 13, at 11 am EST (or 17:00 CET) for an online discussion with Juliane Schäuble and Rob Schmitz.
Juliane Schäuble is the U.S. Correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin’s biggest newspaper. Before she moved to Washington, DC, in June 2018 she was the head of the political department of the paper where she was responsible for the front page and the political section. She has more than twelve years of experience in the business and the political department of Der Tagesspiegel.
Ms. Schäuble earned her Master’s in Political Science at the University in Potsdam, Germany. Her studies included one semester at American University in Washington, DC, where she took classes in American foreign policy and worked part-time for the “American Council of Young Political Leaders” (“Washington Semester Program”).
Rob Schmitz has been reporting from Berlin since August 2019. Previously, he was NPR’s international correspondent based in Shanghai, covering the human stories of China’s economic rise and increasing global influence. His reporting on China’s impact beyond its borders has taken him to countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. He has won several awards for his reporting on China, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an Education Writers Association Award.
From 2010 to 2016, Schmitz was the China correspondent for Marketplace. He’s also worked as a reporter for NPR Member stations KQED, KPCC, and MPR. Prior to his radio career, Schmitz lived and worked in China — first as a teacher for the Peace Corps in the 1990s, and later as a freelance print and video journalist. He has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
