English - American Academy in Berlin
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English - American Academy in Berlin
Der Tagesspiegel FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 VOLUME 68 / NR. 21 453 AMERICAN ACADEMY THE FELLOWS AND VISITORS OF THE 2012-2013 ACADEMIC YEAR Robert Shiller John Kornblum The Future US Foreign Policy Finance and the Good Society American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_2 E EDITORIAL F The Imperative to Stand Together The euphoria about the triumph of democracy and capitalism – "the end of history" – in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall has dissipated in the face of realities of global developments. The East-West conflict has been replaced with a plethora of fundamental global challenges, whether the nigh unfathomable complexity of our economic and financial systems, the inexorable deterioration of the environment, the depletion of finite natural resources, demographic change, and or the multitude of security challenges. This has lamentably been accompanied by a growing cleavage in the moral consensus our nations developed in the postwar epoch. A current example is the obstructive behavior of two major powers to put a stop to the bloodshed and barbarism in Syria. Old thinking is rampant. It is an illusion to believe, as one sometimes hears in the US and Europe, we can survive a return to the political constellations and their intrigues and national self-centeredness of the early 20th century. At the American Academy in Berlin, we meet these challenges through research and dialogue. Our experts study the realities of transformation, such as the persistence of authoritarianism in countries like China or Bulgaria, and think about the realizable in lieu of international consensus, developing proposals to strengthen, and then harmonize, key national policy structures to save the environment. One working group will address the shortcomings of late liberalism, bringing scholars and policymakers together; another will address the consequences of our moral vocabulary in public affairs, the idleness of moral talk without real-world consequences. These are all essential and difficult questions, underscoring the imperative that America and Europe stand together has lost none of its force in our era. Neither the US nor Europe, and especially Germany, can shape the future alone. Gary Smith — The author is Executive Director of the American Academy in Berlin Imprint American Academy: Supplement of Der Tagesspiegel. Edited by Rolf Brockschmidt. In cooperation with Malte Mau and R.Jay Magill (AAB). Artdirection: Sabine Wilms. Advertising: Jens Robotta. Adress: 10876 Berlin, Phone: +49 30 29021- 0 Cover: Annette Hornischer A Beacon of American Intellectual Life In the fourteen years since it opened its doors, in 1998, the Academy has become one of Europe’s most visible and effective institutions of transatlantic dialogue. It is a fitting legacy to the work and life of its founder, the late Richard C.Holbrooke By Josef Joffe It all started in a back room of the Berlin Kempinski in 1994. The "cabal" consisted of people like Henry Kissinger, Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Fritz Stern, and Richard von Weizsäcker. And Richard Holbrooke, the American ambassador, without whom the Academy would never have gotten off the ground in 1998. There is an English word, borrowed from German and Yiddish, for types like him: Macher. The mission they all chose to accept was "New Traditions." The last American soldier would soon be gone; Berlin was "whole and free" again. The Academy would add a wholly new layer to the foundation laid down in the Cold War, when the Berlin Brigade stood guard in the divided city. Ideas instead of infantry, and words instead of weapons, so to speak. Holbrooke, who was about to depart for Washington as the State Department's Director of European Affairs, snagged the first few million for operating expenses and for the magnificent villa on the Wannsee. The building and the park had belonged to the Arnhold family before they were driven out by the Nazis. The new owner nicely symbolized Germany's postwar rebirth as a liberal and inclusive democracy. This was the house that the Nazis had grabbed, giving it to Walther Funk, the economics minister and Reichsbank president of the Third Reich. Now the Hans Arnhold Center would serve a very different mission. The Academy would bring the best of American culture to Berlin: scholars, writers, poets, directors, conductors – thinkers and doers of outstanding talent and renown. And it would do so without a penny of government largesse. When the German Bundestag offered to chip in a million marks, the board politely declined. This was going to be done in the "American way" – as a strictly private venture in a country where high culture has always been funded It’s hard to find anything like the Academy anywhere else by the state, starting with the princes and potentates of pre-Reich Germany. There are no officials, German or American, on the board. Miraculously, it worked. Corporate and foundation giving has made the Academy what it is today, 14 years after it opened its doors: a beacon of American intellectual life. Rigorously selected Fellows come to work on the Wannsee for three to nine months. In between, there are short-term visitors who give lectures and seminars. Yet an ivory tower the Academy is not. The Fel- lows go out into the city to engage the public at large. American policy makers come to the Hans Arnhold Center to subject themselves to a demanding give and take. A central part of the "new traditions" is to reaffirm the old ones with the annual Kissinger Prize. It goes to statesmen who represent reconciliation and friendship between Germany and the United States. The most recent historical figure so honored was George Shultz, the former Secretary of State. The laudatio was delivered by Helmut Schmidt, who was the first recipient, in 2007. He was followed by presidents, chancellors, and mayors: George H. W. Bush, Richard von Weizsäcker, Michael Bloomberg, and Helmut Kohl. It is difficult to find anything like the Academy anywhere else. The world is full of conferences, think tanks, institutes of advanced study, and state-sponsored cultural centers like Maison de France and the Goe- Birth of an Institution: The 1998 board meeting at the Hotel Adlon. Among the attendees: Stephen and Anna Maria Kellen, Richard C. Holbrooke, Henry Kissinger, and Richard von Weizsäcker. Photo: American Academy the-Institut. The Hans Arnhold Center is all of the above, and yet more. It does generate research, public lectures, seminars, and master classes in music, but it also engages the world by drawing it in. The place is "elitist," but not for the elite. It is open to each and all, and they come from all over Germany to listen, learn, and debate. Think of yesteryear's Berlin salons, but without the barriers of birth and riches. It is a fitting memorial to founder Richard Holbrooke, that doer and thinker, who died in 2010. — The author is publisher of the German weekly Die Zeit and a trustee of the American Academy in Berlin Deutsche Bank db.com Only a strong bank can lead the way. In todays challenging markets Deutsche Bank is a benchmark for stability and performance. 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The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you might not get back the amount originally invested at any point in time. © Copyright Deutsche Bank 2012. 