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8/1/2006 - 101 Questions by Jill Winder

ICWA JW GERMANY Jill Winder Donors Fellow Institute studying reunification Germany through attitudes artists letters Since Institute Current World Affairs Crane Rogers Foundation provided termfellowships enable outstandingyoung professionals outsidethe United States write about international areas issues An operating foundation endowedby Charles R Crane theInstitute supported contri butions minded individuals foundations TRUSTEES Bryn Barnard Joseph Battat Carole Beaulieu Mary Lynne Bird Sharon F Doorasamy Peter Geithner Gary Hartshorn Pramila Jayapal Cheng Li Steven Butler Dasa Obereigner David Z Robinson Carol Rose John Spencer Edmund Sutton HONORARY TRUSTEES David Elliot David Hapgood Pat M Holt Edwin S Munger Richard H Nolte Albert Ravenholt Phillips Talbot Questions By Jill Winder The following slightly revised version presentation delivered Members Trustees Institute Current World Affairs Monmouth Univer June West Long Branch NJ August BERLIN What earth German anyway Can Germans themselves answer question Well March federal state Hesse central Germany released would immigrants would attain German citizenship It consists questions covering German politics history geography culture This citizenship which considered nationwide ignited heated discussion Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel Germany conservative parties supported measure However people average citizens professionals immigrants study integration policy found objectionable Some questions Hesse proposed basic others indisputably obscure In people wondered openly German university students could alone immigrants When released Institute Current World Affairs fellow drawing close I lived Germany little three years ICWA fellow enough experience surprises perils living foreign country And I learned language which seems about thing politicians public agree should required foreigners living Germany Yet controversy heated immigration debate happening United States wonder Can extent immersion integration country culture sured objectively Isn impossible ascertain based person responses questions Eventually I reservations aside experi mentation With Institute cultural immersion fellows I decided I fared I B managing answer questions The ambitious student still hiding inside feels compelled I almost never B I example National Assembly convened Frankfurt Paulskirche question Otto Hahn first entist recognize uranium split bombarded neutrons question And I aware human dignity inalienable human rights protected Article I German constitution question This evening I reflect Institute fellow Germany taking liberty answer questions citizenship I touch pressing issues country grappling share Institute community where I I learned years I begin question number citizenship What population Germany This deceptive simple query tremendous consequences nation The straightforward response million Yet demographic realities behind figure source grave concern politicians statistics relating German population sense citizen really about Across Europe countries facing enormous challenge integrating their immigrant populations Germany exception Many people Germany cities after Madrid Amsterdam London suffer terrorist violence unrest hands their disgruntled alienated Muslim immigrant popula tions The country million foreigners until reforms Germany dubious distinc having weakest unsuccessful integration policies Europe Germany Muslim population million including major million inhabitants Turkish origin legacy Wes German guest worker program 1950s 1960s The German government preposter belief immigrants would automatically assimi after certain period country being recognized illusion always Third generation immigrants likely gious their parents handful radical imams preaching their brand fiery jihad mosques Berlin Frankfurt My neighborhood Kreuzberg highest populations Turkish immigrants Berlin Afew blocks south apartment Liegnitzerstrasse largest outdoor Turkish market A blocks large mosque shopping center prominent corner proudly announcing beliefs large neighborhood I firsthand Turkish immigrants struggle carve Germany At I lived among fundamentally separate neighbors Germans Every I brush shoulders Germans I veiled Turkish women pushing strollers rowdy Turkish teenagers someone struggling master language converse fascinating mixture German Turkish idiom their speaks volumes about their position between worlds Indeed these worlds government society trying merge Despite obvious challenges experience there erance exchange everyday people assume One citizenship assess spective immigrants acculturation acceptance Of course offers protec against possibility acceptance gainful employment wayward youth violent militant protect women forced marriage honor killings These things place Germany Yet immigrant problem recently right public demonstrations Nazi violence significantly increased Politicians rified Nazis their faces during summer soccer known Europe football World Cup destroying tolerant cosmopolitan image Germany aggressively promoting Nevertheless daunting addressing needs immigrant population preventing