The Berlin Journal

THE BERLIN JOURNAL

A Magazine from the American Academy in Berlin Number Thirty-Two Fall 2018

Celebrating Twenty Years of Fellowships

Revitalizing Public Discourse by Michael Sandel

Death and the Miner by Rosalind C. Morris

Artist Portfolio Lucy Raven

Becoming a White Man by P. Carl

Afrofuturism by Priscilla Layne

The Young Man Who Sells Antiques Fiction by Jesse Ball We are deeply grateful to

STEFAN VON HOLTZBRINCK

for his generous support of this issue of the Berlin Journal. CONTENTS

focus features notebook 4 34 82

6 Death and the Miner 36 tRuckstops on the Information 84 celebrating Twenty Years of by Rosalind C. Morris Superhighway Fellowships by Tung-Hui Hu 12 beat Knowledge 94 West Coast Initiative by Ronald Radano 40 the Young Man Who Sells 95 alumni Seminars Antiques 16 bigger Profits, Slower Growth by Jesse Ball 95 the 2018 Kissinger Prize by Herman Mark Schwartz 44 becoming a White Man 96 Welcoming New Trustees 20 unexceptional Politics in the Theater by Emily Apter 97 the Andrew W. Mellon by P. Carl Fellowship in the Humanities 24 Revitalizing Public Discourse 46 aRTIST PORTFOLIO by Michael Sandel 97 a Higher Loyalty Lucy Raven; 98 Profiles in Scholarship 30 out of this World text by Pavel S. Pyś by Priscilla Layne 100 book Reviews 54 the Origins Myth by John Rockwell and by Fred M. Donner Christina Schwenkel 57 the Absent Epic 104 alumni Books by Haun Saussy 105 supporters and Donors 60 World Literature by Martin Puchner 64 Mobilizing Fear by Carina L. Johnson 68 the Laws of War by Peter Holquist 72 Perm-36 by Joshua Yaffa 76 secular Sacred groves by Jared Farmer 78 the HOLBROOKE FORUM Digital Diplomacy by Corneliu Bjola CONTRIBUTORS

Rosalind C. Morris is a professor Priscilla Layne is an assistant Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Near Fall 2018 Bosch Fellow in Public of anthropology at Columbia professor of German at the Eastern History at the University Policy Joshua Yaffa is the Moscow University, and the Andrew W. University of North Carolina at of Chicago, and the Nina Maria correspondent for the New Yorker. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities Chapel Hill, and the fall 2018 Gorrissen Fellow in History in Jared Farmer, the spring 2019 at the Academy in fall 2018. Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow. Fall spring 2019. Fall 2018 John P. Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow, is a Ronald Radano is a professor of 2018 Dirk Ippen Fellow Tung-Hui Birkelund Fellow Haun Saussy is professor of history at Stony Brook African cultural studies and music Hu is an associate professor of University Professor of compara- University. Corneliu Bjola is an at the University of Wisconsin- English at the University of Michi- tive literature, the Committee on associate professor in diplomatic Madison. He is the spring 2019 gan. Jesse Ball, the spring 2019 Social Thought, and East Asian studies at the University of Oxford, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow languages and civilizations at the and chair of the Oxford Digital Humanities. Herman Mark in Fiction, is a professor of creative University of Chicago. Martin Diplomacy Research Group. John Schwartz is a professor of politics writing at the School of the Art Puchner, the spring 2019 John P. Rockwell is a longtime arts critic, at the University of Virginia, and a Institute of Chicago. Fall 2018 Birkelund Fellow, is a professor reporter, and editor at the New spring 2019 Bosch Fellow in Public Holtzbrinck Fellow P. Carl is a of English and comparative litera- York Times, and founding director Policy. Emily Apter, a spring 2019 writer and Distinguished Art- ture at Harvard University. of the Lincoln Center Festival. He Daimler Fellow, is Silver Professor ist-in-Residence at Emerson Col- Carina L. Johnson is a professor of was a Distinguished Visitor at the of French and Comparative Litera- lege. Lucy Raven, an assistant history at Pitzer College, and the Academy in 2008. Christina ture at New York University. professor of art at The Cooper fall 2018 Nina Maria Gorrissen Schwenkel is an associate profes- Michael Sandel is the Anne T. and Union School of Art, is the spring Fellow in History. Peter Holquist, sor of anthropology and South- Robert M. Bass Professor of Gov- 2019 Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fel- the spring 2019 Axel Springer Fel- east Asian studies at the Uni- ernment at Harvard University. low. Pavel S. Pyś is Curator of low, is Ronald S. Lauder Endowed versity of California, Riverside. He was the Academy’s spring 2018 Visual Arts at the Walker Art Term Associate Professor of History She was a fall 2015 Bosch Fellow Airbus Distinguished Visitor. Center. Fred M. Donner is the at the University of Pennsylvania. in Public Policy.

the berlin journal the american academy Mathias Döpfner, Marina Kellen support in berlin French, Hans-Michael Giesen, Number Thirty-Two, C. Boyden Gray, Vartan Gregorian, The Academy is entirely funded by Fall 2018 president Andrew S. Gundlach, Florian private, tax-deductible donations. Terry McCarthy Henckel von Donnersmarck, Contributions may be made: publisher Terry McCarthy chief operating officer Wolfgang A. Herrmann, Stefan in germany editor R. Jay Magill, Jr. Christian U. Diehl von Holtzbrinck, Dirk Ippen, by bank transfer to: managing editor Sophie Maaß Wolfgang Ischinger, Josef Joffe, American Academy in Berlin advertising Berit Ebert Am Sandwerder 17–19 Michael M. Kellen, Michael S. Berliner Sparkasse design Susanna Dulkinys, 14109 Berlin Klein, John C. Kornblum, Regine BLZ 100 500 00 Julia Sysmäläinen Tel. +49 (30) 80 48 3-0 Leibinger, Pascal Levensohn, Account: 660 000 9908 Fax +49 (30) 80 48 3-111 Wolfgang Malchow, Nina von IBAN: Copyright © 2018 americanacademy.de Maltzahn, Kati Marton, Julie DE07 1005 0000 6600 0099 08 American Academy in Berlin Mehretu, Nader A. Mousavizadeh, BIC: BELADEBEXXX ISSN 1610-6490 14 East 60th Street, Suite 604 Michael Müller (ex officio), Sandra New York, NY 10022 E. Peterson, Volker Schlöndorff, in the united states cover image Kim Keever, Abstract Tel. +1 (212) 588-1755 Peter Y. Solmssen, Anthony Vidler, by check payable to: 10550, 2014. Courtesy of Winston Fax +1 (212) 588-1758 Christine I. Wallich, Maureen American Academy in Berlin Wachter Fine Art, Seattle, USA White, Andrew Wylie, Pauline Yu, 14 East 60th Street, Suite 604 founder Richard C. Holbrooke Leah Joy Zell New York, NY 10022 Printed by Ruksaldruck, Berlin founding chairmen Thomas L. by bank transfer to: Farmer, Henry A. Kissinger, chairman emeritus JPMorgan Chase Richard von Weizsäcker Karl M. von der Heyden 500 Stanton Christiana Road chairman Gahl Hodges Burt Newark, DE 19713 vice chairman Manfred Bischoff trustees emeriti Account: 967 33 12 77 The Berlin Journal App co-secretaries Stephen B. John P. Birkelund, Diethart ABA: 021 00 00 21 Burbank, John C. Kornblum Breipohl, Richard K. Goeltz, SWIFT CODE: CHASUS 33 Wolfgang Mayrhuber, trustees Norman Pearlstine The American Academy in Berlin’s latest Klaus Biesenbach, Manfred financial report may be obtained by Bischoff, Leon Botstein, Martin executive director emeritus writing to The American Academy in Berlin, 14 East 60th Street, Suite 604, New York, Brand, Stephen B. Burbank, Gahl Gary Smith NY 10022, or to the Charities Bureau, 120 Hodges Burt, Gerhard Casper, Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10271. PRESIDENT’S NOTE

Looking About in Foreign Nations

“I am more and more convinced that poetry is the universal And so, in this issue of the Berlin Journal, Fred Donner possession of mankind,” Goethe said, in 1827. “I therefore questions the historicity of the accepted narrative of like to look about me in foreign nations, and advise every- Islam’s foundation, and writes about the search for ev- one to do the same.” This quote, as recorded by his secretary idence in inscriptions, papyrus texts, and coins of what Johann Peter Eckermann, signals the beginning of Weltlit- really happened in those crucial years in the seventh cen- eratur, according to Martin Puchner, the Academy’s spring tury, when a world religion came into being. Haun Saussy 2019 John P. Birkelund Fellow. In the later years of his life, looks at how China, which famously lacks a foundational Goethe was reading books from countries as far apart as epic like the Iliad or the Mahābhārata, has recently sought China, Persia, and Serbia. “The era of world literature is at to claim for itself the Tibetan epic of King Gesar, “generally hand,” he said. accepted [as] the longest single piece of literature current- It would be more than a century later before the Norton ly in the world canon, encompassing some 120 volumes Anthology of World Literature was first published, in the and about 20 million words.” Cultural appropriation—or United States, after World War II. Since then, millions of stu- a newfound appreciation in Han Chinese thinking for dents in the US have read its selections of writers from “for- Weltliteratur? And who knew, apart from Peter Holquist, eign nations,” and have followed Goethe’s advice to “look that it was the Russians, currently the bêtes noires of the about” themselves. Puchner, the current editor of the Norton West for their invasion of Ukraine, who were the prime Anthology of World Literature, now in its fourth edition, writes movers in establishing the codified rules of war at the end in this issue of the Berlin Journal that “no other country I of the nineteenth century that we still use today, banning know has embraced world literature, and instituted it in exploding bullets and coining the notion “crimes against higher education, as fully as the United States.” He contin- humanity”? ues his studies of Weltliteratur at the American Academy in And yet . . . Joshua Yaffa visits a former Soviet prison Berlin, just 139 miles (223 km) from Goethe’s Weimar. camp in Perm, east of the Urals, and discovers a key dif- Coming from my previous home, in Los Angeles, to ference between Hitler’s concentration camps, where pris- start my job as the new president of the Academy, I too am oners knew why they were killed, and the victims of the prompted to “look about me in foreign nations.” The head- Gulags “who died bewildered”—killed for paranoid fictions lines are ominous. Transatlantic relations are apparently at that nobody really believed. an all-time low. A new world order is mooted. But when Not all is gloomy. Jesse Ball has a delightfully whimsical one looks a little further afield, at the challenges both the short story about an antiques store where customers must US and Germany face from an assertive Russia, an econom- explain why they would like to buy an item before they ically expansionist China, and a violence-plagued Middle can pay for it. Such civility! Corneliu Bjola, writing for the East, the differences between Berlin and Washington, DC, Holbrooke Forum, introduces the intriguing concept of the tend to look less stark. “Machiavelli Trap,” humans’ seemingly genetic resistance to As a former foreign correspondent who spent 27 years change, and suggests ways in which digital diplomacy can covering stories from some of the world’s least savory des- overcome such resistance and achieve real change when tinations, I have learned that today’s headlines are, well, to- properly applied. And Harvard’s Michael Sandel bravely day’s headlines. It is the mission of the Academy to take takes on some of the big political problems of our era— note of these headlines, but also to dig deeper into the sub- income inequality, populism, and a world where robots are soil of culture, philosophy, literature, and the arts, where taking away jobs from humans. some of the most fundamental questions about human As I begin my time as president, I look forward to behavior and values originate. The inquiring minds of our “looking about me” in Berlin and further afield, to starting resident fellows and visiting speakers help to put into great- many new conversations, and to engaging with the fasci- er context what flashes hysterically across our television nating minds that the Academy continues to attract and screens every day. Most of all, they ask questions, just as support. the members of the very first Academy, under Plato, asked questions, and learned through discussion and debate. Terry McCarthy Extraction and Its Afterlives

Death and the Miner by Rosalind C. Morris 6

Beat Knowledge by Ronald Radano 12

Bigger Profits, Slower Growth By Herman Mark Schwartz 16

Unexceptional Politics by Emily Apter 20

Revitalizing Public Discourse by Michael Sandel 24

Out of this World by Priscilla Layne 30

Field of Dreams: Zama Zama men walking across the Highveld. Still from We are Zama Zama. Photo credit: Ebrahim Hajee and Rosalind C. Morris FOCUS 6 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

DEATH AND THE MINER

The afterlives of gold in South Africa by Rosalind C. Morris

or more than a century, the gold mines of South Afri- clothing woven from jute sacks. Without the assistance ca were the sparkling center of a nation. Today, they of mechanized carriages, they slide down the shafts, fol- F are closing. In their ruins, moving along the more lowing old and fraying cable. Upon finding a potential vein than 10,000 kilometers of underground tunnels that in the rock, they assay samples by panning, and use small traverse the earth beneath the Witwatersrand—a 56-kilome- amounts of dynamite to blast rock that they carry on their ter rocky scarp jutting 200-meters out of the earth—itinerant backs in bags that once held rice or corn meal. The men migrant miners called zama zamas scavenge for gold. stay underground for days, weeks, even months at a time. Historically, mining in this area depended on capital-in- Working in small groups of friends and relations who share tensive mechanization, including drilling, automotive and a language, they sleep and eat, work and rest, listen to mu- electrified rail transport, large-scale dewatering and oxy- sic stored on cellphones, smoke cigarettes, and recount sto- genation, as well as cyanide and mercury-based commu- ries of home, all while asking their ancestors for help in nition processes and industrial smelting. Zama zamas finding fortune. The word “zama” means “to try” in isiZulu. perform all of these functions manually—using only picks, “Zama zama” means “to keep on trying,” but also “to gam- hammers, battery-operated headlamps, and protective ble.” Zama zamas are those who risk everything to survive. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 7

Sampling for Gold: Bhekani Mumpande underground. Still from We are Zama Zama. Credit: Prosper Ncube and Rosalind C. Morris

