Online discussion with Wilfried Jilge

Date of event: 26.11. 17:00 - 26.11. 2020 18:30

The Russian Influence in Germany and the Current State of the Russian-German Relations

Wilfried Jilge has been an associate fellow at DGAP since 2018.
A historian of Eastern Europe, Jilge is a mediation adviser on Ukraine at the Center for International Peace Operations (ZIF). He is also a visiting lecturer at the Universität Leipzig and, since 2015, an associate scholar at the Universität St. Gallen’s Center for Governance and Culture in Europe.
Jilge, who has spent considerable time in Kyiv and conducted research in Moscow from 2013 to 2014, has advised members of the German Bundestag and European Parliament on Ukraine matters. In 2014, he served on an expert advisory group coordinated by the Deutsche Gesellschaft Osteuropakunde and sponsored by the German foreign ministry to develop recommendations for German policy toward Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Jilge was a fellow at the Universität Leipzig’s Institute for Slavic Studies. He prepared a study of German nationalism within the first Czech Republic, which focused on the construction of Sudeten-German identity through such völkisch movements as the Kameradschaftsbund. The project, entitled “Heroischer Nationalismus: Der Sudetendeutsche Kameradschaftsbund und die Konstruktion sudetendeutscher Identität in der Ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik,” was supported by the German Ministry for Culture and Media. As a research fellow at the Universität Leipzig’s Center for the History and Culture of East-Central Europe (GWZO) from 2001 to 2010, he examined various aspects of post-Soviet Ukraine – including politics of memory, collective cultures of remembrance, political and collective identity, and nation-building – as well as related matters in Eastern and Central Europe. He also worked on post-Stalinist Soviet Ukraine.
German – Russian relations and Russia’s influence in Germany is the main focus of historian Wilfried Jilge. Prague Center for Transatlantic Relations organized a discussion with W. Jilge with Hanns Seidel Stiftung’s support on November 26, 2020. Tomáš Pojar moderated it.
Wilfried Jilge described the roots of German ambivalent foreign policy towards Russia and the need for its modification after the annexation of Crimea in his opening remarks. He talked about vital proponents of Russian influence in Germany and tools Russia uses to influence both politics and the public. The key focus of discussion was the coming election in Germany and its possible impact on the German foreign policy towards Russia, the likelihood that the new government without Angela Merkel will sustain sanctions against Russia, the potential of Energiewende in another door opening to Russia etc.

 

The discussion record is available on CEVRO Institute YouTube or below.