44001_DB_ANZ_BRUECKE_240x370_ENGL.indd 1 07.09.12 09:06 American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_4 Towards a Global Atlantic The 2012 Presidential election has been fraught with ideological division. But American capacity to lead the globalized world in addressing common security, economic, and leadership challenges is ascendant and necessary By John C. Kornblum Rarely has an election campaign in the United States been as confrontational as the race for the Presidency in 2012. One needs to go back as far as the late 1960s to recall an election so filled with anger and personal attacks as the vote to be held on November 6. And there is good reason for this. As is the case today, the 1968 campaign fell in the midst of a deep social and political confrontation. Foreign policy played only a secondary role in the debate. But tempers were raised because of the war in Vietnam. Forty-four years later, the United States is again experiencing generational conflict and is burdened by the legacy of terrible wars. Only this time it is the older generation which is revolting against the perceived failures of leaders a generation younger than they are. Again, foreign policy plays a secondary role, but as in 1968, the reaction against foreign commitments is strong. Such a situation is confusing and perhaps unnerving for America's allies and those who wish for American leadership. But the experience of the last round of internal conflict and foreign entrenchment does not give did not recover until the mid-1980s. There was no confidence in our ability to take on new challenges. But it was America and not Germany which led the road into the future. The rebirth of American influence came through the uncanny ability of American society to find creative solutions to new problems. It was the products of American society that led to a growing global role, not the strength of our diplomacy or military forces. Despite his weak reputation today, Jimmy Carter was in the forefront of exploring the issues that would be important in the future. Human rights, values, relations among ethnic communities, and care for the developing world were all themes he added to the foreign policy agenda. Carter's proposals for limits on sales of conventional arms are just beginning to find acceptance 35 years later. Carter also pushed establishment of the Helsinki Final Act as a charter for relations among nations. He pushed for acceptance of the principle that a country's treatment of its citizens within its borders was a legitimate matter of international concern. These principles serve us well to this day. It is also forgotten that it was Carter who pushed through the dual-track decision on intermediate-range missiles that drew the Soviets into the last big military confrontation of the Cold War period. Without American and German firmness on this issue, there would have been no reunification. Remembering Carter is useful, because he demonstrateshowevenso-calledweakpresidents can innovate by using the strengths of American society. American society producesasortofspontaneouscombustionthatarises from within its national life. Through a unique mixture of American hard and soft power, both friends and opponents of America are drawn together almost randomly and subjected to American influence. The unique mixture of peoples and cultures that defines the American narrative so- US military strength didn’t recover until the mid-1980s Who can forget Obama’s stirring speech in Berlin? reasonfordespair.Infact,Americanself-confidencerecoveredrelativelyfast asthe1970s wore on. By the time of the Reagan Administration in 1981, things had progressed to the pointwherefearofAmericanstrengthhadreplaced worries over its weakness. If history is going to be of any assistance this time, it will be important to remember the foundations of American influence in those years and to compare them with the tools at our disposal this time around. First, it is important to remember that neither economic strength nor military readiness were the reasons for the recovery of American influence. The economic problems of the 1970s were if anything greater than the difficulties of today. Germany was a pillar of stability in the 1970s and a weakened America looked to it, unsuccessfully, for support. Despite several military challenges, American military strength really mehow repeatedly stakes out new directions. The most recent example? Barack Hussein Obama. If this is the case, where should we look for those special American recipes for the future? Here is a short list of areas where I think America will again show its capacity to lead: -- Global America: As in the past, the United States remains the magnet for talent from all over the world. America is a breeding ground for ideas. By 2040, our population will no longer have a European majority. We are drawing people from the new, dynamic regions as fast as we can. -- Military America: In contrast to the 1970s, America's military forces are stronger than ever and more powerful than those of the rest of the world put together. Size, of course, does not mean wisdom. But the strength to keep order will be there. -- Innovative America: In 1980, experts werebemoaningthedeclineofAmericaneconomic strength in the face of Japanese central planning just as they are comparing us poorly withtheChinesetoday.ButjustasApplebecomes the most valuable company of all time, and as biotech research migrates from Eu- There is only one winner. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in a head-to-head race. The future of the US foreign policy is of great interest to Europe. Photos: AFP (2), Reuters 5_September_14_2012_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2012 rope to the United States, and as green-technology companies are returning to America from China, we can see that the special mixture of stability and freedom that characterizes American society has not ceased to function. The successors of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are undoubtedly already at work. -- Leadership America: Who can forget Barack Obama's stirring speech in Berlin four years ago? There is something in American society that focuses on tasks and getting the job done. Winston Churchill once said that Americans have the self-confidence to try many solutions to a problem be- MEET THE VISIONARY WHO IS HAPPY WITH NOTHING. 100% RECYCLING OF PRODUCTION WASTE. ITS WHATS NEXT FOR US. Walking through the assembly shop, Lisa Pirwitz is pleased with little. Every empty bin of non-recyclable waste is a success for her. Together with her Green-Team, she set a goal to recycle all assembly production waste at the BMW plant in Spartanburg by 2012. Lisa is convinced this project will be successful if every employee recognizes its value. She also knows that a small creative idea can make a big difference. To pique peoples interest in her project, Lisa recently enlisted the help of two unusual spokespeople: a pair of hand puppets made of production waste. They were a big hit and helped raise awareness at the same time. The BMW Group is the worlds most sustainable car company for the seventh consecutive year. Find out more about the Dow Jones Sustainability Index sector leader at www.bmwgroup.com/whatsnext fore finding one that works. This talent has not been lost. But there are many new challenges to American leadership today that did not exist in 1980. What should Allies do to make sure this leadership serves their purposes as well? Let's get down to basics: The Atlantic Alliance provides a world-class economic power such as Germany with global protection at an affordable price, which cannot be found elsewhere. With Europe becoming increasingly fragmented, only a strengthened transatlantic community can offer Germany the means both to meet competition from emerging industrial powers and to deal with the dangers of regional conflicts. Europe's great advantage over other parts of the world is its role as the home of Western values. In the multi-polar, networked world of the future, only the open, flexible Western system of social organization will be able to manage the complex new structures which will emerge. But these skills can only be utilized together with America and not in opposition, which has been the case so often in the past. As global networks expand, Europe's centralgeographicposition,highlydevelopedinfrastructure, and commercial skills should enableittohelpleadtheAtlanticworldtogrowing influence across the globe. First on the agenda should be building such a global Atlantic. The eminent German management consultant Hermann Simon has defined this new sort of community: "Transatlantica." Building Transatlantica rather than deepening the European Union is the real mission for Europeans in the 21st century. It can be the foundation for global political as well as economic influence. Above all, it can help ensure that Western values