AGI

Society, Culture & Politics

The AGI Society, Culture & Politics Program focuses on crucial topics within the German-American dialogue, including: demographic change, migration/integration, and aging societies; electoral politics at the national, state, and European levels, and comparative analysis of Germany and the United States; diversity within Germany, Europe, and the United States; the politics of collective memory and identity, Holocaust remembrance and reconciliation, and shifting conceptions of national identity that shape perspectives and policy responses.
Reset

The Day the Berlin Wall Really Fell

Contrary to popular lore, the Berlin Wall did not fall on November 9, 1989. Nor did it fall in Berlin. It fell on October 9 some 120 miles away, in …

The Katyn Massacre: Half a Century of Lies and the Search for Truth

Borrowing institutionally from the German-Polish case, Polish-Russian reconciliation had been making small, tentative steps until the crisis in and over Ukraine. There is some effort to continue civil society interaction, …

Mars vs. Mercury: Germany, America, and the Global Order

Germany and America: Two Reluctant Pivotal Powers Germany and the United States rank as the two most influential and powerful Western liberal nations in a world challenged by the rise …

2009 and 2014: Reflections

Time flies.  I am struck by how recent the events of the twentieth anniversary of the Mauerfall feel.  A rainy, but magical, memory. At first blush, 2009 seems a more …

After the Wall: Survivors’ Expectations

There were many expectations when the Wall came down. Not least among them that Holocaust survivors living in Eastern Europe would finally receive payments from Germany for their suffering. But …

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November 1989

Like December 7, 1941, November 22, 1963, and September 11, 2001, November 9, 1989, is one of those dates remembered in freeze frame.  But it’s the rare exception that most …

Broken Berlin Wall, by Tom Block

Visitors to AGI may be familiar with Tom Block’s art installation, “Broken Berlin Wall.”  The artwork will continue to be on display for the 25th anniversary of the fall of …

The Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program

The Robert Bosch Foundation and Cultural Vistas invite US professionals to apply for the 2015-2016 Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program. Bosch Fellows work as consultants in their field of expertise …

Setting the Stage for a U.S.-German Partnership Befitting the Twenty-First Century

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama were right to pull the plug on the emotional debate over intelligence gathering and task their chiefs of staff, Peter Altmaier and Denis …

Der Fall Amerika, Manfred Henningsen

Amid the tensions between Germany and the United States over the NSA’s surveillance, worries arise about a growing wave of animosity among Germans toward America. The contrast with the early …

Muslims in Germany: A Post-Crisis Update

The rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe has been one the most of worrying trends in the wake of the euro crisis. Surprising gains by far-right and far-left parties in …

The Future Role of NATO: Reinventing the Alliance?

The discussion of the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the current international system is as old as the end of the Cold War–by now nearly 25 …