Another Marshall Plan?
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| Admission free |
| Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer. |
| Duration: 60 min |
| 14 years and older |
| German |
| Accessible for wheelchairs |
| Humboldt Lab, 1st floor |
| Belongs to: After Nature |
Three years after the end of the Second World War, the implementation of the Marshall Plan began in Europe. After the devastations of fascism, but also out of fear of a further spread of communism, the US government put everything into strengthening European societies economically – and invested gigantic sums in the continent west of the Iron Curtain. For in the interwar period, economic misery had contributed to the transformation of political extremism into mass movements.
Washington’s economic policy after 1945 was determined by the idea of conveying the US recipe for success to the Europeans: The idea was that high productivity and the development of a continental market would be followed by prosperity and democratic cohesion. Through economic strengthening, Western Europe was supposed to become a bulwark against communism.
June 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of the speech by US Secretary of State George C. Marshall in which he proposed the plan later named after him. Yet the connection between prosperity, pluralism and democracy is still disputed today. Even in integrated economic communities, democracies have remained fragile entities. The populisms within the EU, but also the Ukraine war, prove that nationalism and authoritarianism have regained their attractiveness in Europe. But when it comes to the reconstruction of Ukraine or even a post-Putin Russia, the question arises: Have the expectations of the Marshall Plan really been fulfilled? Do we need a new Marshall Plan today and can it be a possible political blueprint or inspiration? A panel of experts debates.
A cooperation of the Cluster of Excellence SCRIPTS, the U.S. Embassy Berlin, and the Humboldt Lab.
PARTICIPANTS
David Ellwood is Senior Adjunct Professor of European and Eurasian Studies at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Europe. Since 2020 he has been a Fellow at Einaudi Foundation in Turin, Italy. Until November 2012 he was associate professor of contemporary international history at the University of Bologna and president of the International Association for Media and History (1996-2002). His research focuses on American (cultural) power in contemporary European history. Among numerous others his large scale work “America and the Politics of modernization in Europe (2021) was published by Oxford University Press in July 2021 as was “The Shock of America. Europe and the Challenge of the Century” (2016). Ellwood is a frequent contributor of articles and reviews to academic journals, policy forums and news outlets.
Professor Dr. Jessica C.E. Gienow-Hecht is a historian for international and North American history, Chair of the Department of History at the John F. Kennedy for North American History (Freie Universität Berlin), former Heisenberg fellow as well as holder of the Alfred Grosser Chair at Sciences Po (Paris). She hast taught at numerous Universities in Germany, the U.S. and in Japan. Gienow-Hecht’s most recent research and publications focus on humanitarianism and nation branding; specifically on the link between humanitarianism, interventionism, gender and self-representation in U.S. foreign relations. She has worked as a journalist (FAZ, Die Welt, Süddeutsche, Neue Rhein-/Ruhr Zeitung and others), and continues to appear in the media with contributions related to transatlantic relations and North America.
Sergey Lagodinsky is a German Member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. He chairs the EU-Turkey Delegation and member of the Legal Affairs and Civil Liberties/Home Affairs committees. Until June 2019 he was the Head of European Union and North America Division of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Formerly Sergey Lagodinskyworked as a lawyer for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Program Director and Advisor to the Board for the Berlin Office of the American Jewish Committee. His expertise lies in transatlantic relations, international and constitutional law, as well as law and politics of diversity and integration. In his 2014 book Contexts of Antisemitism, he explores the relationship between anti-Semitism and freedom of expression in Germany and in international law. Lagodinsky is a regular guest and commentator in numerous media.
Petra Pinzler is a multi-award-winning journalist and author. She studied economics and political science and attended the Cologne School of Journalism. Petra Pinzler has been a member of the ZEIT editorial team since 1994. From 1998 to 2001 she was USA correspondent in Washington, then European correspondent in Brussels. For her journalistic work on the topics of free trade and environmental behavior, she received the Otto Brenner Award for Critical Journalism in 2014 and the Environmental Media Award in 2018. Since 2009, Petra Pinzler has been a member of ZEIT’s capital city editorial team in Berlin, covering politics and economics.