form the operating system of the vast new high-speed networks which are being expanded every day. — The author is a former US ambassador to Germany and a trustee of the American Academy in Berlin American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_6 Good in principle: A financial system that actually works serves the development of innovation in society — not just itself. Photo: Reuters self. Once an objective has been specified — such as payment for a college education, a couple's comfortable retirement, the opening of a restaurant, the addition of a new wing on a hospital, the creation of a social security system, or a trip to the moon — the parties involved need the right financial tools, and often expert guidance, to help achieve the goal. In this sense, finance is analogous to engineering. It is a curious and generally overlooked fact that the very word finance actually derives from a classical Latin term for "goal." The dictionary tells us that the word derives from the classical Latin word finis, which is usually translated as end or completion. One dictionary notes that finis developed into the word finance since one aspect of finance is the completion, or repayment, of debts. But it is convenient for our purposes to recall that finis, even in ancient times, was also used to mean "goal," as with the modern English word end. Most people define finance more narrowly. Yet financing an activity really is crea- If finance succeeds for all of us, it helps to build a good society Finance and the Good Society Finance should be defined not merely as the manipulation of money or the management of risk. We need to envision new ways to rechannel financial creativity to benefit society as a whole. By Robert J. Shiller Debates about capitalism and the good society, from Karl Marx's incendiary criticisms in the nineteenth century through Milton Friedman's spirited defenses of free markets in the twentieth, have tended to center on industrial capitalism: the system of production, banking, and trade that shaped modern society up through the end of World War II. But the past several decades have witnessed the rise of financial capitalism: a system in which finance, once the handmaiden of industry, has taken the lead as the engine driving capitalism. The current severe financial crisis has called forth questions not only about the system's parts but also about financial capitalism as a whole. This crisis — dubbed by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff as the "Second Great Contraction," a period of weakened economies around the world starting in 2007 but continuing for years after, mirro- ring the Great Contraction that followed the financial crisis of 1929 — has led to angry rejections of the value of financial capitalism. Given this experience, many wonder, What is the role of finance in the good society? How can finance, as a science, a practice, and a source of economic innovation, be used to advance the goals of the good society? How can finance promote freedom, prosperity, equality, and economic security? How can we democratize finance, so as to make it work better for all of us? At its broadest level, finance is the science of goal architecture — of the structuring of the economic arrangements necessary to achieve a set of goals and of the stewardship of the assets needed for that achievement. The goals may be those of households, small businesses, corporations, civic institutions, governments, and of society it- ting the architecture for reaching a goal — and providing stewardship to protect and preserve the assets needed for the achievement and maintenance of that goal. The goals served by finance originate within us. They reflect our interests in careers, hopes for our families, ambitions for our businesses, aspirations for our culture, and ideals for our society; finance in and of itself does not tell us what the goals should be. Finance does not embody a goal. Finance is not about "making money" per se. It is a "functional" science in that it exists to support other goals — those of the society. The better aligned a society's financial institutions are with its goals and ideals, the stronger and more successful the society will be. If its mechanisms fail, finance has the power to subvert such goals, as it did in the subprime mortgage market of the past decade. But if it is functioning properly it has a unique potential to promote great levels of prosperity. The attainment of significant goals and the stewardship of the assets needed for their achievement almost always require the cooperation of many people. Those people have to pool their information appropriately. They must ensure that everyone's incentives are aligned. Imagine the development of a new laboratory, the funding of a medical research project, the building of a new university, or the construction of a new city subway system. Finance provides structure to these and other enterprises and institutions throughout society. If finance succeeds for all of us, it helps to build a good society. The better we understand this point, the better we will grasp the need for ongoing financial innovation. — Excerpt from: Finance and the Good Society (Princeton University Press, 2012). The author is Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics at Yale University; Professor of Finance and Fellow at the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management; and the fall 2012 Allianz Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin 7_September_14_2012_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2012 Corporate shovelling for scarce resources: Two managers from the Indian company Karuti inspect the corn yield at their plant in central Ethiopia. Photo: Reuters By David Bollier Commons Future The commons provide a new way to manage resources and create value, and to nurture our social commitments to each other. that is often called "market enclosure." Enclosures enshrine price as the ultimate measure of value, trumping more qualitative, intangible values that may be ecological, social, or long-term. For example, global investors are now seizing millions of hectares of farmland, pastures and waterways in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with the help of complicit governments. By the logic of the market, this is enormous progress be- cause it puts "wastelands" to productive use in the market and boosts Gross Domestic Product. But for the commoners involved, the market takeover of common lands is a simple act of dispossession. It also has devastating consequences for the natural environment. The logic of enclosure takes place in many different realms. It occurs, for example, when the Disney Company claims trademarks infolkcharacters or when biotechcompanies patent seeds that traditional peoples have shared for centuries. The language of the commons gives us a way to recognize the proper limits of market logic – and to recognize the highly generative powers of the commons. The commons is no "tragedy"; it is, rather, a different way of managing resources and creating value. It's time that we recognized these unheralded systems for stewarding our shared resources and nurturing our social commitments to each other. — The author is an activist, blogger, and independent scholar; co-founder and principal of the Commons Strategy Group; and a Bosch Public Policy Fellow Pfizer Deutschland GmbH Economists and politicians have long assumed that there are really only two sectors for governing things and "adding value" – the state and the market. Markets are seen as the vehicle for economic progress while the state deals with governance and everything else. