Birgit Wetzel

What is happening in other parts of the world, especially in countries of the former Soviet Union? How does it effect us in Europe? How can people in a globalized world respect each other, balance their interests and find common ways, or at least find out about their differences, respect them, and agree to disagree. How can people get Human Rights? These are the questions that have been on her mind since her school days. After living in the USA on a student exchange basis, and finishing High School in Califormia, she returned to Germany.Back home, she realized that in Germany people know hardly anything about the Eastern half of Europe. So, she decided to start learning Russian, and later Polish, and to find out about the unknown East. At the Osteruopa-Institut in Berlin, she studied Slavistics, Ecomony, and History. Already during her time at the Free University in Berlin, she took an internship the the RIAS in Berlin in the Eastern Politics Department, and later continued wor