High-ranking politicians have been meeting at the “Bayerischer Hof” hotel in Munich for a good 60 years. The security conference offers them an open stage – but also space for unobserved conversations.
“Excuse me, I am not convinced!” Joschka Fischer shouts this sentence loudly at US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In 2003, the Munich Security Conference was about the impending war in Iraq. Rumsfeld called for support. The then German Foreign Minister Fischer ignored his prepared speech manuscript and changed spontaneously into English and loudly declared that he was not convinced and that he could not explain to the public that he was involved in the war if he himself did not believe the US arguments.
Dissent on the open stage: Donald Rumsfeld and Joschka Fischer at the Munich Security Conference in 2003.
A rare outburst for a meeting known more for intimate conversations than open conflict. The security conference is famous for its “informal character”. There are no resolutions, no final declaration.
This is what distinguishes the security conference from political summits such as the G7 or G20. In the hotel rooms of the Bayerischer Hof, where the conference always took place with a few exceptions, heads of state and government as well as high-ranking military officers or diplomats from around the world can talk to each other in camera.
First “military science conference” in 1963
“This is an opportunity to make comments that are perhaps not as well-considered as they normally are, and to also say something unusual,” said Ewald von Kleist, the founder of the meeting, once describing the value of the security conference. As a Wehrmacht soldier, von Kleist was part of the Stauffenberg group that carried out an assassination attempt on Hitler.
In 1963 he first invited people to the “Wehrkunde Conference” in Munich, which later became the Security Conference. In previous years, two events brought the planet to the brink of a third world war: first the construction of the Berlin Wall, then the Cuban Missile Crisis. In this climate, von Kleist wanted to create a forum in which German-American relations and security policy during the Cold War could be discussed on equal terms.
SPD politician Egon Bahr, who is considered the architect of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, once called von Kleist “a stroke of luck.” “He was the only one who had the credible and unassailable ability to create such a conference at which the Germans could begin to take flight in terms of power politics,” said Bahr in 2014.
More than just politics
Beyond global political issues, the Bayerischer Hof is also an important factor for the participants. For many, the hotel is particularly attractive because it is located right in downtown Munich, explained the former meeting leader, Wolfgang Ischinger: “It gives some people the opportunity to escape from time to time.”
His predecessor, Horst Teltschik, made the same observation: “They love everything within walking distance. They can go to the Franziskaner beer garden in the evening if it’s still free, or just walk across Marienplatz at lunchtime.”
For example, there are pictures of Hillary Clinton shopping downtown in 2005. When the meeting was moved to a hotel just outside Munich city center for a few years in the 1990s, US guests in particular are said to have protested.
Combining the pleasant with the useful – Hillary Clinton 2005 in Munich.
For the people of Munich, however, the meeting means: large parts of the city are cordoned off, thousands of police officers are on duty, manhole covers are being welded shut, bus and tram lines are canceled. The area around the Bayerischer Hof is being transformed into a high-security zone. Not surprisingly, not everyone is impressed.
New topics for Turn of the millennium
The founder of Kleist handed over management to Teltschik in 1998. Furthermore, only invited guests were allowed on stage. But from then on the meeting increasingly opened up to other parts of the world. Representatives came from Eastern Europe, but also from countries such as Japan, China and India.
The range of topics also changed over time: instead of just security policy, it is now just as much about the economy, climate change and human rights. In addition to high-ranking politicians and business representatives, activists from non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Greenpeace can now also be found.
Founder Ewald von Kleist at the conference in 1978.
Putin’s attack on the West
Nevertheless, security policy always remained present, especially when a hint of the Cold War blew through Munich in 2007: Vladimir Putin was the first Russian president to take part in the meeting. Some people initially perceived this as a signal of relaxation.
But they were amazed when Putin went on the attack on stage. “Today we are witnessing an almost unlimited use of military means,” he said there. “This use of force is dragging the world into the depths of military conflict.” There is a lack of strength to find a common solution.
Vladimir Putin went on a confrontational course in 2007.
The Russian president also criticized NATO’s eastward expansion and accused the USA and its allies of being responsible for numerous wars. The US delegation saw petrified mines.
Despite his absence, Putin was also the big topic at the meeting two years ago. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukraine longs for peace. Europe longs for peace. The world says it doesn’t want war, while Russia says it doesn’t want to intervene. Someone is lying here.”
The Russian attack began just a few days later. Hopes in the run-up to the security conference that Russian representatives would come and dialogue could be sought were dashed. In the end, no one official showed up from Moscow.
protests against Security conference have tradition
Last year, Russia’s attack on Ukraine brought thousands to the streets. There were the traditional anti-war demos, but also pro-Ukrainian rallies.
Protests have been part of the Munich Security Conference for more than 20 years. When the first security conference after the terrorist attacks of September 11th took place in 2002, the city imposed a ban on demonstrations. Tens of thousands still took to the streets. Hundreds of arrests were made. Even in the years that followed, accusations were heard that politicians were criminalizing protests.
Protests at the 2002 security conference.
The Munich Peace Conference has been a counter-event since 2003. The critics accuse the meeting at the Bayerischer Hof of being that the participants’ understanding of security is focused on dominance and maintaining power, and that it is a conference of warmongers. In addition, a central feature of the security conference is a thorn in their side: that there are agreements in back rooms, the content of which is not made public.
But there are also signs of relaxation at the security conference: in 2011, the foreign ministers of the USA and Russia, Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov, signed the START treaty on disarmament. Discussions about this had also gained momentum in Munich in previous years.
Pelosi: “This is the only way to solve problems”
This year there will probably be little scope for signals of detente: the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza will be the dominant topics. The same question arises as to how Europe should position itself if there is a second term for Donald Trump. He recently announced that he would not defend defaulting NATO members in the event of a Russian attack.
“You can see world politics in a magnifying glass through the public appearances and the panel discussions,” says the current head of the Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen. “We try to present all the important conflicts in some way.”
And according to long-time participants, open speech is needed. “There is no point in going there and being so diplomatic that the important issues are ignored,” said Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives, in the BR-Documentation “Hotel Weltpolitik”.
“That’s the beauty of the Munich Security Conference: heads of state, lawmakers and other diplomats come together – with honesty and openness,” said Pelosi. “And that’s the only way to solve problems.”
The BR documentary offers a look behind the scenes “Hotel Weltpolitik – Inside Munich Security Conference”.
Jasper Ruppert, BR, tagesschau, February 15, 2024 11:21 a.m