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that there is another sector – the commons – that is at least as important to our lives and well-being. The commons consists of those many resources that we share – the atmosphere, water, public spaces, the Internet, scientific knowledge, cultural works, and much more – as well as the social systems and rule-sets that we use to manage them in fair, sustainable ways. For decades, the prevailing economic wisdom was that a commons inevitably results in the over-exploitation of the resource – a "tragedy of the commons," as popularized by biologist Garrett Hardin in a famous 1968 essay. The late Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom debunked this ideaover thecourse of decades.Shedocumented how self-organized commons can be effective and durable in managing farmland, fisheries,forests, irrigation water, and other resources. It has since become clear that the commons is also behind the success of open-source software, Wikipedia, academic research, blood banks, and community gardens. One of the great, unacknowledged problems of our time is that countless commons are now being converted into tradeable market commodities – a process Weil das Leben die größten Fragen stellt Das Leben steckt voller spannender Entdeckungen. Auch unsere Arbeit ist von der Suche nach neuen Erkenntnissen bestimmt. Seit mehr als 160 Jahren erforscht und entwickelt Pfizer innovative Präparate und Therapien – in allen medizinischen Disziplinen, mit weltweit mehr als 10.000 Forschern und viel Ausdauer. Denn die Entwicklung eines modernen Medikaments dauert bis zu 15 Jahre. Wir sorgen dafür, dass auch bewährte Medikamente und Arzneimittel noch besser werden, indem sie beispielsweise gezielter wirken oder sich besser dosieren lassen. Auch unsere erfolgreichen Apothekenmarken entwickeln wir kontinuierlich weiter. So arbeiten wir jeden Tag an der Verwirklichung unserer Vision. Gemeinsam für eine gesündere Welt. www.pfizer.de American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_8 WILLIAM CORDOVA Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in the Visual Arts. Aging, disparity, and dislocation - the oevre of the New Yorkbased artist is closely linked to these phenomena that shape the visual appearance of everyday life in contemporary American cities. Junk cars, flat tires, yellowed books – William Cordova employs them as material as well as iconographic statements. His agenda for Berlin? A proposed project entitled "Materiality and Immateriality of perception: el eco del bolex de nicolas guillen landrian" hints at an engagement with the renowned Cuban painter and filmmaker. DONALD L. HOROWITZ Siemens Fellow. The complex research of the legal scholar and political scientist from Duke University is probably best summarized as questions: How can we establish a stable democracy, human rights, and peace in societies riveted by ethnic conflicts? Can a set of instruments be assembled to put such countries on a road to recovery? Which institutions are necessary for this task? And what local conditions need to be accounted for with these "prescriptions"? In Berlin, Horowitz aspires to answer these questions through detailed case studies from Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Bosnia, and Fiji. THE S W O L L FE welcom y m e d a c rican A rlin Prize fello e m A e Th f its Be ring 2013 ter o s t n e i 24 recip fall 2012 and sp ts, policy ex for the , writers, artis poser scholars and one com SABA MAHMOOD Axel Springer Fellow. Does Saba Mahmood know that this summer Germany witnessed a fervid discussion about a topic central to her current research? Perhaps Mahmood will offer a solution to the German circumcision debate through her work on the limits and promises of the right to religious liberty — especially during moments of social change and the interaction with other fundamental rights, such as the right to physical integrity. The anthropologist from the University of California at Berkeley will surely come equipped with many interesting ideas for her host country. Her earlier work is on the conflict between Islam and feminism, as well as between free speech and religious sensitivities. JOAN ACOCELLA Holtzbrinck Fellow. Dance will not be the reason for the New Yorker dance critic's stay in Berlin. Joan Acocella covers a broader spectrum: In 1992 she received a Front-Page Award for her essay about the one-sided contemporary reception of the author Willa Cather, which she later expanded into the book Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism. Numerous publications followed, often tracing the relations between artistic and public life worlds — as does her latest publication, Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints, which explores the shared values of exceptional artists. Her current project is tentatively entitled "Crime and Punishment," which focuses on artistic approaches to the so-called "bad guys." Essays about Judas Iscariot and Dracula have already been written. In Berlin, Acocella will devote herself to the TV series The Sopranos. PETER CONSTANTINE Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow. An American traveling to Berlin to translate a Russian author into English; this makes sense when you consider that the "50 New Stories" by Mikhail Bulgakov were first published in a German magazine. Without doubt the translator Peter Constantine will do an excellent job: His translations of Sophocles, Gogol, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky have received extraordinary accolades, including, in 2007, the Helen-und-Kurt-Wolff Translator's Prize for his translation of Benjamin Lebert's "Der Vogel ist Rabe." Fotos: American Academy, private 9_September_14_2012_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2012 HEATHER MCGOWAN Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Fiction. Her first novel, Schooling (2001), made it into Peter Boxall's list "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." In Berlin, she will work on her third novel, entitled The Black Paintings. It will break with its predecessors by abandoning the perspective of the individual and immerse itself in the middle of a group interconnected through the illegal trade of cultural property. What remains, perhaps even more pronounced than before, is her passion for the art of narration, the constant meta-reflection about one's own actions. DANIEL ALBRIGHT Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow in History. His stay in Berlin will be used for nothing less than his lifetime's work: While Ernst Bernbaum from Harvard University opened the field for the study of Comapartive Arts in various publications, Daniel Albright is set to advance the field through a groundbreaking new book exploring the interplay between architecture and music, among others, by discussing Karl Friedrich Schinkel's Schauspielhaus of 1821. S mes owship rm s — xperts, SUSIE LINFIELD Holtzbrinck Fellow. Today, "Zionism" is perhaps the dirtiest word in left-wing discourse, writes the director of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program at New York University in the description of her project "Israel and the Left." But how exactly did this repudiation come about? Linfield wants to break with the model that focuses solely on Israel's aggression against the Palestinians since the late 1960s, and rather look at what kind of developments within the Left have lead to the discrediting of Zionism. SINAN ANTOON Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow. An "unlikely encounter" is what the Islamic scholar and political scientist calls his current project, a monograph entitled "Before the Ruins: When Darwish met Benjamin," a subtle conversation between two unlikely interlocutors — on one side, Walter Benjamin, a German philosopher of Jewish descent; on the other, the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who passed away in 2008. Antoon's thesis: Benjaminian conceptions of time and history and how they are represented in literature characterize Darwish's poetry and can be traced through his works. J. M. BERNSTEIN John P. Birkelund Fellow in the Humanities. No one can deny that the abolition of torture is a milestone on the path towards a civilized society. But how did this hallmark decision occur? J. M. Bernstein, a philosopher at the New School for Social Research, will investigate that question in his project "Torture and Dignity." His thesis: The abolition of torture reflects a deeper ethical development that bestows the body with a different meaning: as belonging to an inviolable individual. This awareness illustrates first and foremost that pain has a meaning, transforming its deliberate causes it into immoral acts. RONALD SUNY RICHARD