Democracy in Germany: an Anglo-German Perspective

Abstract

I feel honoured and pleased that you have come on this Sunday morning to listen to the lecture by someone of whom many of you will never have heard before. Those who know this or that about me may well wonder what this strange bird is about who has come to Weimar today: a British Lord but clearly with a German name, a German professor who for twenty years has been in charge of universities in London and Oxford, a traveller between countries and activities. Let me say a few words about myself then, not for purposes of self-advertisement but for you to know through what spectacles your guest sees his subject: short- or far-sighted? tinged in pink or in shadowy grey? through simple window panes or complex bifocal glasses?

This was one of the Weimar Lectures on Germany organized by Bertelsmann Books for an East German audience, and delivered in the Deutsche Nationaltheater in Weimar on 25 February 1996