Above ground, women break the rock with hammers or brokered by criminal syndicates, the gold will travel along other rocks. They then grind the broken stone into powder, the capillary networks that extend from Johannesburg to which is mixed with water and poured over improvised China and Pakistan, the US and Europe—where most of it sluicing tables from which the men gather visible nug- will become jewelry. gets and flakes before sifting the runoff. Finally, this is pro- cessed with mercury, which the men pass between their ost zama zamas are from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, bare fingers, while observing the darkening color that be- Lesotho, and Malawi. They travel the same routes as tokens amalgamation. The residual sluice constitutes pay- M have formal miners since the colonial era, when the ment for the women, who then reprocess it. At the end Chamber of Mines and its labor recruiting organi- of these gendered activities, which differ in both the time zations sought African workers for the most arduous labor they take and the amount of gold they generate, both men underground. But today’s zama zamas are mainly undocu- and women sell tiny nuggets to local middlemen, who mented migrants, whose illegalized status excludes them keep track of spot prices on the international commodities from public education, healthcare, and the rights that cit- market, and pay in cash. Whether sold independently or izens expect. The objects of fear and xenophobic violence, 8 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

they are doubly displaced, hyper-visible in the media and uring more than two decades of research around invisible as actual subjects of history. the gold mines of South Africa, I have, perhaps im- Why make this arduous journey and expose them- D probably, come to see this underground world as selves to such terrifying risks? Quite simply, the extreme a negative image—in the photographic sense—of poverty that they have left behind exceeds even that of the the Parisian shopping arcades about which Walter Benja- ruins in which they now seek leftover gold. “The mouth is min wrote nearly a century ago. The vaulted ceilings of the dreaming,” say zama zamas, when describing the hunger tunnels are made possible by the materials and technolo- that is their constant companion. Along with the threat of gies that also enabled the arcades’ construction. But where- accident and the toxicity of their environment, these men as the arcades of Paris were theaters of display value, where and women are driven by daily need to flirt with death in commodities were illuminated as future relics of fashion, order to defer it. Nor is the only threat below ground. The the value on display underground is that of technology it- powdered rock clouds in the air enters the lungs of the self: the incredible feats of engineering that have enabled women—and the infants strapped to their backs—just as mining four kilometers below the surface. the dust that rises from the blasted rock enters the lungs But something else links these distant worlds: the econ- of the underground miners. The Oracle of Death writes omy of the arcades was not merely one of mass reproduc- her prophecy in the lines drawn by sweat or tears on their tion, it was a system in which even waste could be a source dust-powdered faces. of value—and “mined” by the ragpicker. Now, in the ruined

Zama Zamas in person: Darren Munenge (L) and Prosper Ncube (R). Photos: Ebrahim Hajee Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 9

gold mines of southern Africa, the ragpicker finds an un- from Hohenheim, who acted as the first president of the canny doppelganger in the zama zama, whose dusty vis- Chamber of Mines. age they liken to a ghost. They haunt the landscape where It is in the ruins of one of the mines founded by industrial reclamation activities devour the mine dumps: Wernher, Beit and Co., that I have been making a film with each an emblem of gold-mining’s afterlife. and about migrant miners. The images in this portfolio are Benjamin’s milieu provides unexpected parallels for from a documentary project entitled “We are Zama Zama,” the mine-made world, but it also made powerful contribu- which I have been making with South African cinematog- tions to it. Three of the figures behind the largest mining rapher Ebrahim Hajee and three zama zama miners: Rogers companies in the region, all created in the last decades of “Bhekani” Mumpande, Darren Munenge, and Prosper Ncube. the nineteenth century, were German born. Julius Wernher, Our shared ambition is to create a documentary testimo- a Protestant mining engineer from Darmstadt, formed ny to the lived experience of this marginal community in a Wernher Beit and Co., with Alfred Beit, a German-Jewish manner that makes the zama zamas’ risk-filled lives com- businessman from Hamburg, who started out in real-es- prehensible. tate speculation before partnering with Cecil Rhodes in the The project also responds to the intensifying “prob- diamond and gold industries. They created the Wernher- lem” of migrancy today. As walls—both figurative and ac- Beit-Eckstein group of companies after joining with the son tual—are being erected around the world to keep economic of a Lutheran pastor named Hermann Eckstein, a financier migrants from escaping their poverty, the iconography of

The hands that grind: woman with ring. Still from We are Zama Zama. Credit: Ebrahim Hajee and Rosalind C. Morris 10 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

Home life: Bhekani and Sarah Mumpande, and their daughter, Alicia, in their 2 ×3-meter shack. Still from We are Zama Zama. Credit: Ebrahim Hajee and Rosalind C. Morris.

migrancy in the Euro-American media is increasingly limited to the spectacle of the Mediterranean. While important, the privileged iconography of the Mediterranean risks a too-narrow perception of migrancy as a crisis of and for Europe. Yet, much of the migration born of poverty in Africa takes place within rather than as a movement out of the continent. In addition to local problems, which range from corrup- tion to warfare, this African crisis also has European history: not only the legacy of resource-based colonialism (of which Wernher, Beit, and Eckstein were a part), but the histories of foreign aid that generated dependencies now being severed. As global neoliberal governance leads to the demand that decolonizing states cut back on their own social-grants programs, a rising tide of populist nationalism calls formerly colonizing states to reduce their foreign-aid contributions. As a result, vast zones of uninhabitability are emerging, a situation that will only worsen with changing climatic conditions. Making a film about undocumented migrants is not an answer to these problems. But it is an effort to open conversation with a different lens and a widened focus. To ask different questions about the causes and possible means of redress demanded by this complex problem requires, firstly, that the lives lived in industrial modernity’s ruins be recognized in their fullness. The stories of my film, of the ruined mines, and of the migrants who gravitate to those now-abandoned temples of technology and international financial capital, are stories of the future: dream images that the Oracle of Death demands we confront. □ Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 11

Gold! – Hand-smelted nugget. Still from We are Zama Zama. Credit: Ebrahim Hajee and Rosalind C. Morris

Dandies at the Dam: Zama Zama boys. Photo: Ebrahim Hajee. 12 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

BEAT KNOWLEDGE

We are all African, when we listen by Ronald Radano

hat might it mean to say “we are all African, from the outside. The first commenced with Africans’ forced, when we listen”? By this, I am not suggesting transatlantic displacement as slaves; the second was the W that we return to the origins tales from over a result of the continent’s invasion by European colonizers. century ago, when leading musicians and critics made fan- What emerged in the US and Europe as “our music” over the tastical claims about civilization’s rise from a primal, sonic course of the past 150 years developed directly from both humanity, as in the German composer and conductor Hans of these tragic legacies. Embracing the notion that we are von Bülow’s “In the beginning was rhythm.” Nor am I re- all African when we listen is a means of recognizing this ferring to paleoanthropological theories tracing humanity’s past in our present. It enables us to re-center our thinking beginnings to the African continent; nor, for that matter, to about the cultural history of the US and Europe in order to the Nigerian-born, London artist JJC, whose recording “We acknowledge Africa’s audible place within it. are Africans” was an international hit in 2010. In making this claim, it might appear that I am chal- My phrase points to something else: namely, that what lenging European classical music’s standing at the pinna- we take to be the common sense of Western musicality—the cle of high art. But I have no quarrel with classical music’s conventional understanding of what music should sound established importance; its legacy of musical innovation like and communicate—is inseparable from the modern and thought still informs how we conceptualize the very history of the African continent. This, to be sure, has been a idea of music and measure its aesthetic value. I have, in- fraught history, marked by two major tragedies generated stead, a different concern, which is to say that, despite Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 13