HAWKINS Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in the Visual Arts. During his stay in Berlin, the artist will spend much of his time in Kreuzberg because the collection of the Schwules Museum, located on Mehringdamm, is central to his project. Hawkins wants to investigate how gay artists have worked within a heteronormative (art) world, whether through re-contextualization of works in collages, or by their fetishization in sketchbooks. An essay and an exhibition, based on the collection at the Schwules Museum, will conclude his stay. German Transatlantic Program Fellow. In 2011, the director of the Eisenberg Institute of Historical Studies at the University of Michigan published the book A Question of Genocide, in which he dealt with the causes of the Armenian massacre. In Berlin, he will further investigate the "why" of this genocide. His point of departure: Instead of making singular national or religious conflicts responsible for the mass slaughter, Suny emphasizes a narrative of perceived threat, which made the annihilation of Armenians appear to Turks as a measure of rational self-protection. American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_10 DEAN MOYAR Dirk Ippen Fellow. Even though the subject of this Johns Hopkins University philosopher is highly abstract, his thesis is rather clear-cut: It is a "grave misconception" that Hegel assumes law to be the conscience of the public sphere. Moyar says that rather than laws transubstantiating the universal into each individual, Hegel's thought process focused on laws being tangential to the conscience itself. DANIEL TIFFANY Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow. The question to be investigated by the professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles cannot be answered plainly. What "kitsch" actually is remains highly controversial. Tiffany's work will illustrate the uniqueness of that concept in a more nuanced fashion, seeking out kitsch in places where poetry confines it to cliché and excludes it from the discourse. FRANCESCA TRIVELLATO Axel Springer Fellow. The interplay of symbolic and material changes; the history of Judeo-Christian relations — the historian from Yale University fuses these two fields. To understand how general attitudes towards the credit system in the 17th and 18th century changed, Trivellato wants to critically examine the legend that Jews in the Middle Ages invented capitalism. JONATHAN LAURENCE Daimler Fellow. The "German part" of a puzzle is the answer the political scientist at Boston College seeks to find in Berlin. He could succeed, since Laurence has identified the predominantly Muslim Turkey and Morocco – one a democracy, the other a constitutional monarchy – as role models subsequent the Arab Spring. A part of his research into these systems will derive from interviewing people who have emigrated from those countries to Germany and Berlin. THE S W O FELL endent p e d n i pursue esidence at s w o l l e F ile in r h w s t c e ademy c A proj n a c eri the Am THOMAS DACOSTA KAUFMANN Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow in History. The Frederick Marquand Professor of Art and Architecture at Princeton University is working toward an ambitious goal: Creating nothing less than an art history of the New World. While in Berlin he will work on exciting era — the 16th through the 18th centuries — when Europeans began to develop, in Kaufmann's words, "a network of exchange" that resulted in the "first globalization" of art. DAVID A. BOLLIER Bosch Public Policy Fellow. The Bosch Public Policy Fellow is an unusual Academy guest. As an author, activist, and co-founder of the Commons Strategy Group, Bollier is neither affiliated with a university nor with a professorship. Instead, he is a leading figure of the "Commons" movement dedicated to the collaborative development of open-source software. From Berlin he wants to cooperate closely with the key-figures of the peer European movement. Another goal: A paper on the movement's future as a model of a participatory "movement of movements" that promotes emancipatory concerns, such as ecology and social justice worldwide. Fotos: American Academy, private BÉATRICE LONGUENESSE Siemens Fellow. "I, Me, Mine: Back to Kant, and Back Again" — That is the title of the work the Silver Professor of Philosophy at New York University wants to work on while in Berlin. For the renowned Kant expert, it is about how self-awareness changes with the use of the indicative pronoun "I." That the "I" of the Kantian "I think" is something other than Freud's "I" under the "super-ego," is obvious. For everything else there will be Longuenesses's book. GENE A. COLEMAN Berlin Prize Fellow in Music Composition. During his stay, the Berlin Prize in Music Composition Fellow will compose in two different ways: First, he will devote himself to several works, among them a work for 24 voices and live electronics, commissioned by the renowned Crossing Choir of Philadelphia. Second, Coleman wants to broaden his Berlin network and reach out to a variety of artists, including the composer Oliver Schneller and the ensemble United Berlin. 11_September_14_2012_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2012 MICHAEL A. WACHTEL Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow. How did Wilhelmine Berlin influence the Russian avant-garde movement? The project of the Dean of the Slavic Institute at Princeton University could provide some insight. For the biography of Vyacheslav Ivanov, Wachtel follows the traces of the Symbolists, leading to his subject’s study of ancient history in in 1886 Berlin. CELINA SU Bosch Public Policy Fellow. What means are available to young people to advance their interests in society, and how can they be supported in doing so? These are two of the foremost concerns of the New York University political scientist. To be heard in a political discourse, young people, Su claims, must develop specific strategies. The extent to which youth-support differs in the EU from that in the US is one of the focal points of her work in Berlin. CHARLES HIRSCHKIND Fotos: American Academy, private HANS R. VAGET Berthold Leibinger Fellow. The book project undertaken by the Professor Emeritus for German Studies at Smith College during his time in Berlin is likely to cause a stir in Germany. Based on all currently available sources of Thomas Mann's American exile, Vaget's work will be the first in-depth study of Mann's relationship with President Roosevelt and the author’s efforts to bring America into the war. Exploring Life Bosch Public Policy Fellow. How do religious practices, technologies, and community influence each other? These questions are posed by the Berkeley cultural anthropologist in relation to communities in the Middle East and southern Europe. In Berlin, Hirschkind wants to illuminate the impact of Spain's Islamic past on the current Spanish debate over national identity in the face of immigration from Muslim countries. Fulfilling Dreams Seven billion people already live on our planet, and the number is growing by 220,000 every day. How can we provide food for more and more people without damaging the environment? How can we improve everyone’s health and prevent diseases? How can we develop new materials to help us conserve resources? To provide better answers to these questions, research is under way in Bayer's three subgroups: HealthCare, CropScience and MaterialScience. Fields in which Bayer is already a global leader – and whose importance to the future of humankind grows by the day. www.bayer.com American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_12 Wrong Signals Europe must strike a balance between respecting the religion of Muslims and Jews and expecting these groups to blend into the social fabric of societies in Europe. If this fails, the threat of radicalization looms By Jonathan Laurence The Cologne Court's decision to halt non-medical circumcisions earlier this summer marks a new low for religious freedom in 21st century Europe. It is the latest dip in a slippery slope that began with the condemnation of burkas and other forms of extremism but has landed squarely in the mainstream of religious practice. In January, Dutch MPs called Islamic headscarves "a symbol of oppression." Months later, the French Prime Minister suggested rethinking "ancestral traditions that are out of sync with the modern era," such as ritual animal slaughter. After the Cologne ruling, hospitals in Switzerland and Austria also suspended circumcisions. Last month, a Norwegian official proposed raising to fifteen the minimum age at which a boy may undergo the procedure – in direct contravention of Muslim and Jewish rite. Ironically, these debates have sharpened at the very moment when European countries, led by Germany, had begun to make space for its newest citizens'' "ancestral traditions" alongside their own. As in neighbo- Breaking fast after Ramadan. Muslims in Europe adjust their rituals. Instead of slaughtering animals, money is now donated to good causes. Even Christians are invited to the end of Ramadan. Photo: dapd Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe German authorities have assumed ownership of state-mosque relations Wann ist ein Geldinstitut gut für Deutschland? Wenn es nicht nur die Tore zu Berlins besten Museen öffnet. Sondern auch deren Vielfalt fördert. S Als größter nichtstaatlicher Kulturförderer wenden die Sparkassen jährlich über 150 Mio. € auf, um unter anderem die Qualität und die Vielfalt der deutschen Museumslandschaft zu stärken und bedeutende Institutionen wie die Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin zu unterstützen. Das ist gut für die Kultur und gut für Deutschland. www.gut-fuer-deutschland.de Sparkassen. Gut für Deutschland. ring countries, the German government realized it couldn't do without a legitimate administrative partner if it was to assure the same rights – and corresponding state oversight – enjoyed by other recognized religions practiced by German citizens. Before the establishment of state-mosque relations, expansion of religious rights for Muslims in Germany happened largely in the courts, an arduous and time-consuming process that took for granted an adversarial administration. Through institutions like the Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK), federal and local authorities have assumed ownership of state-mosque relations. To Chancellor Merkel's credit, the DIK is arguably Europe's most successful example of its kind. Its six years in existence have sent a strong signal to the real protagonists of religious integration under the constitution – local administrators – to engage and incorporate Islamic associations in their own cities and towns. As a result, for example, North-Rhine Westphalia implemented large-scale Islamic education in public schools, and Hamburg concluded an historic concordat with its Muslim communities. At this moment of generational change, however, public debate has not helped observant Muslims blend into their new institutional contexts. Politicians perpetuate commonplaces and manufacture debates, ranging from the claim Muslims engage in willful deceit, to accusations of child endangerment or animal torture. Far-right groups repeatedly taunt mosque-goers with the prophet cartoons that caricature Muhammad, someti- mes provoking major urban unrest. Questioning whether Islam "belongs" to Germany is nowhere near the same register as unerwünscht of the bad old days. Nor does it represent much progress in the decades since "Deutschland ist kein Einwanderungsland" or "Kinder statt Inder." These slogans contribute to the perception of a hostile state and society that Muslim minorities are being asked to "integrate" into with a smile. Despite the importance of robust debate to a well-functioning diverse society, the circumcision moratorium signifies a qualitatively different threat. Unlike the case of head coverings or halal meat, opposition isn't motivated by fears of conquest or the desire to consign religion to the "private sphere" (It's hard to think of a more discreet profession of faith.) Instead, the ban signals a frontal attack on the religion itself - and like the proposed restrictions on halal slaughter, it ensnares Jews as well. It is not unreasonable to assume that religious practices will continue to evolve as a function of place and circumstance, if the example of 19th century Judaism provides a glimpse of what to expect. Many Muslims in the West have started donating to charity instead of carrying out ritual slaughter at feast time. The sightings of the moon that set Ramadan's start and end are increasingly likely to rely on European measurements. European Muslims have begun theological doctorates at local universities, and imams have a greater familiarity with local languages and mores. Still, the implicit correlation between proposed religious reforms and social integration is tendentious: the real contest lies elsewhere, in schools and on the job market. Opponents to mainstream Islamic and Jewish practices often couch their intentions in laudable terms, mobilizing on behalf of free speech and women's or animal rights. However, they undermine religious rights guaranteed by the same constitution they brandish. This hardens positions and politicizes religious practices. Most damaging of all, they weaken the movement to synthesize "ancestral" and European state traditions embodied by the par- What’s to keep European Muslims from searching for an aggressive advocacy? ticipants of Islam councils like the DIK. This places religious leadership in the unenviable position between the "hammer" of the State and the "anvil" of Community. If current trends prevent them from delivering basic religious freedoms to their constituents, what's to keep European Muslims from searching elsewhere for a more aggressive brand of advocacy? " — Jonathan Laurence is Associate Professor of Political Science, Boston College; Nonresident Senior Fellow, Center on the US and Europe, Brookings Institution; and a Daimler Fellow. He is the author of The Emancipation of European Muslims (Princeton 2012) 13_September_14_2012_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2012 By Ronald Grigor Suny Fifteen years ago the idea of Armenian and Turkish historians sitting down together to discuss the traumatic last years of the Ottoman Empire would have been almost unthinkable. But with the emergence of a vibrant civilsociety in Turkey, and the courageous forays by individual Turkish scholars to investigate the fate of the Armenians, a fragile but sustained dialogue has emerged that moved beyond accusation and denial. Beginning in 2000, a group of scholars in America and Europe gathered in a series of workshops to talk about the reign of the Young Turks (1908-1918) and the massacres and deportations of the empire's Armenian and Assyrian subjects. Eventually the example of the Workshop on Armenian-Turkish Scholarship (WATS) encouraged Turkish scholars to undertake their own serious intervention into these difficult and deliberately obscured questions, and in 2005 they organized a conference at Bilgi University in Istanbul that came under attack from right-wing nationalists and members of the government. The papers from that conference have been published in Turkey, and the WATS group produced its own collection entitled A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire, which appeared earlier this year. This shifting group of Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, and other scholars, diverse in their backgrounds and historical training, over time developed a rough consensus about the causes and effects of the Young Turk policies in 1915. The evidence derived from original archival sour- Protests. Armenians in New York remember the genocide. Since 2005, Turkish, Armenians, and other international scholars have been researching this delicate topic. Photo: Polaris/laif A Question of Genocide International scholars point the way forward for finding a language in Turkey’s public sphere to finally discuss the Armenian genocide ces, letters, memoirs, and diplomatic and missionary reports overwhelmingly pointed to an effort by the Istanbul government to rid the besieged empire of a perceived threat to its existence by rendering the Armenians in particular, but also to some degree Assyrians, Greeks, and other Christian populations, politically and culturally impotent. The