Episodes

Germany is well-known for its robust memory culture that deals with the crimes of National Socialism and the Holocaust; however, it has only recently begun to address legacy of its colonial past. Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Katja Keul joins AGI President Jeff Rathke and Senior Fellow and Society, Culture & Politics Program Director Eric Langenbacher to discuss the German government’s approach to reconciliation with former colonies. How do policies differ from country to count...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke; Dr. Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of AGI’s Society, Culture & Politics Program; and Dr. Jackson Janes, President Emeritus of AGI, discuss the history of the German-American partnership and the evolution of the diplomatic relationship between Germany and the United States. From a divided country on the front lines of the Cold War to a united economic powerhouse in the center of Europe, Dr. Janes examines Germany’s abilit...

The open and rules-based trading system is at an inflection point. Countries are reexamining their trade policies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s rise, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; they are also looking for ways that trade policy can address national security priorities and meet the challenge of the climate crisis. Anabel González, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization, joins Jeff Rathke and Peter Rashish to discuss the outlook for the WTO as it responds to t...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke and Susanne Dieper, Director of Programs and Grants, discuss the latest findings in the AGI project “Social Divisions and Questions of Identity in Germany and the United States.” Project participants Carolynn Welch, Executive Director at Westminster Economic Development Initiative, and Alexander Thamm, a moderator based in Berlin, Germany, share their impressions and findings of the group’s visit to Memmingen, Bavaria, where participant...

On this episode of the Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke speaks with Dr. Norbert Röttgen, member of the German Bundestag (CDU) and Vice Chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke, about Germany’s efforts to support Ukraine’s defense against the ongoing Russian invasion. Is Chancellor Scholz’s insistence of a “lockstep-with-the-United-States” approach to weapons delivery a sign of Berlin’s transatlantic spirit or lingering resistance to expanding arms supply to Ukraine? Could Germany accelerate weapons d...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI looks back on the 40 years of the Institute’s work on strengthening the American-German relationship through academic research, policy dialogue, and exchanges. AGI President Jeff Rathke is joined by Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of AGI’s Society, Culture & Politics Program, and Frank Trommler, Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Trommler, who led the AGI Humanities Program from 1995 to 2003, directed the Instit...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI president Jeff Rathke and Dr. Christine Arentz, Professor for Health Economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, discuss Germany’s public health system since the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the issue of rising demand for long-term care. How has the public discussion on health care changed since the pandemic? Is the German health care system adequately financed to handle pandemic-related health emergencies as well as other emerging public...

Dan Mullaney, Former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East, is our guest for this episode of The Zeitgeist. Together with AGI President Jeff Rathke and Peter Rashish, AGI Vice President and Geoeconomics Program Director, they discuss the current trade policy agenda and the role of closer U.S.-EU cooperation in shaping a sustainable, future-oriented global trading system. Has recent experience with the covid-19 pandemic and increasing strategic competition fundamental...

On February 27, 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an historic speech to the German Bundestag, declaring a historic turning point (Zeitenwende) for Germany’s security and defense policy following Russia’s invasion in Ukraine days before. One year on, AGI President Jeff Rathke and AGI Non-Resident Senior Fellow Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger take stock of Germany’s support for Ukraine, the progress of re-investment in the armed forces, and Berlin’s partnership with its key allies in Europe and ...

On this episode of the Zeitgeist, our guest is FDP Bundestag Caucus Leader Christian Dürr. He and AGI President Jeff Rathke discuss how Germany has reset its energy policy, the future of trade in a global environment increasingly defined by strategic competition, and how Germany is addressing the threats to its security stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What lessons has Germany taken from its successful efforts to cut energy dependency on Russia and how might it help the country’s tran...

On this episode of the Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke talks with Dr. Liana Fix, Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, to discuss ongoing challenges in Germany’s foreign policy as Olaf Scholz pursues the Zeitenwende – the reorientation of Berlin’s security agenda. Amidst intense public debates over the shipment of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, how does Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s leadership reflect Germany’s attitudes towards European security? What signals is Scholz...

In December 2022, German authorities arrested dozens of people tied to an alleged right-wing extremist plot to overthrow the German government. Among the accused are a member of a former German noble family, a member of the German army’s elite force KSK, and a former member of the Bundestag from the far-right AfD party (who had worked as a federal judge). The alleged conspirators are tied to the Reichsbürger movement, which rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state and seeks to overthrow...