classical music’s lasting significance, it is the sonic world the beginning of the modern era, African repetition has ex- of “Africanity” that best characterizes the listening orders ceeded practices racialized as “black.” Today, we can hear of the West. the primacy of the beat nearly everywhere, from country & Indeed, as far as the realms of the audible go, African western, to European club music, to the many internation- musicality, in its many transatlantic iterations, has al- al expressions of rock, jazz, and blues. The priority given to ready won the cultural wars; it has done so in large part racialized repetition is so pervasive, so deep, that it has af- with the assistance of the very forces that served to dom- fected our aural comprehension of what is right in a given inate black people. The way we hear and what we tend to musical production. As an idea caught up in the Western like musically are deeply informed by the unintended leg- fantasy of race, it represents a veritable knowledge, a beat acies of African involvement in the West—the result of the knowledge informing musicians’ and listeners’ affective and displacement of Africans to North America and the subse- aesthetic experiences worldwide. Racialized, black rhythm, quent dissemination of their musical practices within the one might argue, now identifies the common denomina- newly capitalized, global markets of modern entertainment. tor of music as such. Indeed, the expanse of racialized con- The Africanization of popular sound that begins during the cepts of rhythm have reordered the auditory qualities of US’s antebellum era and that escalated rapidly around 1900 public culture at large, its influence extending beyond the did not take shape because African-based musical practices social field of the popular into the seemingly rarefied do- possessed some inherent, special value. It did so because of main of musical modernism. Beat knowledge has become a set of material circumstances having to do with the trag- a reference point by which classically trained composers edies of Euro-African contact, which assigned to African- craft their art in affirmation or denial of its aesthetic val- based musical practices a special value, a value that, in turn, ue and influence. motivated the rise of professional black performance. What A second indication of an African-inspired transforma- emerged as the normative stylistic orientation of popular tion has to do with timbre and tone. In the early twentieth music developed out of the legacies of containment and century, at a moment when European composers were radi- conquest of African people and cultures, by which a distinc- cally challenging the ordering grammar of tonality, US black tive kind of racially “black” music became the touchstone musicians were introducing styles of lasting, cultural con- of a public, musical common sense. sequence, their pitch-bending techniques and innovative, timbral effects challenging not European music’s harmonic conventions but rather the very nature of equal temper- he transformation of music has been so pro- ament and diatonicism (i.e., obedient to the constraints of found and enduring that we hardly notice it. But scale-form). The stylistic practices that developed as part of T think about this: the quality and character of pub- the rhythmic revolution of pop rewrote the rules of play- lic sound in the present, indeed over the past century or ing-style and instrumental intonation—as heard, for ex- more, has developed according to the persistence of a con- ample, in circus bands and syncopated orchestras (James spicuous African audibility heard in cities from Los Angeles Reese Europe), hot jazz (Louis Armstrong), swing ensembles to Prague. Many scholars and commentators have long ac- (Duke Ellington Orchestra), Chicago blues (Muddy Waters, knowledged this influence, often with clichéd references to Howlin’ Wolf), and gospel, rhythm ‘n’ blues, and soul sing- the power of “the beat.” These references tend to downplay ing (Mahalia Jackson, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, James the radicalism of musical and aesthetic change, relegating Brown). the global influence of musical Africanity to a vague, cul- With the new advances in commercial recording be- tural retention (e.g., blue notes, syncopation, etc.). They also fore and after World War II, African and black Caribbean obscure the extent to which the overall character of pop musicians advanced their own contributions to the mak- music has emerged from a greater idea and practice of black ing of a black transatlantic tonal-character, inspiring a rhythm. Pop has done so not simply by retaining the Afri- range of genre innovations (rumba, calypso, biguine, com- can musical use of repetition, but by creatively advancing pas, ska). With the rise of hip-hop, black music’s enduring upon it according to a set of beliefs that ideologically spec- push against the strictures of European song-form reached ify rhythm as a racial essence, a kind of audible blackness, a kind of stylistic apotheosis. Seminal groups of the late as a quality of being sonically situated at the core of what 1980s (Public Enemy, NWA) had largely done way with the we consider to be modern. The concept of “beat,” we might templates of song form established in the nineteenth cen- say, has itself been profoundly informed by a racial fanta- tury (later revised in Tin Pan Alley) in order to craft a sound sy about “natural rhythm” sustained from the eighteenth- largely committed to innovations in tone color, cast against and nineteenth-century eras of slavery and early colonial new experiments of the beat. encounter. It is what would drive musical innovation in a As with beat knowledge, what we might call the proliferation of genres from the ragtime era onward, provid- Africanization of tone color reorients the orders of perfor- ing a key means by which US black and diasporic African mance, proposing a normative “colored sound” or what musicians affirmed their claim of their own musical forms. Amiri Baraka has called Western music’s “brownish” cast. What is especially important in comprehending this Such tone coloring is pervasive and conspicuous, even if argument of audible Africanity is to recognize how, since we don’t recognize it immediately. Take, for example, the 14 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

tendency for pop singers to employ black, gospel inflections, between black and white. Accordingly, the incompletion of conspicuously present in performances from the Euro Song a racialized economic transaction became the basis of aes- Contest to the American TV show The Voice. We hear it again thetic value, driving an entire history of black and white at major sports events, in so many gospel-inspired rendi- consumptive behavior. Across the twentieth century, the tions of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and yet again in the incompletion or interruption of exchange became a gener- recorded selections routinely played in chain-store coffee ative principle in the production of an essential, black musi- houses such as Starbucks. The “natural voice” of the West— cal character, its racially based inalienability serving as a key and, indeed, of the global metropolis—is an Africanized one, catalyst for a flood of African diasporic creativity. A transat- betraying Africa’s conquering presence resonating globally lantic black sound would variously congeal, again and again, from the flesh of its former conquerors. bringing to form various qualities of racially conceived black musical distinctiveness to satisfy the Africanized tastes of listeners across the West and around the world. e might wonder why this happened in the first We might think of the double character of black mu- place. Why did these intrusions into the norms sical pleasure as a negative formation, by which the W of European music once upholding racial con- white-majority intention of ownership and its deferral es- ceptions of whiteness carry such effect? Why was this Af- tablish the cultural logic of racialized invention. It identi- rican character valued among majority-white populations fies black music not as something equivalent to European that had otherwise devalued the actual lives of black peo- music, but as a creative sound-form that is at once less- ple? This is perhaps black music history’s most critical ques- than, and more-than, “music.” The valuation of black tion, the answers being at once complex and contested. But music as something less-than and more-than “music” de- what seems abundantly clear, at the least, is that the em- velops as part of a greater commodification of culture, its brace of Africanized forms ironically had a lot to do with new and “peculiar” forms circulating a greater beat knowl- black people’s social devaluation. edge that re-ordered the character of listening worldwide In the US, where these patterns first took shape, black as it positioned the right of ownership at the center of music’s claim by white listeners became a way of under- popular aesthetics. Recognizing the logic producing the scoring racial supremacy over what were deemed an in- Africanization of the audible public not only helps us to ferior, “naturally musical” people. The pleasure that white understand the appeal of US black music in European cit- majorities obtained from black music related directly to this ies from London to Paris to Berlin, but also why listeners one-way transaction that sought to affirm white, racial -su in, say, 1930s Shanghai, were drawn to black jazz forms. periority; pleasure aligned with the expropriation of a cul- As the cultural critic Andrew Jones shows in his wonder- tural currency afforded to the music of black people. What ful book, Yellow Music, listeners embraced black forms, to- undermined this tendency, however—and established a sec- gether with their Chinese reinterpretations, according to the same discursive fantasies of race, rhythm, and form that circulated globally along with American bands and commercial recordings. Well before the United States’ The embrace of global dominance after World War II, the world had be- Africanized forms gun to sound distinctly African.

