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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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NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with soccer podcaster and writer Musa Okwonga about the remarkable season Bayer Leverkusen is having in the German soccer league.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz talks with Der Spiegel journalist Tobias Rapp about Berlin's techno culture, the significance of which has been nationally recognized by Germany's UNESCO commission.
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Following China's annual Two Sessions meetings, NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with Wilson Center's Robert Daly about China's state of affairs and its economy.
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Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán met with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier in March. Former Hungarian MP Zsuzsanna Szelényi talks about Orbán's influence on conservatives in America.
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The new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has promised to introduce legislation that would legalize civil unions in Poland, one of the few nations in Europe that doesn't recognize them.
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NPR reporters in China, Europe and South America weigh in on how the U.S. election is being viewed abroad.
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German officers were reportedly talking about sending weapons to Ukraine and a potential strike by Ukrainian forces on a bridge in Crimea. The German chancellor called the incident "very serious."
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In a German town of Halberstadt, an organ performance that began more than two decades ago is far from over. The piece is expected to be played for 639 years. (Story aired on ATC on Feb. 5 2024.)
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Hungary's parliament has approved Sweden's bid to join NATO, clearing the way for the Nordic nation's accession to the military alliance after two years of intense negotiations.
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Poland's far-right Law and Justice party spent eight years stacking the courts with allies, destroying the judiciary's independence. The new government is finding it's tough to undo the damage.