An eye-witness to the rise of Hitler’s Germany and a leading American scholar of European history, Fritz Stern received the Leo Baeck Medal from the Leo Baeck Institute, a center focused on German Jewish history. In his provocative acceptance speech, he talked about the lessons of Modern Germany and the prospects for fascist theocracy in America. The author of The Politics of Cultural Despair and the seminal study, Gold and Iron, Stern discusses his personal experiences and the complexities of his country of birth in his recently published memoir, Five Germanys I Have Known.

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture