{"id":10564,"date":"2026-02-11T12:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/mit-diktatoren-reden"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:21:39","slug":"talking-to-dictators","status":"publish","type":"kreisky_event","link":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/veranstaltung\/mit-diktatoren-reden","title":{"rendered":"TALKING TO DICTATORS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Erich Follath<br \/>\nTALKING TO DICTATORS<\/h4>\n<p><em><strong>Erich Follath on his meetings with tyrant rulers <\/strong><strong>and the background to their rise and fall.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Is it possible to describe tyranny and murderousness? Explain their causes? In his new book, Erich Follath, reporter and foreign correspondent for STERN, SPIEGEL and ZEIT for almost five decades, tells of unusual encounters and controversial conversations with some of the worst politicians of our time. And also about the consequences he was personally confronted with during his research. As the foreword says: \u201eHow I was once sentenced to death - and thirteen years later was able to conduct an interview with the tyrant responsible.\u201c The perpetrator was Mobutu Sese Seko, the former president of the Congo.<\/p>\n<p>Follath visited Muammar al-Gaddafi in his desert tent, listened to a private singing performance by Imelda Marcos, played chess with Menachem Begin and experienced a blackout with Yasser Arafat. Pol Pot's private secretary told him over tea why he married the widow of the mass murderer and raised his daughter. But \u201eAll My Murderers\u201c is far more than a series of astonishing meetings. The author has also intensively investigated the effects of the tyrants and has followed in the footsteps of the perpetrators' relatives, companions and victims.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Erich Follath<\/strong> was a journalist at the <em>Star<\/em>, experienced the revolution in Iran as a reporter in 1979. In 1994 he switched to the <em>Mirror<\/em>, worked at STERN for 20 years and for SPIEGEL for 22 years, and has been writing for DIE ZEIT since 2017. With a doctorate in political science, he is the author of numerous non-fiction books that have become bestsellers, including \u201eThe Legacy of the Dalai Lama\u201c, \u201eThe New Great Powers\u201c and \u201eBeyond All Borders\u201c. His book \u201eAll My Murderers\u201c has just been published by Picus Verlag.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tessa Szyszkowitz<\/strong> is a journalist and author, she writes from London for the <em>Falter, Tagesspiegel <\/em>and<em> NZZ on Sunday<\/em>. Her most recent book: \u201cEchte Engl\u00e4nder - Britannien und der Brexit\u201d (Picus Verlag, 2018). She is a Distinguished Fellow of Rusi, the Royal United Services Institute. She was honoured with the FPA Media Award for Best Story of the Year 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tessa Szyszkowitz im Gespr\u00e4ch mit Erich Follath MIT DIKTATOREN REDEN Erich Follath \u00fcber seine Treffen mit Gewaltherrschern und die Hintergr\u00fcnde ihres Aufstiegs und Falls. Kann man Tyrannei und Mordlust beschreiben? Ihre Ursachen erkl\u00e4ren? Erich Follath, fast f\u00fcnf Jahrzehnte lang Reporter und Auslandskorrespondent von STERN, SPIEGEL und ZEIT, erz\u00e4hlt in seinem neuen Buch von ungew\u00f6hnlichen Begegnungen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10565,"template":"","format":[],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"schwerpunkt":[40],"class_list":["post-10564","kreisky_event","type-kreisky_event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schwerpunkt-konfliktpraevention-und-friedensfoerderung"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MIT DIKTATOREN REDEN - Kreisky Forum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/event\/talking-to-dictators\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIT DIKTATOREN REDEN - Kreisky Forum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tessa Szyszkowitz im Gespr\u00e4ch mit Erich Follath MIT DIKTATOREN REDEN Erich Follath \u00fcber seine Treffen mit Gewaltherrschern und die Hintergr\u00fcnde ihres Aufstiegs und Falls. Kann man Tyrannei und Mordlust beschreiben? Ihre Ursachen erkl\u00e4ren? 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