The dynamics of the transatlantic relationship are changing. As Europe faces the changing policies of the United States toward its alliances, Germany is investing in its armed forces at a historic rate and working to rebalance NATO’s burden-sharing. Die Zeit’s foreign editor Anna Sauerbrey joins this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss how the Trump administration’s “America First” policies are reshaping the German and European approaches to security and economic policy and Germans’ evolving view of the country’s place in the world.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Editor, Die Zeit

The center-left Social Democrats are the junior coalition partner in Friedrich Merz’s government, but they hold two of the most important portfolios for implementing Germany’s security policy revolution known as the “Zeitenwende”—finance and defense. On this episode of The Zeitgeist, Member of the Bundestag and former Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil discusses the SPD’s stance on Russia and Ukraine and Germany’s efforts to strengthen the Bundeswehr, including the thorny issue of growing the armed forces and the potential role of conscription.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Hubertus Heil, Member of the Bundestag (SPD)

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
I’m delighted to have listeners with us again today for another episode of The Zeitgeist. Our guest today is Hubertus Heil. Thanks for being with us.
Hubertus Heil
Nice to meet you. Thank you.
Jeff Rathke
Hubertus Heil is here in Washington. He is a member of the Bundestag and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. It’s in that capacity that he’s visiting Washington, but he is no stranger to the United States. Hubertus Heil, I think you said you first visited at age 16, which was a couple of decades ago.
Hubertus Heil
In the 80s, late 80s.
Jeff Rathke
He has been a member of the Social Democratic Party for a long time. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 1998, so, twenty-seven years. He has held senior positions in the Social Democratic Party, including as Secretary General and deputy leader. He was for seven years the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in the German government under Chancellor Merkel and also under Chancellor Scholz, whose term ended earlier this year. He brings a really deep experience working with his counterparts in the United States but also in party politics. That gives us a great opportunity to talk today.
I wanted to start by talking about Russia and Ukraine, because this is an issue where, on the one hand, the divergence between the United States and its European allies has been obvious since Donald Trump took office. The United States hasn’t quite broken with its European allies, but it is not requesting new funds to provide military support to Ukraine. It has been pushing the Europeans to take over responsibility for military supplies and other support to Ukraine. Donald Trump has been flirting with some kind of a reset or reconciliation and realignment of U.S. policy toward Russia. This puts Germany in a difficult position, but also in the Social Democratic Party  this has been hotly debated. I wonder if you could give us your perspective on how you look at Russia, the relations with Russia, and how that looks inside the SPD?
Hubertus Heil
Thank you for that question, because I think the SPD is quite clear on this after the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Still, our position is that Putin destroyed the European peace order. It’s not just a question of sovereignty to support Ukraine as long as it’s needed. It’s also a question of security for my country and for us as Europeans. We are still talking about that Putin was not only violent against the European peace order but to international law. Everybody wants peace in my party, in my country, all over the world. But it has to be a peace with security, that is not a dictatorship peace at the end of the day. That is why we have to, as Europeans and as Germans, support the Ukrainian government to make sovereign decisions. I remember this meeting—before the Anchorage appointment of Mr. Putin and President Trump—of the European leaders. It was very important, and we supported as Social Democrats Chancellor Merz in his position of keeping contact with the United States and keeping them involved for the...

Ties between far-right parties and movements in Europe and the United States and Germany are growing. Annett Meiritz and Juliane Schäuble join this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss their forthcoming book Die Allianz der Neuen Rechten (The Alliance of the New Right; Publisher: Heyne), which examines how these movements are building networks, learning from each other, and working together. They also discuss how these movements are mobilizing culture wars and their influence on transatlantic relations.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Annett Meiritz, U.S. Correspondent, Handelsblatt
Juliane Schäuble, U.S. Correspondent, DIE ZEIT

The global trading system is in flux, with increased multipolarity and uncertainty. Disruptions in supply chains and concerns about sustainability and national security have caused countries to reexamine trade policies. Dr. Luz Ma de la Mora, Director of UNCTAD’s Division on International Trade and Commodities, joins this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss the role of multilateralism in global trade, the characteristics of the future trading system, and how international trade can benefit emerging and established economies.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Luz Maria de la Mora, Director, International Trade and Commodities, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Peter Rashish, Vice President and Director, Geoeconomics Program, AGI