calization perhaps Germany pressing concern comes population Rather Germans people dying According Federal Statistical Office Germany German population third Germany birthrate plummeted lowest level since World War II And percent births Germany foreign mothers contrast percent female German academics after remain child Furthermore German births decreased signif icantly eastern region country since And population decline despite assumed rates immigration abroad The Merkel administration attempting respond coming population crisis measures increasing govern payments parents called Elterngeld Kin dergeld But topic political minefield especially government promoting parenthood right people other words Germans Yet associating Germanness blood ethnic German ancestry still mainstream notion country identity despite associations Hitler National Socialism The decline population birth rates potential increase immigrant population question cultural religious political intellectual identity Germany Though cannot agree means German defining require fundamental change attitudes A personal experience differs somewhat statistics I turned during fellowship friends I watched clich about growing tling began One friend means cultural necessity Germany Two career oriented friends became Another engagement pregnancy followed My friends represent exactly government wants country educated loving parents expecting planned await excitement In circle friends least Germany experiencing boomlet Allow another question question number What capital Federal Republic Germany It Berlin course where I chosen spend fellow But quote title Walter Abish novel How German Comparisons between Ber New York City often during Germany To cities utterly distinct locales populations histories dynam found anywhere their respective JW countries In Berlin New York immigrants world added local population shape multifaceted character urban these cities famous It New York United States Alternatively could distinctness makes quintessentially American In Berlin essentially German profoundly German The majority public agrees foreigners Germany should speak language measure Berlin particularly German My German Swedish friend Fredrik I On evenings dinner outside small Vietnamese Torstrasse thoroughfare Mitte tally German being spoken Some nights German across lovely accented variety spoken Vietnamese waitress Over course usually English Spanish French Turkish Polish Russian German This leads another question about Berlin Which German In Berlin which divided island divided country nearly century easily answered Berlin chaotic mixture capital Weimar Republic would capital Hitler thousand Third Reich former capital East Germany symbolic heart German reunifica Question number citizenship heart matter It states November particular meaning German history Which events place The first Kristallnacht German citizens savagely tacked Jews country They murdered raped beaten arrested Jewish owned stores synagogues schools other property looted burned On November course Berlin Wall These events central Germans nizing attempts atone terms Ho locaust repercussions Second World War Some noticed I written about architecture newsletters This because battle history identity discernible chitecture monuments degree I think unique significant And I believe these controversies provide proxy public forum debates about history representation loaded awkward faced This ersatz discussion comes enlightened others A Monument Murdered Jews Europe stands prominent Brandenburg Gate bearing witness horrors dictatorship announce arrival torching nearby Reichstag By contrast former East German Palace People Palast Repub being imperial palace damaged INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS World War II place Instead retain Communist monument symbol Germany reunification government chosen essentially erase period bookmarked those events This dubious attempt creating narrative leads German imperial prowess directly German reunification To another capital German Berlin complex painful history source fascination inspiration material contemporary artists Yet known Germanness contemporary number artists foreign their cially since Some German artists Ber cultural offerings hundreds galleries museums energy active community But I honest those benefits comparison Berlin appealing feature curiously unbeliev affordable Compared traditional centers New York London artists royalty Berlin cheapest capital Western Europe Anja Marck young German photographer I slightly cynical theory about German artists flock There other where almost nothing wealth tragic history Artists suckers catastrophe Berlin bargain prices In terms space available Berlin emptiest European capitals The economic anticipated German investors during early nineties never really materialized Especially eastern districts industrial spaces decay after earlier almost unlimited square footage artists architecture firms fashion design ateliers Artists large studio little month And industrial spaces affordable spacious lovely apartment rented little month On subject I learned topic affordable housing handled When friends New York Los Angeles visit ceilings glossy wooden floors century