What is the Candid Foundation?

The Candid Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation, which since its establishment in 2014, has developed into a privately chartered think tank and a dynamic project hub. We are based in Berlin, Germany, but remain sensitive to developments in the Middle East, Mediterranean and other locations where our projects are focused.

What does the Candid Foundation do?

Our work covers a diverse range of initiatives, collaborations and research focusing on media and mediation in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean. We initiate projects that foster intercultural understanding and creative approaches in international development.

With our interdisciplinary and holistic approach the Candid Foundation facilitates dialogue between civil society representatives, cultural producers and entrepreneurs. Our experts and fellows advise a wide range of international institutions and policy-makers on social, political and cultural developments pertaining to our regional focuses.

What is the Candid Foundation’s philosophy?

The foundation’s philosophy is epitomised by the word ‘candid’. We approach challenges in a straight-forward, transparent manner which values truth, honesty and integrity above all else. This distinctly candid mode of communication works as a potent antidote to intolerance, xenophobia, sectarianism and disinformation.

What makes the Candid Foundation unique?

The Candid Foundation is supported by an outstanding and diverse network of regional experts. This comprises political analysts, economists, journalists, legal scholars, creatives, media professionals and development specialists from around the world.

One of our network’s key assets is the multitude of contributors to zenith magazine, Germany’s leading media brand on the Middle East, North Africa and the Muslim world.

Get to know our associates, board members, fellows and experts. ↓

Our Associates

Aline Abboud

Moritz Behrendt

Christian Meier

Marcel Mettelsiefen

Dr. Inna Rudolf

DanielGerlach

  • Aline Abboud is a Berlin-born journalist and broadcaster. She studied Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leipzig. She worked at the German parliament as well as several national German newspapers, radio stations and television networks. She reported for Reuters from Ramallah and Gaza, before joining the German public-service broadcaster ZDF in 2016 as an editor and a news anchor. Since April 2019, Aline has co-hosted a political programme on YouTube and Facebook targeted at under-30s, called DIE DA OBEN!, produced by funk, the German content network of ARD and ZDF. She hosts the Middle East Podcast of zenith Magazine. Since 2021 Aline joined the team of anchors of the evening news show Tagesthemen at the public-service television channel ARD

  • Moritz Behrendt is a German broadcast and print journalist. His work has featured in major German-language newspapers such as Süddeutsche Zeitung and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and since 2006 he can be heard on Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio Kultur. Before becoming a journalist, he studied history and journalism in Hamburg, Dakar and Beirut. Moritz is particularly interested in how collective and personal memory shape the way societies in the Middle East and in Africa envision the future. With this in mind, in 2013 he helped launch the interdisciplinary project Muwajahat al-Madi (Confronted Past) which focused on life in Egypt and Tunisia after the revolutions of 2011.

  • Daniel Gerlach is the Director General of Candid Foundation gGmbH and Editor-in-Chief of zenith Magazine. He holds degrees (Magister Artium, Licence) in History and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Hamburg and Paris IV-Sorbonne. In addition to his work at Candid, he hosts a documentary television series on Middle Eastern history and culture. He is a frequent expert guest on international news broadcasters and has delivered briefings and presentations at various institutions, including King's College, Princeton University, the Iraqi Parliament, and the European External Action Service. In 2019, he was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University. Daniel oversees Candid’s dialogue and mediation efforts, where he integrates applied research, journalism, and innovative project work.

  • Inna Rudolf is a research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King’s College, London. In 2019 she was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq. She previously served as a representative of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt throughout the Middle East and North Africa. In 2017 she headed the research department of the Tunisian think tank Maghreb Economic Forum. Inna specialises in conflict resolution, international security and the hybridisation of security sectors. Her current research focuses on popular mobilisation tactics, security sector reform and Islamist non-state actors in Iraq, in particular the relationship between the Iraqi state, militias and paramilitary groups.

  • Christian H. Meier is a German journalist. In 2016 he became a political editor of the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung focusing on content from the Middle East. He has also worked at Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutsche Presse-Agentur and ARD. As well as pursuing research on cultural integration at the Cluster of Excellence in Konstanz, he has studied Islamic studies and history in Munich, Hamburg, Cairo and Tunis. Christian specialises in the development of Islamic thought, contemporary Egypt and Christian communities in the Middle East. Since 2021 Christian serves as the newspaper’s foreign correspondent covering Israel, Palestine and the Horn of Africa region

  • Marcel Mettelsiefen is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Having interrupted his medical studies to extensively cover Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti, his work has most recently focused on Syria. His reports from the country have featured on ARD, ZDF, Channel 4, CNN, Al Jazeera and Canal+. His film, The Agony of Aleppo’s Children, was awarded TV News Story of the Year by the London Foreign Press Association in 2013. Marcel received the Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Preis for outstanding journalism and the Cinema for Peace Award in 2014, as well as two International Emmy Awards and prizes from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). In 2017, Marcel's Syria documentary Watani was nominated for the Academy Awards (Oscars) in the category documentary short.

