Mosse Lectures - »Coups d’état. Between military coups and constitutional captures«

In light of the erosion of the rule of law that we are currently witnessing, for instance in the United States under Donald Trump, the Mosse Lectures seek to systematically examine various forms of coups d’état — from military coups to the gradual undermining of the Constitution — and to explore the accompanying cultural shifts in power.

Events

Anna-Bettina Kaiser: »Staatsstreich, Ausnahmezustand, Regression« 

With Lothar Müller

Thursday, December 4, 2025 | 7:15 p.m. | Senatssaal of Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin

The coup d’état as a form of constitutional upheaval has had its day; today, democracies are dying a slow death — that is the common assumption. Yet, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that there is no single »script« for the gradual destruction of democracy. In fact, we are currently witnessing a variety of different forms of constitutional dismantling. How can these diverse phenomena be conceptualized? Under what conditions does law play an essential role, and under what conditions does force? Will we ultimately see the return of the coup d’état? 

ANNA-BETTINA KAISER: Legal scholar; Professor of Public Law and the Foundations of Law at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Kaiser has been part of the »Constitutionalism under Stress« [CONSTRESS] project in cooperation with Princeton University since 2016 and has been co-director of the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society [LSI] at Humboldt-Universität since 2019. Her areas of expertise include constitutional law [constitutions in times of crisis, freedom of speech], comparative constitutional law, constitutional theory, and the crisis of the rule of law. Her book »Ausnahmeverfassungsrecht« [The State of Exception in German Constitutional Law], published in 2020, was on the non-fiction bestseller list of ZDF, Deutschlandfunk, and DIE ZEIT and was awarded the Werner von Simson prize. Most recently, she was a Fulbright Scholar and Senior Emile Noël Global Fellow at New York University in 2023/24. 

The lecture will be held in german.

Mouhamadou El Hady Ba: »Decolonial Coups d’Etat?«

With Joseph Vogl

Thursday, December 18, 2025 | 7:15 p.m. | Senatssaal of Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin

More details will be provided soon.

MOUHAMADOU EL HADY BA: Philosopher and cognitive scientist; Associate professor of philosophy at Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. His areas of expertise include logic, epistemology, and philosophy of science, as well as political philosophy and cognitive science. Ba has worked as a visiting scholar at the Università di Torino, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and most recently in 2021/22 as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Connecticut and the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. He is also a founding member and first scientific director of the progressive, independent, and pan-African think tank Ipode. In this role, Ba has worked on terrorism in the Sahel region and political issues primarily concerning West Africa, among other topics.

Kim Lane Scheppele: »Counter-Constitutions«

With Ethel Matala de Mazza

Thursday, January 22, 2025 | 7:15 p.m. | Senatssaal of Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin

More details will be provided soon.

KIM LANE SCHEPPELE: Sociologist; Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the rise and fall of constitutional governments, including developments in Hungary and Russia as well as in the US, the EU, and beyond. In addition to extensive publications in social science and law journals, Scheppele also publishes guest essays in the New York Times and regularly writes for the Verfassungsblog. She has been a visiting professor of law at Humboldt-Universität, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, and Yale and Harvard Law Schools.

Alan Pauls: »The Coup Factor«

With Ulrike Vedder

Thursday, February 5, 2025 | 7:15 p.m. | Senatssaal of Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin

More details will be provided soon.

ALAN PAULS: Novelist, screenwriter, essayist, and critic; Pauls studied literature at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and later worked there as a professor of literary theory. He was also a visiting professor at Princeton University and taught creative writing at the Universidad de Tres de Febrero [Buenos Aires] and New York University. He is the founder of the magazine Lecturas críticas and worked as an editor for the daily newspaper Página/12. His novel »El pasado« [2003; English: »The Past«, 2009] won the Spanish Herralde Literary Prize and was made into a film by Héctor Babenco. With »Historia del llanto« [2007; A History of Crying, not translated], »Historia del pelo« [2010; A History of Hair, not translated] and »Historia del dinero« [2013; »A History of Money«, 2015] between 2007 and 2013, he created a trilogy about the 1970s in Argentina and the history of the Argentine dictatorship. Pauls has been living and working in Berlin since 2019.

The Series

Coups d’état. Between military coups and constitutional captures

Writing at the beginning of the 20th century, Max Weber observed that, owing to its internally rationalized structure, the modern bureaucratic state apparatus has replaced »revolutions« with »coups d’état.« This observation remains as relevant today as it was at the time. Moreover, we are currently witnessing another significant change. In Europe and the United States, the classic coup d’état is being replaced by the gradual transformation of the constitution, characterized by its erosion from within and the dynamic breakdown of the rule of law and the separation of powers, driven by elected governments. »Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box,« write Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in ›How Democracies Die‹ [2018]. At the same time, there are still military coups, as seen in West Africa. The Mosse Lectures aim to shed light on the forms of coups d’état in historical and systematic terms, examining the accompanying cultural shifts in power. What significance does the coup d’état have in times of a general »return to authoritarianism« and a re-emergence of traditional masculinity? What role does the rise of the tech elite play in the weakening of democratic institutions? What new insights can a postcolonial perspective on coups d’état offer? Can the undermining of democracies be curbed in time by identifying and visualising patterns? The Mosse Lectures address these questions, focusing on Europe, the United States, West Africa, and South America. 

The complex interplay of visibility in politics can be part of the performance of coups d’état, which, as acts of seizing power, exhibit a unique form of theatricality. From coups captured on camera to the exploitation of social media to undermine the separation of powers, autocratic takeovers frequently resemble political spectacles. It is therefore unsurprising that they have been recounted and filmed so often. This semester’s Mosse Lectures will be complemented by an accompanying program on coups in film, which will be shown on five evenings in January and February 2026, in collaboration with the Zeughauskino at Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.

Accompanying Film Program

At the Zeughauskino in the DHM Berlin [Pei Building]

January 20, 2026, 7 p.m.
Narben eines Putsches [Scars of a Putsch] [B/AT 2025, Dir: Nathalie Borgers] 

January 27, 2026, 7 p.m.
The Sixth [USA 2024, Dir: Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine] 

February 3, 2026, 7 p.m.
Nostalgia de la luz [Chile/France/Germany 2010, Dir: Patricio Guzmán] 

February 13, 2026, 8 p.m.
Women Without Men / Zanan-e bedun-e mardan [Germany/Austria/France 2009, Dir: Shirin Neshat] 

February 17, 2026, 7 p.m.
Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat [Belgium/France/Netherlands 2024, Dir: Johan Grimonprez]