moldings became positively homicidal I little I But artists How complexities German history search identity coming terms reflected their This focus exploration Institute Fellow Luckily citizen includes something everyo Believe question number One famous works German painter Caspar David Friedrich shows landscape Baltic island Ruegen What painting central motif Now straightforward question Does refer Friedrich masterpiece Wanderer Above Sea Fog which depicts facing viewer looking stormy seascape Or rather equally famous Chalk Cliffs Ruegen which three figures white cliffs No matter answer question another contemporary Is there thing quintessentially German contemporary In famous Berlin scene answer I would suggest there distinct genre representative German rather makes Berlin scene distinctive essential cosmopolitanism The evidence known artists working Berlin Ger Take Olafur Eliasson Iceland Italian Monica Bonvicini young Albanian artist Anri Sala Sean Snyder American lived Berlin decade British artist Tacita Dean Finnish artist Laura Horelli Berlin contemporary scene enjoys reputation interesting world because Ger artists because offer people engaged creative artistic pursuits cause thousands contemporary artists So sense quintessentially German thing about Berlin scene Germany When artists foreign German touches German history identity reunifica often Berlin metaphor I thinking example famous British artist Tacita Dean restaurant TV Towe East Berlin landmark During communist times restaurant exclusive place socialist modern egance It rotated providing stunning views West Berlin distance After restaurant remained basically capsule rotation minutes What incredible metaphor abrupt appearance East Germany accelerated reunification which literally universe GDR dragged people orbit West Countless East Germans could I fascinated young German artists address division East West results German reunification their In stitute provided lifetime opportunity I delighted myself close everyone world talking about today I referring Leipzig artists Some exhilarat experiences discoveries fellowship place Leipzig Spinnerei cultural complex paint splattered studios smoky If there thing German contemporary moment Leipzig School painters embodies And I about Leipzig artists I suppose I venturing answer another citizenship questions loaded What GDR At Neo Rauch grandfather known arbiter Leipzig painting contemporary Born raised Leipzig finishing studies Academy Visual Arts Wall Rauch taught craft professors masters figurative painting The dictates Stalin cialist realism forced these painters renounce modern abstraction forms dominant America elsewhere The famous Ger painters today proponents quote unquote communist style realism surprising ironic inheritances East German artistic censorship If Caspar David Friedrich landscapes epito German Romantic painting nineteenth century Rauch master genre I brazenly landscape Most Rauch large scale paintings remind scene nightmare split second before saster strikes frozen In paintings entitled Haus Lehrers Teacher House Harmlos Harmless Acker Field ochre midnight blues moldy greens chalky greys dominate landscapes sounds lovely Abandoned factories barren fields houses desolate landscapes framed foreboding skies The figures paintings together achingly isolated another The people Rauch paintings heroic worker depicted Soviet propaganda vulnerable alone menaced ambiguous threatening environs These world nostalgic futuristic metaphors current political social economic plague eastern Germany Rauch shows abandoned parts native Leipzig those people places behind Germany literal psychological senses The younger generation Leipzig School painters Tim Eitel David Schnell Matthias Weischer early seventies closer In contrast Rauch experienced GDR citizen these artists Yet reflect Continued Above Neo Rauch Haus Lehrers Teacher House canvas Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Above right Neo Rauch Harmlos Harmless linen Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig B erlin Below Neo Rauch Acker Field linen Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Tim Eitel Leerer Raum Empty Room canvas Rubell Collection Right Tim Eitel Graue Waende Grey Walls canvas Courtesy images Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Tim Eitel Boygroup canvas Ovitz Family Collection Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Below Tim Eitel Ausflug Outing oncanvas Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Above MatthiasWeischer Fernsehturm TV Tower canvas Courtesy GalleryEIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Right MatthiasWeischer Untitled canvas Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Left David Schnell Spielplatz Playground canvas Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin Right David Schnell Aussicht View canvas Courtesy Gallery EIGEN Art Leipzig Berlin JW Germany catastrophic unemployment rates pecially among young deserted corners eastern Germany shrinking cities political documentary In Eitel paintings stylish somethings stand empty landscapes forgotten corner planet These wayward youths simultaneously world weary sophisticated jaded resigned nothing In Matthias