Episode 141: Germany’s Other Populist Party
Eric Langenbacher
Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Dr. Eric Langenbacher is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture & Politics Program at AICGS.
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.
__
Jan Philipp Thomeczek
University of Potsdam
Jan Philipp Thomeczek is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Potsdam, chair for Comparative Politics. In his research, he focuses on voting behavior, political parties, voting advice applications, and populism. He is currently a principal investigator for the DFG-funded EtaPPP project on the establishment of the BSW (the party established as Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, now Bündnis Soziale Gerechtigkeit und Wirtschaftliche Vernunft, or Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Reason). He was among the first scholars to systematically study BSW and its potential. Shortly after the BSW was officially founded, he developed the website "BSW-O-Mat," an application that allowed voters to explore their alignment with BSW's policies. The tool was visited more than 50,000 times, and its data built the foundation for many of Thomeczek's recent publications. Thomeczek is a regular commentator for the national news. His expertise has been featured on Tagesschau, Heute, Deutschlandfunk, Deutsche Welle, Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, FAZ, and other prestigious outlets.
Photo: Thomas Roese
Jeff Rathke
President of AGI
Jeffrey Rathke is the President of the American-German Institute in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining AGI, Jeff was a senior fellow and deputy director of the Europe Program at CSIS, where his work focused on transatlantic relations and U.S. security and defense policy. Jeff joined CSIS in 2015 from the State Department, after a 24-year career as a Foreign Service Officer, dedicated primarily to U.S. relations with Europe. He was director of the State Department Press Office from 2014 to 2015, briefing the State Department press corps and managing the Department's engagement with U.S. print and electronic media. Jeff led the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur from 2011 to 2014. Prior to that, he was deputy chief of staff to the NATO Secretary General in Brussels. He also served in Berlin as minister-counselor for political affairs (2006–2009), his second tour of duty in Germany. His Washington assignments have included deputy director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs and duty officer in the White House Situation Room and State Department Operations Center.
Mr. Rathke was a Weinberg Fellow at Princeton University (2003–2004), winning the Master’s in Public Policy Prize. He also served at U.S. Embassies in Dublin, Moscow, and Riga, which he helped open after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mr. Rathke has been awarded national honors by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as several State Department awards. He holds an MPP degree from Princeton University and BA and BS degrees from Cornell University. He speaks German, Russian, and Latvian.
__
The BSW (formerly the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, now Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Reason) had early successes after its founding in 2024, winning seats in the European Parliament and three state parliaments in eastern Germany. The BSW appeared poised to exploit a left-populist, anti-migration message and become a fixture on the political landscape. However, the BSW’s fortunes turned in 2025; they missed the threshold to join the Bundestag by less than 10,000 votes (the party has challenged the result in court), and Sahra Wagenknecht stepped down as party leader in November. Nevertheless, the party has the potential to influence two state elections later this year in eastern Germany. With the party’s federal position in limbo, Jan Philipp Thomeczek joins The Zeitgeist to discuss the evolution of the BSW and their struggle to maintain relevance in 2026.
Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guests
Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program
Jan Philipp Thomeczek, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Potsdam
