Dr. Eric Langenbacher is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture & Politics Program at AGI.
Dr. Langenbacher studied in Canada before completing his PhD in Georgetown University’s Government Department in 2002. His research interests include collective memory, political culture, and electoral politics in Germany and Europe. Recent publications include the edited volumes Twilight of the Merkel Era: Power and Politics in Germany after the 2017 Bundestag Election (2019), The Merkel Republic: The 2013 Bundestag Election and its Consequences (2015), Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe (co-edited with Ruth Wittlinger and Bill Niven, 2013), Power and the Past: Collective Memory and International Relations (co-edited with Yossi Shain, 2010), and From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic: Germany at the Twentieth Anniversary of Unification (co-edited with Jeffrey J. Anderson, 2010). With David Conradt, he is also the author of The German Polity, 10th and 11th edition (2013, 2017).
Dr. Langenbacher remains affiliated with Georgetown University as Teaching Professor and Director of the Honors Program in the Department of Government. He has also taught at George Washington University, Washington College, The University of Navarre, and the Universidad Nacional de General San Martin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has given talks across the world. He was selected Faculty Member of the Year by the School of Foreign Service in 2009 and was awarded a Fulbright grant in 1999-2000 and the Hopper Memorial Fellowship at Georgetown in 2000-2001. Since 2005, he has also been Managing Editor of German Politics and Society, which is housed in Georgetown’s BMW Center for German and European Studies. Dr. Langenbacher has also planned and run dozens of short programs for groups from abroad, as well as for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense on a variety of topics pertaining to American and comparative politics, business, culture, and public policy.
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Watching Germany during the Pandemic
As most of us sit, shut-in at home, in the midst of a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, there are many off hours and nowhere to go. Everyone seems to be watching …
The Unexpected Environmental Consequences of the Coronavirus Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic is killing tens of thousands of people across the world and gravely disrupting life almost everywhere. Much of China has been shut down since January, European countries …
Has the Coronavirus Pandemic Broken the Populist Fever?
One of the biggest challenges that pundits and intellectuals have confronted over the last few years is the rise of right-wing populism across the (western) world. A vigorous debate over …
Episode 18: Hamburg as Barometer: What’s Happening in German Politics
On Sunday, Hamburg voters went to the polls for what is the only (scheduled) regional election in Germany this year. Recent regional elections have served as a barometer for the …
The Fall of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Earlier today, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK) announced that she will not be the chancellor candidate in the regularly scheduled Bundestag election in fall 2021 and that she is stepping down as …
Keeping History Alive: 75 Years after the Liberation of Auschwitz
One of the negative icons of the twentieth century was the Holocaust—the Nazi German persecution and murder of approximately 6 million Jewish people in Europe during World War II from …
The 100th Anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles
Among the many important dates that we largely overlooked is the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that ended the state of war between Germany and the …
The Grand Coalition’s Mid-term Review and Recent Legislation
German politics has become much more unpredictable in recent years. There have been half a dozen instances when it seemed that the rather unloved grand coalition (GroKo) would break up …
The Fall of the Wall as a Memory of Joy
Few countries have had to grapple with such a complex historical legacy as Germany. Among the many challenging issues arising from this past has the been the dynamic between appropriately …
On the Halle Synagogue Attacks
Everyone in the AGI community grieves and condemns the right-radical, anti-Semitic terrorist incident that occurred on Yom Kippur, Wednesday, October 9, 2019, in the city of Halle. By now, the …
Episode 13: Elections Reveal New Trends in German Political Scene
Voters in two eastern states went to the polls on September 1, with perhaps surprising results: they kept their long-governing parties in place despite threats from the far right and …
The 2019 Regional Elections in the East: Small States, Big Impact
On September 1, the eastern German states of Brandenburg and Saxony will elect new state parliaments (Landtage). Both are relatively small states with 2.5 million and 4 million people respectively …
