AGI

Society, Culture & Politics

The AGI Society, Culture & Politics Program focuses on crucial topics within the German-American dialogue, including: demographic change, migration/integration, and aging societies; electoral politics at the national, state, and European levels, and comparative analysis of Germany and the United States; diversity within Germany, Europe, and the United States; the politics of collective memory and identity, Holocaust remembrance and reconciliation, and shifting conceptions of national identity that shape perspectives and policy responses.
Reset

The 2019 Thuringia Elections: New Winners, Tough Challenges

With Sunday’s vote in Thuringia, the 2019 election year in Germany came to an end. Following several state elections, including in Saxony and Brandenburg, approximately 1.7 million voters went to …

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 …

Kathrin Loer, Visiting Fellow

AGI is pleased to welcome Kathrin Loer as an NRW Fellow at AGI from October to December 2019. Prior to her research stay at AGI, she was a visiting professor for …

Migration and Integration in Germany: The First Two Decades of the Twenty-First Century

Issue Brief 60 Few issues in recent years have dominated public and political discourse inside and outside of Germany as migration and integration. The movement of millions of people into …

Migration and Integration in Germany: The First Two Decades of the Twenty-First Century

Migration and integration have become dominant political topics in the United States and Germany. The German experience in 2015-2016 is often cited in the U.S. discourse on migration, but there …

The Economics of AfD Expansion

With the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieving almost 25 percent in the elections in the two east German states of Brandenburg and Saxony in September 2019, and both …

Welcoming Places – Few and Far Between?

These days negative and at times dehumanizing rhetoric aimed at migrants—both legal and undocumented and of varying religious and ethnic make-up—are grabbing headlines around the globe. The trend to ignore …

Jeff Rathke on Voice of America’s “Encounter”

AGI President Jeff Rathke appeared on VOA’s “Encounter” program to discuss the way forward for Brexit with host Carol Castiel and Erik Brattberg, Director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie …

Merve Schmitz-Vardar, Visiting Fellow

AGI is pleased to welcome Merve Schmitz-Vardar as a Visiting Fellow at AGI from August to October 2019.  Ms. Schmitz-Vardar is a research and teaching assistant at the Chair of …

The Dehumanization of Immigrants and the Rise of the Extreme Right

The ascendance of the far right has jolted both American and European politics. It has undermined liberal democracy in Hungary and Poland, and threatens it throughout Europe. That ascendance depends …

The Dehumanization of Immigrants and the Rise of the Extreme Right

The ascendance of the far right has jolted both American and European politics. It has undermined liberal democracy in Hungary and Poland, and threatens it throughout Europe. That ascendance depends …

Trinitarian Politics in Germany: Impact of the State Elections in Brandenburg and Saxony 

A lesser-known story in Christian history is how the concept of the Trinity of God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—was the subject of massive disagreement in the early years of the …