Germany’s defense commitments are beginning to match the ambitions of the Zeitenwende, and Germany’s increased investments in European security are being noted in Washington. In his first visit to the United States in his role as Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation, Member of the Bundestag Metin Hakverdi (SPD) joins The Zeitgeist to discuss how Germany’s new approach to burden-sharing is impacting the wider U.S.-German relationship, his impressions from meetings with political leaders in the Midwest, and how, despite differences, the Merz government and Trump administration are working to find common ground.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Metin Hakverdi, Member of the Bundestag (SPD), Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Welcome to all of our listeners. I’m really pleased to have Metin Hakverdi with us today for this episode of The Zeitgeist. Metin, welcome.
Metin Hakverdi
Hi.
Jeff Rathke
Metin Hakverdi is the Transatlantic Coordinator for the German government. He is also a member of the German Bundestag, where he has been since 2013 directly elected from Hamburg, member of the Social Democratic Party, and someone who has been involved in transatlantic relations for many years as a legislator, as a former distinguished visitor at the American-German Institute, which is when we really first got to know each other back in 2019, but also as someone who spent time in the United States as a student in high school and university. So, someone who has decades invested in the relationship of the United States and Germany, and so it’s great to have you here.
Metin Hakverdi
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Rathke
You are here in Washington on July 25th and it’s the end of a week-long trip, but you’ve also been here with the German defense minister a couple of weeks ago, so that gives us a lot to talk about. But first, maybe just so our listeners understand: what does the Transatlantic Coordinator do?
Metin Hakverdi
Yeah, that’s a good question. I have difficulties answering it. So, my first job is to deepen the relationship between the United States and Germany. But I like the job description as being a translator on both sides of the Atlantic. I like that one better.
Jeff Rathke
We have had to the privilege of talking with some of your predecessors on this podcast, Peter Beyer and Michael Link from the CDU and the FDP respectively, and it strikes me that one of the important function of the Transatlantic Coordinator is that of course you have a home in the Foreign Office, and you are in that sense representing the government. You also have the freedom of a member of parliament to speak about things as you see them and to speak sometimes a bit more freely than a government official might. Is that a use you intend to make of this position as well?
Metin Hakverdi
I hope yes. I hope yes.  It depends on the issue, of course. My goal is not to talk differently than other members of the government, but sometimes there’s a little more room for maneuvering. Yeah, maybe yes.
Jeff Rathke
And maybe to be a bit candid, perhaps. I was struck by that aspect as well when I was watching the contribution that you made to the debate in the Bundestag on the day that Friedrich Merz traveled to the United States. This was just a few weeks ago. He had his first visit as chancellor to Washington, met with President Trump in the Oval Office, and there was a Bundestag discussion of transatlantic relations that day. You hit a number of different notes, and I think together they make an interesting story. One thing you said was, “despite all the noise, despite the irritations, despite the at times, raw tone,

Even though it came in second place in the 2025 German federal election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was subsequently classified as an extremist party by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesverfassungsschutz, BfV). This has renewed discussions in Germany about banning the party as a threat to the democratic order. Dr. Russell Miller, an expert in German constitutional law, joins The Zeitgeist to discuss the purpose of the BfV, previous attempts to ban parties in Germany, and the procedures involved. He also discusses the transatlantic effects of a ban of the AfD, given the strong criticism the BfV’s designation drew from parts of the Trump administration.

Russ Miller’s Photo Essay from the 2017 NPD Party-Ban Proceedings

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Russell A. Miller, J.B. Stombock Professor of Law, Washington and Lee School of Law

Third spaces where people can gather, organize, and provide support have been critical for LGBTQ+ communities in Germany and the United States. “Building LGBTQ+ Communities in Germany and the United States” participant Baylen Campbell joins this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss how LGBTQ+ groups can build capital and invest in themselves in order to preserve these spaces, especially as funding gaps and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation threatens to close them. He also discusses best practices in the United States and Germany following the program’s study tours in New York City and Munich.

Guest Host
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Guests
Baylen Campbell, Director of Programs & Partnerships, Invest Appalachia

