To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German Studies Department has received a grant from the German Embassy in Washington DC and is looking for creative submissions pertaining to the historic event. Submissions can include a poem, a 1000-word essay, a one-page cartoon, a digital story, or even a collage. The best three submissions will receive gift card prizes of $200, $100, and $50 respectively. Please submit all entries to Debbie Pozzetti in Fisk 401 by November 9 at 4:00PM.
If you have any questions, or would like to submit your work electronically, please contact Prof. Iris Bork-Goldfield
For more events about the Fall of the Wall, please visit the many talks on campus throughout the month.
Please join us for the first lecture in the German Department’s fall series on commemorating the 25th Year of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
This Wednesday, September 24 in FISK 210 at noon, Erik Grimmer –Solem will speak on “From Great War to Great Wall: The Fall of the Berlin Wall in Historical Perspective.”
This program offers two months at the German parliament for students who are fluent in German and possess outstanding academic records and personal integrity as well as sufficient knowledge of the German legislative process. Applicants must be advanced undergraduates or graduate students in fields such as political science, international relations, law, history, economics or German.
Leo Lensing’s review essay discussing a new biography of Ingeborg Bachmann, “Pillar of Fire. How to assess the ‘stations’ of Ingeborg Bachmann’s self-destructive life from childhood constant reader to modernist ‘Fräuleinwunder’,” is the cover article for the latest issue of The Times Literary Supplement (July 11, No. 5806, pp. 3-5).
In einem der wichtigsten Theater in Berlin spielte man vor kurzem ein neues Stück — Angst essen Seele auf. Es ist gut möglich, dass manche von euch diesen Titel erkennen. Das Maxim Gorki Theater hat einen von Rainer Werner Fassbinders beliebtesten Filmen (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) für die Bühne bearbeitet. Die Geschichte handelt von einem unwahrscheinlichen Paar–Emmi, einer älteren verwitweten deutschen Frau; und Ali, einem viel jüngeren marokkanischen Gastarbeiter. Die Aufführung war ganz erfolgreich. Das stärkste Element, das man der Geschichte hinzugefügt hat, war ein Erzähler in der Form eines amerikanischen, jüdischen, Jiddisch-sprechenden Klavier-Gitarre-Accordion-Spielers. Er hat die Stimmung der Geschichte ganz verändert. Was bei Fassbinder ein meist ruhiger und grüblerischer Film war, wurde hier in eine zeitlose Volksgeschichte umgesetzt. Durch diese Form der Darstellung bekam Ali nicht nur Geist, sondern auch viel Humor, und neben Emmi noch einen echten Freund in dem Musiker. Wenn man an diesen Film denkt, denkt man an die starke Inszenierung und die Farben der Bilder. Es gab diese schönen Elemente auch im Stück. Das beeindruckendste neue Element war der anhaltende Aschenregen. Er hat niemals aufgehört, wurden nur noch stärker. Am Ende gab es eine echte Wiese aus Aschen am Boden. Ich möchte keinen Spoiler geben und daher nur sagen, dass diese Änderungen einfach das Ende der Geschichte ändern mussten. Es gab im Stück keinen tragischen Epilog, sondern ein kurzes und (für uns, die den Film schon geguckt haben) verfrühtes Ende. Manchmal sind diese großen Änderungen etwas ärgerlich, aber nicht dieses Mal. Das etwas fröhlichere Ende des Theaterstücks war sinnvoll, erwünscht, und voll Sinn fürs Leben. Fassbinder wäre vielleicht nicht völlig zufrieden damit – wegen des viel positiveren Schlusses – aber wir können ihn natürlich nicht dazu fragen. Wenn Ihr Berlin in der Zukunft besucht, würde ich gerne dieses Stück und einen Besuch im Maxim Gorki Theater empfehlen.
Grace has been studying in Berlin since last fall with Duke/Wesleyan in Berlin.
Iris Bork-Goldfield’s documentary, We Wanted do Do Something! is now online. It is the story of her father and his friends who, in 1949-53, secretly wrote and distributed leaflets and other materials against the repressive Communist regime in the GDR. Several of his friends were imprisoned; eight of them were tried by a Soviet military tribunal in 1951, and executed a year later.
Iris Bork-Goldfield edited the film with Peter Cramer ’14. She had the support of the Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft, and Wesleyan University.
The film is also linked to the website of the Free University of Berlin.
Madeline Smith-Huemer ‘14, a double major in History and GRST, Oscar Takabvirwa ‘14, a double major in Mathematics and GRST, and Mari Jarris ‘14, a double major in COL and German Studies, gave short presentations about their theses.