  • A political scientist by training, Leo Wigger specializes in political and religious movements, migration, security in South and Central Asia (including the South Caucasus), where he has undertaken extensive fieldwork. Leo is also researching the interplay between sports, politics, and identity with a specific focus on football. He is a regular contributor to zenith magazine and previously worked as a trainee speechwriter for the president of the European Parliament. He is a Raisina Young Leader 2023 by the Observer Research Foundation (New-Delhi) and ZEIT-Stiftung. In 2022, Leo co-authored the book "Katar 2022, so eine WM gab es noch nie" a primer on the politics surrounding the Football World Cup in Qatar.

Leo Wigger

Our Team

Anne Bauer

Pascal Bernhard

Robert Chatterjee

Valeska Heldt

Meryem-Lyn Oral

  • In her academic and journalistic work, Anne Bauer focuses on the MENA region, where she has spent most of her professional and academic life. Having worked as a researcher for a variety of German and international organizations, she specializes in issues of displacement, migration, conflict transformation, and mediation. Among others, her past work has addressed the Syrian war and its ramifications for neighboring countries, the Palestinian cause in the Arab world, and the multifaceted crises affecting Lebanon.

  • Pascal Bernhard is a Swiss journalist and analyst for political affairs in the MENA region. After having studied Philosophy and Islamic Studies in Zurich, he completed a traineeship at the magazine zenith, and wrote numerous pieces and interviews about geopolitics, cultural heritage and religion. In his studies, he focusses on the Golf countries and the power-dynamics of conflicts such as Israel-Palestine, Yemen and Libya. He also admires medieval Islamic history and theology and the game of chess.

  • Robert Chatterjee has studied Middle East Studies and History at the Freie Universität Berlin. He has been working at zenith since 2009 and is the Magazine's Deputy Editor-in-chief since 2016. As a project manager for the Candid Foundation, he was in charge of projects like Candid Media & Science and KatarTalks, amongst others.

  • Valeska Heldt is a German lawyer by training, currently working as a Political Officer at the Candid Foundation. She previously was based in Beirut, Lebanon, working on rule of law issues in the MENA region. She holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from Georgetown University (2018). Her expertise relates to the fields of international criminal, humanitarian and human rights law, and she participated in legal and investigative work related to the Rwandan Genocide as well as national criminal proceedings against German ISIS returnees from Syria and Iraq.

  • Meryem-Lyn Oral is the Media and Communication Officer at Candid Foundation. After receiving her master's degree in International Conflict Studies from the War Studies Department at King’s College London in 2024, she began working for zenith magazine and the Candid Foundation. Academically, she focuses on the nuanced impacts of culture, identity, and emotion on political issues, with a particular interest in the effects of transnationalism within diasporic communities in Germany. She has a keen eye for aesthetics and creates numerous visual outputs for Candid’s projects.

Our Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Dr. Ayad Al-Ani

Heinz M. Buhofer

Christian Peter Hanelt

Prof. Dr. Gilles Kepel

Prof. Dr. Verena Metze-Mangold

Prof. Dr. Udo Steinbach

Yasmin Ouberri

  • Professor Ayad al-Ani is the Professor for Change Management and Consulting at the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF). He is a professor extraordinary at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University South Africa. Professor al-Ani has over 20 years of experience in business consultancy and has served as president of the ESCP Business School, Berlin, where he also taught. His research focuses organisational change, as well as transformations in the fields of society, economics and education.

  • Heinz M. Buhofer is a Swiss-based entrepreneur. He holds a master’s degree in economics from University of St. Gallen. He currently serves as Director of METALL Zug Group and as the Chairman of the Board at Metall Zug AG. The Candid Advisory Board has benefitted greatly from Buhofer’s entrepreneurial spirit since it was founded.

  • Christian-Peter Hanelt is a German political scientist specialising in the Middle East. He is currently a senior expert for Europe and the Middle East at the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Between 1991 and 1994 he worked for the German television channel Sat.1 where he covered the aftermath of the Gulf War. In his role at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Hanelt has supported the strengthening of EU-Tunisian relations following the 2010-11 revolution. His areas of expertise include the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, the Israeli-Arab conflict and EU-Gulf relations.

  • Professor Gilles Kepel is a French political scientist specialising in the Arab world. He is the author of several books on the contemporary Middle East and Muslim communities in Europe, the latest of which, Chaos, was published in Germany in 2019. He is currently a professor at the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) and as director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Chair at PSL, based at Ecole Normale Supérieure.

  • Professor Verena Metze-Mangold is a German intercultural communication expert and political scientist. She currently teaches political communication at Berlin International University of Applied Sciences. She previously served as president of the German UNESCO Commission, communications director of the public German broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk and as the director the Protestant Media Academy. Professor Metze-Mangold specialises on the topics of freedom of press and information, media and network policy, as well as international law, multilateralism and the WTO.

  • Yasmin Ouberri is an independent consultant specialising in international project development and project management. Her work focuses on supporting cultural and civil society actors within changing societies, especially in the Arabic-speaking world, to strengthen inclusive civic engagement, facilitate knowledge exchange, and build sustainable capacity in the field of financial literacy. Yasmin previously served as the Candid Foundation's Network Manager from 2019 - 2020.

  • Professor Udo Steinbach is a German Middle East specialist. He currently heads the MENA Study Centre at the Maecenata Foundation. He served as director of the German Orient Institute Hamburg as well as head of the Department Near and Middle East of the Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP). He also helped to establish the Centre for Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University Marburg and co-founded as a shareholder the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform.

Our fellows and experts

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