Why the CDU Is Collapsing In September, the party of Adenauer, Kohl, and Merkel failed to win even five percent of the vote in Merkel’s own home state. It was …

In 2025, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) experienced its worst electoral result since 1887, garnering a meager 16.4 percent of the vote and falling below the right-wing extremist …

AGI is pleased to welcome Dr. Martin Thunert as a DAAD/AGI Research Fellow in fall 2026. He is Senior Research Fellow in Political Science and American Studies at the Heidelberg …

The decline of Germany’s major political parties, the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), can be vividly illustrated in a single image (Figure…

Speakers: Keynote: Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director-General and Chief Trade Enforcement Officer, Directorate General for Trade and Economic Security, European Commission Frances Burwell, Managing…

Regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Berlin saw successes for the far-right Alternative for Germany and far-left Die Linke and “disaster” for the mainstream parties. The ep...

Will Germany’s Political Center Listen? The most striking result of Berlin’s state election may also be its greatest paradox. Die Linke, a party long considered firmly anchored in Germany’s past, …

How Populists Turn Nostalgia into Political Gain Speaker: Dr. Simon Morris-Lange, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow, American-German Institute; Head of Research, Allianz Foundation Moderator: Dr. Eric…

The German chancellor’s power is ebbing at home—and the consequences will be global.

Regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Berlin saw successes for the far-right Alternative for Germany and far-left Die Linke and “disaster” for the mainstream parties. The…

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke on successive days before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. During her annual State of…

Last week, two sports figures offered very different answers to a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to stand with your country? In Washington, Capitals hockey legend Alexander Ovechkin …

Election Impressions from Saxony-Anhalt At 5:59 pm on Sunday, September 6, the anticipation in the whimsical restaurant tucked inside Magdeburg’s historic Millennium Tower was palpable. With all…

Five state elections will be held in Germany in 2026. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) enters this “super election year” in a strong position: it is the largest opposition party …

Following the results of the recent Landtag elections in Saxony-Anhalt, the press is already preparing Friedrich Merz’s political obituary. While he may be responsible for some of the discontent and …

Investment is the backbone of transatlantic trade, but foreign direct investment between the United States and Germany has fallen in both directions in the past year. The German Economic Institute’s …

Austerity measures in the German healthcare system and the new U.S. pricing regime The national and international rules of the game have changed for the German pharmaceutical industry. At the …

​Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner, Berlin’s first conservative mayor in twenty-two years, initially emerged as the figure who could restore the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) position in Berlin. Yet…

As Russia appears to test NATO to see how the fractured group responds, European allies don’t know if they can continue to rely on the U.S.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Marcel Lewandowsky, Professor for Government and Policy Research, University of Halle-Wittenberg Moderator: Dr. Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society,…

AGI is pleased to welcome Dr. Tereza Novotná as a DAAD/AGI Research Fellow in fall 2026. She is a Senior Affiliate Researcher at the Center for European Integration at Freie …

Of the three eastern German states I was responsible for as U.S. Consul General in Leipzig, Saxony-Anhalt always struck me as perhaps the most distinctly eastern. It was also a …

The far-right AfD's success in recent regional elections in Germany has drawn praise from the United States. American tech billionaire Elon Musk congratulated the AfD after its strong result in…

Approval ratings for Chancellor Merz and his government are at historic lows, the war in Ukraine is in its fifth year, and instability abroad has led to economic challenges at …

At the risk of dating myself, I remember a very different mood among young people in post-communist Europe. I was a student in Prague in 1994, five years after the …

Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Regional Identity Alois Rainer is a member of the Bundestag from Straubing, Bavaria, and serves as Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Regional Identity…

The fight for LGBTQ+ justice knows no borders.

From stagnation to mini-boom No other major economy has fared as badly as Germany in the last few years. In 2025, real GDP surpassed its pre-pandemic level of 2019 by …

MAGA, the AfD, and American-German Relations Speaker: Zsuzsanna Végh, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow, American-German Institute; Program Officer, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) Moderator: E...

A House, a Stream, and Two Telephones Looking back, Gary Sternberg could not believe he did it. He simply had been compelled to do so. On August 5, 2019, he …

Approval ratings for Chancellor Merz and his government are at historic lows, the war in Ukraine is in its fifth year, and instability abroad has led to economic challenges at …

Member of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt; AfD Parliamentary Group Leader Ulrich Siegmund is becoming a star within the ranks of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). He is a salesman by …

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Marcel Lewandowsky, Professor for Government and Policy Research, University of Halle-Wittenberg Moderator: Dr. Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society,…

Five state elections will be held in Germany in 2026. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) enters this “super election year” in a strong position: it is the largest opposition party …

MAGA, the AfD, and American-German Relations Speaker: Zsuzsanna Végh, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow, American-German Institute; Program Officer, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) Moderator:…

Just shy of a year ago, on August 21, 2025, the United States and the European Union announced their Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade that …

Member of the Berlin House of Representatives; AfD State Chairwoman in Berlin The outcome of Berlin’s September 20, 2026, election is far from clear. Polling remains volatile, with the positions …

What Spain’s Border Tells Us About Eastern Germany In the last week of July, tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Spain’s Interior …

Head of the Federal Chancellery Following the resignation of Jen Spahn, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet has been shaken up. Nina Warken was selected as Merz’s head of the Federal Chancellery, …

Germany’s Green Party is no longer part of the federal government and is seeking a comeback. How can the party mobilize the electorate and counter growing fragmentation and extremism in …

Rising Youth Polarization The 2025 Bundestag election revealed serious generational divides in German voting patterns. While the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD) received solid…

AGI is seeking a Program Coordinator to manage its events, conferences, seminars, exchanges, and meetings that take place in Germany and the United States, including the annual Global Leadership Award...

Germany’s Super-Election Year and the Youth Vote Speaker: Thorsten Faas, Visiting Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto Moderator: Eric Langenbacher,…

The global economic landscape is contested between China and the United States, with America’s partners such as Europe also playing important roles. China has pursued policies of one-way…

AGI is seeking a Program Coordinator to manage its events, conferences, seminars, exchanges, and meetings that take place in Germany and the United States, including the annual Global Leadership…

AGI is pleased to welcome Simon Morris-Lange as a DAAD/AGI Research Fellow in August and September 2026. Dr. Simon Morris-Lange is Head of Research at Allianz Foundation in Berlin, where …

Donald Trump trifft Benjamin Netanjahu und Wolodymyr Selenskyj in Washington – doch welche Strategie verfolgt der US-Präsident im Nahen Osten und im Ukraine-Krieg wirklich? Paul Ronzheimer spricht…

A recent public revelation about a member of the Christian Democratic Party’s (CDU) leadership having a child through surrogacy unleashed a political storm in the party and has dramatically…