Rob Schmitz
Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.
Prior to covering Europe, Schmitz provided award-winning coverage of China for a decade, reporting on the country's economic rise and increasing global influence. His reporting on China's impact beyond its borders took him to countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. Inside China, he's interviewed elderly revolutionaries, young rappers, and live-streaming celebrity farmers who make up the diverse tapestry of one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road (Crown/Random House 2016), a profile of individuals who live, work, and dream along a single street that runs through the heart of China's largest city. The book won several awards and has been translated into half a dozen languages. In 2018, China's government banned the Chinese version of the book after its fifth printing. The following year it was selected as a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award, Poland's most prestigious literary prize.
Schmitz has won numerous awards for his reporting on China, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an Education Writers Association Award. His work was also a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. His reporting in Japan — from the hardest-hit areas near the failing Fukushima nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami — was included in the publication 100 Great Stories, celebrating the centennial of Columbia University's Journalism School. In 2012, Schmitz exposed the fabrications in Mike Daisey's account of Apple's supply chain on This American Life. His report was featured in the show's "Retraction" episode. In 2011, New York's Rubin Museum of Art screened a documentary Schmitz shot in Tibetan regions of China about one of the last living Tibetans who had memorized "Gesar of Ling," an epic poem that tells of Tibet's ancient past.
From 2010 to 2016, Schmitz was the China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace. He's also worked as a reporter for NPR Member stations KQED, KPCC and MPR. Prior to his radio career, Schmitz lived and worked in China — first as a teacher for the Peace Corps in the 1990s, and later as a freelance print and video journalist. He also lived in Spain for two years. He speaks Mandarin and Spanish. He has a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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A week into a lockdown, Germany is still hoping to cut a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus infections. Meanwhile, many German states have decided to keep schools open.
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Europeans reacted to the U.S. election with dismay. Some politicians are voicing alarm over President Trump's premature declaration of victory and labeling of routine vote counting as fraudulent.
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Eyewitnesses to Monday's terror attack in Vienna described harrowing scenes of a gunman shooting people, killing four and wounding more than 20 others. Police killed the gunman.
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Germany and France have become the latest European countries to introduce limited public health lockdowns, in an effort to end sharp increases in coronavirus infections.
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As U.S.-China Relations Worsen, Germany Looks Out For Its Own InterestsEuropean Union member states used to rely on the U.S. and China for security and trade. Now that the relationship with both has soured, some EU countries are looking for alternatives.
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The United Kingdom and Germany are both European liberal democracies. Their political cultures, however, are very different, and that has been emphasized by each country's response to the coronavirus.
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While foreign leaders largely wished President Trump well after his positive coronavirus test, global media took the opportunity to criticize and even mock his response to the pandemic.
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European markets opened lower and today and world leaders across Europe and Asia reacted following the news that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
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Health officials in a number of European countries are reporting sharp increases in coronavirus infections and are warning of more hospitalizations and deaths in the months ahead.
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Navalny spent 32 days in Berlin's Charité Hospital, 24 of them in intensive care. Independent lab tests in three countries confirmed he had been poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent.