American Academy in Berlin

Dictatorship & Information: Autocratic Regime Resilience in Communist Europe and China

Editor — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Assessing the relationship between communist regime information-gathering and the violence of repression

"I want to start off with a simple but important observation about the role of information in any political system…democratic or not," is how Martin Dimitrov, a spring 2012 Axel Springer Fellow and associate professor of political science at Tulane University, tantalized the audience at his February 16 lecture.

Person:

Martin Dimitrov

Head to Head in Stuttgart

Editor — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:46:00 +0000

The American Academy in Berlin partners with the Stuttgart Literaturhaus for a new series of German-American talks on art, culture, and politics.

The American Academy in Berlin and the Literaturhaus Stuttgart are proud to present the German-American series "Head to Head" at the Literaturhaus Stuttgart. In the series, which begins on March 5, a renowned American scholar or writer meets with the German expert of his or her choosing to discuss a topic germane to art, literature, culture, or politics.

Power and Legitimacy: Europe and the Nation State

Editor — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Reconciling national sovereignty to European unity is no easy legistlative task. It might not even be democratic.

The convulsions of the last decade have profoundly disoriented European integration scholarship, and the ongoing European crisis has severely challenged the very idea of the supranational European Union. As we continue to witness, economic and political integration has always entailed "more Europe," but it has never entailed autonomous democratic and constitutional legitimacy. For that, national institutions have remained crucial.

The Munich Security Conference Supplement

Editor — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:15:00 +0000

The American Academy partners with the Süddeutsche Zeitung on the English language supplement for the 48th Munich Security Conference

The 48th Munich Security Conference will take place at the Bayerische Hof in Munich from February 3rd to 5th, attracting a smattering of the world's top strategic defense thinkers and policy makers to discuss the most pressing topics confronting the defense policy world.

The American Academy in Berlin Launches New Website

Editor — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:38:00 +0000

A more user-friendly way to connect with the Hans Arnhold Center

The American Academy in Berlin re-launched its website after six months of close collaboration with the talented programmers and designers of the Berlin-based agency Compuccino. Over the last few years, the Academy's online presence has become an increasingly important aspect of the Academy's public programming and outreach.

What Germans Do Not Understand about America

Editor — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000

The US Ambassador to Germany extols American optimism of all stripes

One day after President Obama's State of the Union address, Philip D. Murphy, the US Ambassador to Germany, was at the American Academy to deliver a lively and wide-ranging lecture on "What Germans Do Not Understand about America." Americans are at root an optimistic people, Murphy noted, regardless of the nation's current economic condition. Most Americans, now as before, he said, feel that the future will be better than the past.

Announcing the Spring 2012 Fellows

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

The new class of fellows takes up residence on the Wannsee.

A festive January 17 evening welcomed the spring 2012 Berlin Prize Fellows to their semester on the Wannsee. Opening remarks were delivered by the United States Ambassador to Germany, Philip D. Murphy, and the welcoming talk by Klaus Reichert, honorary president of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, in Darmstadt. The American Academy in Berlin is proud to welcome the following scholars, writers, and artists to work on their respective projects at the Hans Arnhold Center over the coming five months:

Voices in the Dream Palace: Dramatic Language in Pre-Code Movies

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Film noir aficionado and pulp-fiction expert Geoffrey O'Brien on the odd shift to morality at the dawn of the talkies.

The films made during the half decade between 1929-1934 mark the triumph of the talking picture format, which began in 1927 with Al Jolson's Jazz Singer. Films of the early talkie era were the product of a culture ravaged by the Depression, a growing sense of liberated cynicism, and, most importantly for Geoffrey O'Brien, a Bosch Fellow at the Academy, an environment prior to the enforcement of the Production Code, a statute that regulated what could be said and seen on film.

Kindness: A Novel in Progress

Editor — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Adam Haslett's newest literary plunge

Prize-winning, bestselling author Adam Haslett (You Are Not A Stranger Here; Union Atlantic) is not yet finished with the novel he has been working on while at the Academy this fall as the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Fiction. The title of his budding book, Kindness, reflects not only an overarching narrative theme, but as well the author's willingness to share a few tidbits with an anticipatory crowd.

Memorial Mania!

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:00:00 +0000

The American Academy in Berlin hosts a symposium at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt on the politics of public memorialization.

Ten years after 9/11, and six years after the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Berlin, the American Academy in Berlin held a symposium to deliberate "the memorial" as a form of memory culture and as a site of clashing political strategies. Questions by a panel of distinguished experts included, Does a memorial heed our changing perceptions of “the event” over time, or does it dull our collective recollection? Should a memorial urge catharsis or categorically avoid normative reactions?