The 2013 Henry A. Kissinger Prize Awarded to Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist
The 2013 Henry A. Kissinger Prize will be awarded posthumously to Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist (* 6/10/1922; † 3/8/2013), founder of the Munich Security Conference, in recognition of his lifetime devotion to fostering critical dialogue on vital security issues and strengthening the transatlantic relationship.
The award ceremony will take place on the evening of June 10, 2013, at...
read more >>Announcing the Inga Maren Otto Fellowship in Music Composition
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, the Academy's current fellow in music composition, Gene Coleman, discussed his work with the artistic director of...
read more >>Sovereignty and Intervention, 1993-2013
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. Ignatieff, a former Canadian Liberal Party opposition leader (2008 to 2011) and currently a...
read more >>A Conversation with Tony Cragg
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. For the Tate Modern, which holds some of the artist's works, "Cragg's...
read more >>Iraq, Violence, Mourning: On the Late Poetry of Sargon Boulus
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. In his Anna-Maria Kellen lecture of April 16, Sinan Antoon argued that much of the discourse on Iraqi violence has...
read more >>Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
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. She navigated the packed room to greet longtime friend and colleague Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Minister...
read more >>Will the Euro Survive?
Over the past 25 years, Liaquat Ahamed has led a highly successful career in professional investment management with leadership roles at the World Bank and the New York-based partnership Fischer Francis Trees and Watts. An Allianz Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy this spring, Ahamed, author of the Pulitzer-winning book Lords of Finance (2009), is currently a director...
read more >>Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?
On the occasion of the German publication of his book Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do? (published as Gerechtigkeit), Harvard political philosopher Michael J. Sandel sat down with Christoph Menke, a philosopher at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, in the idyllic music hall in the Ullstein Verlag. Guests were treated to a vivid discussion on the diminishing roles...
read more >>The Spring 2013 Program at the American Academy in Berlin
Join us as the American Academy in Berlin springs into an exciting semester of evening lectures, concerts, and book presentions -- among them philosopher Michael Sandel on his new book, Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?; Pulitzer-winner Liaquat Ahamed on the future of the euro;...
read more >>A Musical Portrait of Gene Coleman
The evening of Monday, March 18, witnessed American Academy music fellow Gene Coleman’s portrait concert at the former silent movie theater Delphi, one of the many hidden gems of the former East located in Berlin-Weissensee. Built in 1929, the Delphi was one of the last theaters designed specifically for the live...
read more >>