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.
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 Germany/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:
The Research Trip to Saxony-Anhalt is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Time of the research trip: Wednesday, 30 September – Sunday, 04 October 2026
Please note: the Research Trip is an integral part of the n-counter conference in Berlin, and participants will present some of their findings there.
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).