American Academy in Berlin

Igor Stravinsky and Elliot Carter

Humanities
American Academy Lecture
Cold War Modern: Musical Systems and Cultural Diplomacy in Rome and New York, 1945-55

Milton Babbitt and Elliott Carter were two prominent twentieth-century American composers who played decisive roles in defining musical complexity. Both were involved in shaping import systems for European modernism and export systems for difficult American modern music in the era of the Marshall Plan. In discussing their influence, Martin Brody will suggest relationships between cultural politics, music patronage, formalist theories, and the often challenging aesthetics of modern music during the Cold War.
Social Sciences
Bosch Public Policy Lecture
European Civilization and Its Andalusian Discontent

Charles Hirschkind's project centers around the following questions: How do historical narratives about Spain’s Islamic heritage shape the vantage point from which contemporary questions about Europe’s Muslim minorities are addressed? How do the historical sensibilities, attitudes, and practices that ambivalently link the Spanish nation to its Muslim past open up a unique set of present possibilities for conceptualizing and addressing the so-called “Muslim problem” in Europe today? A look at the social and political processes that mediate and sustain an active relation to Europe’s Islamic heritage.
Humanities
John P. Birkelund Lecture
Kant’s Moral “I Ought To” and Freud’s Superego

There are surprising similarities between Immanuel Kant’s account of the structure of mental life expressed by our use of “I” in the moral imperative “I ought to,” and the structure of mental life Sigmund Freud called “ego” and “superego” (“Ich”, “Überich”). Béatrice Longuenesse suggests that attending to the similarities and tensions between Kant’s and Freud’s views might contribute to a better understanding of the relations between first person (“I’m going to do this”) and third person (“this is happening to me”) descriptions of our thoughts and actions.
Arts and Culture
Marina Kellen French Lecture
Heritage, Value, and Vulnerability

The debate on heritage has become intimately linked both to cultural practices and objects, which are often valued far beyond their originating culture – such as the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin. In his lecture, Derek Gillman, executive director and president of the world-renowned Barnes Foundation, in Philadelphia, will review the evolution of the modern concept of cultural heritage, which was stimulated, he argues, by the French Revolution. Gillman will address aspects of the conflict between the particular and the universal, or the national and the cosmopolitan, concluding with thoughts about Samuel Scheffler’s association of value and vulnerability.
Arts and Culture
American Academy Concert
Curtis Institute of Music Evening Concert

During their sixth Berlin tour, students and faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music perform a chamber music program, including works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, and Anton Webern. The ensemble features Roberto Díaz (Curtis President and Violist), the Dover Quartet (formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008), and Alexander Ullman (Pianist). Generously supported by Nina Freifrau von Maltzahn.
Law
Lloyd Cutler Lecture
International Law and Smart Power

Many have asked whether there is an identifiable Obama Doctrine – a set of unifying principles in President Obama’s foreign policy -- and whether Hillary Rodham Clinton left behind a distinctive legacy as Secretary of State. Harold Hongju Koh, who just returned to Yale Law School after more than three years as Legal Adviser to the US State Department, argues that the answer to both questions is Yes: The Obama-Clinton Doctrine of International Law as Smart Power.
Foreign Policy
The 2013 Fritz Stern Lecture
Drohnen: Die neuen Waffen und das Kriegs- und Völkerrecht

Der Einsatz von Drohnen steht seit geraumer Zeit im Fokus politischer Debatten. Neben der massiven Ausweitung des US-Militärs von Drohnenangriffen diskutiert auch die deutsche Regierung über die Ausrüstung der Bundeswehr mit bewaffneten Drohnen. Völkerrechtlich ist der Einsatz von unbemannten Flugkörpern mit Raketen jedoch höchst umstritten. Vor dem Hintergrund geltender Rechtsnormen für bewaffnete Konflikte wird Antje Vollmer, Autorin und ehemalige Vizepräsidentin des Deutschen Bundestages, über völker- und kriegsrechtliche Aspekte von Drohnenangriffen sprechen.

