Immer eine Nasenlänge voraus? Amerika und Deutschland im Wettlauf um die Moderne

The event took place as one of the Atlantische Akademie's "Atlantic Forum" lectures. When the event was planned, the organizers had not had in mind that the inauguration of the new U.S. president fell on the same day. Fortunately, the historian Christof Mauch, the speaker of the evening, was an excellent choice to put this historic event into perspective. And so, after giving a brief overview of the book he had edited about the race to modernity between Germany and the USA (Wettlauf um die Moderne - Die USA und Deutschland 1890 bis heute), he stepped aside so that about 160 guests could watch the Inauguration ceremony. The public viewing was a real success and Christof Mauch, in addition to his earlier presentation, also commented on Obama's inaugural address and answered questions from the audience. Even though only about 160 - compared to Washington DC's 1.6 million - people viewed Obama taking his oath of office, the atmosphere in the new conference room of the Atlantic Academy was not much different from that in DC.  Maybe this had something to do with the paper stand-up Obama constantly smiling at the audience consisting of citizens of Kaiserslautern, students, teachers, German soldiers and representatives of the media.

Wolfgang Tönnesmann (Atlantische Akademie)