Resilience and Resistance in Fragile Democracies: Historical Perspectives from Germany, Hungary, and Poland
May 27, 2025 | 6 - 8pm ET
Panel Discussion at GHI Washington | Speakers: Michael Brenner (American University), Christina Morina (Univ. Bielefeld/ New School), Robert Nemes (Colgate College), Karolina Wigura (Univ. Warsaw); Moderator: Ken Pomeranz (Univ. Chicago) and Eric Langenbacher (American-German Institute)
Organized by the German Historical Institute Washington, DC; Cosponsored by the American Historical Association and the American-German Institute Washington, DC.
"Civil society, acting through independent initiatives, provides the best guarantee that we will not return to the past." This statement by Václav Havel, the last president of communist Czechoslovakia and the first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic, highlights the crucial role of civic engagement in safeguarding modern democracies.
Historians have long examined the factors contributing to the survival or demise of democracies, whether through gradual erosion or abrupt upheaval. Our panel discussion delves into this scholarship, focusing on Germany, Hungary, and Poland during the 20th and 21st centuries – nations where a significant portion of the electorate empowered illiberal leaders, thereby undermining key democratic institutions.
The panel will explore what room civil society actors possessed to maintain resilience: How did they utilize – or fail to utilize – opportunities to resist the erosion of democratic structures? What critical junctures were missed in forming a robust democratic opposition to repressive regimes? What forms of resistance emerged from the grassroots, and what were the key tipping points that ultimately undermined societal and political resistance? By placing current global challenges within a strictly historical context, our distinguished panel will provide nuanced insights.
Speakers
- Michael Brenner, American University (expert on Nazi Germany and the resilience of persecuted groups)
- Christina Morina, University of Bielefeld/Germany and New School for Social Research New York (expert on the German Democratic Republic and the specifics of civil society in East Germany)
- Karolina Wigura, University of Warsaw and European Council on Foreign Relations (expert on modern and contemporary Polish history)
- Robert Nemes, Colgate University (expert on Hungarian history)
Doors open at 5:30pm; panel discussion will begin at 6pm. This event will be streamed.
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