Das amerikanische Versprechen

In the organizer's words:

Book premiere

A Capitol Hill striker, a Black Lives Matter activist and a Latina whose parents immigrated illegally. Three people whose stories show why the middle no longer holds and why democracy in America is on the brink.

Stephen, a nurse, will be the first to break through the barriers in front of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Three years later, he will stand trial like the president for whom he stormed the Capitol. Walter grows up in the Bronx in the shadow of Trump Tower and dreams of fame and success. He is successful as a Black Lives Matter activist, but he no longer trusts politicians, especially not the Democrats. Magali is the daughter of an undocumented Mexican worker. In the summer of 2023, she is standing in front of her new house in Iowa, open kitchen, four bedrooms, double garage, the American dream. In a small town that votes for Trump by a large majority.

Why is there growing sympathy among Latinos and blacks for the man who insulted Mexicans as rapists and never really distanced himself from American neo-Nazis? How did the erosion of the middle class come about?

Kerstin Kohlenberg is an award-winning journalist. She has received the Theodor Wolff Prize, the Herbert Riehl Heise Prize and the Reporter:innen Prize, among others, and has been nominated for the STERN Prize several times. Until the end of 2021, she was ZEIT's US correspondent for seven years and one of the few women in this position.

From 2018 to 2023, Emily Haber represented the Federal Republic of Germany as Ambassador to the USA. She was previously State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Sigmar Gabriel was Federal Chairman of the SPD from November 2009 to March 2017 and Vice Chancellor from December 2013 to March 2018. Since June 2019, he has been Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke and a member of the Trilateral Commission and the European Council on Foreign Relations. Sigmar Gabriel has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group since May 2018.

Price information:

Admission: 8 €, reduced: 5 €, members: 3 €