Transcript
Eric Langenbacher
Hello, everybody. Welcome to this episode of The Zeitgeist podcast at the American-German Institute. I’m Eric Langenbacher, the director of the Society, Culture, and Politics program here at AGI. And today’s podcast is entitled, “Queer Economies: Solidarity, Sustainability and the Struggle for Space.” Joining me from the sunny state of Kentucky is Baylen Campbell. Baylen, welcome.
Baylen Campbell
Hey Eric. Thanks for having me on the podcast today. I’m Baylen Campbell, just to go ahead and introduce myself. I live in Hazard, KY, which is where I’m originally from, and I’m the Director of Programs and Partnerships with an organization called Invest Appalachia, which is a blended-capital impact investing platform helping to leverage philanthropic and investment capital into historically underserved communities in my neck of the woods; across West Virginia, Kentucky, the Appalachian counties of Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee.
When we met in New York City in September, the U.S. was bracing for a critical election. By the time we arrived in Munich in March, Trump was in office again, and the AfD had won a major victory in Germany. These political shifts gave new urgency to our visits and conversations and the varying sort of challenges and threats that the queer community is facing in this current political climate.
Eric Langenbacher
Thanks, Baylen. So, amid this backdrop, with these dramatic political shifts in the United States, maybe a little less dramatically, but still important in Germany, we found ourselves asking—this is the second year of our Building LGBTQ+ Communities exchange program—the participants found ourselves asking: How could LGBTQ+ communities maintain economic autonomy? How can they build collective power and protect spaces that are under threat? So, we’re going to explore a lot of these issues through real-world examples from our various site visits, briefings, and discussions in both New York and Munich.
Our first big issue is looking backwards, just for a second, at how queer communities have invested in themselves up until this point in time. This, I think, is a very important issue in this political moment, because we can see that public support is sometimes conditional for the community. We wanted to ask ourselves what’s at stake with variable levels of public support.
I think the first thing to note is that, especially in the United States right now, there’s a lot of political pressure, a lot of funding cuts that are coming from the U.S. government. Actually, the Human Rights Campaign has an excellent overview of the various budget cuts that have been announced or implemented. They estimate that the total financial impact on the LGBTQ+ community is estimated at about $2.67 billion,

President Trump claims the international trading system is unfair to the United States. The Trump administration is seeking to rectify trade imbalances through tariffs and is trying to reshape the global economy. Member of the European Parliament Daniel Caspary joins this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss how Europe is responding to the U.S. administration’s trade measures and the importance of continued transatlantic engagement.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Daniel Caspary, Member of the European Parliament
Peter Rashish, Vice President and Director, Geoeconomics Program, AGI

This podcast is made possible by support from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

The LGBTQ+ communities in Germany and the United States have been working toward greater legal rights, but laws and politicians in both countries have threatened to not only halt progress but take away already existing protections. Two participants from the AGI project “Building LGBTQ+ Communities in Germany and the United States” join The Zeitgeist to discuss the current status of LGBTQ+ rights in each country, the relationship between the LGBTQ+ activists and politics, and the role of LGBTQ+ politicians.

Guest Host
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Guests
Jasmin Gräwel, Journalist, Level4Films
Sarah Pope, Director of U.S. Programs, LGBTQ+ Victory Institute

This podcast is part of the project “Building LGBTQ+ Communities in Germany and the United States: Past, Present, and Future” and is generously funded by the Transatlantik-Programm der Bundesrepublik Deutschland aus Mitteln des European Recovery Program (ERP) des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz(BMWK) (Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany with Funds through the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action (BMWK)).

In his second term, President Trump has continued his criticism of NATO and European allies’ defense efforts while the United States pursues a reset with Russia—the main threat to European security. How will the U.S. defense presence in Europe change, and what reforms are under consideration for the U.S. command structure that might affect the relationship with NATO and Europe? Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith joins this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss U.S. security engagement with Europe, potential changes to the transatlantic architecture, and how those changes will impact deterrence and peace in Europe.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Julianne Smith, Former U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO

The Trump administration has taken sweeping actions on tariffs, with more scheduled to be imposed in April. On this episode of The Zeitgeist, Kim Clausing explains the administration’s approach to tariffs and their role in wider economic policy. She also discusses whether value-added taxes or digital services taxes constitute trade barriers and how these may affect trade relations between the European Union and the United States.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Kimberly Clausing, Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law
Peter Rashish, Vice President and Director, Geoeconomics Program, AGI

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Welcome all of the listeners of The Zeitgeist; we’re glad to have you with us today. We are especially glad to have Kim Clausing with us. Hello, Kim.
Kimberly Clausing
Hello, nice to be here.
Jeff Rathke
Where are we reaching you?
Kimberly Clausing
In Los Angeles.
Jeff Rathke
Kim Clausing is the Eric Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, and she also previously was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and the lead economist in the Office of Tax Policy. So, somebody who knows taxes—and I bet tariffs—pretty well. We are glad to have her with us today to talk about taxes and tariffs. I am also joined by my colleague, AGI Vice President Peter Rashish. Peter, hello.
Peter Rashish
Jeff, hello. Kim, hello. Good to be with you both.
Jeff Rathke
Let’s just dive right into it. We are recording on the 19th of March, 2025. I say that because things move quickly, and you never know what announcements might come up today, tomorrow, or in a few days from now. Kim, if we look at the Trump administration’s tariff actions thus far, there are a lot of them. They are switched on and switched back off again in some cases. What stands out to you about the approach to tariffs in the Trump administration, especially compared to the way that the Biden administration also used tariffs?
Kimberly Clausing
Yes, that’s an excellent question. And I think we could also usefully contrast this Trump administration from the prior Trump administration. The prior Trump administration levied tariffs mostly on China. And if you look at the quantity of trade relative to all of our trade, it was about 10 percent of our trade, it wasn’t all of the trade. Biden continued many of those tariffs and added just a tiny bit more, not a lot more, about 18 billion out of 3 trillion of traded goods in certain strategic sectors with respect to China.
And then we get into the second Trump administration, and their interest in tariffs is far broader. They’re interested in tariffing virtually every country in the world, which he aspired to do during the campaign. He mentioned the possibility of a 10 to 20 percent tariff on every country in the world, and, in the early days of his administration, he began by levying tariffs—or at least threatening to levy tariffs—on Canada and Mexico. And that’s an interesting and peculiar choice because those are our two closest trading partners, both geographically and in terms of size. And they are also countries where we have a free trade agreement already and one that was just recently renegotiated by President Trump. I point to that in part as a bellwether for how broadly this Trump administration intends to use tariffs. If they’re starting with Canada and Mexico, we can expect them to include the entire world. And then we’re talking about $3.1 trillion in trade, an amount that’s ten times the size of the first Trump administration tariffs.

