n-counter: Research Trip to Eastern Germany

The trip takes journalists to three stops in Saxony-Anhalt: Magdeburg, where coalition negotiations are underway three weeks after the election; Bitterfeld-Wolfen, a town whose post-reunification trajectory from industrial collapse to economic recovery tells a more complicated story than it might seem; and Halle, where civil society groups are responding to the election result in different ways.

The trip takes place one week after state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a context that shifts the focus away from coalition arithmetic and toward the bigger picture: what is happening in Eastern Germany, why, and what it means for the rest of the country and for Europe.

Participants report independently for their home outlets. The trip provides access and context through meetings with local politicians, journalists, and civil society actors. It also enables exchange with fellow reporters from across Germany, Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

We are looking for journalists who see connections between what is happening in Saxony-Anhalt and what they know from their own countries, whether that is the rise of the far right, post-communist transformation, or the difficulty of reporting on a place that is harder to understand from the outside than it looks.

We invite editors, journalists, and correspondents from Eastern Partnership Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine), Central and Eastern Europe, and Germany to apply if they:

• have experience in foreign reporting;
• are interested in German (domestic) politics;
• have a strong command of English

Please note: the Research Trip is an integral part of the Reclaming Reality: n-counter conference in Berlin, and participants will present some of their findings there.

Time of the research trip: Wednesday, 30 September – Sunday, 04 October 2026

Application deadline: 31 July 2026 (midnight CET).

Please note that at the end of the form you will be asked to upload your CV.

Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Markus Niedobitek (niedobitek@n-ost.org).

The Research Trip to Saxony-Anhalt is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.