Bernhard Bartsch is a Senior Expert in the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s program “Germany and Asia.” Before joining the foundation, he spent more than a decade in China, working as East Asia Correspondent for major German media.
Bartsch has lived half of his life in Asia. As a teenager, he spent six years in Hong Kong. He went on to study Chinese, Economics, Politics, and Journalism at the University of Hamburg. In 1999, he enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy on a scholarship provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In 2004, he completed a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management at the University of London.
Bartsch’s career as a journalist began in 2000 in the Beijing office of the German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche. Between 2003 and 2013, he worked as a correspondent for several German-language media, including the daily newspapers Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, and Berliner Zeitung, as well as magazines including Internationale Politik, Cicero, and the monthly business journal brand eins. He reported on political, social, economic, and cultural issues in China, Japan, and South and North Korea.
In 2013, he joined the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Asia team, where he continues to address the political, economic, and social developments in Asia and their impact on Germany and Europe.
