Taylor-Made Topics
Berlin and the Media
Suggested Seminar Topics
Put Yourself in the Picture: the Arts in Berlin
Prussia's Arcadia: Berlin, Potsdam and the Prussians
Berlin - the Mekka of 20th Century Architecture
Berlin wrote media history in the 20's with its newspaper tycoons and its radio and television stations. Actors like Marlene Dietrich and film directors such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and Erich von Stroheim made the Babelsberg film studios famous long before 'Hollywood' even existed! Then came the Nazis and people like film director Leni Riefenstahl furnished them with film propaganda that made cinema history.
Can Berlin link its glorious past with a magnificent future? Is Germany's capital going to be a focal point for new media technologies and their deployment?
Headlining Berlin: the Press
Transmitting Berlin:
the Film- and Television Centre
Berlin: Multimedia City
Take Berlin:
the New German Hollywood
Bookshelf Berlin:
the Capital Publishers
Berlin Online:
a Place on the Web
The Stage of Politics and History
Suggested Seminar Topics
The ups and downs of this century can be clearly seen in Berlin: the failure of the Weimar Republic, Nazi and Stalinist terror and dictatorship, the Cold War confrontation with the Berlin Wall and the road to freedom and unification in November 1989. At the end of the millennium the Bonn becomes the Berlin Republic and reflects both Germany's new foreign and domestic policies.
The seminars will take you to sites of the past, the present and the future. We'll meet witnesses of history and ask experts about the future.
The New Berlin Republic
Myth Berlin (revisited):
or Where Modern Times Began
As NATO Goes East:
the Future Role of the German Army
Can Metropolis Berlin Act as Heimat?
Crime in Berlin and New Ways to Combat It
Perspectives for Berlin in the 21st Century
Berlin's New Roll as Federal Capital
Berlin and the 20th Century in Retrospect
Berlin and the Germans:
a Difficult Relationship
Berlin and the two Dictatorships
Suggested Seminar Topics
Berlin was the capital of two dictatorships. It was the focal point of terror and genocide. There are still many visible reminders of this dark past.
How did both dictatorships work? Who were the perpetrators and their victims? How does Berlin treat the scars remaining in the people and the streets? Of central importance are the possibilities and limits of a comparison between Nazism and Stalinism.
Berlin and the Two Dictatorships:
Similar or the Same?
Berlin from Adolf Hitler Square to Stalin Boulevard:
Berlin under the Swastika
Berlin under Hammer and Sickle
The Ice-Cold War: Berlin and Germany between 1945 and 1989
Suggested Seminar Topics
The Cold War tore apart a whole continent with Germany and Berlin on the dividing line. Nowhere else in the World was a city so struck by political developments after 1945. West Berlin became a symbol of freedom and a showcase of wealth while East Berlin was a symbol of tyranny and deprivation. Checkpoint Charlie symbolised the thin white line between Hollywood and Siberia.
Divided Berlin: 45 Years Outpost of the West and Capital of the East
The Allies in Germany from 1945 to 1994
From the Uprising in June1953 and the Building of the Wall in August 1961 to It's Fall in November 1989
Berlin between Unification and the Millennium
Suggested Seminar Topics
The Wall is long gone but has the division of Germany been overcome? What has been achieved and what still stands between the Germanys?
The seminar will visit workplaces in the east and the west of Berlin to study what the people think and feel. Debates, city tour and expert opinions will round off the picture.
Berlin: the Melting Pot of Unification
Berlin: from the Reich of 1871 to the Republic of 2000
Berlin: from the Divided to the Federal Capital
Reunification Through the Eyes of East Germans
Reunification Through the Eyes of West Germans
Berlin, Germany and Europe
Suggested Seminar Topics
Berlin is on the eastern edge of the European Union, only 60 miles from the Polish border. Germany has an important role to play as spokesman for Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic and their future membership in the European Union.
