Marianne Heuwagen, director of Human Rights Watch’s Berlin office, aims to influence German foreign and domestic policies in regard to human rights. Before joining Human Rights Watch in September 2005, she worked as editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung for almost 20 years, first as Berlin editor, then as an editor in the national buero and the last three years as op-ed-editor in Munich. She also helped to establish Villa Aurora, the former residence of the German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta, as an artist-in-residence center in Los Angeles. Before coming to Berlin in 1986 she had reported from the US-West Coast for the German broadcasting system ARD, DIE ZEIT and Süddeutsche Zeitung covering intensely civil and human rights issues in the United States. She holds a “Staatsexamen” (State Exam) in German Studies and History from the University of Bonn and a Master’s Degree in Communications from Stanford University.