Alexander Goerlach

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Alexander Görlach, 2013 in Frankfurt am Main

Alexander Mathias Görlach (born Firat Kaya on December 28, 1976 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) is a German journalist , publicist and theologian . From 2009 to 2016 he was the publisher and editor-in-chief of the debate magazine he founded, The European . He is honorary professor at the Institute for Ethics and Theology at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg . As a visiting scholar he taught and researched a. a. at Harvard and Cambridge Universities .

Life

Alexander Görlach, the son of Turkish guest workers, was adopted by a German family at the age of just a few months. Görlach attended the humanistic Rudi-Stephan-Gymnasium in Worms am Rhein . He is of the Roman Catholic denomination.

Education

After passing the Abitur , Görlach attended the Mainz seminary for two years from 1996 and spent a year off in Rome. He then studied on a scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the Islamic University al-Azhar in Cairo, Catholic theology and philosophy (graduation as a graduate theologian) as well as German studies, politics and musicology (graduation as Magister Artium ). In 2006 he was awarded a doctorate in Catholic theology at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich with a thesis on The Holy See in Interreligious Dialogue with Islamic Actors in Egypt and Turkey ( magna cum laude ) and in 2009 at the University of Mainz. phil. in language and politics research with a thesis on the topic of the cartoon dispute in German print media - a discourse analysis .

Activity as a journalist and publicist

After various internships, Görlach worked at ZDF from 1999 to 2003 in the departments News and Culture & Science as well as the editorial offices of heute , heute-journal , turntable Germany and hello Germany . He was also a reporter for Hessischer Rundfunk and Südwestrundfunk ( Rheinland-Pfalz Aktuell ). From 2003 to 2005 he worked as a freelance writer for the German edition of Osservatore Romano and Die Tagespost in Würzburg. From 2005 to 2006 he was a freelance correspondent for the daily newspaper Die Welt in Bayern.

From 2006 Görlach was deputy press spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. He later also became a member of the CDU. At the end of 2006, Görlach was hired by BMW as part of the Club of Pioneers PR campaign to provide editorial support for the topics of sustainability, climate protection, alternative energies and forms of propulsion. From 2006 to 2008 Görlach was press spokesman for the Cartell Association of Catholic German Student Associations (CV), of which he is a member of the CV through the Catholic German Student Association Rhenania-Moguntia in Mainz. At the same time, Görlach was an editorial assistant in the office of the German Bishops' Conference in Frankfurt am Main from 2006 to 2008 and was responsible for the dialogue with Islam, and from 2007 to 2009 he was a board member and press spokesman for the Christoph Metzelder Foundation . From November 2007 to July 2009 he was head of the online department for Cicero - magazine for political culture .

Görlach at a TEDx presentation in Berlin (2012)

From autumn 2009 to 2015 Görlach was the publisher and editor-in-chief of the debate magazine The European, which he co-founded . As part of this activity, he commented weekly on political events in the N24 Morgentalk and can be seen regularly as an expert on n-tv . In this capacity he has the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. commented in September 2011. Görlach also writes as a columnist for the US Huffington Post on politics, society and religion. Alexander Görlach has also been a columnist at bild.de since September 2009 . Here he writes in a "political web show" about political topics of the respective week and the way in which these were published and discussed on the Internet. The debate magazine founded by Görlach has been published quarterly as a print magazine since September 2012. According to its editor-in-chief, The European is the first magazine in Germany to move from online to print. Görlach sees the future of print journalism, also against the background of the end for the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Financial Times Deutschland: “Print products will almost exclusively be magazines; and these will be luxury products. You had to read a daily newspaper to be informed. It's over. That won't come back. The joy of reading continues. We need new products that satisfy this desire. ”Görlach claims:“ Print is not dead ”.

On December 5, 2014, Börsenmedien AG bought the majority of The European from entrepreneur Bernd Förtsch . Görlach retained 15 percent of the company's shares and remained publisher and editor-in-chief. Equipped with growth capital, The European would like to strengthen both the print magazine and the English online edition of the magazine. At the end of July 2015, the new owner Bernd Förtsch surprisingly resigned all investment commitments for the magazine and dismissed the entire team. Görlach then won the Munich-based Weimer Media Group to publish The European in future . In this constellation, Görlach remained editor and editor-in-chief, but at the same time accepted an invitation as a visiting scholar at the Divinity School (theological faculty) of the US American Harvard University to conduct research in the field of politics and religion. In this context, Görlach also became Senior Advisor of the Berggruen Institute of Philosophy and Culture. In the late summer of 2016, Görlach handed over the post of chief editor at The European to Oswald Metzger .

Görlach is an author for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , a columnist for Wirtschaftswoche and a guest commentator for the New York Times .

