Die USA und kein Ende … Öffentlicher Abendvortrag im Haus Schlesien mit Botschafter a. D. Prof. Dr. Heinrich Kreft

Venue: Haus Schlesien, Dollendorfer Str. 412, 53639 Königswinter, Germany

Since Donald Trump took office as President of the United States of America again in January 2025, hardly a day has gone by without him making it into the headlines of the world's media. The further development of politics in the USA and the future direction of its foreign, security and trade policy have hardly ever been perceived more intensely and tensely than at present. This is particularly true, but of course by no means only for the new federal government. At the same time, we in Germany can look back on eight decades of special relations with the USA. The liberation of Germany from the Nazi dictatorship in 1944/45 took place under the decisive leadership of the United States and would hardly have been possible without the use of its economic and military resources. Despite initially great scepticism towards the German population and their political views (we are currently demonstrating this particularly with our event series "Unequal Words 1945"), those responsible in Washington in 1945 and afterwards very quickly set the course for democratization and an astonishingly rapid return to (very extensive) political self-determination, at least for the West Germans. This was anything but a matter of course and is still remarkable in retrospect. We are currently confronted with the politics of a country that is supposedly so very different from the wartime enemy, the USA, which then so quickly and with such consequences became an ally and partner. But is the USA "different" now than it was 80 years ago?

This and other related questions will be explored in the public evening lecture at Haus Schlesien. It will take place as part of the seminar " Two different ends to the war - Silesia and the Rhineland 1944/45", but is also open to all interested parties. The speaker, former ambassador Prof. Dr. Heinrich Kreft, is an outstanding expert. He has already completed parts of his studies (history, political science, etc.) in the USA. After joining the diplomatic service of the Federal Foreign Office, he worked in Colombia, Japan, Spain and in various functions at the German Embassy in Washington D.C., among other places. Heinrich Kreft was temporarily Deputy Head of the Planning Staff at the Federal Foreign Office. From 2016 to 2020, he was German Ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He then held a chair in diplomacy at Andrássy University in Budapest. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Istanbul Policy Center since 2024.

Registration for the seminar "Two different ends of the war - Silesia and the Rhineland 1944/45" is still open: ""here