Reporting from the Capital

Alexandra von Nahmen arrived in a highly polarized country when she took over as DW’s bureau chief in Washington, D. C. in 2017. These were the last days of Obama’s presidency awaiting the incoming Trump administration. “My first assignment was a report about one of the district’s famous African American churches. Just a few days before President Trump’s inauguration, I spoke with members of the congregation about their expectations and their fears with regard to his presidency. At this moment, none of us could have imagined what was to come, and how the anger over racial injustice and police brutality would erupt in the streets across the country,” she recalls her first days in Washington D. C.. One of the biggest challenges covering the U. S. during the Trump presidency is the fast moving news cycle, she says. “It is difficult to keep up — with his tweets, his distraction maneuvers, the personnel carousel within the administration.”

As DW’s Washington bureau chief she has reported on the Mueller investigation, the summits with Kim Jong Un in Singapore and Hanoi, the impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives and the impeachment trial in the Senate, the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. Every time she thought: “Wow, I never expected to cover such an event! This is a real highlight — hard to top!” And every time, it took just a few weeks or even less for the next unexpected huge event to happen. 

Alexandra von Nahmen got her first journalistic experience through a part-time student job at a local newspaper in her home town of Recklinghausen. “You won’t get a lot of money for writing, but they pay alright for photographs,” a friend told her. For her first story on the opinion of the youth on the upcoming election, she interviewed her friends and fellow students. “I was so proud. I actually had been thinking about becoming a writer, but this might have been the moment that convinced me to try my luck as a journalist,” Alexandra von Nahmen says. Later she worked for the WAZ (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung) newspaper, the local radio station, and as a TV reporter at the public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). The direct feedback from the audience shaped her the most. 

Having studied at the American University in Washington, D. C., she was drawn to DW for its international focus and multinational staff. DW offered her much more than she was hoping for, she says. She worked as a reporter at the parliamentary studio, traveling with then-President Johannes Rau and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and was a reporter on the ground when Poland and the Czech Republic became members of the European Union. “And that’s why I am so excited to enter the next phase of my career now — as DW’s bureau chief in Brussels,” she says. 

In the U. S., she was elected president of the White House Foreign Press Group as she focused on covering the administration and the president himself. “I was often in the Oval Office and the East Room. I asked President Trump questions — well, actually, you have to scream them at him as every other reporter does.” What struck her most was how Donald Trump — who has been repeatedly described as “erratic” and as a “stunningly uninformed” commander in chief — was able to profoundly change the priorities of U. S. foreign policy, alienating allies and friends, and to what extent he was able to challenge the system of checks and balances in the U. S.. 

“I think it will be difficult if not totally impossible for the country to recover from this presidency which has deepened long-existing divisions and put on display challenges and problems the U. S. has been facing for decades.” However, she felt that the protests after the death of George Floyd were the most monumental and telling events she witnessed in the U. S.. “During my time in Washington, I covered many protests. But this time — the anger paired simultaneously with the hope for change — was an amazing experience. I was among the people gathered at the White House on that infamous Monday when the authorities decided to clear the streets by using tear gas on peaceful protesters and on us reporters so that the president could have a photo op in front of a nearby church. This was a moment I will never forget — a moment that may define Donald Trump’s presidency.” 

While living abroad, her perspective on Germany has changed. During her time as DW’s bureau chief in Moscow between 2007 and 2012, she learned to appreciate Germany’s rule of law, its health system and its press code. “Having covered the political debate about health care and education in the U. S., I appreciate the universal health care, tuition-free education and welfare system in Germany more than I did before. On the other hand, I will certainly miss the freedom you feel in the U. S. — a freedom to be accepted the way you are. And last, but not least: the Americans’ proverbial kindness, paired with taking it easy, is something that we could use more in Germany.”