For decades, memory culture in Germany has largely focused on coming to terms with and memorializing the Holocaust. In recent years, however, memory discourses have expanded to include, among others, Germany’s colonial history, particularly crimes committed in the territory of contemporary Namibia. Dr. Priscilla Layne discusses how German memory culture is evolving, how analogies can aid in understanding atrocities, and how the arts can bring awareness to overlooked histories.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Priscilla Layne, Professor of German, Adjunct Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies, and Director of the Center for European Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
I want to welcome all of our listeners to this episode of The Zeitgeist, and we are really proud to have with us today Professor Priscilla Layne. Professor Layne, welcome.
Priscilla Layne
Thank you. I’m happy to be here today.
Jeff Rathke
And I am joined by my colleague Eric Langenbacher, who is the director of our Society, Culture & Politics Program at AGI. Good morning, Eric.
Eric Langenbacher
Good morning, Jeff.
Jeff Rathke
So today’s topic is the changing memory culture in Germany, which is a topic we’ve touched on a number of times in this podcast, so listeners may be familiar with it. But just a word at the start. This is a follow-up to a conference that AGI co-hosted recently, which was under the title of a “Mnemonic Zeitenwende in Germany.” In other words, how is Germany’s memory culture and how is its memory politics changing as the aperture on Germany’s history widens. This is a really exciting development in this area of studies. I’m really glad we have the chance to talk about this today with two great experts, Eric and Priscilla. Eric, let me just hand it over to you, and we can get started.
Eric Langenbacher
Thanks, Jeff. Yes, we’re so pleased to be speaking with Dr. Priscilla Layne today, who is a professor of German at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, as well as an adjunct associate professor of African and Afro American Studies and the director of the Center for European Studies. She’s a very widely published academic; I might just highlight two books. Her first book was entitled White Rebels in Black: German Appropriation of Black Popular Culture that came out in 2018. She has a new book that has come out very recently called Out of this World: Afro-German Afrofuturism. She’s also interested in many other topics such as German national identity, conceptions of race and self/other in Germany, cross-racial empathy, postcolonialism, and rebellion.
I thought that we might start with just a little bit of context behind today’s podcast. German memory culture is very well-established. I have argued, as have many other people, that what I call “Holocaust-centered memory” has been hegemonic for several decades now. But as is always the case, this sometimes becomes a little contested—maybe contested is a little strong—but there’s been a critique the last couple of years that some people call the German catechism debate that was unleashed by a mutual colleague of ours, Dirk Moses. Many other academics, like Michael Rothberg, have gotten involved in the whole thing as well. It’s obviously a very complex debate and I don’t want to oversimplify it too much, but I think gist of it is that the current hegemony of Holocaust-centered memory has made it difficult for other important mnemonic discourses to find space and voice within German memory...

Shortly after the polls closed in Germany, Jeff Rathke, Eric Langenbacher, and Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger discussed the results of the snap elections. They give their reactions to the performance of the parties and what motivated such a high turnout. They also predict how the results will impact the coalition formation in the coming months and Germany’s international role in the coming years.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, AGI Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program

Climate change can create national security risks, test military resilience, and redefine how countries pursue their geopolitical interests. Sherri Goodman, author of Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security, joins The Zeitgeist to discuss how the Department of Defense is addressing and adapting to the challenge of climate change and the role of allied military cooperation. She also offers perspectives on the role that climate change is playing in the Trump administration’s approach to Greenland and the Panama Canal.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Sherri Goodman, Senior Fellow, Polar Institute and Environmental Change & Security Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center; Secretary General, International Military Council on Climate & Security (IMCCS)
Peter Rashish, Vice President and Director, Geoeconomics Program, AGI

