AKADEMIE FORUM: NORBERT FREI & JOSCHKA FISCHER

Konrad Adenauer stands out among the chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1949, following the Nazi dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust, he formed the first federal government and secured the Western democratic order, as it was imposed externally. He thereby laid the foundations for a success story that brought prosperity and peace to West Germans for decades to come. The cornerstones of Germany’s role in the world—its close alliance with the U.S., its ties to the West and commitment to European integration, and its reconciliation with Israel—can all be traced back to the course set during the Adenauer era.

But Adenauer also accepted the division of Germany and made it possible for millions of his compatriots to remain silent about their past.What is the significance of Adenauer’s legacy today? Norbert Frei presents his recent Adenauer biography, published by C.H. Beck, in a conversation with former German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Joschka Fischer—at a time when Western democracies are eroding and wars and conflicts bear witness to the dawn of a new world order. Journalist Sabine Adler will be the evening’s host.


Norbert Frei is Professor Emeritus of Modern and Contemporary History at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and the author of numerous books, including the definitive works Vergangenheitspolitik. Die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik und die NS-Vergangenheit (new edition 2012) and Der Führerstaat. Nationalsozialistische Herrschaft 1933 bis 1945 (new edition 2013; published in English as National Socialist Rule in Germany: The Führer State 1933–1945).


Joschka Fischer was a member of the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2006 and served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1998 to 2005. In 2006–7, he taught as a visiting professor at Princeton University. He most recently published Die Kriege der Gegenwart und der Beginn einer neuen Weltordnung (2025). He lives in Berlin.


Sabine Adler is a long-time reporter for Deutschlandfunk. As an expert on Eastern Europe, she reported from Moscow for many years, was the Berlin bureau chief, and correspondent at the Eastern Europe studio in Warsaw. She has received numerous honors and awards and was named Political Journalist of the Year. Her books Die Ukraine und wir and Was wird aus Russland? Have been SPIEGEL bestsellers.


Presented in German



Featuring a musical performance by students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie