Bettina studied politics, sociology and journalism in Münster/Westphalia in the 1980s. Immediately afterward, she began working as a freelancer, first for radio and then for German public broadcasters WDR and ZDF.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she moved to Berlin and a few months later started working at Rias TV, reporting mainly on the former GDR.
She was sent to report on the end of apartheid in South Africa and the first free elections there, producing several TV documentaries from South Africa for RIAS, DW and other public TV stations.
Bettina continues to work as a reporter and editor focusing on politics and society.