scholars in WATS agreed that deportations and mass killings had occurred; that they had been ordered, organized, and carried out by the Young Turks and their agents; and that the target of these brutal policies had been defined ethnoreligious groups. Whether one is willing to call the events of 1915 a genocide or not often depends more on politics and ethnic affiliation than on examination of the empirical evidence. But if one reads what scholars have found, if one accepts that all this happened, what other word than genocide would be appropriate? — The author is Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan, and a German Transatlantic Program Fellow Together we drive your business Telefónica Germany and its O2 brand are strong international partners to all their business clients. With innovative solutions we support companies of all sizes and across all sectors, and set the pace for all the communication needs of tomorrow. Find out more about our service-oriented communication solutions at: o2business.de/kompetenz is a Telefónica brand Volvo Ocean Race participant American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_14 The American Academy in Berlin is funded almost entirely by private donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations. We depend on the generosity of a widening circle of friends on both sides of the Atlantic and wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to those who support us. This list documents the contributions made to the American Academy from August 2011 to September 2012. Endowment Giving Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship in the Visual Arts: Axa Art Versicherung AG, Deutsche Börse AG, Andrea Lawrence & Jaroslav Marak, Mary Ellen von Schacky-Schultz & Bernd Schultz, Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH (Berlin) Marcus Bierich Distinguished Visitorship: Robert Bierich, Deutsche Bank AG, Stephanie & Martin Korbmacher, Hellmut Kruse, The Mallinckrodt Foundation, Nina von Maltzahn, Mary Ellen von Schacky-Schultz & Bernd Schultz, Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH (Berlin), Ulrich Weiss Fellowships and Distinguished Visitorships Established in Perpetuity John P. Birkelund Berlin Prize of the Humanities; Daimler Berlin Prize; German Transatlantic Program Berlin Prize: supported by European Recovery Program funds granted through the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany; Nina Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize in History; Mary Ellen von der Heyden Berlin Prize in Fiction; Holtzbrinck Berlin Prize; Dirk Ippen Berlin Prize (in course of endowment); Guna S. Mundheim Berlin Prize in the Visual Arts; Lloyd Cutler Distinguished Visitorship; EADS Distinguished Visitorship ; Marina Kellen French Distinguished Visitorship for Persons with Outstanding Accomplishment in the Cultural World; Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Visitorship ; Stephen M. Kellen Distinguished Visitorship; Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitorship; Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitorship Individuals and Family Foundations Founders' Circle: $1 million and above Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation and the descendants of Hans and Ludmilla Arnhold Annually Funded Fellowships and Distinguished Visitorships Bosch Berlin Prize in Public Policy; Ellen Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize; Anna-Maria Kellen Berlin Prize; Berthold Leibinger Berlin Prize; Metro Berlin Prize; Siemens Berlin Prize; Axel Springer Berlin Prize; Allianz Distinguished Visitorship Chairman's Circle: $ 25,000 and above Marina Kellen French; Werner Gegenbauer; Richard K. Goeltz; C. Boyden Gray; Helga & Erivan Haub; Mercedes & A. Michael Hoffman; Richard C. Holbrooke in Memoriam: Stefan von Holtzbrinck; Michael Klein; Nina & Lothar von Maltzahn; Maren Otto; Mary Ellen von Schacky-Schultz & Bernd Schultz; Kurt F. Viermetz Trustees' Circle: $ 10,000 and above Constance & John P. Birkelund; Almut & Hans-Michael Giesen; Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung im Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft; Christopher Freiherr von Oppenheim; Philipp von Randow; Barbara & Jörg Zumbaum Patrons: $2,500 and above Robert Z. Aliber, Volker Booten, Gahl Hodges Burt, Norma Drimmer, Jutta von Falkenhausen & Thomas von Aubel, Julie Finley, Caroline & Cord-Georg Hasselmann, Lily & Klaus Heiliger, Erika & Jan Hummel, August J. P. von Joest, Henry A. Kissinger, Martin Koeh- Friends, Foundations, and Corporations ler, Jutta & Hans-Joachim Prieß, Si & Dieter Rosenkranz, Hannes Schneider, Bernhard Speyer, Katharina & Wolf Spieth, Gesa B. & Klaus D. Vogt, Elaine & James D. Wolfensohn, Loretta Würtenberger & Daniel Tümpel Friends: Up to $2,500 Johannes Altincioglu, American International Yacht Club Berlin, Anonymous, Barbara Balaj, Ronald C. Binks, Manfred Bischoff, Elaine & Michael D. Blechman, Marie Eleonore & Leopold Bill von Bredow, Diethart Breipohl, Eckhard Bremer, Irene Bringmann, Emily Freeman Brown & Samuel Adler, Stephen B. Burbank, Caroline Walker Bynum, Georg Crezelius, Barbara & David Detjen, Astrid & Detlef Diederichs, Margrit & Steven Disman, Walter A. Eberstadt, Elizabeth & Jean-Marie Eveillard, Erika Falkenreck, Sue & Peter J. Filkins, Bärbel & Ulrich Gensch, Marie Louise Gericke, Michael E. Geyer, Clare R. & Vartan Gregorian, Jan Groscurth, Nancy & Mark Gruett, Donald Hagan, Marisa & Carl H. Hahn, Cristine & Benjamin Heineman, Christine & Ulrich von Heinz, Brigitte & Bernd Hellthaler, The Hermes Foundation, Roe Jasen, Isabel & Peter von Jena, KfW Bankengruppe, Jan Tibor Lelley, Ellen Levy & Gregg Horowitz, Michael Libal, Nina & Daniel Libeskind, John Lipsky, Quincy Liu, Macy's, Charles Maier, Rona & Harvey Malofsky, Beate & Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Stephanie Moeller, Jan-Daniel Neumann, Kathryn & Peter Nixdorff, Wolfram Nolte, Albert J. Rädler, Susan Rambow, Christa Freifrau & Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen, Alison & Jeffrey A. Rosenberg, Irene J. & Frank E. Salerno, Henry Sapparth, Volker Schlöndorff, Harald Schmid, Björn Schmidt, Peter Schwicht, Kenneth Scott, Michael Sovern, Manfred von Sperber, Wiete & Hans-Jürgen Spiller, Victor Stimming, Christian Tomuschat, Verband der Automobilindustrie e.V., Lutz Weisser, Linda and Tod White Charitable Fund, Margaret & Hayden White, Sabine & Edwin Wiley, Jill J. & Roger M. Witten, Pauline Yu Corporations and Corporate Foundations President's Circle: $25,000 and above Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BASF SE; Bertelsmann AG; Robert Bosch GmbH; Robert Bosch Stiftung; Daimler AG; Wir geben Ihren Ideen eine Perspektive. Sie haben die Idee und den Plan. Um Ihren Ideen eine Perspektive zu geben, unterstützen wir Sie mit Beratung und Finanzierungsangeboten. Sie sind der Unternehmer – wir sind die Förderbank in Berlin. www.ibb.de Daimler-Fonds im Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft; Deutsche Lufthansa AG; Deutsche Telekom AG; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; LLP; GE; GIESEN HEIDBRINK Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten; GÖRG Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten; Fritz Henkel Stiftung; Hewlett-Packard GmbH; JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.; KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft; Liberty Global B.V.; Marsh GmbH; MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH; Pfizer Pharma GmbH; Porsche AG; Susanna Dulkinys and Erik Spiekermann, Edenspiekermann; Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG; Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH, Berlin; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; White & Case LLP Benefactors: Up to $25,000 Audi AG, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Cerberus Deutschland GmbH, Deutsche Bundesbank, Dürr AG, Dussmann Stiftung & Co. KGaA, Fleishman-Hillard Germany / Public Affairs & Gov. Relations, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac GmbH, Google Germany GmbH, Investitionsbank Berlin, Berthold Leibinger Stiftung, Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft 