The Fall of the Wall as a Memory of Joy
Few countries have had to grapple with such a complex historical legacy as Germany. Among the many challenging issues arising from this past has the been the dynamic between appropriately …
Witness to History: An American in Berlin for the Fall of the Wall
I think often of the good luck I had in moving to West Berlin in September 1989. The dramatic events of the months ahead were to leave memories that greatly …
Inner Unity and Regional Diversity
The unification of the two German states in 1990 prompted expectations of harmonization in political culture and promises of equivalent living conditions. Almost three decades later, the revival of narratives …
On the Halle Synagogue Attacks
Everyone in the AICGS community grieves and condemns the right-radical, anti-Semitic terrorist incident that occurred on Yom Kippur, Wednesday, October 9, 2019, in the city of Halle. By now, the …
Migration and Integration in Germany: The First Two Decades of the Twenty-First Century
Issue Brief 60 Few issues in recent years have dominated public and political discourse inside and outside of Germany as migration and integration. The movement of millions of people into …
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Migration and Integration in Germany: The First Two Decades of the Twenty-First Century
Migration and integration have become dominant political topics in the United States and Germany. The German experience in 2015-2016 is often cited in the U.S. discourse on migration, but there …
Welcoming Places – Few and Far Between?
These days negative and at times dehumanizing rhetoric aimed at migrants—both legal and undocumented and of varying religious and ethnic make-up—are grabbing headlines around the globe. The trend to ignore …
Merve Schmitz-Vardar, Visiting Fellow
AICGS is pleased to welcome Merve Schmitz-Vardar as a Visiting Fellow at AICGS from August to October 2019. Ms. Schmitz-Vardar is a research and teaching assistant at the Chair of …
The Dehumanization of Immigrants and the Rise of the Extreme Right
The ascendance of the far right has jolted both American and European politics. It has undermined liberal democracy in Hungary and Poland, and threatens it throughout Europe. That ascendance depends …
The Dehumanization of Immigrants and the Rise of the Extreme Right
The ascendance of the far right has jolted both American and European politics. It has undermined liberal democracy in Hungary and Poland, and threatens it throughout Europe. That ascendance depends …
Trinitarian Politics in Germany: Impact of the State Elections in Brandenburg and Saxony
A lesser-known story in Christian history is how the concept of the Trinity of God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—was the subject of massive disagreement in the early years of the …
Episode 13: Elections Reveal New Trends in German Political Scene
Voters in two eastern states went to the polls on September 1, with perhaps surprising results: they kept their long-governing parties in place despite threats from the far right and …
The Mainstream Strikes Back with Victories in Saxony and Brandenburg, but the AfD Is Not Going Away
Voters in Brandenburg and Saxony today rendered judgments that reach well beyond the borders of two states that used to be part of the German Democratic Republic, as my colleague …
The 2019 Regional Elections in the East: Small States, Big Impact
On September 1, the eastern German states of Brandenburg and Saxony will elect new state parliaments (Landtage). Both are relatively small states with 2.5 million and 4 million people respectively …
