Pexels, Abdel Rahman Abu Baker

The Blocked Republic: Germany between the Past and the Future

Populism, migration, the economy, war – where is Germany heading to? In his new book Die blockierte Republik, German-British historian Frank Trentmann puts the nation to the test. How did Germany get into this crisis, and how does it get out of it? Trentmann finds answers by looking at history and beyond national borders. He will be talking about his book with historian Hanco Jürgens.

Trentmann highlights the strengths and weaknesses of German democracy, the economy and memory culture. He shows that the ageing of society and migration must be considered in conjunction and that distorted images of reality in the GDR and the Federal Republic contribute to polarisation in both the east and the west.

Trentmann analyses the causes of the current crisis from a historical perspective and at the same time looks ahead by pointing out opportunities for future change. Ultimately, the decisive factor will be what role Germany wants to play in Europe and the world.

His conclusion: the Germans can expect more of themselves and should have more confidence; the situation is serious, but not hopeless. What is needed is more courage to reform, more pragmatism. A change of direction means change of thinking.

About the speakers

Frank Trentmann is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London and at the University of Helsinki. He is the author of Empire of Things and Free Trade Nation, among others, and has received several awards including the Humboldt Research Award and the Bochum Historians’ Award. He grew up in Hamburg and lives in London.

Hanco Jürgens is a member of the academic staff at the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam and a fellow at the Montesquieu Instituut. He teaches German and European history at the University of Amsterdam. Jürgens’ research focuses on the history of modern Germany in a European as well as global context. Currently, he focuses on the transformation of German society since the 1970s due to globalization, digitalization, and social change. He has published on a variety of topics, such as Eighteenth-Century colonial and religious history and Twentieth Century Dutch-German relations, memory culture and German EU-policy.