NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and Deutsches Haus at NYU present “Germany at the Polls: Between Authoritarian Populism and Progressive Politics,” with Sheri Berman (Barnard College), Thorsten Faas (Free University Berlin), Thomas Gschwend (University of Mannheim), and Constanze Stelzenmüller (Brookings). The conversation will be chaired by Stephen Gross (NYU) and Thomas Zittel (NYU/Goethe-University Frankfurt).
The German Federal Elections on September 26, 2021 take place amidst turbulent times. The country’s’ electoral landscape is in flux with the weakening of established parties, an emerging right-wing populist AfD, and the increased importance of the personal factor in politics. This is met by a wealth of challenging issues such as climate change, migration, the global Covid-19 Pandemic, and changing geo-politics. This panel aims to take stock of the electoral situation on the eve of the upcoming elections and to offer a projection about potential electoral outcomes and their political implications. Panelist will offer introductory comments and thoughts and then enter into a panel discussion followed by a Q&A with the audience.
RSVP here.
About the participants:
Sheri Berman is a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. Her research interests include European history and politics; the development of democracy; populism and fascism; and the history of the left.
Thorsten Faas is Professor for Comparative Politics in the Department for Social Sciences at the Free University Berlin. His research focuses on issues of political communication, political psychology, political behavior, and German electoral politics.
Thomas Gschwend is Professor for Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences at the School of Social Sciences at the University Mannheim and a project director at the Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (MZES), University of Mannheim. His research focuses on electoral behavior, public opinion and comparative politics.
Stephen G. Gross is Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at NYU. His research explores the political economy of Germany and Europe in the twentieth century, now with a focus on questions of energy and climate. His first book, Export Empire: German Soft Power in Southeastern Europe, 1890–1945, was published by Cambridge University Press in December 2015. He is now finishing a second book, tentatively titled Energy and Power: Germany in the Age of Oil, Atoms, and Climate Change.
Constanze Stelzenmüller is the inaugural holder of the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and trans-Atlantic Relations in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings. Her areas of expertise include: transatlantic relations; German foreign policy; NATO; the European Union’s foreign, security, and defense policy; international law; and human rights.
Thomas Zittel is Professor for Comparative Politics at Goethe University Frankfurt and currently Max Weber Visiting Professor for European and German Studies at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, New York University. His research focuses on comparative political representation with special emphases on legislative organization and behavior, political personalization, campaigns politics, and electoral systems.
Attendance information:
To RSVP for this event, please click here. Registration is (as always) free and open to the general public. Only registered attendees will receive Zoom webinar information via email prior to the event. You can download Zoom here.
“Germany at the Polls: Between Authoritarian Populism and Progressive Politics” is funded by the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA).