On March 18, 1922, Egon Bahr saw the light of day in Treffurt, Thuringia. The later architect of Brandt's Ostpolitik and mastermind of Common Security is still considered one of Germany's pioneering foreign and security policy makers.
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Willy Brandt Circle had already prepared events to mark the occasion, which were to shed light on security and peace policy perspectives, both European and global.
Now, on the 100th anniversary of Egon Bahr's birth, we find ourselves in a new world political situation marked by the breach of international law and by Russian President Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine. This is an attack also on all binding agreements, which were decided within the framework of the CSCE, the Charter of Paris also by Russia.
In this new global political situation, we want and need to discuss what consequences we want to draw for political action from this epochal break.
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Political education and dialogue
Egon-Bahr-100(at)fes.de
www.fes.de/en/egon-bahr-100
He was a mastermind, trailblazer and reconciler. Whether common security, arms control, cooperation and reconciliation with eastern neighbors, overcoming the division of Germany as a problem of European division - Egon Bahr made decisive contributions to each of these policy areas that are of historical significance.
On March 17, 2022, starting at 7:00 p.m., German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will pay tribute to Egon Bahr's life's work. Afterwards, former Austrian Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer will speak "a word of thanks."
"A challenger ..." turns one hundred will then be discussed by Peter Brandt, Götz Neuneck, Hans Joachim Gießmann and Irina Mohr.
On March 18, 2022, starting at 11:00 a.m., we cordially invite you to the 5th Egon Bahr Symposium.
With this series of events, we together with the Willy-Brandt-Circle focus on the concepts and thought traditions of Egon Bahr and discuss them in the context of the current and medium-term challenges for the European and global security architecture.
This time we want to focus on questions dealing with the current conflicts, the war against Ukraine, the breach of international law and discuss what conclusions we can draw from them. At the same time, we also want to discuss the medium-term challenges for the new European security architecture and turn to the global challenges for security and peace in Asia.
Here you can expect introductory greetings from FES Chairman Martin Schulz, Governing Mayor of Berlin Franziska Giffey, introduction by Chairwoman of the Willy-Brandt-Circle Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and an input from SPD Chairman Lars Klingbeil.
This will be followed by two thematically focused panel discussions with high-ranking guests such as Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Niels Annen, as well as former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd and many more.