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Well, I’d like to welcome all of our listeners to this episode of The Zeitgeist. We’re speaking on February 5, 2025, with Sherri Goodman. Sherri, thanks for being with us.
Sherri Goodman
It’s a pleasure.
Jeff Rathke
Sherri Goodman is a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Cente’s Polar Institute and Environmental Change and Security Program. She’s also the Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate and Security, and she’s the author of a book called Threat Multiplier: Climate Military Leadership and the Fight for Global Security, which was published just last year. And she is one of the foremost thinkers on climate change and national security. And so we are going to talk about that today. And where I want to start is, we are just a couple of weeks into a Trump administration, which has a decidedly different view than its predecessor on things like the role of climate change in international security. How is this going to matter now and in the coming years, Sherri? Is this something that can disappear from the thinking of an American strategist and foreign policy practitioner?
Sherri Goodman
Well, thank you, Jeff, and it’s a pleasure to be with you and the listeners on The Zeitgeist. There’s Trump’s rhetoric, and then there’s the reality. Even in his first term, when he considered climate a four-letter word, there was a lot of climate action that occurred in the Department of Defense and in a bipartisan way in Congress on the major defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. So in Trump’s first term, the Department of Defense created the Defence Climate Assessment Tool, which was first developed by the Army to screen military facilities for climate vulnerabilities like sea level rise, wind, flood, heat, and other perils and other risks. That tool’s since been adopted by the entire Department of Defense, and it’s even been shared with some of our allies and partners. So that work is going to continue.
When you think of climate risk as a risk, and militaries are all about managing and reducing risk: risks of instability around the world and also risk to troops and forces and bases. When you think about the fact that sea level rise, floods, fires, storms, all the climate perils that we experience today, many on an almost daily basis now, affect how we operate our forces around the world and affect how our bases are stationed and our troops are trained, that work has to continue, and indeed much of it is already baked into the Department of Defense directives and into guidance documents that will continue in this administration. It may be reframed as climate resilience rather...

With the German elections slated for February 23, Member of the Bundestag Omid Nouripour, a former national co-chairman of the Green Party, joins The Zeitgeist to discuss the issues shaping the campaign. He analyzes challenges that the next coalition will face and the outlook for transatlantic relations with a new U.S. administration.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Omid Nouripour, Member of the Bundestag (Alliance 90/The Greens)

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
I want to welcome all of our listeners to this episode of The Zeitgeist. We are really pleased to have with us Omid Nouripour. Omid, welcome.
Omid Nouripour
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Rathke
Omid Nouripour is a directly elected member of the Bundestag from the area around Frankfurt or Frankfurt and environs. He has been a member of the Bundestag for almost twenty years, occupying a seat that was previously held by Joschka Fischer—is that correct?
Omid Nouripour
Exactly.
Jeff Rathke
And as you may guess from that, he is a member of the Green Party, and from February 2022 until November 2024, so for about two and a half years, he was also the co-chair of the national Green Party, so one of the most important figures in the party over the last several years. With that in mind, it is a terrific opportunity to talk with you, Omid. You’re in the middle of an election campaign, right?
Omid Nouripour
Yep, and it’s getting more and more intensified by circumstances, international and national.
Jeff Rathke
I think that’s what we’re going to try to peel back a bit. We’ll start by talking a bit about what’s happening in Germany and in this election campaign in particular. And then we will think about how that relates to the new U.S. administration. It seems to me when I look at the German election campaign, there are two or three big issues that stand out, but before giving my impression, I’d like to hear yours. What are the two or three things that are most important—from your point of view—for German voters and for Germany right now?
Omid Nouripour
By far the most important issue is a society which is feeling a huge amount of fatigue, fatigue of crises, and we had and we have a lot of crises. One is inflation, something which is of course well-known in the United States in the last years. Of course, we have the post-COVID depression of a lot of people. People are exhausted of the war in Ukraine, as the people in Ukraine are. We have one migration debate and issue after another. We have issues of public security. And so on and so on. And of course, the question of climate crises is a big one, not only for my party. We are seeing a lot of extreme weather coming in and harming a lot and destroying a lot of lives and welfare in this country. You asked me what’s the biggest issue. The biggest issue is how to get more resistance on crises.
Jeff Rathke
One of the things that this coalition for its three years in power, it started off famously characterizing itself as a future-oriented coalition, taking new approaches, spanning party boundaries in new ways. And that lasted less than a full legislative term. Do you think that the sense of optimism, the sense of being able to master challenges, has diminished in Germany, or is it shifting in some way?
Omid Nouripour
You know, I was the guy who invented the term of a transitional coalition, that’s how I called the coalition we had, and to be honest, I’m very proud of what we achieved. We started with a with some kind of an optimism and a very few weeks after the beginning of the period, the war in Ukraine has been escalated by the Russian side and it was a huge challenge for energy supply, for inflation to tackle,

