Myth 1776

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" - this triad from 1776 is the sacred foundation of today's superpower, the USA. But in 2026, they often sound like a distant echo in a nation torn apart internally. While Donald Trump instrumentalizes the myth of the American quest for freedom for a radical reorganization of power in Washington, historian Hiram Kümper asks himself - and all of us - the uncomfortable question: Were the founding fathers really concerned with universal human rights - or simply with access to power and "meat pots"? Kümper looks behind the highly polished heroic epic of white men and dissects an understanding of politics that exported its "way of life" globally while systematically excluding millions of enslaved black and indigenous people at home. Together with the Mannheim professor of history, also known from television, and his non-fiction book "Mythos 1776", we shed light on the dark flip side of US self-confidence: who really paid the bitter price for the rise of this "power player"? We look at the paradoxes of an iconic founding story that still fuels political extremes today - and we make visible those who have all too often been forgotten in the official narrative.

In cooperation with Colloquium politicum & Landeszentrale für politische Bildung