After an exciting couple of years, tapmag has decided it’s time for a break. In the past years of reporting, live-blogging, and commenting on transatlantic relations, we have become part of a network of fellow transatlantic minds, and we hope we’ve helped bridge the gap for some of you and maybe even inspired some of you to cross the pond.

We have been privileged to have meet and work with great transatlantisists and  journalists. A special thanks to all of the guests and participants at our “Reporting America” seminar at the Free University Berlin (read more about it here)!

We will be using our time off to work on various projects ranging from Bachelor’s theses to getting to know Zurich or Chicago. We will check in from time to time and let you know where tapmag is headed.

In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter or stay in touch with the individual editors through their social media presence:

Kolja is currently studying in Zurich, Switzerland. He’s finding out university can actually teach you things, and that the Swiss are a very nice and helpful people. All the while, he’s analyzing media trends and developments in journalism on his blog, All Things Considered.

Jessica has moved to Chicago to study at the Medill School of Journalism. She is roaming the Windy City for stories and moving steadily into multimedia reporting. You can read about her experience being Curious in Chicago on her blog of the same name.

Semir is working hard on his thesis at Free University Berlin and will soon be a proud Bachelor.

Dirk and Peter are moving in the same direction as Semir. They look forward to taking that to the next level at the John-F.-Kennedy Institute’s graduate school, and will thus stay true to North American Studies.

Thanks to our great readers, fellow bloggers and students for sharing this experience with us, for your inspiration and contributions. Please keep in touch!

We are always open for new ideas. If you want to get involved with the tapmag team, please contact one of the team members in Berlin.

Keep your eyes and ears open – we’ll be back!

One of the younger transatlantic blogs in the German blogosphere is USA Blogger. Since December 2008 the (so far) two-man show is online and offers well-researched articles—one link every three sentences—on American politics and transatlantic culture. In their self-introduction, the two bloggers describe their mission as the attempt to portray the complex and diverse cultural and social reality of the United States as it is today—a goal tapmag wholeheartedly supports.

tapmag: Who’s blogging on USA Blogger? What is your background, are you American, European, or both?

Thomas Furlong: I’m a British bloke who’s been living in Germany for the greater part of my life. I’m currently trying to wrap up my studies – I take American literature/history and African studies at Cologne University – but for the time being I’ve relocated to Berlin where I dabble in online marketing. I’ve been to the US a number of times, lived in upstate New York for a year and have generally always just been intrigued by the States.

Daniel Heise: I’m (just) a German, studying social sciences in Bochum, with an interest in politics and a continuing fascination with the U.S. ever since my exchange year in High School (Charlotte, NC).

Thomas: Oh, and of course we’re always looking for anyone who wants to help out and join the fray.

tapmag:  Which topics do you write about? Who do you write for?

Thomas: For the time being we’ve mostly taken to writing articles about subjects being bandied about in American public debate that haven’t received as much coverage over in Germany. And of course we’re still coming to terms with the new Obama administration. You know, the whole “well I’m glad he won, now where’s that pet unicorn he promised me” thing.

tapmag:  Why are you blogging? Why did you start in the first place?

Thomas: At some point we found we were spending far too much time on the phone having heated discussions about minutiae of American politics, so we thought it might be a nice idea to share our nerdiness with other people. Plus I find it helps me collect my thoughts and is a good way to bookmark articles for later reference. Everyone wins.

tapmag:  Soccer or Football?

Thomas:  Same thing. Love it. Big England and somewhat disgruntled Mönchengladbach supporter. When it comes to what Americans call football on the other hand I only really watch the Superbowl. But that’s a game I never miss. Really I’m more of a basketball guy when it comes to US sports.

Dan: Soccer for me (though just a bit). When it comes to US sports I barely watch or follow any, though I like some football and baseball. Sometimes.

tapmag:  What is your favorite article on USA Blogger? Which one is the most clicked?

Thomas: You know, the problem is that the articles I like most always seem to get read least. I’m pretty happy with my article on the future of the Republican Party (although Bobby Jindal’s crash ‘n’ burn Kenneth the page performance may have impacted his chances for 2012) but the one that gets the most traffic by far is my article on the conspiracy theories surrounding Obama’s birthplace – most of which seems to comprise exactly the kind of nutters I was trying to debunk.

Dan: My favorite would be about the Minnesota recount, written after watching hours of people looking at paper (….members say Aye…..Aye!) and giving me a small reason to having watched that. To protect my sanity, I should have stopped after a couple of minutes, though.

tapmag:  Jesus or Obama?

Thomas: What, they’re not the same person?

Dan: You shouldn’t compare Obama to a convicted felon. I’m going for hope

tapmag:  What question would you have liked to answer? And what would be your answer to it?

Dan:
Q: Is it true that you are omnipotent?
A: No, but thanks for asking.

Thomas: Speak for yourself, man.

tapmag:  Tatort or The Wire?

Thomas: The Wire, hands down.

Dan: The latter is on my to-watch list.

tapmag:  Your favorite blog?

Thomas: I have far too many of the pesky things in my RSS reader, but if I have to pick one, my shout-out for the past year definitely has to go to Numberz Nate at FiveThirtyEight.com.

Dan: Have to agree there, checked it a couple of times each day at high times, which should keep me away from polls until the midterms.

tapmag: Thanks.

