German Politics and Society

Germany is a liberal democracy that upholds individual rights and the rule of law. Nevertheless, as part of its militant democracy, it has partially legalized and certainly socialized illiberal efforts. The political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) emerged from the schism created by two (il)liberalisms in German democratization. Founded in 2013 on Euroskeptic principles, the AfD has experienced multiple power struggles and has evolved into an anti-Islam, anti-migration party that promotes positive memory politics and German national interests. I consider the AfD as a recent iteration of the ongoing project to redefine German democracy by keeping it aligned with enduring political and ethnocultural legacies. In this article, I discuss two approaches taken to this effect: the logics of “normal” and speech rights.

This article compares the party-political impacts of the Zeitenwende with those of three historic Germany foreign policy turns, each of which followed a dramatically altered international environment: the advent of the Cold War, the superpower détente, and the Cold War's end. Each produced distinctive patterns of government-opposition and intra-coalition relations accompanied by strong chancellor leadership, patterns that have been largely absent after 24 February 2022. To understand why the domestic politics of the Zeitenwende has differed, the article briefly assesses factors such as the person of the chancellor, the sequencing of government formation and international pressure, the size of the chancellor party's majority, the extent to which the respective policy debate has centered on Germany's national identity and territorial integrity, and the associated costs of the new policy course. It finds that the last two issues best account for why the domestic politics of the current Zeitenwende have diverged from those of the past.

This article investigates whether post-Brexit British-German relations can be understood as an “international friendship,” employing a novel framework in international relations theory. It conducts a qualitative-interpretivist case study, analyzing state visits in 2004, 2015, and 2023, with a focus on the discourse of heads of state during these key diplomatic events. The data include speeches, non-discursive practices, and bilateral forums, which are contextualized within the wider literature on international friendship and public diplomacy. These cases illustrate the transformation of the relationship through a time that is commonly considered a deep rupture, most notably through Brexit. The findings indicate that while Brexit indeed posed a challenge, it also led to strengthened British-German relations. Although structural changes are necessary for lasting stability in this bilateral relationship, the two nations have developed a “shared being in time” characterized by reconciled historical memories and a clearer joint vision for the future.

This article centers on an exhibition entitled “Berlin in the Twentieth Century” put on by the East Berlin tourist office between late 1961 and early 1963. The exhibition opened just two months after the border's sealing through Berlin and drew over 300,000 visitors. Helping to justify the East German communist dictatorial regime's building of the Berlin Wall, the exhibition argued for separate historical roots of East and West Germany. This article uses a rare source—the exhibition guestbook—to show how visitors reacted to the East German regime's strategy of evoking emotion from the public to create historical memory aiming to serve its larger political objectives. Further, the guestbook functioned as an unusual venue for cross-Iron Curtain interaction and as an example of the regime's fixation with portraying the reception of its building of the Wall as positive. Finally, it reminds us that the Cold War was a mutual East-West co-production.

Wolfgang Münchau, Kaput: The End of the German Miracle (London: Swift Press, 2024).

Jennifer A. Yoder, World War II Memory Culture and Contested Commemorations in Europe and Russia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024), 240 pp.

Christina Xydias, Beyond Left, Right, and Center: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity in Contemporary Germany (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2024), 254 pp.

Alexander Reisenbichler, Through the Roof: Housing, Capitalism, and the State in American and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025), 324 pp.

Marc Landry, Mountain Battery: The Alps, Water, and Power in the Fossil Fuel Age (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2025), 314 pp.

Natasha Wheatley, The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023), 424 pp.

Douglas Carl Peifer, Hitler's Deserters: Breaking Ranks with the Wehrmacht (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025), 312 pp.

Response to Book Review of Hansen and Olsen (2024)