Berlin on the Eastern Edge of the European Union Yet in the Heart of Europea
Berlin and Germany's Return to Central Europe
Market Place Berlin: the Linking Pin between East and West
Looking from Outside In - How Germany's Neighbours See the Berlin Republic
Is Berlin Fit for Global Competition in the Next Millennium?
Battlefield Berlin: the Fight between Private and Public Transport
Maltreated Berlin: from the City Motorway to the Pedestrian Precinct
Berlin 2000: a Traffic Metropolis of the Future?
Berlin a European Crossroad?
Berlin Perspectives for Public Transport
New Ecological Paths in Berlin
Memory and Memorials in Berlin
Suggested Seminar Topics
The crimes planed and committed by both dictatorships are innumerable. The sites are still there. How can the victims be remembered? The debate on a national Holocaust memorial lasted more than ten years.
What is a 'culture of remembrance' and how does Berlin fast its past while looking to the future?
Victory Column, Wall Museum and the Holocaust Memorial: How Much Memory can Berlin Take?
Dealing with History: Memorials, Monuments and Historic Sites in Berlin
Remembering National Socialism and Stalinism in Berlin
Berlin and Its Minorities
Suggested Seminar Topics
Berlin has a long tradition of tolerance and a terrible history of intolerance and persecution! In past centuries Berlin grew through and with immigrants and became a melting pot of cultures during the Weimar Republic. All of that ended in the horror of the 3rd Reich. Today Berlin is home for more than 150 nationalities. The suburb of Kreuzberg is nicknamed 'multi-culti' because of its different minorities and its Carnival of Cultures each spring.
How is Berlin faring? Are minorities and their civil rights respected? German and Berlin domestic policy can be judged by the way the majority treats minorities.
Test Case Berlin: Minorities and Majorities
Berlin: Germany's Melting Pot.
Berlin the Multicultural-Metropolis
German Passport - Not German Blood? - Berlin's Policy towards Foreign Immigrants
Capital Berlin: Tolerance and the Limits of Integration
Minorities in Berlin in Past and Present
How Women Live in Berlin
Kids in Berlin
Youngsters in Berlin
Senior Citizens in Berlin
Gay Capital Berlin in Past and Present
Religious Berlin
Suggested Seminar Topics
The Tolerance Edict of 1685 paved the way for the French Huguenots arrival in Berlin. The Jews from Vienna followed shortly after. They brought their languages, their wealth and their religions to Berlin. Without them Berlin would be a very different city. In the 1960's the Turkish guest workers were welcomed to Germany and West Berlin. Today many suburbs of Berlin house mosques next to churches and reconstructed synagogues. Integration versus assimilation is a decisive question in today's Berlin. Also the dispute about the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism within the Turkish areas.
How far is religious tolerance and how far can it go in modern day Berlin?
Jewish Life Patterns in Berlin
Religious Berlin in Retrospect and Looking to the Future
Fundamentalism and Sects - an Attack on Democracy?
Berlin Economics
Suggested Seminar Topics
Berlin is not only political capital but also a vibrant economic centre of modern day Germany. In the past the machine tool, electronics, chemical and textile industries played a leading role in the metropolis. Tomorrow's Berlin is as a service and trade centre: a gateway to the expanding markets in the East. Major transeuropean road and rail links run through the city. The Berlin municipality is in the act of privatising public services like power, water and gas. Next are public transport and public housing estates.
What is economically sane and what might lead to tomorrow's problems?
Berlin: the Industrial and Services Metropolis
Berlin Inquiry: Possibilities and Limits of Privatising Public Services
Berlin Big Business at the East-West Trade Centre?
From the Corner Shop to the Hypermarket: Are City Centres Doomed?
Science and Research in Berlin
Suggested Seminar Topics
Berlin was once an outstanding scientific metropolis, home to many famous German Nobel Prize winners. Hitler destroyed all that had been achieved within years.
Can the German capital regain its standing in world science and research? What is the present status of public and private science centres?
Berlin Perspectives in Science, Technology and Research