Interviewing the Chancellor of Germany
Merkel hosts a weekly video podcast in Germany, Die Kanzlerin direkt, for which everyday people are invited to ask her questions about pertinent topics. As an American political science graduate student studying in Berlin, Lindemann was selected to interview the chancellor as she prepared for an upcoming trip to the United States.
“I was given about a week to draft questions and prepare,” says Lindemann. “I spent a lot of time saying the questions out loud to myself, so I could rely on muscle-memory in the interview if I suddenly forgot German. Fortunately, that didn’t happen!”
During the interview, Lindemann asked the chancellor about topics ranging from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement to racism and xenophobia in Germany and the United States.
Lindemann is pursuing a master of arts degree through the TransAtlantic Masters Program, run by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and offered through partnerships with world-renowned universities abroad. The program trains graduate students for international careers in administration, business, consulting, diplomacy, policy-making, research, and teaching. Building on her international relations and modern languages majors at Beloit, Lindemann has studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, two of Germany’s most prestigious universities. She plans to receive her degree from the latter institution this fall.
As for her future, Lindemann is keeping an open mind. “I’m trying to be flexible about what I do after I receive my degree,” she says. “I’d like to stay in Berlin but the job market here is tight for graduates in political science. Ideally, I hope to pursue something that combines politics and writing, so I can put my native English proficiency to good use while continuing my engagement with German society and politics.”