Weischer melancholy paintings empty rooms I thousands vacant socialist apartments found eastern Germany David Schnell landscapes somehow manage bucolic desolate where green forests abandoned summer cottages fields fallow factories among fields flowers As I mentioned newsletters Leipzig School painters already canonized contemporary world Rauch paintings Museum Modern Art collection New York And famous American collectors Don Mera Rubell Leipzig headlines raving about found We never found artists excited about gushed interview The Rubell Collection includes paintings drawings Leipzig School painters And market heating rather boiling Artists collectors shocked painting Matthias Weischer which could little years Christie auction times timate Gallery EIGEN Art owner Gerd Harry Lybke represents Leipzig artists I mentioned recently proclaimed At moment world But fickle punishing world although I think quality these works stand people wondering about thing Even Tim Eitel whose recent works crowd hanging white galleries If permit present insider I venture guess which group artists emerge exemplify German their These young photographers Professor Tim Rauter graduate Meisterklasse Acad Visual Arts Leipzig Younger Leipzig School painters provide another vision reflection contemporary Germany Look Ulrich Gebert Adrian Sauer Tobias Zielo Riccarda Rogan But favorite group Sven Johne eastern Ruegen setting Caspar David Friedrich landscapes With camera Johne makes landscapes reflections unmet utopian ideas harsh reality social political In occasion fifteenth niversary Berlin Wall across eastern Germany documen state affairs photographing abandoned development projects demolition socialist rises people Johne series East German Land scapes juxtaposes images German country quotations people interviewed about GDR Imagine photograph green field abandoned factory distance juxtaposed quote former foreman East Ger factory worked there years angrily talks about frustrations years unemploy career If there thing German I believe artists confront country reality history share their concerns appointments confusion through their earned label These artists small influential minority They astute observers diagnos representing beauties disasters Germany Let return citizenship swerable question means German In early May representatives Germany federal states finally agreement require ments German citizenship citizenship That thing because there thousands questions unasked Because after never measure person experience moves adopt So I liberties question Is there anything Time permit mention things I grown during Germany Germans their given right breakfast fresh rolls corner bakery every morning glorious color sunsets Berlin summer everyone postman academic seems regularly attend theater biting sarcasm darkness Berliner humor Germans wouldn consider going without reading least newspaper And there people Germany compelling taught I about country friends taken their eastern German towns shared their memories feelings about GDR those troduced Berlin welcoming their lives putting endless questions artists opened their studios apartments share their about beauty creativity their influences passions young Turkish women German guage class insight lives Turkish immigrants difficult position women their communities others As level tegration German I think I pretty successful But there badge integration I stubbornly refuse Much friends dismay I remained olutely uninterested football So thank Peter aking possible spend fellowship month FIFA World Cup mania descending Germany I speak Of course I Peter thanks First I thank unwavering support encouragement I learned editorial exper elegantly phrased criticisms patience And I thank Peter Lu spending Ger Your unbelievable energy curiosity intelligence inspired think about things Thanks Ellen Brent My sincere thanks David Hapgood Richard Nolte Chandler Rosenberger their engagement constructive criticisms sugges tions And I thank Institute community contact share ideas experiences wishes I would sincerely thank Institute opportunity spend years compelling corners world It incredible opportunity changed I never forget And although across ocean I mense gratitude friends Germany adopted Even I means German I because I I found second Institute Fellows chosen basis character previ experience promise They young professionals funded spend minimum years carrying designed programs study writing outside United States The Fellows required report their findings experiences field month They write subject formally informally The result unique reporting analysis periodic assess international events issues ICWA Letters ISSN published In stitute Current World Affairs Inc exempt operating foundation incorporated New York State offices located West Wheelock Street Hanover NH 03755 The letters provided charge members ICWA available libraries professional searchers subscription Phone E Mail valley Fax Web address Executive Director Steven Butler Program Assistant Publications Manager Ellen Kozak Institute Current World Affairs The Crane Rogers Foundation The Information contained publication reprinted republished without express written Institute Current World Affairs