Interview | Video Podcast | Deutsche Welle

"Many people are sharing more online because they don’t realize it could be used against them," says net activist Markus Beckedahl. He spoke to DW about data protection and IT security. Digital savviness doesn’t just happen - it needs to be learned.

Gerald Knaus is a founding member of the European Stability Initiative, ESI. He has been studying the plight of refugees and migrants since the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. We spoke to him about the challenges posed by migration and the UN migration pact.

Omid Nouripour was just thirteen when he arrived in Germany as a refugee from Iran. Today he is a Green Party member of the Bundestag. He speaks about the cruel impact that war has on a young life, how he came to view Germany as home, and the people who helped him on his journey.

Germany is considered Europe’s strongest nation, both politically and economically. Just like a century ago, it is viewed as culturally sensitive but ruthless when it comes to wielding power. How can it counter the fears of its neighbors and partners today? The historian Andreas Rödder answers this and other questions in the DW interview.

“People in eastern Germany believe they’ve been given a raw deal, that they’ve been shut out,” says Bodo Ramelow, head of the regional government in the state of Thuringia. In The Interview on DW, Ramelow, the first state premier from the Left Party, argues that right-wing populism and the rise of the AfD is not exclusively a problem in eastern parts of Germany.

German historian Peter Brandt talks to DW about divisions in modern Germany, the future of the Social Democrats and his relationship to his late father, former Chancellor Willy Brandt.

Güler is Secretary of State for Integration in Northrhine-Westphalia. She is also a member of the CDU executive. She talks to DW about the xenophobic attacks in Chemnitz and says right-wingers have to be integrated in our social and political systems.

"Africa and every country in it needs to go its own way," says the German Development Minister Gerd Müller. In a DW Interview, he speaks about Europe's responsibility toward Africa, lessons learned from colonialism and the outlook for development policy.

Niklas Frank is the son of the man Hitler installed as general governor of occupied Poland. Hans Frank was responsible for the death camps in Poland. Niklas Frank has faced up to his past. But he tells DW that the Germans in general have not.

The far-right AfD has become the main opposition party in Germany's parliament. For four years, Franziska Schreiber was the right-hand woman of the party's former chairperson Frauke Petry. Now Schreiber has left the party — and written a book. Inside AfD is an angry reckoning with what she describes as a "party dominated by rightist radicals."

"Jews in Germany are doing well, they are listened to,“ says political scientist David Ranan. Compared to Muslims, they seem to be a preferred minority, he said. We examined the difficult subject of anti-Semitism in modern Germany with David Ranan.

Lawyer and imam Seyran Ates founded the liberal Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque in Berlin. Men and women and Muslims of different orientations can pray there together. But Ates has received thousands of hate mails and death threats. She was fortunate to survive an attack in 1984, but has continued to fight for human rights and the rights of women. What makes her so courageous?

Germany's 'NSU trial' is coming to an end. It has been one of the longest criminal trials in German history. Neo-Nazis were accused of killing nine men with Turkish or Greek backgrounds, as well as a German policewoman. What has the trial meant for the families of the victims? Mehmet Daimagüler answers those questions in the DW Interview.

“We are living in a political moment in which nationalism, protectionism, and withdrawal have become a great temptation,” says the head of the United Nations Development Programme, Achim Steiner. On DW Interview, he praised Germany’s role in the refugee crisis.

“National identity is certainly the least important factor when it comes to building a democratic Europe,” says German Book Prize Winner Robert Menasse in the Interview: “Given all that we know from history concerning the major crimes committed in the name of the nation, the very concept has surely been discredited."

“Europe can only survive if Germany and France take the reins together,” said SPD politician Klaus von Dohnányi during an interview with DW. The former Mayor of Hamburg added “Europe will not make any progress until France understands the opportunity it has with Germany.”

“Integration is always a two-way matter,” says Stephan Mayer in the DW Interview. “Migrants are welcome if they are refugees or seeking asylum and accept that Germany is a country shaped by humanism and Christianity,” added the Deputy Minister in the German Interior Ministry.

"Every Turkish media outlet has desks belonging to jailed colleagues" says Christian Mihr of the German branch of Reporters Without Borders. Deutsche Welle spoke to him about press freedom and independence, which are under threat in many parts of the world, including Europe and Germany.

"Men like Presidents Erdogan, Putin and Trump are rapidly destroying the peaceful order which we have constructed following two world wars." That is the warning from German Green politician Agnieszka Brugger. She told DW she is disturbed by the arms race: "Ultimately we will not have more security - instead everyone will be less secure."

"We believed in the need for a revolution," says the activist and co-founder of Germany's Green Party, Hans-Christian Ströbele. He talked to DW about extra-parliamentary opposition, democracy and the Greens.

Petra Bosse-Huber, Vice President of Germany‘s Protestants in DW InterviewThe vice president of Germany’s Protestants, Petra Bosse-Huber, told DW that Pope Francis and Martin Luther had the same aims: liberation, social justice and a religious message that people would understand but that would also transform their lives.

