Zurück zur Wirklichkeit. Eine politische Freundschaft

Reading and discussion

Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Claus Leggewie are bright-eyed and intelligent, just as loyal to their love of contradiction as they are to the mixture of realpolitik and utopia. Whether lasting peace, a strong Europe, coexistence across cultures or a sustainable global society - what has failed, where are the mistakes, but also: what is possible despite everything? Without anger and without dogmatism, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Claus Leggewie question the past and the present. Their non-conformist thinking and long political experience have made both of them sought-after commentators, be it on the Middle East conflict, the rise of the right or French and US politics. In their book "Back to Reality", they talk about milestones in their lives as well as their advisory work for Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, for example. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, icon of the French May 1968, was a bookseller, Realo leader of the Greens, then a member of the European Parliament for 20 years. Today he is the author of documentaries, among other things. Claus Leggewie, political scientist and journalist, was Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen and advisor to the German government on global environmental change for 10 years. In 2021, he was a fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. He is currently Ludwig Börne Professor at the University of Giessen.

In collaboration with the Institut français