Daniel Gerlach | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1977 |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Notable work | Der Nahe Osten geht nicht unter |
Daniel Gerlach (born 1977) is a German author, journalist, publisher and Middle East expert. He is the current editor-in-chief of the German Middle East quarterly magazine zenith and director-general of the Candid Foundation.
Gerlach studied history and Middle Eastern studies. He holds a licence degree from the University of Paris IV Sorbonne and an M.A. from the University of Hamburg. In 1999 Gerlach co-founded and co-directed zenith Magazine. In 2012 he assumed the position of the magazine's editor in chief. Previously, he wrote as a freelance journalist for daily newspapers such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt and worked as a documentary filmmaker for national German television ZDF, mainly focusing on history and present of the Arab world. [1]
In 2014 he co-founded Candid Foundation, a privately chartered, independent think tank which devotes itself to international and intercultural cooperation and implements media and technology driven projects with countries of the Mediterranean, Middle East, West Asia and the Caucasus. [2] Among his co-founders were the political scientist Asiem El Difraoui, social entrepreneur Belabbes Benkredda, and the photographer and documentary film director Marcel Mettelsiefen.
Gerlach is a frequent guest expert with German and international news broadcasters where he comments on Syria, Iraq, the Arab world and European-Arab relations. [3] He has spoken at international universities such as King's College, [4] Yale, [5] and Princeton, [6] and think tanks and governmental institutions such as the European External Action Service.
In 2016 Gerlach gave the eulogy for the Syrian-French poet Adunis, laureate of the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize of the city of Osnabrück. The prize had stirred controversy from Syrian opposition members who accused Adunis of not having condemned the Syrian government unequivocally for its repressive demeanour. [7] In 2017 German and international media reported that Gerlach's name had appeared on a travel ban list of Syrian state security. [8]
According to German news anchor Claus Kleber, Gerlach is a "leading expert" on the Middle East in Germany. [9] Gerlach is a frequent contributor to German language media outlets, including Deutsche Welle, [10] Deutschlandfunk, [11] Welt, [12] ZDF, [13] Tagesschau, [14] Der Spiegel [15] Die Tageszeitung, [16] Tagesspiegel, [17] Neue Zürcher Zeitung, [18] Luzerner Zeitung, [19] and SRF. [20] Gerlach has also featured in several international publications, including The New York Times. [21]
In his book about the Syrian government and the sectarian element of the armed conflict, Gerlach makes reference to the method of French sociologist Michel Seurat. He argues that the essential core of Syrian government was not simply a group of people around the Assad family, but a distinct logic of thinking and behaviour, an ideology described as implicitly sectarian.
In 2014, Gerlach suggested that an international diplomatic initiative of Western countries should engage Russia and oblige it to assume the role of a protective force for parts of Syria in order to untangle the interests of international stakeholders and to prevent unilateral action.
In an article published simultaneously in English, German, and Russian in 2017, Gerlach suggested that Saudi Arabia, a regional power that officially supported armed insurgents in Syria, had secretly endorsed or even "encouraged" the 2015 Russian military intervention in support of the Syrian regime. [22] [23] [24] This analysis was corroborated in 2020 by news media reports stating that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman had secretly encouraged Russia to intervene and, in this way, "angered" CIA director John Brennan. [25]
With regard to the so-called Islamic State, its strategy of displaying acts of extreme violence, Gerlach argues that there was nothing intrinsically “Islamic” about it. He suggests to also study analogies with Latin American drug cartels. In an article co-authored with Naseef Naeem, a Syrian-born associate professor of state and constitutional law, both reject the use of the terms “state” or “state building” project by media and academics on IS. They argue that the organisation's project lacked key elements of statehood and, instead, suggest to call it a warfaring occupying force with an “imperial” ideology.