If, indeed, we are all African when we listen, what does it ironically had a mean to listen to African music of the late- and post-colonial eras, to the music produced and enjoyed for over a lot to do with black half century on the Continent? Some appreciation of the collision of musical Africanity and Western racial thought may help us to recognize how best to engage that musi- people’s social cal past, acknowledging the distorting lens of racial representation, by which “Africa” as a sound-world has been devaluation. repeatedly mediated and recast into a veritable fantasy of global sound. That African popular music developing before and after ond, critical dimension of aesthetic pleasure—was the inabil- World War II drew deeply and profoundly from what was ity for white populations to complete the ownership of black an imagined sonic Africa generated in the West is one of the music. Because the blackness of black music was racially de- great ironies of the late colonial and postcolonial eras. But it termined, its exchange to white ownership would never be is this same practice of drawing from the outside that also completed, even when consumers put down money to buy catalyzed the powerful, anticolonial musics accompanying it; such a completion would destabilize the very distinction the formal end of European, colonial regimes. Recordings Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 15 2018 - Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift1948

such as E.T. Mensah’s “Ghana Freedom” (1957) and Joseph Kabaselé’s “Indépendance Cha Cha” (1960), and later, Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s copious oeuvre of “Afrobeat” would not have been heard and understood as they were—(they would not have carried such effervescence, such meaningful significance)—had it not been for the racial fantasy of black music, together with the music’s messy background as a racialized subject of contested and capitalized property brought into form as commercial sound recordings. It is fascinating to consider how these very fantasies are now catalyzing new, popular practices specific to the African continent. A transnational blackness in sound is arising, its manifold productions at once affirming and revising the character of a US- based musical Africanity that had developed out of Africa’s first tragedy—and now, by turns, giv- ing rise through the very same mechanisms of global capital circulation to a new, postcolonial African sound resonating from the cities of Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Kinshasa, and Johannesburg. Finally, we might wonder what of the “real” African music, the precolonial, traditional musics that brought character to the songs of slaves celebrated by W.E.B. Du Bois and that gave rise to the very idea of “black music.” We know of this different music, this music of difference, through a plethora of ethnomusicological field expedi- tions that documented a musical world of great depth and complexity. What about those practices that were evolving dynamically for centuries before all the interventions and mediations of European contact, before the concept of race generated the massive distorting lens of “blackness” itself? For in the success of African aurali- ty’s inadvertent conquering of the West and the global metropolitan at large, so has it seemingly witnessed the occlusion of its own history, relegated to von Bülow’s primitive “beginning.” The very idea of “black music” would appear to mark that loss. And yet, we are faced anew with www.avinomics.com a new set of challenges at the moment when the tombs of colonial archives—in London, Paris, Johannesburg, and, most recently, Berlin’s new Humboldt Forum—are releasing for public consumption the seminal recordings produced at the cusp of the early colonial era. It is a question we’ll want to consider seriously, as the recovery of early recordings enables us to ponder a past with perhaps a greater sense of responsibility. For if it is true that we are all African in certain ways, it will behoove the West to reflect collaborative- ly with the greater African continent in order to consider what it means now to make sound and to listen. □ 16 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

BIGGER PROFITS, SLOWER GROWTH

Extracting value from the information economy by Herman Mark Schwartz

thnonationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-system par- By contrast, the 1960s had robust and relatively equally dis- E ties emerged in wealthy OECD countries three tributed growth that countered—though certainly did not times over the past century—the 1920s, 1960s, and eliminate—other changes in status. Incomes for the male again today. Each of these episodes has complex causes, but ethnonational core population were rising so quickly in the the deepest and most common are related to status anx- 1960s that other challenges to identity receded in impor- iety: fears of diminished social, household, and racial au- tance. Older men could see a clear path forward for their thority on the part of core male ethnonational populations sons and the sons of other men. Lurking behind much po- in European and North American countries. The crumbling litical sloganeering today is an aspiration that harkens back hierarchies of race, gender, and ethnicity in each of these to that optimistic time: How can we get back to more rap- episodes triggered backlashes against immigrants, minori- id and egalitarian growth? ties, and women. But these three episodes of populist uproar did not gain In the area of international economics, addressing slow equal traction. Why? For an economist, the answer lies not growth and inequality requires a correct analysis of just with social dynamics, but rather with the economic those problems’ sources. Contemporary debates about factors driving them: weakening employment and wage slow growth—also known as “secular stagnation”—pit prospects. supply-side arguments about technological exhaustion Today, as in the 1920s, wage growth has been muted in against demand-side arguments about insufficient in- many countries, with specific segments of the male popu- come for the poorer 90 percent of the population. The lation experiencing falling wages. And even where wages American economist Robert Gordon, for example, recent- have risen, the gap between the top, the bottom, and the ly argued that the US economy has exhausted almost all middle has widened. Moreover, growing income inequali- sources of productivity growth that powered the expan- ty has a distinctly regional flavor, with a handful of cities or sion of the US economy in the first half of the twentieth regions experiencing robust growth and others stagnating. century and then spread to the rest of the world in the Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 17