Mari – Oscar – Maddy
“New Forum’s Third Way and German Grassroots Organization” is the title of Maddy’s thesis. She explores a political movement that arose during the fall of 1989 in communist East Germany. Amidst the chaos that was the decline of the SED regime, a grassroots organization named “New Forum” began to develop an alternative political program, which it called the Third Way. As can be inferred from the name, this Third Way was intended to be a solution to a problem of two extremes — one being the political oppression of the East German government and the other being the possibility of unification with West Germany. Instead, New Forum advocated for the internal reform of the GDR, which would be achieved through a predominantly apolitical strategy. Within the literature on East German opposition and German reunification, the concept of the Third Way has challenged countless historians, most of whom have chosen to analyze New Forum’s apolitical movement only in the context of the GDR. In order to better understand the apolitical Third Way, this thesis will employ two methods of historical analysis. First, the Third Way will be investigated through its defining features, that is, the central tenets of the alternative movement. Secondly, a historical approach, in which New Forum is related to other Third Way movements throughout German history, will seek to make sense of the greater meaning of public organization as it relates to German political identity.
Oscar introduced the audience to Stories in Transit: An Anthology of Texts by Exiles, Migrants and Émigrés, translated from the German with an introduction and conclusion.
The last 10 years of Oscar’s life have been filled with a lot of travelling and moving around the world. With every stop have come unique challenges: bureaucratic hurdles, language barriers, and the question of integration—whether to fit in, to stick out, or to position himself somewhere in between. His thesis project constitutes a response to those challenges: a collection of both fictional and non-fictional accounts of émigrés, migrants, and exiles at various stages of their journeys; organized around the themes of identity, bureaucracy and migration, and language.
Mari concluded the presentations with her thesis, “Theory, Empirics, Revolution: A Three-Dimensional Approach to Subverting Authority.”
Mari addresses the Frankfurt School’s interdisciplinary critique of authority in the 1930s through the 1970s. She analyzes the dialectical relationship among the Frankfurt School’s three methodological approaches that yield its “social philosophy”: philosophical critique, empirical research, and political practice. Mari explores the question of how economic, social, and political tendencies are internalized in individuals using the Frankfurt School’s social psychoanalytic concept of the “authoritarian character.”
Julian Thereisa, a double major in CSS and German Studies, with a certificate in International Relations, wrote a thesis for the CSS entitled, “Gentle as Jade: Perspectives Upon the Multiple Lives of Lou Tseng-Tsiang.”
Future plans of our GRST majors / minors, and prizes
Prof. Lensing presents Taylor Steele ’14 with a book prize for his accomplishments in German
Julius Bjornson ‘14, a Music and German Studies major received the Fulbright Teaching Assistantship Grant and will be teaching English at a German Gymnasium (high school) in Nordrhein Westphalen. “With his musical talent”, it would not surprise us if he formed a band and led it with his fiddle. He received the Blankenagel Prize for his outstanding work in German Studies.
Katherine Dean ‘14 received the Baden-Württemberg–CT Exchange grant.
Mari Jarris’14 received a Fulbright Grant and a DAAD Grant and decided to accept the DAAD Grant to continue her research on the Frankfurt School critique’s of Idealist philosophy at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin next year. She hopes to enroll simultaneously in a Master’s program in German literature. She received a scholarship to attend the Middlebury French Language School this summer, which will enable her to expand her study of German to Franco-German history and philosophy. Mari was awarded the Prentice Prize for her outstanding work in German Studies.
Elizabeth Lauffer ’07 received the Gutekunst Translation Prize administered by the Goethe-Institut.
Julian Thereisa ‘14 was awarded a Baden-Württemberg grant and was admitted to the Chinese Studies program at Oxford University and the Masters program in International History program at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Julian decided to go to Geneva, and he is looking forward to living and studying in Switzerland, a country he has never visited. While in Geneva, he aims to intern at an international organization or NGO to gain some work experience. He has been awarded the Joan Miller Prize for his outstanding CSS thesis and the Scott Prize for his accomplishments in German. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Maddy Smith-Huemer ’14 was awarded the Blankennagel Prize for her excellent work in German and the Robins Memorial Prize for excellence in History.
Oscar Takabvirwa ’14 Oscar started working for Argus Information and Advisory Service, a big data strategic consulting firm in Westchester County, in early June. He received the Blankennagel Prize for his excellent work in German. Oscar was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Here you see from left to right: Miranda Hayman, Eliza Loomis, Alumnus James Gardner, Angela Reiss, and Hein Jeong in café “Wohnzimmer,” their favorite one in Berlin. The four women are studying in Berlin with our Duke in Berlin program.Why Ming, Angela Reis, Miranda Haymon, and Eliza Loomis enjoying a day in May
![Julian Theseira photo[1]](http://german.site.wesleyan.edu/files/2014/06/Julian-Theseira-photo1.jpg)