You can find all blog posts of this series on transatlantic blogs here.

It is highly recommended reading for everyone trying to keep up with transatlantic culture, global politics, and European and American perceptions of the significant other. Edited by a three men team, including an alumnus of the Free University of Berlin, Atlantic Review has drawn a sizeable audience, as evidenced by the lively discussion surrounding each post in the comments.

tapmag: Who’s blogging on Atlantic Review? What is your background, are you American, European, or both?

Joerg: One American (Kyle Atwell, California) and two Europeans (Nanne Zwagerman, Netherlands and Joerg Wolf, Germany)

tapmag: Which topics do you write about? Who do you write for?

Joerg: All things transatlantic, but especially security issues (NATO, Afghanistan, Russia) and US commentaries on European policies and what Europeans say about the US.

Nanne: We don’t have a detailed concept of a target audience. We write for anyone who is interested in transatlantic relations. I think the blog does a good job of staying accessible but also a bit serious, and I know we have a lot of interesting readers.

tapmag: Why are you blogging? Why did you start in the first place?

Joerg: To promote critical, but fair analysis about the United States and Europe, which is needed to strengthen transatlantic relations in the 21^st century.

tapmag: Soccer or Football?

Joerg: Soccer.

Nanne: Snooker for watching, pool for playing.

tapmag: Which one is your favorite article on “Atlantic Review”? Which one is the most clicked?

Nanne: Our top two posts are about murder rates in the US vs. Germany and a youtube video from the EU that shows European sex. This only shows what people who come to us through search engines care about.

Our third most clicked post is also one of my favourites, and that’s a detailed post about how a German passenger was defamed in the ‘United 93’ movie. This is about addressing stereotypes that exist on both sides of the Atlantic, which is also an important part of what the Atlantic Review has done.

tapmag: Jesus or Obama?

Joerg: Nope, Forrest Gump it is.

Nanne: You’re sure you don’t mean Senator Fulbright, Joerg?

tapmag: Which question would you have liked to answer?

Nanne: Can German bands rock?

Joerg: Can the Dutch win in soccer?

tapmag: Tatort or The Wire?

Joerg: Neither for me.

Nanne: I haven’t watched The Wire.

tapmag: What is your favorite blog?

Nanne: talkingpointsmemo.com by Joshua Micah Marshall & team. This is actually the first blog I started reading, which was in 2003. It’s an example of how far you can take blogging and one of the best sources on DC politics.

Joerg: Tapmag, of course. There are so many blogs that I like for different topics and moods. Here are some of them: New Atlanticist, The Moderate Voice, USA Erklärt, Lifehacker.

tapmag: Thanks.

You can find all blog posts of this series on transatlantic blogs here.

His first entry from July 2004 pretty much sums up his motivation: “This blog serves to support dialogue about culture and politics, with a special emphasis on repairing German-American relations.”

tapmag: Who’s blogging on Dialog International? What is your background, are you American, European, or both?

David: My name is David Vickrey and I am an American who has had close ties with Germany.  Formerly, I was a banker in Frankfurt and New York, working on cross-border investment opportunities.  I also have a strong interest in German history and literature, and wrote my doctoral dissertation on the Weimar Republic.

Today I live with my family on the coast of Maine in New England and work as a business consultant to technology companies. I am also an adjunct professor of German at a local college.

tapmag: Which topics do you write about? Who do you write for?

David: I write about books, painting, theology, politics, history – especially if there is a transatlantic angle.  Increasingly I find myself writing about literary topics, since contemporary German literature is all but unknown in America today.  Only 3% of books published each year in the US are translated from other languages; in Germany it is more than 35%, and American writers are well-known there.

tapmag: Why are you blogging? Why did you start in the first place?

David: I started blogging around the time of the US invasion of Iraq, when relations between Germany and the US were at a low point. I wanted to create a forum where Germans and Americans could meet and discuss our common interests.

tapmag: Soccer or Football?

David: Actually, I am a basketball fan (college and pro). I’m very pleased that the success of Dirk Nowitzki with the Dallas Mavericks has made basketball much more popular in Germany (although I  am a Boston Celtics fan).

tapmag: What is your favorite article on Dialog International? Which one is the most clicked?

David: I have two favorite articles: one on Salka Viertel and the other on Dorothy Thompson, two women who, in very different ways,  did so much to save the lives of the greatest German and Austrian writers, composers, and artists during the Nazi period by getting them  passage to America and helping them survive here. Their sacrifice and courage need to be much better known.

The most clicked article is on Barack Obama’s half-sister Auma.

tapmag: Jesus or Obama?

David: I am a Christian who canvassed door-to-door for Barack Obama in New Hampshire. I see no contradiction in that.

tapmag: What question would you have liked to answer? And what would be your answer to it?

What is the most beautiful German poem?  Answer forthcoming in a blog post soon.

tapmag: Tatort or The Wire?

David: Cannot get Tatort where I live.  Love The Sopranos.

tapmag: Your favorite blog?

David: For politics I like NachDenkSeiten for the articles and links; my favorite American political blogger is Matthew Yglesias because of the amazing array of topics he covers.

For cultural topics I follow Sign&Sight (too bad it scaled back) and Lyrikzeitung.

tapmag: Thanks.

You can find all the blog posts of this series here.