second. In his view, flush toilets mattered much more toward sluggish investment and the limits set on govern- than flashy cell phones ever will. And since there’s noth- ment spending incurred by tax avoidance. ing worth investing in that will yield huge productivity improvements, slow growth is the new normal. This is a ne way corporate inequality can be seen is via the supply-side argument. O measurement of levels of inequality among firms’ But there’s a problem with this, as a tour of any major profits. This is evidenced by something called the research university or the archives of “Technology Surveys” Gini coefficient (named after the early twentieth-century in the Economist will reveal: backlogs of significant inno- Italian statistician Corrado Gini). This standard measure vations are waiting for commercialization. So, why haven’t ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (one firm or person those innovations flowed into the economy? One reason is gathers all income). Sweden has a household income Gini that it takes some time for innovations to radically change of 0.28; Germany, of 0.29; the United States, 0.39; South Af- an economy. The full benefits of the electrification of -pro rica, 0.62. The Gini for cumulative profits of the 2000 largest duction were not felt for roughly fifty years, and they re- firms in the global economy over the past 13 years is 0.69. quired substantial physical and managerial reorganization Because these firms collect roughly one-third of all prof- of production processes. Another reason is the dearth of in- its for the 28,000 global firms with annual revenues over centives for firms to invest in new technologies. The contin- $200 million, the true Gini is likely even greater. This evi- uous-flow assembly line, which required electrification, did dences a profit inequality among firms even higher than not become a pervasive production-format until there was that of households or individuals. But this was not always enough demand in the economy to justify investing in it. the case. Though the Gini for the 1,361 profitable American These reasons point away from the supply-side of the econ- firms in 1960 was similar to today, those firms employed -al omy and towards the demand- or income-side. Demand-side arguments, largely associated with former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, start from a Gini coefficient simple point: the marginal propensity to consume decreas- es as household income rises. In other words, the percent- age of total income a household spends falls as its income Sweden 0.28 rises. And because the rich have a lower marginal propensi- Germany 0.29 ty to consume, rising income inequality leads to less overall consumption. And not just in America: income inequality United States 0.39 has been rising in all the rich OECD countries, albeit at dif- South Africa 0.62 ferent rates. Even Sweden and Germany have pre-tax and transfer-market incomes that resemble those of the United States, which means that robust welfare states can mitigate but not eliminate this market-driven behavior. Like the supply-side arguments, demand-side argu- most a third more US workers proportionately. This raises a ments are also correct but incomplete—in two ways: First, big question: What happened to firms such that this mas- if the top 10 percent or 1 percent of income earners are re- sive inequality of profitability now translates into massive ceiving an increasingly larger share of national income, that income inequality? would explain why consumption might not be growing so The answer, quite simply, is that changes in corporate quickly, since fewer people with more money are buying strategy and structure over the past thirty years have in- less. But if the wealthy are not spending their money buy- creased inequality in the distribution of profits among and ing things, they must be saving it. Yet these increased sav- within firms, and thus in income for households. While this ings are not translating into investment into the creation is a worldwide phenomenon, it is an uneven one, because of new productive capacity, thus accelerating GDP growth. these changes in corporate strategy and structure have not Instead, their capital is flowing into the GDP-neutral pur- occurred uniformly everywhere. chase of existing assets, e.g. stocks and bonds. Still, in the old economy, from roughly 1950 to 1985, Second—and the focus of the rest of this essay—is that profits flowed from control over physical capital deployed arguments about income inequality don’t explain why it in vertically integrated (i.e. everything inside) firms. Mid- has been rising. They look at households but ignore the fact twentieth century firms’ profitability depended on their that households get their income from somewhere, and control over these large fixed physical-capital investments, that somewhere is, generally, firms. Firms do the bulk of and the efficient management of that physical capital. The productive investment. They do so by using current prof- biggest and most profitable firms did most of their pro- its, or by pledging to repay borrowed money out of future duction in-house, and their employee base incorporated profits. Firms are the primary source of income, and the a huge range of ancillary services supporting production. primary generators of net new productive investment. So, Think of General Electric or General Motors or Siemens or in order to understand firms’ role in the creation of broad- Volkswagen in the 1960s. GM employed 600,000 people in er inequality, we need to look at their recent tendencies 1960, and it did, inter alia, its own accounting, cleaning, and 18 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

catering. (The nearest equivalent today would be the diver- labor-headcount IPR firms; physical capital-intensive firms sified industrial giant Samsung.) In the 1960s, 80 percent of producing components or owning real estate; and labor-in- the stock market capitalization of the US S&P 500 was tan- tensive, high-headcount firms that do simple assembly or gible physical assets such as plants and equipment, and big service tasks. This produces an upside-down pyramid of firms like GM and GE captured the bulk of profits. profits and a right-side-up pyramid of workers. The -mo By contrast, today’s “information economy” profits are nopoly position of IPR-owning firms concentrates profits earned from controlling intellectual property rights (IPRs)— into the hands of those firms. The barrier-to-entry created patents, copyrights, brands, trademarks, licensing—de- by big physical-capital investments gives firms in the mid- ployed in vertically disintegrated production chains. IPRs dle more moderate profits. And firms at the bottom have create monopolies, so firms that successfully control IPRs neither a monopoly nor a barrier-to-entry, and so typically in a production chain capture the bulk of profits. This shift make the smallest profits. in strategy and industrial structure drives rising inequality This explains the next step: higher-profit firms pay among firms and individuals because IPR firms do not dis- higher wages, so increased profit-inequality drives in- tribute their monopoly rents over a large workforce. They creased wage and income inequality outside the firm. This, also don’t need to make large investments as compared in turn, underlies the limits on consumption growth, be- to the old economy firms. The firms with the biggest -mar cause high-profit firms employ far fewer workers in aggre- ket capitalization and profitability are those controlling the gate than do the other firms. Microsoft’s 100,000 employees most valuable IPR portfolios. generated cumulative profits during 2005-2016 that were In a significant change in industrial organization, in- roughly equal to the combined one million employees at formation-economy firms largely subcontract everything Volkswagen-Audi, BMW, and Daimler. Foxconn’s one mil- not related to the direct production of their IPRs, includ- lion employees, who assemble much of the world’s elec- ing the physical production of goods, shrinking their em- tronic equipment, generated profits equaling only one-fifth ployee base to the absolute minimum. Apple, for example, of Microsoft’s. employs 90,000 people, but 60,000 of them are contract Profit inequality also limits investment growth. Profit- workers in its retail stores. Apple subcontracts virtually all rich IPR firms don’t need new investment to expand pro- of its physical production to firms like Foxconn that em- duction (in the extreme case, a new MP3 file or copy of iOS ploy cheaper Chinese labor. By 2015, 83 percent of the mar- has zero investment or production costs). Instead, they hire ket capitalization of the S&P 500 was intangible assets, and coders or designers. Firms that do engage in physical pro- Apple collected 3 percent of the cumulative profits of the duction have neither the will nor ability to generate much 600 largest US firms from 2006-2016; Microsoft collected 2.2 net new investment. They lack IPR firms’ outsized profits; percent. These are historically large percentages, and they they find it safer to meet slow growth in demand through drive the very high Gini coefficient for global profits. normal productivity growth. Indeed, Apple had to give The next piece of the puzzle: profit inequality interacts Corning Glass $200 million to induce them to build a new with changing corporate structure to produce income in- factory for the next generation of Gorilla Glass cell phone equality. Integrated firms once internalized production screens. chains; most of the work force involved in production was The conclusion: rising income inequality, and, in turn, legally inside the firm as well as physically inside the facto- secular stagnation, flows from the combination of the ry or other corporate buildings. Cleaners, accountants, en- change in firms’ profit strategies (where profit comes from) gineers, designers, managers, and production workers all and from changes in industrial organization (how profit worked side-by-side and were legally employees of that gets distributed). firm. A firm like GM generated 70 percent of its final -val ue internally. Now, production chains are split among glob- dentifying the corporate roots of inequality and al and domestic supply chains that involve different kinds I stagnation makes it possible to identify better, at- of firms. Indeed, workers from different firms often see- la tainable solutions to those problems and thus to bor side-by-side in the same factory, with contract produc- address the economic roots of the current populist back- tion workers, subcontracted cleaners, external logistics lash they have helped to induce. The solutions fall into four firm-workers, and the factory owner’s employees all rub- groups of actions that should be undertaken by national bing shoulders. In the old factory, unions and the solidarity legislatures, especially the United States Congress. They created by having the same employer tended to redistribute need to: monopoly and oligopoly rents towards workers, and among workers from higher skilled to lower skilled workers. Today, 1) Address the root causes of profit inequality by weaker unions and the fragmentation of workers over mul- strengthening national and global level anti-trust law. tiple employers limit this kind of intra-firm redistribution. In parallel, they also need to reform IPR law, since pat- If most firms were the same, this might not matter. ent and copyright protection is needed to induce in- But firms have also fragmented into three different gen- novation. Currently patents are too easy to receive, eral types. Most value-chains now form a “wedding cake” and they constitute an overly strong barrier to entry. structure, composed of human capital-intensive, small Moreover, copyright lasts well beyond the lifespan of PFIZER_Anz_GetOld_180821_105x280_gb_RZ.qxp_Layout 1 21.08.18 11:51 Seite 1

Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 19 Get Old any author, and currently rewards corporations and heirs.

2) Strengthen workers’ bargaining position. Here, the United States in particular needs a more robust welfare state that guarantees access to healthcare and provides a minimum income. This could be offered in exchange for twenty hours of work in the market or in social services. In the private labor market, brand owners should have legal responsibility for labor practices and wages in their fran- chisees. A higher minimum wage would also boost purchasing power.

3) Fix taxation so that corporate and individual tax-avoidance is more difficult to accom- plish. The OECD has already started on this road, with its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative, which monitors profit-shifting by firms with strong IPR portfolios.

4) Pursue international trade agreements that raise labor standards and work conditions in low-wage competitors. This would broaden markets for high-quality products from advanced economies and help workers in poor- We’re getting er ones.

ll of these initiatives would induce more older, and that’s A labor-saving innovation and investment, which would, in turn, drive growth and good news! validate higher wages across the wealthy OECD economies. But the economy, of course, is easier to fix It’s the little moments that mean so much than people’s attitudes and identities. Changing to us. We would all like to cherish those those, as Max Weber put it, is a process of strong and slow boring of hard boards. Though atti- moments for many tomorrows to come. tudes about race, gender, and sexual identity Pfizer is working around the world to make have shifted significantly over the past half-century, the explosion of overt misogyny and racism this happen. For more than 160 years, we on social media and in the political sphere reveal have been researching and developing in- many hard mental boards that are the basis for planks in anti-system parties. It will probably novative drugs to help people of all ages take a generational change to shrink the residual improve their health and quality of life. population holding those attitudes. Yet the political crisis posed by anti-system parties is already Every day, we make every effort to bring acute. Considering the absence of sustained, suc- our vision to life: working together for a cessful anti-system parties in the 1960s can point us towards economic policy as a better short- healthier world. term response to anti-system parties. These kinds of economic-policy changes—and not mere anti-populist rhetoric—are what will lead to immediate ameliorating effects. □ www.pfizer.de www.landdergesundheit.de 20 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

UNEXCEPTIONAL POLITICS

The impasse of deliberative democracy by Emily Apter

There is nothing more fragmented, interrupted, repet- lockstep, opposed all legislative and diplomatic initiatives, itive, conventional, and contradictory than political from routine committee member nominations to nuclear speech. It never stops breaking off, starting over, nonproliferation agreements with Iran to virtually any me- harping, betraying its promises . . . getting mixed up, liorist environmental legislation or gun control. The expan- coming and going, blotting itself out by maneuvers sion of “conceal and carry” and “stand your ground” laws at whose thread no one seems to be able to find anymore. the very moment of mass shootings; the increase in militias, border militarization, and incarceration without due pro- – Bruno Latour, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, 2013 cess; the failure to prosecute police in the killings of black men, women, and children, along with the impact of movements associated with corrosive ideologies—“corporations resident Obama’s election in 2008 precipitated a are people,” Citizens United, abortion restrictions, “right to hard-right turn in US politics, already in an archcon- work” attacks on organized labor, curtailment of public wel- P servative place after two terms of the junior Bush fare, climate change denial—all contributed to the deathli- presidency. By Obama’s second-term election, a culture of ness of obstruction. venomous incivility, fanned by Tea Party extremism, fur- It goes without saying that governance at a standstill ther encouraged the incessant posturing of the “party of no.” has only been further exacerbated in the era of Trumpism. Partisan voting blocs in Congress and the Senate, acting in Legislative blockage is not only the chronic symptom of Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 21

politics as usual, or the nasty aftereffect of government shutdown and paralysis, but also chan- nels a lethal undertow, a death wish; it tolls the suicidal endgame for deliberative democracy. One thinks here also of Berlusconismo, which the Italian philosopher Paolo Flores d’Arcais associated in the 2011 New Left Review with the destruction of critical independence brought about not by Fascism, but “through the creation of a pensée unique that blends conformism and com- Legal excellence. mercial spectacularization, reducing culture to a form of consumption.” Berlusconismo is distinguished by its variety-show effect and anthemic Dedication to clients. proclamations: with the Ministry of Love or Party of Love, featuring, d’Arcais writes, “rituals of enthusiasm worthy of Ceaucescu, replete with slo- Commitment gans and songs—‘Thank heavens there’s Silvio!’” A political pasquinade, Berlusconismo resorts to the mawkish props of hair transplants and face- to public service. lifts, sexual boasting, and vulgar jokes to distract from the spectacle of counterfeit democracy. By contrast, Merkiavellianism (an expression coined by the late German sociologist Ulrich Beck, in a much-circulated 2012 editorial in Der Spiegel) is a sober affair. Beck attributed the Chancellor’s effectiveness to “a tactical adroitness that might well be deemed Machiavellian,” specifying that

Merkel has positioned herself between the Europe builders and the orthodox adherents of the nation state without taking either side—or rather, she keeps both options open. She neither identifies with the pro-Europeans (whether at home or abroad) who call for binding German commitments, nor does she support the Euroskeptics, who wish to refuse all assistance. Instead, and this is the WilmerHale provides legal counsel to clients Merkiavellian point, Merkel links German in and around Germany’s key financial, political willingness to provide credit with the willing ness of the debtor nations to satisfy the and industrial centers. With offices across the globe, conditions of German stability policies. This we are strategically positioned to provide counsel is Merkiavelli’s first principle: on the subject of German money to assist the debtor on complex international matters affecting your business. nations, her position is neither a clear Yes or a clear No, but a clear Yes and No.