Germany votes for a new parliament on February 23. While the center-right Christian Democrats maintain a lead in the polls, the three parties of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing “traffic light” coalition all have suffered reduced support compared to 2021. A result of this volatility is that the next Bundestag could have as many as seven or as few as four parties. In any case, the far-right AfD party is on track for its strongest national showing ever. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger joins The Zeitgeist to discuss the German political landscape, what is motivating voters, and how the elections will affect transatlantic relations.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, AGI Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Let me welcome our listeners to this episode of The Zeitgeist. It is January 13, 2025, so this is our first recording in the New Year, and we are glad to have everybody with us. We are just around six weeks away from the German Bundestag election, which is happening on February 23. We thought that was a great opportunity for us to come together and talk about where this election is heading, its significance. Let’s get started. We have with us today my colleague Eric Langenbacher, who is the senior fellow and director of our program for Society, Culture & Politics here at AGI. Good morning, Eric.
Eric Langenbacher
Good morning, Jeff.
Jeff Rathke
And we have with us from Darmstadt, if I got that right, Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, who is a nonresident senior fellow at AGI and who for many years was the foreign editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Hello, Klaus.
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger
Hello guys across the pond. Good to see you again.
Jeff Rathke
Good to see you, too. Let’s just start with one general observation: this is a crucial moment not only for Germany, but in particular for Germany. We have an early election that was the result of the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition. This election is happening just as the Trump administration, with its increased antagonism and mounting demands toward Europe, will take office. At a time when there is a war still raging almost three years on as Russia tries to subjugate and conquer Ukraine. And at a time for Germany that is particularly precarious because of the difficulties the German economic model is facing, economic stagnation in Germany. This is a time that is going to have huge consequences for Germany, for its European Union partners, and for the transatlantic relationship. Against that backdrop, let’s just start with how things look—and I’ll leave it to Eric or Klaus to run down—but what are we expecting when we look at public opinion, what’s the baseline?
Eric Langenbacher
I’ll start by talking about where we’re at with the polls. Obviously, there are almost daily polls that are coming out these days. I always respect the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll. That came out three days ago on the tenth. It shows the CDU/CSU at about 30 percent, SPD at 14, Greens at 15, FDP and the Left Party and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance at 4 percent, and the AfD at 21 percent. And just to contextualize that a little bit, I think this shows a little bit of weakening on the part of the CDU, a strengthening on the part of the AfD. The AfD was polling well below 20 percent for several weeks, now all the polls have them at 20 percent, maybe even as high as 22 percent. So there seems to be a little bit of strengthening there.

Who does the United States call when it wants to call Europe, especially as Germany enters a transition through early elections and France experiences political turmoil? Dr. Phyllis Berry joins The Zeitgeist to discuss which people and countries are taking on leadership in Europe and who will drive decision-making in 2025.

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Phyllis Berry, National Intelligence Officer for Europe, National Intelligence Council

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Well, welcome to all of our listeners to this episode of the Zeitgeist. I’m here today with Dr.  Phyllis Berry. Phyllis, thanks for coming by.
Phyllis Berry
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Rathke
Phyllis Berry is the National intelligence Officer for Europe at the U.S. National Intelligence Council. She’s held that position since 2021. She previously was Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Europe and a bit further back was also the director for Ukraine on the U.S. National Security Council staff back during the first Russian invasion of Ukraine. Somebody who has perspectives from a variety of angles and somebody with a lot of expertise on Germany, too. Avid listeners of the podcast will remember Phyllis because she was a guest earlier this year where we talked about global trends and their impact on transatlantic relations. We’re speaking today on December 18th, two days after the Bundestag failed to pass a confidence motion in favor of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which set in motion the process toward a new election, most likely, which will happen in February, and our discussion is going to build on our earlier podcast. Of course, there’s a focus on the U.S. transition. We’re going to direct our gaze outwards at European transitions and leadership in Europe. Phyllis, my first question to you: Does Europe face a leadership vacuum?
Phyllis Berry
Again, thanks for having me here, Jeff. My short answer to your question is no, I don’t think it does.
I think right now if we’re going to say who’s leading Europe, we would begin with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who’s just started her second term. And I think has started her second term in a strengthened position. There was a lot of innovation in what the EU did during her first term, partly because of the crises that they faced post-COVID and then the further invasion of Ukraine and then also the growing challenge from China. We saw innovations in all those areas. I think von der Leyen begins her second term in a strengthened position. She has a stronger, more cohesive leadership team with High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas the first former Prime Minister to have that position. Kallas and von der Leyen are really in sync, by the way, I think they look at both Russia and China, which wasn’t always the case with Josep Borrell. With former Portuguese Prime Minister Costa as the President of the European Council, he’s someone who has reverted to the sort of classic role of the President of the Council as being really somebody who is a coalition builder behind the scenes. And he has a reputation for helping to come to compromises. Whenever the EU and when Europe makes big decisions, and what we saw in the first term is the Commission and von der Leyen can press a new initiative and can go beyond where the consensus is at the moment, but you don’t get a big new policy without Council buy-in.
Jeff Rathke
Other words, the heads of state and heads of government.
Phyllis Berry
They have to do that. I think we also see if we’re talking about leadership change, we have a new NATO Secretary General in Mark Rutte, and we’ve already seen that Rutte and von der Leyen want to work closely together to use the benefits of both ins...

