The Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies and the Environmental Studies Program, in partnership with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, is pleased to present Professor Sabine von Mering of Brandeis University for her lecture on the history of the Energiewende at 5:00 pm in Rogers Chapel, followed by a catered reception.

Germany is widely praised for shouldering the start-up cost to the energy transition to renewables, and has been long seen as a climate leader in Europe. In her talk, Prof. von Mering will provide a critical assessment of this image by providing three different perspectives:

1. A brief overview of the history of the Energiewende and its successes from the 1980s to present;

2. A closer look at climate action and activism in Germany, from the anti-coal activists of Ende Gelände, to the youth movement Fridays for Future, to the civil disobedience actions of Letzte Generation;

3. A discussion of the challenges posed by the Russian war against Ukraine and how it connects to climate fights in the US, especially to the swift expansion of LNG terminals.

Sabine von Mering, Ph.D., is Professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. A member of the core faculty in the Environmental Studies Program, she also serves as Director of the Center for German and European Studies (CGES). She is the 2022 recipient of the Volkmar and Margret Sander Prize which honors “individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the cultural, political, and academic relationship between the German-speaking world and the United States.” She is currently a 2023 Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Professor von Mering is a local affiliate with the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University and a climate activist with 350 Mass.

This event is proudly co-sponsored by the Political Science, History, Anthropology, and Philosophy Departments, as well as the Department of French & Italian, along with the Murphy Institute.