Talks & Entertainment

As a Jew growing up in postwar Germany in the 1980s and 90s, Mounk felt like a foreigner in his own country. When he mentioned that he is Jewish, some made anti-Semitic jokes or talked about the superiority of the Aryan race. Others, sincerely hoping to atone for the country’s past, fawned over him with a forced friendliness he found just as alienating.

A Stranger in My Own Country: A Jewish Family in Modern Germany traces the contours of Jewish life in a country still struggling with the legacy of the Third Reich and portrays those who, inevitably, continue to live in its shadow. Examining history and the story of his family, Mounk shows that anti-Semitism and far-right extremism have long coexisted with self-conscious philo-Semitism.

Recently a new kind of resentment against Jews has come out in the open. The desire for a “finish line” that would spell a definitive end to the country’s obsession with the past is feeding an emphasis on German victimhood. Mounk shows how a troubled nationalism is shaping Germany’s future.

In conversation with Samuel Goldman, an assistant professor of Political Science at George Washington University and a senior contributor at The American Conservative. Book signing to follow.