Hans-Georg Fleck

Hans-Georg Fleck (born July 15, 1953, in Trier) is a German historian and former Country Director at Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF).

Biography
At the age of five he moved with his parents and his two elder siblings to Neuwied where he lived until he graduated from the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium Neuwied in 1972. His scholarly performance led him to receive a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes to fund his tertiary education. He went on to study at the University of Bonn and the University of Würzburg, receiving a Magister Artium in History, Political Science and Philosophy in 1979. From 1979 to 1982, Fleck worked as a research assistant at the History Department, University of Cologne. It was at this time that he started working on his PhD on the history of liberal trade unions in Germany, for which he received the Wolf-Erich-Kellner Prize in 1991. From 1985 to 1990, Fleck worked as an academic researcher at the Archive of the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn being a member of the Editorial Group of Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik (ADAP). As a staffer of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), Fleck was tasked in March 1990 to support the preparation of the first democratic Parliamentary Elections in the German Democratic Republic (DDR). In 1991, Fleck became Country Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Warsaw/Poland. Following a 6-year stint in Poland, Fleck moved in 1997 to head the FNF program for the former Yugoslavia based in Zagreb/Croatia. In 2005, he moved to Jerusalem as FNF's Country Director for Israel and Palestine and in 2012, he relocated to Istanbul as the foundation's Country Director for Turkey. In his capacity as Country Director, Fleck has engaged with high-ranking politicians, prestigious academic scholars, civil society leaders, and influential businessmen. Fleck has published extensively in German and international periodicals on, i.a., topics of liberalism and democratization. He is a popular political analyst for German media. From 1989 till 2011 Fleck was Co-Editor of the Yearbook on Liberalism Research. Fleck is married to Annette Lippke; they have three children.

Academic Work
In his academic publications, Fleck focuses on the theories and the history of Liberalism. He has been particularly interested in the historic development of the concept of ‘social liberalism’, which is rooted in the formation of workers’ education, cooperatives, and trade unions. Fleck has also engaged extensively with the politics of historical narratives and remembrance in Post-World War II Europe trying to understand the drivers and formative elements of newly (re-)constructed national identities.