In an article about the ideologicy of resistance and the operational features of shia militias and the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi Gerlach criticises the attribution of “jihadist” and, as opposed to groups like Al-Qaida or the Islamic State, suggests to qualify them as “muqawamist” instead (from the Arabic muqawama for “resistance”). [26]
In a contribution for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy about the war for Syria and the escalation of violence in Idlib in 2019, Gerlach argued that sectarianism and prejudice against elements of the population were fueling certain war tactics and that, therefore, community leaders in Syria were an often-overlooked stakeholder in shaping the country's future and in mitigating against the sectarian divide. [27]
Us== Selected documentaries ==
ARD is a joint organisation of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters. It was founded in 1950 in West Germany to represent the common interests of the new, decentralised, post-war broadcasting services – in particular the introduction of a joint television network.
Tagesschau is a German national and international television news service produced by the editorial staff of ARD-aktuell on behalf of the German public-service television network ARD.
Junge Welt is a German daily newspaper, published in Berlin. The jW describes itself as a left-wing and Marxist newspaper. German authorities categorize it as a far-left medium hostile to the constitutional order.
Kurds in Germany are residents or citizens of Germany of full or partial Kurdish origin. There is a large Kurdish community in Germany. The number of Kurds living in Germany is unknown. Many estimates assume that the number is in the million range. In February 2000, the Federal Government of Germany estimated that approximately 500.000 Kurds lived in Germany at that time.
Dieter Thomas Heck was a German television presenter, singer and actor. He is known as the presenter of the popular TV program ZDF-Hitparade, featuring German Schlager music, from 1969 to 1984, reaching millions of people. As an actor, he starred in the TV play Das Millionenspiel in 1970.
zenith is an independent German-language magazine which focuses on the Arab and Islamic world. The magazine is published quarterly and addresses politics, economics, culture, and society in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia as well as the Muslim world more generally.
Candystorm is a loanword used in the German language and is the antonym of shitstorm. Green German MP Volker Beck gave distinction to the term by using it to describe a wave of party support for Claudia Roth's bid for Party leadership on Twitter in late 2012. Roth had just before failed in her bid to be nominated as the party's top candidate in the 2013 federal elections, and was rumored not to be running for re-election as party leader.
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Jörg Hubert Meuthen is a German economist, academic and politician, serving as an Independent Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Germany since 2017.
Lutz van der Horst is a German television presenter and comedian. He is most known for being a political satire reporter on the heute-show.
The Council of the Syrian Charter is a Syrian civil society body which officially announced its establishment in spring 2019 to bring together representatives from different families, regions, clans, tribes and religious communities from throughout Syria and from across the Syrian diaspora.
Bettina Schausten is a German journalist.
The Values Union is a German party founded on February 17, 2024 by transforming a seven-year-old registered association with the same name. According to its own information, the Values Union had around 4,000 members in 2022; with about 3,000 also being the members of the CDU. In early 2024, the Values Union positioned itself as a "conservative-liberal" middle ground between the CDU/CSU and AfD.
Candid Foundation is a private non-for-profit organisation working in the fields of intercultural dialogue, media, research and development. It was founded in 2014 in Berlin. The organization focuses on the countries of the Southern Mediterranean, Western Asia and the wider MENA region.
Naseef Naeem is a Christian Syrian–German legal scholar specializing in public and constitutional law. He is an expert on legal and political affairs in the Middle East, Syria, and the constitution of Iraq.
Andreas Michaelis is a German diplomat who served as State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office in the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 3 January 2022, and was previously the German Ambassador to the Court of St James from May 2020 until January 2022. Since August 2023, he has been the German Ambassador to the United States.
Jana Pareigis is a German journalist and television moderator. She is the first black woman in German news journalism.
This is a list of candidates for the 2021 German federal election.
Germany–Syria relations are the bilateral relations between Germany and Syria. Germany closed its Damascus embassy and stopped its recognition of Bashar Al-Assad in 2012 because of the Syrian civil war, but has never completely cut relations with the Syrian government.
Paul Ronzheimer is a German journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of Bild.
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