An interview with Ethiopian-German author and political analyst Asfa-Wossen AsserateEthiopian-German political analyst Asfa-Wossen Asserate says that Africa’s rulers are promoting migration. Asserate believes that there’s only way to stop this: European states must stand together, and stop cooperating with these dictators.

He was a dedicated communist who chose to live in East Germany. He was a dissident and the regime revoked his citizenship. He talks about his break with communism and his conviction that you have to speak out.He was a dedicated communist who chose to live in East Germany. He became a dissident and the regime later revoked his citizenship. In the DW interview Wolf Biermann talks about his break with communism and his conviction that you have to speak out.

Petra Bosse-Huber told DW in the Interview that Pope Francis and Martin Luther had the same aims: liberation, social justice and a religious message that people would understand but that would also transform their lives.The vice president of Germany’s Protestants, Petra Bosse-Huber, told DW in the Interview that Pope Francis and Martin Luther had the same aims: liberation, social justice and a religious message that people would understand but that would also transform their lives.

The climate-change convention lays the foundation for a very different world, says UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change Patricia Espinosa. They'll have to change the way they live and consume goods.The climate convention lays the foundation for a very different world, says UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change Patricia Espinosa. It will transform people's lives, because they'll have to change the way they live and consume goods.

After the tax scandal of the "Panama Papers," Panamanian President Varela sees his country on the right path. Tax havens are a "global problem." Panama is ready to exchange tax data, but must protect its financial system

Interview with Yuri Andrukhovych He is one of the most popular authors in Ukraine. This year he was awarded Germany’s Goethe Medal. Yuri Andrukhovych became known for his efforts in the 2013 Maidan protests. In the DW Interview he explains what has happened since.

Interview with Michael Lüders, Terrorism Expert. “The banlieues are hotbeds of social unrest and for decades the French have failed to tackle the problem of these ghettos and give immigrants from black Africa and North Africa a real future in France.”

Interview with Franziska Giffey, SPD Mayor Berlin-Neukölln "We need to prevent parallel societies," so we need a strong state that sets limits. And, says Franziska Giffey, showing respect means "extending one's hand to the mayor." That, she adds, is part of "our German cultural values."

In the Interview: Claudia Lücking-Michel, Vice-President of the Central Committee of German Catholics Talking about the role of women in Germany’s Catholic Church, Lücking-Michel says: “Of course, nobody wants to be a mere stopgap. You know the thing: if there’s no one else, take a woman.”

Interview with Alice Schwarzer, Feminist and Author "The time for false tolerance is over. The Islamists are the fascists of the 21st century. We have to treat them just like we treat far-right extremists."

Interview with Marc Sinan, German-Turkish-Armenian guitarist "If people rose up tomorrow in Turkey and were free of fear - it would be a free country...a country - where, regardless of their ethnic group, people, would be able to see a better future," Sinan says.

In the Interview: Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Resources Fidesz Party, Hungary

In the Interview: Wolfgang Kubicki, Deputy FDP Leader, Germany

In the Interview: Barbara Hendricks (SPD), German Environment Minister "The limits of politics lie in the responsibility for the people, today and in the future", says Barbara Hendricks, German Environment Minister. In the DW interview, she talks about magic moments of politics, the international climate agreement and the limits of the achievable.

In the Interview: Stephan Kramer, Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thuringia/Germany Following the NSU scandal Thuringia’s President for the Protection of the Constitution Stephan Kramer has initiated many changes in the agency. He calls for pressure to be increased on extreme right-wing movements.

In the Interview: Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household He is head of protocol for Pope Francis and private secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: Archbishop Georg Gänswein. In the DW Interview, he calls for "patience and wisdom" when it comes to calls for internal reform.

In the Interview: Ulrich Neymeyr, Bishop of Erfurt Bishop Ulrich Neymeyer turns off the lights of Erfurt Cathedral when protesters gather to demonstrate against refugees. He talks to Deutsche Welle about the way Germany is dealing with the recent influx of refugees.

In the Interview: Dresden’s Lord Mayor, Dirk Hilbert In Saxony, refugees have recently been harassed on the bus, residents applaud when refugee hostels go up in flames, and every Monday, xenophobes gather in the middle of Dresden. What does Dresden’s Lord Mayor think about those events?

Europe’s refugee crisis – selfishness or solidarity? Political scientist Herfried Münkler talks to Deutsche Welle.

"With ten billion the whole region could be stabilized," says Gerd Müller (CSU), German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, in the DW interview. He calls for a Marshall Plan for Syria and Iraq. In the Interview: Gerd Müller (CSU), German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development

In the Interview: Brigitte Zypries (SPD), Deputy Economics Minister “It's not just about business. It's also about achieving change through business and close economic ties” says Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, after her recent trip to Iran.