15_September_14_2012_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2012 Academy Guests Each semester, leading Americans from the worlds of foreign policy, culture, and economics visit the Academy. Herewith, the 2012 – 2013 invitees. Distinguished Guests. Jean-Claude Trichet and Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Photo: Hans Glave Visitor Paul Volcker at Schloss Bellevue in 2010. From the start, the Academy’s founders envisioned a vigorous guest speaker program bringing leading Americans for shorter visits to Berlin. September has already witnessed a number of outstanding appearances, beginning with the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams in discussion with the Academy's Dean of Fellows and Programs, Pamela Rosenberg; Frank Stella, one of the last living heroes of American painting on, the occasion of the exhibition “Frank Stella - The Retrospective. Works 1958 2012” at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; and writer and Academy alumnus Nathan Englander presenting the German release of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, published by Luchterhand Literaturverlag. Coming up are visits by the Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitor Avishai Margalit, an innovative thinker and moral philosopher who will shed light upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab Spring on September 24, and by the renown photographer Dominique Nabokov, who will spend a number of weeks working on a new project at the Academy as the Marina Kellen French Distinguished Visitor for Persons with Outstanding Accomplishment in the Cultural World. On October 1, Vartan Gregorian, an Academy trustee and president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will deliver the Stephen M. Kellen lecture on the history of the Carnegie Corporation and reflect on the foundations and continuing significance of American philanthropy. On October 11, Richard Sieburth, Professor of French and Comparative Literature at New York University, talks about Baudelaire's late style. On October 24, Ahmed Rashid, one of the most prominent journalists reporting on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Islamic extremism, presents his new book On the Brink: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the West – An Update, published by Weltkiosk. And from October 26 to October 28 the Academy will co-host a symposium in honor of Academy alumnus and professor emeritus of law at the University of Notre Dame Donald Kommers with "Recht im Kontext" at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. In November, one of the world’s leading economic thinkers, Robert J. Shiller of Yale University, will return to the Academy as the Allianz Distinguished Visitor to present his most recent book, Finance and the Good Society, published in German by Campus Verlag. Looking ahead to spring 2013, a number of distinguished guests have been lined up: the Washington Post journalist David Ignatius; former Canadian politician and foreign policy expert Michael Ignatieff (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Visitor); the director of the Pederson Institute for International Economics, Fred Bergsten (Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitor); and Academy alumnus Adam Posen (Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitor), who will become President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics on January 1, 2013. As with all programs at the American Academy, guest lectures at the Hans Arnhold Center are generally open to the public and available as livestreams. To register with us, please visit our website, www.americanacademy.de, or call +49 30 80483 0. Invested in America Airbus and its fellow EADS companies already invest more than $14 billion in the U.S. aerospace industry each year, and we’re just getting started. Now, Airbus is making our most significant U.S. aerospace investment yet: establishing a new world-class manufacturing center in Mobile, Alabama. It will create thousands of new jobs in America and boost the U.S. economy. At the same time, it will expand our partnerships with hundreds of suppliers and strengthen the next generation of aerospace right here in America. When it comes to American aerospace manufacturing, we are fully invested. www.airbus.com American Academy 2012_Der Tagesspiegel_September_14_2012_16 Seeking a Bridge An auction featuring celebrated artists will help fund the Academy’s Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship this November Late Work. Max Beckmann painted „The Argonauts“ in 1949-1950 while in exile in the United States of America, a nation that filled him with admiration. He died there on December 27, 1950. Photo: bpk / Hermann Buresch, (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012 Thomas Demand's "Presidency VI" (2008) features an eerily empty, blithely elegant Oval Office, the door alluringly ajar, tempting us to trespass. In "Five Series of Repetitions," (1986) Xu Bing's woodblock prints present a lush rice field that succumbs to blank space in subsequent prints, a quiet ode to erasure, both artistic and seasonal. These are just two of the artworks on offer at an upcoming auction on November 29, 2012, to be held pro bono by Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH as part of their international fall contemporary auction, in order to raise support for the Academy's Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship. In addition to the two pieces mentioned above, artworks from the following artists have been generously pledged: Richard Artschwager, Georg Baselitz, Max Beckmann, André Butzer, Francesco Clemente, George Condo, Aaron Curry, Tacita Dean, Jenny Holzer, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Barry Le Va, Julie Mehretu, Matt Mullican, Alice Neel, Raymond Pettibon, Paul Pfeiffer, Anselm Reyle, James Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Günther Uecker, and Micha Ullman. "What I want to show in my work is the idea which hides itself behind so-called reality," Max Beckmann once said of his own artistic process. "I am seeking the bridge thatleans fromthe visible to the invisiblethrough reality. It may sound paradoxical, but it is in fact reality which forms the mystery of our existence." The Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship aims to encourage this exploration in contemporary artists by reflecting two important commitments in Beckmann's late career: his admiration for the United States and his deep enjoyment of teaching. Through the Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship, outstanding US-based artists will be sponsored to come to Berlin to do the same. Recipients of the award will work with a group of German students of fine arts, philosophy, and the humanities, in the form of a master class, which will include studio visits, professional critiques, and informal meetings. The students will have an immediate, first-hand understanding of the artist's particular way of seeing and thinking, while the artist will get a unique chance to interact with a select group of emerging German Recipients will work closely with students and museums arts stakeholders and to reflect upon their perceptions. A second goal, inspired by the longstanding "Artist's Choice" series, will have the artist curate a cabinet exhibition in two rooms drawn from, and in dialogue with, the collections of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, including the Bode Museum, Pergamon Museum, and Gemäldegalerie, as well as the Hamburger Bahnhof and Neue Nationalgalerie. By selecting, juxtaposing, and commenting on objects from the museum's archives, the artist not only creates a personal art historical narrative, but also challenges the way these objects are traditionally viewed and categorized. Brittani Sonnenberg Wir bringen Wichtiges auf den Punkt. Weltweit. Wir bringen Wichtiges auf den Punkt. Seit 2004 berichten die unabhängigen Zeitungen der TIMES MEDIA Group kontinuierlich über Hintergründe aus deutscher Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur. Eine internationale Leserschaft schätzt diese englischsprachigen Zeitungen aus Deutschland als wichtiges Informationsmedium. www.times-media.de