The second Trump administration will take office in just over one month—how will it approach the European security order and trade with the European Union? What risks and opportunities does a new administration represent for Germany? How will relations with China affect Germany’s competitiveness and the transatlantic relationship? As Germany’s federal election campaign begins, it is clear that the next coalition will be made up of different parties than Chancellor Scholz’s “Traffic Light” coalition that broke up on November 6. Berlin faces major domestic challenges, such as diverging views on how to address Germany’s faltering economy. What can we expect from the political transitions in both countries, and how will that shape the international agenda?

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Stefan Mair, Director, German Institute for International and Security Affairs

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Let me welcome all of our listeners to this episode of the podcast and let me welcome Stefan Mair. Stefan, thanks for being here.
Stefan Mair
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Rathke
Well, we are talking in person, which is great—not that we don’t like video calls as well. And we are talking on December 5, 2024. Stefan, you may remember this: this is actually your second time being a guest on this podcast. The first time was back in 2019–
Stefan Mair
And I was still at the Federation of German Industries.
Jeff Rathke
Exactly. And I’m sure we will come back to the topic that we were discussing then, which is the German relationship with China, which remains a quite interesting topic. Stefan is now the director of the German Stiftung Wissensschaft und Politik, which in English is the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. We are delighted to have you in that capacity. Stefan has been for over thirty years in some of Germany’s leading public policy institutions, including with the Federation of German Industries, where he was a member of the Executive Board, and also going way back to your start with SWP back in the 1990s.
If I look at the last couple of weeks, naturally the U.S. election on November 5th was a major development that will affect the transatlantic relationship for years to come. But also, the day after the U.S. election, we had the dissolution, essentially, of the governing coalition in Berlin as Chancellor Scholz fired his finance minister, Christian Lindner. So we have these two things which set the stage really for the coming months and years, and I thought we might talk about the ways in which those may interact.
The first thing, as we look at the U.S. transition that is taking shape, most of the cabinet positions have nominees now. We’ll see how quickly people get confirmed. We have essentially control by the Republican Party in the Congress as well as in the executive branch. As a candidate, Donald Trump talked a lot about his view of the world, his desire to use things like tariffs, his skepticism or even animosity toward America’s alliances. These are not new themes; we heard about them when he was president the first time. So, maybe to start there. From a German perspective, Stefan, what are the big opportunities and risks that arise?
Stefan Mair
I think from a German perspective, it’s quite difficult to think about opportunities. We mainly see the risks for the next month and two of them are quite obvious. And the impact of these risks, if they really realize, will be huge. First, of course, we are concerned about the support—both the financial as well as military support—to Uk...

For thirty-five years, the LSVD+ – Queer Diversity Association has been representing the interests of LGBTQ+ people in Germany. Its managing director Klaus Jetz joins The Zeitgeist to discuss how LGBTQ+ rights have changed in Germany since unification, the challenges the community faces now, and how the LSVD+ has advocated for greater civil rights in Germany. With guest host Eric Langenbacher, he also discusses how the LSVD+ works with other organizations to advance LGBTQ+ rights globally.

Guest Host
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Guests
Klaus Jetz, Executive Director, LSVD+ – Queer Diversity Association

