Alexander Görlach

Alexander Görlach, on stage at Tedx Berlin in November 2012

Alexander Görlach (born December 28, 1976) is a German author, academic, journalist and entrepreneur. He is best known as founder and publisher of the debate-magazine The European.^[1] Today he is a visiting scholar at Harvard University.^[2][3] He is further a Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, a think tank based in Los Angeles,^[4] a columnist to the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche,^[5] an op-ed contributor to the New York Times^[6] and the publisher of the online-magazine Save Liberal Democracy.^[7][8]

Personal life

Görlach was born as the child of Turkish migrant workers in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Shortly afterwards, he was adopted and raised by a German family.^[9][10][11]

After graduating from High School, Görlach received a scholarship from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and subsequently studied catholic theology and philosophy at University of Mainz, Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome as well as Al-Azhar University in Cairo and the Faculty of Theology in Ankara. He also studied German studies, Political Science and music. He received his PhD in comparative religion from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2006 and in linguistics, in the field of language and politics, from University of Mainz in 2009.^[12]

Görlach held several teaching and lecture assignments, amongst others at Freie Universität Berlin ^[13] and Harvard University in Massachusetts.^[2]

Alexander Görlach is a member of the German Liberal Party (FDP) which he joined, in September 2016, after having been a member of the German Christian Democratic Party (CDU) for ten years.^[14]

Professional life

Görlach has been working and publishing for several German media outlets, such as ZDF, German Television. He has been and is published in several German media outlets such as Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit und Focus Magazine. From 2007 to 2009 he was executive editor of the online part of Cicero magazine.^[15] Todas Alex is focused on international publications: He is an op-ed contributor to the New York Times ^[6] and to The World Post.^[16]

From 2009 until 2016, Görlach has been the editor-in-chief and publisher of the opinion magazine The European,^[17] which also publishes selected articles in English.^[18] Alexander Görlachs weekly editorial has been published in France,^[19] Italy^[20] and the US.^[21]

In 2011, Görlach published the book "Freiheit oder Anarchie? Wie das Internet unser Leben verändert" together with Björn Böhning.^[22] In 2014 his book "Wir wollen euch scheitern sehen. Wie die Häme unser Land zerfrisst" was published.^[23]

In fall 2014 Görlach was invited to give lectures as a Kennedy Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He lectured about contemporary debates in Germany and their impacts on Europe.^[24] In the academic year 2015-2016 Görlach returned to Harvard researching about religious identities and their influence and impact on global politics as Visiting Scholar at the Divinity School.^[25] In the academic year 2016-2017 Alex remained at Harvard, returning to the Center for European Studies, where he continues to work on the future of secularism and pluralism.^[2]

In 2015 Görlach became a Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute and its Online-Magazine The World Post.^[26]

Alexander served as Guest Director of "The Times and The London Times Cheltenham Literature Festival" in 2015.^[27]

References