Close-up on Damien McGuinness

Born in Zambia, to a family with Irish roots, he grew up in England, did part of his studies in Germany, worked in France and Poland, before finding his spiritual homeland in Berlin in 2000 -- a city where most people have equally mixed-up backgrounds. Damien speaks German, French, Russian and English.

Journalistically Damien has always been fascinated by Europe. He has reported from most countries in the EU and the former Soviet Union. And has served as the BBC’s Riga correspondent covering Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, before moving on to Tbilisi to cover Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.