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Dr. Peter Frey, born in 1957, served as Editor-in-Chief of ZDF from 2010 to 2022. On the program heute journal, he regularly provided commentary on national and international politics. He hosted numerous shows, including Berlin direkt, auslandsjournal, and ZDF-Morgenmagazin, and, together with Bettina Schausten, interviewed all key figures in German politics as part of the series Was nun? (What Now?). Since the 1990s, he conducted 48 interviews with Angela Merkel. Highlights of his television career include the coverage of Barack Obama’s election as U.S. President, the elections and funerals of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, as well as the ceremonies surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Frey also served as a correspondent in Washington and authored the book Von Bagdad nach St. Petersburg, published by Hoffmann und Campe. He began his journalistic career in his early twenties at Südwestfunk radio and for the newspaper Die Zeit, where one of his first features was a report on the writer Anna Seghers and her novel The Seventh Cross. Between 1978 and 1986, he studied political science, Romance studies, and education in Mainz and Madrid, earning a doctorate on Spain’s accession to the European Union. As Editor-in-Chief, Frey actively engaged in dialogue with viewers and critics of public broadcasting. Since his retirement, he has been involved in German-Polish initiatives.

Karl Schlögel studied Philosophy, Sociology, Eastern European History and Slavic Studies at the Free University of Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1981 and initially worked as a freelance translator, publicist and author before being appointed to the newly created Chair of Eastern European History at the University of Constance in 1990. in 1995, he moved to the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, where he taught until 2013. Research stays in Moscow, Budapest, Oxford, Uppsala, Munich, Vienna, and Los Angeles. Karl Schlögel is a member of the Order Pour le mérite. The German Academy for Language and Poetry honored him with the Sigmund Freud Prize in 2004. in 2016 he received the Historisches Kolleg Prize, and in 2018 the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. in 2025, he was honored with the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association in St Paul's Church. His most recent books are "Auf der Sandbank der Zeit. The Historian as Chronicler of the Present" (2025), "American Matrix. Visiting an Epoch" (2023), "The Scent of Empires. Chanel No. 5 and Red Moscow" (2020), "The Soviet Century. Archaeology of a vanished world" (2017) and "Decision in Kiev. Ukrainian Lessons" (2015). He is also known to a wide audience through his monographs "Terror und Traum. Moskau 1937" (2008) and "Im Raume lesen wir die Zeit. On the History of Civilization and Geopolitics" (2003). His books have been translated into numerous languages.

Photocredit: Phil Dera

Born in Münster, studied German language and literature, art history and political science at the universities of Münster and Bonn. She gained her professional experience at the opera, in publishing and in the museum sector before she was responsible for art and cultural programmes in large companies. From 1998 to 2013, she was a board member of the Brandenburg Gate Foundation. She has been an honorary professor of cultural management at the Free University of Berlin since 1999. Monika Grütters was a member of the Executive Committee of the CDU Germany from 2016 to 2022. From 1995 to 2005, Monika Grütters was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives, where she was spokesperson for science and cultural policy for the CDU parliamentary group. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2025, chairing the Committee on Culture and the Media from 2009 to 2013. From 2013 to 2021, she was Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Photocredit: Christof Rieken