Why are the Germans taking to the streets en masse? And can the country still take the rest of Europe by the hand in this changing world? In the first episode of the new season, Annette van Soest discusses the political situation in Germany with two regulars of the Café, Derk Marseille, correspondent in Berlin, and Stéphane Alonso, Chief Foreign Editor of NRC.
This episode was recorded in the presence of an audience at Filmhuis Lumière in Maastricht prior to the screening of the documentary ‘Merkel’ by director Eva Weber. A beautiful film about the life and career of the most important politician of the 21st century. Maastricht is of course the city of Mathieu Segers, and despite the fact that he is irreplaceable, we will continue with this podcast, as discussed with him last year. Because it is important to keep talking about Europe.
As per usual, we end this episode with the reading table.
Tips and references from this episode:
- Derk recommends the biography Angela Merkel by Ralph Bollmann
- Stéphane recommends Les Aveugles by Sylvie Kauffmann
- Editorial Chief Freek recommends Dagboek van een invasie aan by the Ukrainian writer Andrei Koerkov
- Editor Pieter recommends Dunkelblum Zwijgt from the Austrian Eva Menasse
- And Annette recommends het interview van Der Spiegel-journalist Alexander Osang met Angela Merkel. The first major interview with the Chancellor, a year after her departure.
— disclaimer — the podcast Café Europa is only available in Dutch
Collaboration with Haagsch College
We make the podcast Café Europa together with our partner Haagsch College. Haagsch College is an initiative of Freek Ewals (former BNR Nieuwsradio) and Vincent Rietbergen (former NOS). They produce substantive productions such as theater tours with Rutger Bregman, Joris Luyendijk and Thomas Erdbrink. And in-depth live streams and podcasts about current events.