As 2022 draws to a close, AGI President Jeff Rathke, AGI Senior Fellow and Director of Society, Culture, and Politics Program Eric Langenbacher and AGI Non-Resident Senior Fellow Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger take a look back at the most significant events of 2022 and their impact on German domestic as well as foreign and security policy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine introduced the “Zeitenwende,” – a reckoning of German politics with its foreign policy mistakes toward Russia, and a pledge to stren...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke sits down with Roderich Kiesewetter, ranking member of the CDU/CSU faction in the Foreign Relations Committee of the German Bundestag, to discuss the ongoing changes to Germany’s foreign and security policy, nine months after German chancellor Olaf Sholz declared the Zeitenwende. What support has Germany provided Ukraine to resist against Russian aggression? How should Germany reconceptualize its role in a changing Europe? Are longstand...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke talks with participants in the AGI project on social divisions in Germany and the United States, which recently visited Glendale, AZ. Melanie Mello, educational consultant and specialist for German; Rohat Akcakaya, master’s student in public policy at Peking University and the London School of Economics ; and Susanne Dieper, AGI Director of Programs and Grants, share their impressions and findings. In Glendale, the participants explored...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke sits down with Johannes Vogel, Deputy Chairman of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the FDP’s Chief Whip in the German Bundestag, to discuss Germany’s policy toward China and Russia. Has Germany’s outlook of its relationship with China changed fundamentally, while Xi Jinping has secured an unprecedented third term as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government appears determined to expand China’s politi...

On this episode of the Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke, AGI Senior Fellow and Director of Society, Culture, and Politics Program Eric Langenbacher and AGI Non-Resident Senior Fellow Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger discuss the result of Lower Saxony’s Landestag election on October 9 and what it illustrates about national politics in Germany. What are the major issues shaping the country’s political dynamics? Has the SPD’s relative success in Lower Saxony removed concerns about the party’s recent ...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke and Peter Rashish, Director of the AGI Geoeconomics Program, discuss the state of German-American economic relations and the countries’ shared global challenges with Karl Haeusgen, president of the VDMA (Mechanical Engineering Industry Association). Has the trade and economic relationship between Germany and the United States changed amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing strategic competition with China? With the rise of concept...

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared a “Zeitenwende,” a historic turning point for Germany’s security and defense policy. Scholz pledged to set up an off-budget fund of €100 billion to invest in the modernization of the Bundeswehr and promised that Germany would reach NATO’s defense spending goal of 2 percent of GDP. Breaking with decades of tradition of not sending arms to conflict zones, the German government also has supplied weapons to Uk...

On this episode of the podcast, AGI President Jeff Rathke and Peter Rashish, Director of the AGI Geoeconomics Program, discuss the ongoing challenges facing international trade, potential reforms to the existing international trading system, and the changing face of globalization with Andreas Freytag, Professor of Economics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Honorary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch, and Rufus Yerxa, Senior Advisor at McLarty Associates and former Deputy Di...

On this episode of the podcast, AGI President Jeff Rathke and Peter Rashish, Director of the AGI Geoeconomics Program, discuss the challenges facing globalization and the evolving international trading system with Pascal Lamy, former Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes. Is the world in an era of de-globalization or re-globalization? Has Europe’s willingness to open its economy to global trade in the post-Cold War era created...

In a stark display of their economic power following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies deployed an array of sanctions aimed at curtailing Russia’s access to global financial markets and industrial supply chains. These unprecedented economic sanctions are intended to diminish the resources Russia has available to prosecute its war. While the moves have demonstrated a high degree of allied cooperation, they have also heightened debate about the relative effectiveness o...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke is joined by Alex Sängerlaub, the director and co-founder of futur eins in Berlin, and Rebekah Tromble, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at the George Washington University, as they discuss the spread of misinformation and disinformation in Germany and the United States. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the spread of misinformation? Are Americans and Germans “media literate” enough...

On this episode of The Zeitgeist, AGI President Jeff Rathke discusses the experience of managing the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons for public health policy in Germany and the United States with Arielle Kane, director of healthcare at the Progressive Policy Institute, and Philipp Heuermann, MPA candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. How has the public’s trust in government institutions and scientific expertise impacted both countries’ covid responses? Has the pandemic changed the population hea...