The Failure An Investigative Report of Germany’s Russia Policy

Germany’s relationship with Russia is one of the most consequential factors in European security. Over the last three decades, Berlin’s policy toward Moscow has been shaped by deeply rooted national prejudices and misperceptions, as well as the personal convictions and predilections of German leaders and their interactions with Vladimir Putin. Katja Gloger and Georg Mascolo, two of Germany’s top investigative journalists, brilliantly lay this out in their best-selling book. Their careful analysis, firsthand observations, and sharp conclusions about their country’s missteps should resonate as strongly in the US as they did in Germany.

—Fiona Hill, senior fellow, Center on the United States and Europe, The Brookings Institution; former deputy assistant to the President and senior director for European and Russian Affairs, U.S. National Security Council.

This is a book well worth reading.

— Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (2021-2025)

A comprehensive critical reassessment of Germany’s Russia policy over the past decades was long overdue. The Failure meets this need with remarkable clarity and depth. In this book, Russia expert Katja Gloger and her husband, former Spiegel editor-in-chief Georg Mascolo, offer essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the ambitions, illusions, and idealistic misjudgments that shaped German foreign policy.”

— Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference; former State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office and Ambassador to the United States and the United Kingdom.

An extraordinarily precise and gripping account of Germany’s Russia policy … required reading.

— Markus Lanz, German TV ZDF

Must-read for insights into Germany’s failure to understand Putin’s Russia.

— Graham T. Allison, Harvard University