Zeitenwende speech

I'm Natalia Kapitnik, the Communications Director at FPRI, and this week we are pleased to feature a conversation with FPRI President Aaron Stein and Peter Wehr, a member of the German Bundestag who has held a variety of government roles focused on the transatlantic relationship.

The two evaluate the progress of the Zeitenwende, Germany's defense spending commitments and strategy, as well as the domestic challenges posed by surging populist political forces.

Thanks for joining us.

We're talking about Germany's future role in NATO security.

Thanks for having me today here.

So happy to do that.

This German word, Zeitenwende, for you, not everybody understands what's behind it in Germany, I mean, not because with regard to pronunciation.

But your question, you know, what does that mean? Is this something that will stay forever? What is Germany actually doing with that? I think we have come to learn the hard way in Germany and Europe.

And there's a, there's still a pretty big, like, pacifist contingent, uh, in, in German politics.

But with the kind of so-called Zeitenwende under Scholz, like the SPD really, really leaned into rearmament.

Um, and so the SPD-

Yeah