Alisha Mendgen to become new chief political correspondent

Alisha Mendgen is to become chief political correspondent at Focus on 1 October. The former Berlin correspondent will continue to report from the German capital. She will focus on the Federal Chancellery, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Union parties, and labour and social policy.

“Alisha Mendgen combines excellent contacts with a keen instinct for relevant stories. She analyses political developments with precision, contextualises them clearly and consistently brings exclusive information to light. With her strong presence across all channels, she embodies the kind of modern political journalism that we at Focus aim to further develop. And: she is quite simply a wonderful colleague,” says Franziska Reich, Focus’s editor-in-chief.

Mendgen joined Focus in June 2025 as a capital correspondent. From 2022 to 2025, she reported on federal politics as a correspondent from the Berlin office of the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). She also completed a traineeship at the RND from 2020 to 2022, initially in the newsroom in Hanover and subsequently in the capital’s office. Prior to that, she gained journalistic experience at “Bild” and “Zeit”.

The journalist also regularly analyses political events on television – including on ARD’s “Presseclub”, “Maischberger”, as well as on Phoenix and Bayerischer Rundfunk. She also shares the background to her research in audio formats on ‘Deutschlandfunk’ and ‘Ronzheimer’. In 2026, ‘medium magazin’ included her in its ‘Top 30 under 30’ list.