Cultures in Dialogue: Crossing External and Internal Borders
Itinerary: BERLIN, GERMANY May 10-17,2006

Coordinator: J. H. Shier

"Fremd ist der Fremde nur in der Fremde."
(“The foreigner is only foreign/strange in a foreign country.”)

-Karl Valentin, famous German cabaret artist from 1920s & 1930s
May 9 and 10: Arrival and check in (Circus Hostel)

May 10 (German Group) Explore the Berlin neighborhood ("Kiez") you've been "assigned." Write a reflection about your observations.

Berliner Ensemble performance of Andorra (Max Frisch)

May 11: Turkish Berlin (Arzu Demirkapi)

Morning: Meeting with Özcan Mutlu (Green Party representative) at Berlin Parliament House (Abgeordneten Haus): Turks in Germany today, 11-12

Afternoon: Sehitlik Moschee (Mosque visit) 14-16

Evening: Visit to the Paintings Gallery at the Kulturforum (free of charge 18-22) (U/Sbahn Potsdamer Platz) (Take S 1. 2. 25. 26 or U2);

Readings: Online Periodical on "German-Turks", see especially "The Hyphenated Germans: German-Turks" by Ayhan Kaya; please read also Jonker, "The Mevlana Mosque in Berlin Kreuzberg. . .." JEMS, Vol. 31, No. 6, Nov. 200 and Caglar: "Constraining Metaphors and the transnationalisation of spaces in Berlin". JEMGS, Vol. 27, No. 4, Oct. 2001..

May 12:

Morning: Türkische Gemeinde zu Berlin in Kreuzburg (Turkish Community Center of Berlin), Meet with Taciddin Yatkin (Community Leader and Expert on Immigrants' Rights in Germany) and Ms. Boldaz (Turkish Business Women's Association in Germany) 10-12

Afternoon: Visit to the Turkish Market at Maybach Ufer (12-14)

Walking tour of Berlin Mitte (Carol Scherer, RC Alum and Director, Lexia International) (9-12)

Evening: Jewish Museum Berlin (You will receive three-day passes to the State Collections, good for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)

Readings from Course Pack or on-site:(excerpts) Wolfgang Borchert, The Man Outside (New Directions, 1971); Wolfgang Schivelbusch, “The Prize,” in In a Cold Crater. Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945-1948 (Berkeley: U of California P, 1988).

May 13:

Morning: Market at Winterfeldtplatz or Museum visits

Afternoon: “Deadly Sciences” Walking Tour in Dahlem (Prof. Wolfgang Wippermann, Freie Universität Berlin) (15-17.30 or 18)

Readings (Course pack): Wolfgang Wippermann, “The persecution of the Jews,” “The Persecution of the Sinti and Roma,” and “The persecution of homosexuals,” in The Racial State. Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991); review Tipton, chaps. 10, 11 and 12, especially pp. 401-410, chap. 11 in its entirety, pp. 457-472, pp. 486-196 in A History of Modern Germany.

May 14: Museum Day)


May 15: Juden (Jews)in Berlin

Morning: Walking Tour of Jewish Berlin (Ronnie Golz) (9-11.30 a.m.)

Meet at 8.50, Sbahn Hackescher Markt, on the platform; finish at Centrum Judaicum with discussion

Reading: www.rgolz.de

Afternoon: Migration in Europe: Studio Visit with Mark Simon, photographer (14-16; meet at Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, icd, Greifswalderstr. 33a; tram stop Hufelandstr.)

May 16:

Morning: The Politics of Commemoration (Carol Scherer) (9-11)
Meet at 8.55, Ubahn Bayrischer Platz, on the platform; walking tour of two “countermonuments”

Readings: James Young, Memory, Counter-Memory,&the end of the monument; (from coursepack) Claudia Koonz, “Between Memory and Oblivion: Concentration Camps in German Memory,” in Commemorations. The Politics of National Identity, ed. John R. Gillis (Princeton, 1994); review Tipton, chaps. 13 and 15 in A History of Modern Germany, especially pp. 496-506, 521-524, 547-558, 600-614, 660-667.

We will transfer as a group to Potsdam; you will need to purchase and stamp your Anschluss ticket for zone C)

Afternoon: Absolutism and Architecture in Potsdam (Dr. Helmut Franz) (12-18)

Reading: Larry Silver, “Art in the Age of Absolutism” in Art in History.

May 17:

Afternoon: Berlin Architecture. Berlin as Old and New Capital of Germany (Cristiana da Silva, architect) (14-16)

Readings from Coursepack: Michael Wise, “Introduction,” “Master Plan for a Government District,” and “Choosing a Chancellery,” in Capital Dilemma: Germany's Search for a New Architecture of Democracy (New York: Princeton Architectural P, 1998)

:Evening: Program Wrap up & Group Reflection, Bergmannstrasse 123

May 18: Check out of Circus Hotel

Learn about the instructors

This site is maintained by Janet Hegman Shier. Last update:June10,2006