UPCOMING

Cold War Modern: Musical Systems and Cultural Diplomacy in Rome and New York, 1945-55

Milton Babbitt and Elliott Carter were two prominent twentieth-century American composers who played decisive roles in defining musical complexity. Both were involved in shaping import systems for European modernism and export systems for difficult American modern music in the era of the Marshall Plan. In discussing their influence, Martin Brody will suggest relationships between cultural politics, music patronage, formalist theories, and the often challenging aesthetics of modern music during the Cold War. more >>

European Civilization and Its Andalusian Discontent

Charles Hirschkind's project centers around the following questions: How do historical narratives about Spain’s Islamic heritage shape the vantage point from which contemporary questions about Europe’s Muslim minorities are addressed? How do the historical sensibilities, attitudes, and practices that ambivalently link the Spanish nation to its Muslim past open up a unique set of present possibilities for conceptualizing and addressing the so-called “Muslim problem” in Europe today? A look at the social and political processes that mediate and sustain an active relation to Europe’s Islamic heritage. more >>

Über die Moral bei Kant und Freud

In der fünften Ausgabe von HEAD TO HEAD sprechen Philosophen Béatrice Longuenesse und Rolf-Peter Horstmann über die Moral bei Kant und Freud. Kant zufolge sind moralische Motive auf Vernunft gegründet. Laut Freud dagegen beruhen moralische Motive auf frühen emotionalen Abhängigkeiten des Kleinkindes gegenüber seinen Eltern. Trotz dieser widerstreitenden Erklärungen bieten Kant und Freud zum Teil überraschend ähnliche Einsichten über das Verhältnis von Vernunft und Gefühl in der Struktur moralischer Motive. more >>

BLOG

Announcing the Inga Maren Otto Fellowship in Music Composition

A new prize in music composition brings outstanding American composers to Berlin for a year of creative endeavor

On the evening of May 16, 2013, at the Hans Arnhold Center, the American Academy announced the establishment of the Inga Maren Otto Berlin Prize in Music Composition during a composer talk and a dinner honoring Inga Maren Otto with friends and trustees. Following the announcement, current fellow in music composition, Gene Coleman, discussed his work with the artistic director of MaerzMusik, Matthias Osterwold. »

Sovereignty and Intervention, 1993-2013

The history, principles, and limits of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine

From Bosnia in 1993 to Syria in 2013, the issue of humanitarian intervention has been at the center of international politics, in particular the right to intervene in sovereign states. As a member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, foreign policy expert Michael G. »

A Conversation with Tony Cragg

From found objects to rational beings

An innovative manipulator of synthetic materials into forms and images, English-born artist Tony Cragg, director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is best known for his sculpture series "Early Forms and Rational Beings" and, prior, for his experimental use of materials, among them found items and raw matter. »

Iraq, Violence, Mourning: On the Late Poetry of Sargon Boulus

Overcoming the imaginary homeland in postwar Iraq

The invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 and the political system it institutionalized added new layers to an already complex and crowded history of violence with multiple villains and multitudes of victims. »

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948

Madeleine Albright and Joschka Fischer on recent European history and the morality of international diplomacy

On the evening of April 16, 2013, at the Bertelsmann Repräsentanz in Berlin, the American Academy hosted Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State under the second Clinton Administration, from 1997 to 2001, and the first female Secretary of State in United States history. »

The Spring 2013 Program

Join us as the American Academy in Berlin springs into an exciting semester of evening lectures, concerts, and book presentations -- among them philosopher Michael Sandel on his new volume, Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?; Pulitzer-winner Liaquat Ahamed on the future of the euro; Donald Horowitz on constitutional design for divided societies; Sinan Antoon on Iraqi poet Sargon Boulus; artist talks with Tony Cragg and William Cordova; Michael Ignatieff on two decades of humanitarian intervention; a discussion with Derek Gillman, director of the Barnes Foundation; former legal adviser to the State Department Harold Hongju Koh; and two glorious concerts with the Curtis Institute of Music in early June. We look forward to welcoming you at the Hans Arnhold Center this spring!

Click here to download the spring 2013 program.