Munich Security Conference

Overview

The world’s most important security forum was founded by a man who conspired against Hitler. In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist — a resistance fighter in the July 20, 1944 Stauffenberg plot — convened the first Internationale Wehrkunde-Begegnung in Munich, because he believed German lawmakers suffered from a “lack of experts on nuclear matters” and needed a far deeper understanding of U.S. security policy (Firstpost). Sixty-two years later, that forum — the Munich Security Conference — became the stage for one of the most contentious foreign-policy speeches of the decade: the queue note’s “his 2025 foreign-policy address” was U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s February 14, 2025 address to the 61st conference (Reuters).

The founding

The first meetings were intimate by design: only a few dozen participants, drawn mostly from Germany, the United States, and other NATO countries (Firstpost). Von Kleist led the gatherings until 1998, when he was succeeded by politician and business manager Horst Teltschik (Firstpost; Austrian Parliamentary Research Service). After the Cold War ended, Kleist and Teltschik opened the conference to leaders from Central and Eastern European countries and to Russia, transforming a transatlantic Cold War huddle into something approaching a global forum (Firstpost). The gathering was renamed the Munich Security Conference in 2008, and that same year Wolfgang Ischinger became chairman (Firstpost; Austrian Parliamentary Research Service). It has been canceled only twice: in 1991, because of the Gulf War, and in 1997, following von Kleist’s retirement (Firstpost).

The 2025 rupture

Ischinger led the conference until February 2022, when Christoph Heusgen — the former German ambassador to the UN — took over the chair (Austrian Parliamentary Research Service). Three years later, Heusgen presided over the conference’s most dramatic edition.

Peace talks were expected to dominate the 61st conference, February 14–16, 2025, after a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier that week — but Vance barely mentioned Russia or Ukraine in his speech (Reuters). Instead, he accused European leaders of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration, calling immigration “out of control” in Europe, and said the threat that worried him most was not Russia or China but what he called a retreat from the fundamental value of protecting free speech (Reuters). Many delegates watched in stunned silence, and there was little applause when he finished (Reuters).

The German response was swift. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius hit back the same day, calling Vance’s remarks “unacceptable” and saying Vance had called into question democracy not only in Germany but in Europe as a whole (Reuters). After his speech, Vance met Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party — a move seen as unwelcome interference just ahead of Germany’s federal elections (Reuters). On Ukraine, Vance met Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich and repeated Trump’s demand that Europe take a bigger role in its own security so Washington could focus on the Indo-Pacific; NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Vance was “absolutely right” that Europe needed to step up (Reuters). Zelenskyy said at the conference that he would talk to Putin only once Ukraine had agreed on a common plan with Trump and European leaders, and reiterated that his country needs “real security guarantees” — while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that “a sham peace” imposed over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans would bring no lasting security (Reuters).

Vance’s own framing, in his words: “The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within: the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America” (Worthy News).

The farewell, and what came next

When Heusgen closed the conference on February 16, he was visibly emotional — but the tears were a farewell at the end of his chairmanship, not an onstage reaction to Vance, as a later fact-check of viral edits made clear (Lead Stories). The 53-second clip that circulated on X had been edited to cut together the first and last seconds of his address, omitting more than five minutes; Heusgen told Lead Stories the edit took his departure out of context and called it disinformation, and the conference’s own statement said he “did not shed a few tears out of ‘frustration’” — he was saying goodbye to his team (Lead Stories). Heusgen showed visible emotion as he handed the chair to former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Bayerischer Hof, to applause from the participants, telling the closing audience that “our common value base is not that common anymore” (Worthy News). Stoltenberg paid tribute to his predecessor, saying Heusgen had made the conference “stronger, broader, and better” over his three years (Worthy News).

The succession did not stay simple. Stoltenberg’s appointment as Norway’s finance minister kept him in Oslo, and by September 2026 it was Ischinger — the chairman who had preceded Heusgen — who was handing over the reins. On September 14, 2026, the MSC announced that Helga Maria Schmid and Jens Stoltenberg would jointly lead the conference as co-equal, honorary co-chairs, with the handover from Ischinger to take place in time for the 63rd conference in February 2027 (MSC). Schmid, a Vice President of the Foundation Council since 2021, brings decades of European diplomacy and multilateral negotiation; Stoltenberg brings governmental, defense, and finance leadership — and, fittingly for a transatlantic forum, the conference described both as committed transatlanticists (MSC).

What this profile does not claim

• It does not claim von Kleist was the only July 20 participant involved in postwar public life; only his role as founder is claimed here.
• It does not name the first meeting’s attendees; the reported Schmidt and Kissinger guest list is unverified and sits in the openItems list above.
• It does not claim a third cancellation in 1965; the cited history reports only 1991 and 1997.
• It does not claim Heusgen’s tears were caused by Vance’s speech; the fact-check is explicit that they were a farewell.
• It does not claim the 2026 co-chair handover had formally occurred by September 30, 2026; the announcement says it will take place ahead of February 2027.
• It does not give exact attendee counts for any edition of the conference.