The historic events of summer 1914 are once again to inspire an evening of discussion hosted by Foreign Minister Steinmeier – in collaboration with Alexander Koch, President of the German Historical Museum Foundation – on Friday, 13 June. The focus this time will be on the situation in Central and Eastern Europe a hundred years ago.

This is part of a series of Federal Foreign Office events on the First War World. The chief topic for the evening is “Their Last Battle – Declining Empires as a Security Risk”.

Following an introduction by Foreign Minister Steinmeier, Russian historian Igor Narskij and Polish editor Adam Krzemiński will outline the Russian and Polish views of early 20th century European history.

The subsequent panel discussion will be chaired by Almut Möller, Head of Program at the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies. The event will be conducted in German.

Further information:

At the initiative of Foreign Minister Steinmeier and in cooperation with the German Historical Museum, the Federal Foreign Office is organising a series of public lectures and discussions in 2014 to commemorate the outbreak of World War I. The series is entitled “1914/2014 – Of the Failure of and the Need for Diplomacy”.

In a series of six discussions German and international historians, writers and policy‑makers will systematically explore how and why diplomacy failed on the eve of World War I and why responsible foreign policy is so important.

The series is aimed at the informed German public as well as an international audience. In addition to events held at the Federal Foreign Office and the German Historical Museum in Berlin, a panel discussion has also been held in Paris with Foreign Minister Steinmeier and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

A guest article by Foreign Minister Steinmeier entitled “1914 – of the failure of and the need for diplomacy” was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 25 January 2014 ( www.diplo.de/guest article_World War I )