Academic activity

In the winter semester 2009/2010 Görlach was a lecturer at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg and in 2010 a lecturer at the University of Mainz. Since the summer semester 2011 he has also been a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin. In the 2011 winter semester, Görlach was a lecturer at Zeppelin University . In the winter semester of 2012/2013 Görlach taught at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg on the subject of politics and religion. In autumn 2014, Görlach was invited to the US University of Harvard as a guest lecturer . As a John F. Kennedy Memorial Short-Term Fellow at the University's Center for European Studies, his lecture topics were contemporary debates in Germany and their influence on Europe. For the academic year 2015–2016, Görlach received an invitation from Harvard University to do research as a visiting scholar at the Divinity School (theological faculty) in the field of politics and religion. Since 2015 he has also been Senior Advisor at the Berggruen Institute .

In the academic year 2016–2017, Görlach returned to the Center for European Studies at Harvard University as a visiting scholar. The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Relations appointed him a Senior Fellow for Politics and Religion, Democracy and Society in the Digital Age in 2017. In May 2017, Görlach visited the Faculty of Social and Political Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City as a visiting professor . In summer 2017 he was invited to the University of the Basque Country as a visiting professor . In the academic year 2017-18 he was visiting scholar in Asia: at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, the City University of Hong Kong and the Graduate School for International Studies at the Seoul National University in South Korea. In autumn 2017 Görlach was appointed affiliated professor for the “Defense of Democracy” program of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation. In the Easter trimester of 2018, Görlach was a fellow at the Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge in England . In 2019 he was invited to the same university as Senior Research Associate at the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies (CIRIS) at Clare College .

Books

In 2011 Görlach wrote the book Freedom or Anarchy - How the Internet Changes Our Lives together with the SPD politician Björn Böhning .

In September 2014 Görlach's book We want to see you fail! How malice eats our country . In it, Görlach laments the German schadenfreude towards the missteps of celebrities. In a review the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote about the book:

“Görlach's controversial theological-philosophical essay leads to a plea for more forbearance, more humility, more compassion for mistakes made by people in public. His 9 points, with which public extermination campaigns are to be stopped, include, among other things, a "respectful looking away from the private", because without distance no decency is possible, the dismantling of the pillory and more leniency in the judgment of people. Again and again the theologian quotes the parable of the splinter in the brother's eye and the beam in his own. A convincing call for moderation that is worth considering. "

Memberships

Since summer 2011 Alexander Görlach has been a member of the Atlantik-Brücke , an initiative that deals with the exchange of Germans and Americans. Since 2010 he has been a member of the German-Russian media conference of the Robert Bosch Foundation . The circle serves the exchange between the two countries and the mutual understanding of the respective culture. Its members meet annually in Moscow and Berlin.

In October 2016 he left the CDU and joined the FDP.

Positions

In 2013 the theologian criticized the speechlessness of the churches in the face of pressing questions: “The people in Europe, wrote Elias Canetti in his famous work“ Mass and Power ”, no longer believed in the hereafter. That makes mobilization by Christianity impossible. Given these circumstances, the reaction of the church is shockingly poor. "

In December 2017 Görlach demanded the removal of Pope Francis , as it was "not up to the challenges of his office", referring to the request of the Pope, the Lord's Prayer subheading and lead us not into temptation else to pray as the Bible translation reads. He also referred to him as a populist , albeit “of the good kind”. However, the Pope's rhetoric leads to controversy and polarization in the church.

Publications

  • Homo Empathicus. About scapegoats, populists and saving democracy . Herder Verlag 2019. ISBN 978-3-451-38332-8
  • The Holy See in interreligious dialogue with Islamic actors in Egypt and Turkey . Ergon-Verlag, 2007.
  • The cartoon controversy in German print media - a discourse analysis . ibidem-Verlag, November 2009. ISBN 978-3-8382-0005-7
  • with Björn Böhning : Freedom or Anarchy - How the Internet is Changing Our Lives . Forward, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86602-080-1 .

