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12. April 2018

Veranstaltung

The New Germans

Termin

12. April 2018
5.00 p.m.

Ort

Elinor Ostrom Hall
DIW Berlin
Mohrenstr. 58
10117 Berlin

Sprecher*innen

Jeremy Cliffe is Berlin Bureau Chief for The Economist and covers Germany and its neighbourhood. , Marcel Fratzscher

Who and what is Germany in 2018? Among the things the country is known for are its consensus-based politics, its conservative social values, its egalitarian social-market economy, its collaborative and incrementalist firms and, on the international stage, its economic assertiveness combined with military reticence. Now, as Angela Merkel's (probably) final term as chancellor gets going after an unprecedented five months of coalition talks, all of those familiar traits are under pressure or in flux. 

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of immigrants is accelerating the transformation of a once comparatively homogeneous nation into an Einwanderungsland or "immigration country". Politics is more heated and more fragmented than before. Debates rage about meaning of Heimat, or homeland, about who belongs and who does not. New social divides are opening up. Germany's main industries, particularly the automotive sector, remain world-class but face an intense period of disruption. Meanwhile the refugee crisis and the recent elections of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron all, in different ways, challenge Berlin's traditional foreign policy doctrines and demand more of the country on the world stage. 

In a new Special Report for The Economist, Jeremy Cliffe documents "the new Germans", a nation more open, plural and fragmented than before. The changes roiling Europe's largest economy, he argues, will force it to question established habits. 

Registration is required. Please send an email to: events@diw.de.

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