Germany – Russia – USA

On Thursday, 12 November 2026, the Deutsches Historisches Museum will host the 8th international symposium in its Historical Judgement series, held in the Pei Building. Relations between Germany, Russia, and the United States are undergoing a fundamental transformation, with long-standing alliances and ties increasingly being called into question. In this year’s symposium, the DHM joins Karl Schlögel in exploring the historical relations between these three countries – not in the form of an encyclopaedic overview or a definitive account, but through an examination of characteristic situations that reveal the full complexity of this three-way relationship as it has evolved over generations.

The participants include Kate A. Baldwin, György Dalos, Alexander Etkind, Hope M. Harrison, Anne Hartmann, Eleanor Jones Harvey, Tae-Yeoun Keum, Oliver Lubrich, Daniel Morat, Hans-Peter Müller, Jan-Werner Müller, Lawrence A. Scaff, Karl Schlögel, Julia Voss, Odd Arne Westad und Katherine Zubovich.

Thursday, 12 November 2026, 9 AM to 6:15 PM
Germany – Russia – USA
8th symposium in the Historical Judgement series

Location: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Pei Building
Conference languages: German and English, simultaneous interpretation provided
Attendance: free of charge

Register by 1 November 2026 at: www.dhm.de/en/historicaljudgement/registration

The symposium will be recorded and made available on the DHM’s YouTube channel and in the DHM Journal. 

PROGRAMME

9.00 am – 9.30 am
Registration

9.30 am – 9.45 am
Introduction

Welcome
Raphael Gross

Scenes from German-Russian-American Relations
Karl Schlögel

10.30 am – 12 noon
Emigration and Flight

Home – A Dream: Russian Germans and Their Emigration to the United States
György Dalos, Sächsische Akademie der Künste

The Splendour and Misery of Life in Exile: German Émigrés in California and Moscow
Anne Hartmann, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Chair: N.N.

12 noon – 1.30 pm
Lunch Break

1.30 pm – 2.30 pm
Stones, Walls, Blocks

Building in Stone: Neoclassical Facades in Washington, Moscow, and Berlin
Katherine Zubovich, University at Buffalo

Three Vignettes from the Cold War
Hope Harrison, The George Washington University

Chair: Julia Voss, Deutsches Historisches Museum

2.30 pm – 3.30 pm
The Sociologists’ Perspective

Timely Reflections: Max Weber between America and Russia
Lawrence Scaff, Wayne State University

“After-Thoughts”: Notes towards Du Bois’s Historical Judgement
Kate Baldwin, Tulane University

Chair: Hans-Peter Müller, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

3.30 pm – 4.00 pm
Coffee Break

4.00 pm – 5.00 pm
Alexander von Humboldt visits the Tsar and the President

Writing between the Lines: Alexander von Humboldt in Russia
Oliver Lubrich, Universität Bern

Humboldt and Jefferson: An Encounter, 1804
Eleanor Jones Harvey, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Chair: Daniel Morat, Deutsches Historisches Museum

5.00 pm – 5.45 pm
Russia and the United States as a “Grossraum” à la Carl Schmitt

In Conversation
Alexander Etkind, Central European University & Jan-Werner Müller, Princeton University

Chair: Tae-Yeoun Keum, UC Santa Barbara/ Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

5.45 pm – 6.15 pm
A new European Balance?

Germany, Russia, and the United States after the Ukraine War
Odd Arne Westad, Yale University

Chair: Karl Schlögel
6.15 pm

Closing Remarks
Raphael Gross & Karl Schlögel

The „Historical Judgement" lecture series is funded by Dr Christiane and Dr Nicolaus Weickart.

The conference will be marking the release of the eighth edition of the DHM’s magazine Historische Urteilskraft, titled “Germany – Russia - USA”. The magazine contains the contributions presented at the symposium, as well as further articles by, amongst others, Francesca Melandri and Willi Winkler, and a conversation between Claus Leggewie and Stephan Malinowski.

Published by: Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
Berlin 2026, 104 pages
ISBN 978-3-86102-238-1
€16, available from November 2026

For interview and filming requests, please contact the press office directly at: presse@dhm.de or 030/20 304 410