Svenja Flaßpöhler & Peter Sloterdijk

From today’s perspective, the years 2017 through 2020 appear to mark a break with the past—a turning point before the turning point. In *Zeilen und Tage IV*, Peter Sloterdijk chronicles these years—marked by Trump, Macron, Merkel, and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic—as a chronicler and analyst of a world in transition. He explores his analyses of the times in conversation with Svenja Flaßpöhler, who, as an intellectual voice, first found herself in the public crosshairs during those years and, in her books, addresses, among other things, the question of how to find one’s own stance in confusing times and defend it in the midst of controversy. Together, the two discuss political and personal shifts in boundaries, the loss of certainties, and the question of how freedom and the capacity for action can be reimagined amid conditions of profound upheaval.

Prof. Dr. Peter Sloterdijk is a philosopher, cultural scholar, and publicist. He taught philosophy and aesthetics at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design until 2017.

Dr. Svenja Flaßpöhler is a philosopher, author, and editor-in-chief of Philosophie Magazin. Her latest book, *Zusammenbleiben: On the Freedom of Strong Bonds*, will be published in September 2026 .