Viktoria Bechstein currently works as a political advisor to the State Minister for Eastern Germany at the German Federal Chancellery. In this position she has been able to work on and travel to various areas of Germany’s (former and upcoming) industrial heartlands. Hence her keen interest in this fellowship and in learning more about the political cost of transformation in the US and Europe in order to jointly draw lessons on how to politically enable more inclusive and just transformation.

Previously, she worked as a political affairs officer at the United Nations Headquarter in New York. Her work within the Office of the UN Assistant Secretary General for Africa focused mostly on political affairs in West and North Africa and Peace Operations in Mali, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prior to joining the UN, she worked at the German Federal Foreign Office, developing strategies for interventions in conflict regions and conceptual frameworks for advanced multilateral efforts of stabilisation and conflict prevention.

Viktoria holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary European Studies from College of Europe in Warsaw/Poland and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Goethe University in Frankfurt/Germany. She is fluent in English and French.