Transcript
Eric Langenbacher
Welcome, everybody, to this edition of The Zeitgeist podcast here at the American-German Institute. I’m Eric Langenbacher, a senior fellow and the director of the Society, Culture & Politics Program here at AGI. Today, we’re going to be speaking with Klaus Jetz, who is the Geschaftsführer, or the executive director, of the LSVD+ organization, the Federation Queer Diversity, based in Cologne, Germany. And we had the opportunity to meet with Klaus when we were on our study tour for our LGBTQ+ exchange program, this was back earlier this year in April 2024. Klaus, it’s really nice to—kind of—see you again and welcome.
Klaus Jetz
Thank you very much for the invitation.
Eric Langenbacher
So Klaus, I thought maybe we could begin with you providing a few more details about yourself, your journey, and how you got to this position today.
Klaus Jetz
It was just by, I would say, an accident, because I was looking for a job when I finished my studies back in the 90s. I studied Spanish and French literature, Latin American literature, and history. And, when I finished in 1992, I think it was, I was looking for a job, and a friend of mine said the gay association in Germany is looking for a press officer. And so I ran for this job and I was selected. And since that time in the 90s I have been working as a press officer for the LSVD in those times—LSVD+ nowadays—and for our Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation, which is our human rights foundation. But I never stopped working as well on Latin American issues, Spanish issues, or literature as a translator of Spanish novels, Latin American novels from Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Cuban novels, et cetera. And to write about Latin American issues, history, politics, and culture, mainly literature.
Eric Langenbacher
Fascinating. So maybe first you could give us more details about the LSVD+ Federation itself. What is your main mission? What is the structure of your organization, and what are the main activities?
Klaus Jetz
Our mission is equality in front of the law or before the law: equal rights for LGBTI+ people. We’ve been fighting for equal rights for same-sex couples for a long time until we were granted marriage-for-all rights in 2017. We are a non-discrimination organization working on anti-discrimination policies and activities based on LGBTIQ+. And we are a kind of watchdog as well. As soon as in society, in the media, or wherever in politics there is discriminatory wording against LGBTI+ people, we raise our voice and we are heard by media. But we are invited as well by legislators, by the German Parliament, or ministries as soon as they do have project law in the pipeline to give our views on this project. So we are the national LGBTIQ+ organization; we speak for trans and intersex people as well. Of course, there are other organizations, and we closely cooperate with these organizations.
Eric Langenbacher
Great. And what about your personnel? How big of an organization,

The year 2025 will bring not only a new U.S. administration but also a new EU Commission. What will these changes mean for Germany and the United States, and what aspirations does Chancellor Scholz’ coalition have for the European Union? Almut Möller, Director for European and Global Affairs at the European Policy Centre, joins the Zeitgeist to discuss. What would different election outcomes mean for European action on competitiveness and security? How does President Ursula von der Leyen’s ambitious Commission align with Germany’s interests?

Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Almut Möller, Director for European and Global Affairs, European Policy Centre
Peter Rashish, Vice President and Director, Geoeconomics Program, AGI

Transcript
Jeff Rathke
Welcome to all of the listeners to the Zeitgeist. We have today as our guest someone who is well-known to us and perhaps to some of you out there as well. Her name is Almut Möller. Almut, Welcome.
Almut Möller
Thank you very much, Jeff.
Jeff Rathke
And Peter Rashish, director of the Geoeconomics program and vice president of AGI, is with us, too. Hello, Peter.
Peter Rashish
Hello, Jeff.
Jeff Rathke
Almut Möller is director for European and Global Affairs at the European Policy Centre. She is a former state secretary and representative of the city of Hamburg, representing Hamburg in Berlin, in Brussels, and internationally for five years, and she just finished up that job this past summer. And before that, she’s been in a number of positions at think tanks as well as a researcher in places as varied as Beijing, Cairo, and Washington, DC. We won’t ask you to tell us which of those places you like best! Almut is now splitting her time between Brussels and Berlin, because Brussels is, of course, the home of the EPC. We’re talking today about the impact of the U.S. presidential election on Germany and Germany’s leadership role within the European Union. Important, of course, a few days before the U.S. elections—we are speaking on November 1st, the Friday before the November 5th vote—and also as a new European Commission is taking office, the second term for Ursula von der Leyen and with a new cabinet. So, there we are. We are looking at a historic election coming up next week, Almut. So, let’s start there. In your previous role as State Secretary for the city-state of Hamburg, you sat in the Bundesrat, in the second chamber of the German legislature, and you were there for all sorts of debates, touching on foreign affairs and domestic. How do you think Germans—official Germany especially—view a Trump versus a Harris presidency? Do people see stark differences and significant consequences for Germany? Or I sometimes hear from some Germans who sort of dismiss both sides as: They’re both kind of protectionist. They’re both looking to Asia instead of to Europe, and while of course there’s a difference between them, the main lines for Germany and Europe would be the same in either case. How do you think? How do you see it and how do you think people in decision-making roles see it?
Almut Möller
Well, Jeff, first and foremost, thank you very much for having me. It’s great to be with you and Peter and always good to be with AGI. Washington and my time there was very formative for me. I do say that as someone who’s not a trained transatlanticist, and why do I say that at the beginning, before I respond to your question? It shows you that I’ve learned to think about the world through the lens of Europeanization, which was laden with hope in the 1990s.