Web links

Commons : Alexander Görlach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Ich, Firat Kaya , zeit.de, May 5, 2014
  2. ^ Theology meets world politics - Wormser Zeitung ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 7, 2014.
  3. ^ A b Philipp Fritz: Visiting Alexander Görlach - Turkish origin as a minor matter . In: Renk magazine of November 10, 2015; accessed on November 14, 2015
  4. Alexander Görlach: The main thing is that the facade is in place . In: The time of October 5, 2018 (= 41/2018).
  5. https://www.google.de/search?q=site%3Acartellverband.de+görlach
  6. kressKöpfe: Dr. Dr. Alexander Görlach , accessed on August 1, 2009.
  7. Turi2.de: heute2: Alexander Görlach and Lukasz Gadowski start the debate portal TheEuropean.de ( Memento from September 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved on August 1, 2009.
  8. comments column, Interviews - The European N24.de on . Archived from the original on July 3, 2011. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  9. Huffington Post: Alexander Görlach , accessed on 26 September 2011th
  10. Overview of the columns by Alexander Görlach . In: BILD.de . Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  11. http://www.turi2.de/2009/07/30/heute2-alexander-goerlach-startet-debatten-portal-theeuropean-de-6617267/ ( Memento from September 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. From the web to paper. In: sueddeutsche.de. June 11, 2012, accessed July 9, 2018 .
  13. Archive link ( Memento from November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  14. The European bought from Bernd Förtsch , Spiegel Online from December 6, 2014
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  16. http://www.turi2.de/2012/09/25/heute2-the-european-debattiert-papier-14874501/ ( Memento from April 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  17. http://www.presseportal.de/pm/106166/3102626
  18. http://meedia.de/2015/08/21/european-macher-goerlach-die-zukunft-gehoert-der-debatte/
  19. ^ Debattenmagazin: Oswald Metzger is the new editor-in-chief of "The European" . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 4, 2016, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed October 13, 2016]).
  20. Alexander Görlach: In the end, only secularism helps Islam. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .
  21. Alexander Görlach: Age of Identity. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .
  22. Alexander Görlach: A liberal democracy does not fall from the sky. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .
  23. Görlachs thoughts »Current WiWo articles and exclusive reports. In: www.wiwo.de. Retrieved October 13, 2016 .
  24. Alexander Görlach: Germany's Retrograde Record on Gay Rights . In: The New York Times . September 27, 2016, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed October 13, 2016]).
  25. ALEXANDER GÖRLACH: Germany's War Over a Word. In: The New York Times. April 3, 2017, accessed January 12, 2018 .
  26. ALEXANDER GÖRLACH: Why Islam Gets Second-Class Status in Germany. December 15, 2016, accessed January 12, 2018 .
  27. ALEXANDER GÖRLACH: Is Angela Merkel Done For? In: The New York Times. January 11, 2018, accessed January 12, 2018 .
  28. Alexander Görlach . Institute for Journalism. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
  29. Course Catalog Fall Semester 2011 (PDF; 1.3 MB) , accessed on September 26, 2011.
  30. ^ Course catalog of the Leuphana University Lüneburg , accessed on January 14, 2013.
  31. ^ CES at Harvard - People - Alexander Görlach . Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  32. http://hds.harvard.edu/faculty-research/research-appointments/visiting-scholars
  33. https://www.berggruen.org/people/alexander-gorlach/
  34. ^ Harvard University: Alexander Görlach | Center for European Studies at Harvard University. October 17, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2017 (American English).
  35. ^ Carnegie Council: Alexander Görlach Senior Fellow, Politics and Religion, Democracy and Society in the Digital Age. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .
  36. Centro de Estudios Europeos UNAM: CONFERENCIA DR DR ALEXANDER GÖRLACH 1 | 8 DE MAYO DE 2017. May 26, 2017, accessed October 18, 2017 .
  37. 60 años de los Tratados de Roma. Nuevas narrativas de integración europea ¿Qué Europa reconstruir ahora? In: Cursos de Verano UPV / EHU . March 22, 2017 ( uik.eus [accessed October 18, 2017]).
  38. Visita de Alexander Görlach al País Vasco - Globernance . In: Globernance . March 13, 2017 ( globernance.org [accessed October 18, 2017]).
  39. Pluralismo etno-religioso y auge del populismo radical y la ultra-derecha en Europa - Globernance . In: Globernance . June 16, 2017 ( globernance.org [accessed October 18, 2017]).
  40. Visiting scholar Dr. Alexander Görlach visited Our Center. Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  41. Michael Weishan: In Defense of Democracy: Preserving the Post Enlightenment Narrative in the 21st Century. In: FDR Foundation. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .
  42. People - CRASSH. Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  43. ^ Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies: Alexander Görlach. In: Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies. Retrieved January 15, 2019 .
  44. Freedom or Anarchy? , accessed October 1, 2014.
  45. We want to see you fail! , accessed October 1, 2014.
  46. Be lenient with the fallible - In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 28, 2014, p. 21
  47. ^ Robert Bosch Stiftung: list of participants. (PDF) (No longer available online.) March 11, 2010, archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; Retrieved June 3, 2013 .
  48. "The change was overdue". Retrieved October 5, 2016 .
  49. Alexander Görlach: The bells never sound more sour. In: Christ & Welt , edition 30/2013.
  50. ^ Journalist demands: Pope resign pro-medienmagazin.de, December 17, 2017