Joschka Fischer - Harbour Front Literaturfestival

Lecture followed by a book signing

The U.S. is no longer the reliable protective power that Germany could count on for decades. This leaves Germany facing a question that had long been pushed aside: What role does this country want to—and must—play in a world that is changing faster than the old Federal Republic was accustomed to? Rivalry among the major powers is intensifying, artificial intelligence is transforming the economy and society, the Global South is asserting itself with greater confidence, and Europe is under military pressure.

In his lecture, Joschka Fischer places this situation within a broader historical context. Germany remains the world’s third-strongest industrial nation, yet it is also a country whose relationship to power, the military, and its national identity remains shaped by the catastrophic history of the 20th century. Can a post-national Germany survive in an increasingly dangerous world? Is economic strength still enough when technological sovereignty, defense capabilities, and political resolve must be renegotiated?

Germany must clarify what responsibility means today. The trust that its former wartime adversaries placed in it after 1945 was the prerequisite for Germany’s postwar recovery. Former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer demonstrates what it means today to continue to live up to that trust while at the same time courageously confronting the entirely new threats of the 21st century—military, technological, and political.

Joschka Fischer, born in Gerabronn in 1948, served as Federal Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1994 to 2006, he served as a member of the German Bundestag. In 2006–2007, he was a visiting professor at Princeton University. He lives in Berlin and has published numerous books on German and international politics, Europe, and the new world order.