For Beck, Merkiavellianism denotes the art of “deliberate hesitation,” a method of coercion that turns on the constant threat of “withdrawal, de- lay, and the refusal of credit.” Merkiavelli’s “trump card,” said Beck, is actually a “siren call”: “better a German euro than no euro at all.” Of all the lead- Berlin, Friedrichstrasse 95: +49 30 20 22 64 00 ers in Europe, Merkel has proved to be the most Frankfurt/Main, Ulmenstrasse 37-39: +49 69 27 10 78 000 successful in navigating between a punishing austerity policy that violates democratic principle, and a “humanitarian” stance on refugees that BEIJING BERLIN BOSTON BRUSSELS DAYTON DENVER FRANKFURT puts the onus of responding to their dislocation LONDON LOS ANGELES NEW YORK PALO ALTO WASHINGTON DC

on countries like Greece, Italy, and Turkey. Navigating the Local 1999, who called out Trump for “lying his ass off ” -af posts between being feared and being loved, Merkel epit- ter Trump made specious claims about saving jobs at the omizes the stance of what Beck called the “good-natured Carrier plant in Indiana). No “average Joe,” no former beau- hegemon.” ty pageant queen, no building contractor, no newscaster, no A particularist politics that could never be dubbed journalist, no actor nor comedian is too unworthy of pub- good-natured is now named Trumpism. It represents the lic interest to qualify for targeting by the Trumpist jank. The endgame of politics as name-branding, as well as a type of jank-off not only comes close to satisfying the risibility fac- the impolitic associated with “janking,” a term connoting tor of the jank, but underlines the importance of scaling the art of dissing or offending, as in the game “the dozens,” to the art of belittlement and to tumescent states of the or rapping and slamming. “Janking off ” describes Trump’s ego in situations of political contest and phallogocentric incessant jibing and calumniating, specifically, the vicious, competition. Trump’s denunciation of Washington’s stale- viral, Twitter vomit of his lamely derisive adjectives, wea- mate political culture with the phrase, “It is out of control. ponized as cyber-bullying. Trumpist janking derives its en- It is gridlock with their mouths,” invents a strange figure of ergy from hate speech, trolling, and verbal battery. It exults speech that, when one focuses on the mouth of the utterer, in forms of baiting reliant on ad hominem attacks on a per- registers like a warning signal against mouthing off. son’s heritage, race, gender, physical “rating,” character, and Mouthing off, wandering off script to some indefen- body parts, or a worker’s professional integrity (as when he sible position that must be defended for lack of any oth- vilified Chuck Jones, union leader of United Steelworkers er possible strategy is the essence of jank, and it becomes

Trump Rally in Washington, DC, March 4, 2017. Photo: Ted Eytan. Courtesy Creative Commons (Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license) Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 23

consonant with a new meaning of the verb “to trump,” sig- of spirited raillery. Trumpism calls up what the French phi- nifying quite literally the vagaries of disestablished politick- losopher Étienne Balibar discerns in his 2015 book Violence ing, or going rogue. and Civility as the profound violence inherent in civil soci- “Trumping” (close to tromper, to betray or act mistaken- ety, including the “modalities of subjection and subjectifica- ly) describes the strategy of brazenly upping the ante of the tion” in Sittlichkeit (Hegel), such that civility is in fact little counterattack when you are patently at fault. The justice it more than a response “to contemporary extreme violence recognizes belongs to the kangaroo court, where damages from inside extreme violence.” are routinely awarded to plaintiffs who make baseless al- Trumpism inflates the dollar value of its patent with legations of libel and injury. Trumpism in this sense means the trappings of wealth, with garish fashion redolent of the justice flouted, and justice that panders to the caprice of 1980s era of greed: tall buildings, gold fixtures, private jets, the infant sovereign in the ego. Thin-skinned reactions to trophy wives. This plutocratic display is pumped up further criticism or public displays of animosity and grievance are by a litany of jankish hyperboles: “very, very best,” “great,” championed and fully claimed as the tactics of a winner at “tremendous,” “huge,” and so forth. While intended to pro- all costs. Trumpism brings to the public stage a performa- vide ballast to the old doctrines of American exceptionalism, tive incivility, taken in its full measure as a political concept this bombast dissipates into vatic trumpetings. Trumpism— designating extreme impolitesse—improper or uncivilized whose “ism” is keyed to populist autocracy—is identified behavior, uncivic-mindedness, bad manners, and displays with a rogue way of speaking that provides scaffolding for of contemptuous mockery that destroy the fellow-feeling an absent political discourse. The proper name is tauto- logically performative, which is to say, Trumpism trumps public interest by facilitating the decampment of the citizen from the demos to media theaters of depolicitized life. Trumpism lines up on axis with Berlusconismo inasmuch as both qualify as names for oligarchic name-branding, pasquinade, and the mastery of political special-effects. In each case, the proper name erects a fence—a wall—around a motley assortment of personality traits, bait and switch tactics, and crass publicity stunts that supply the playbook of political impasse.

mpasse, then, is perhaps the newest watchword for the contemporary state of politics. Impasse is at once I unexceptional and diffusely traumatic. This is fitting: University of Chicago social theorist Lauren Berlant makes the argument that once trauma is conceived no longer as an exceptional event, and “crisis ordinariness” takes hold as the norm, history becomes little more than an adjustment narrative, in which difficulties are succumbed to or navigat- ed. From this perspective, the extraordinary, she writes in Cruel Optimism (2011), “always turns out to be an amplifi- cation of something in the works, a labile boundary at best, not a slammed-door departure. In the impasse induced by crisis, being treads water; mainly, it does not drown.” Perhaps it is this sense of “small t” trauma that most effectively captures what is at stake in “small p” politics today: from the ordinariness of exceptional crisis and the routinization of habitual politics, to the micropolitics of molecular cultures implanted in the byways of managed life. □

This essay is derived from the Introduction of Unexceptional Politics: On Obstruction, Impasse, and the Impolitic (Verso, 2018).

Trump Rally in Washington, DC, March 4, 2017. Photo: Ted Eytan. Courtesy Creative Commons (Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license) 24 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

REVITALIZING PUBLIC DISCOURSE

Photo courtesy Creative Commons CC0 Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 25

Populism, Trump, and the future of democracy by Michael J. Sandel

hese are dangerous times for democracy. Russia, of establishment political thinking that opened the way to Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and other places that Trump in the US and to right-wing populism in Britain and T once offered democratic hope are now, in vary- Europe. ing degrees, falling into authoritarianism. In the United States, Donald Trump poses the greatest threat to the American constitutional order since Richard Nixon. One might think that Trump’s inflammatory tweets, THE FAILURE OF TECHNOCRATIC erratic behavior, and persistent disregard for democratic LIBERALISM norms would offer the opposition an easy target. Yet for those who would mount a politics of resistance, the outrage Trump provokes has been less energizing than paralyzing. Like the triumph of Brexit in the UK, the election of Trump The opposition has yet to find its voice. was an angry verdict on decades of rising inequality and a There are two reasons for the paralysis. One is the inves- version of globalization that benefits those at the top but tigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump leaves ordinary people feeling disempowered. It was also a campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. But the hope that rebuke for a technocratic approach to politics that is tone Mueller’s findings will lead to the impeachment of Trump is deaf to the resentments of people who feel the economy wishful thinking that distracts Democrats from asking hard and the culture have left them behind. questions about why voters have rejected them at the both Some denounce the upsurge of populism as little more the federal and state level. A second source of paralysis lies than a racist, xenophobic reaction against immigrants and in the chaos Trump creates. His steady stream of provoca- multiculturalism. Others see it mainly in economic terms, tions has a disorienting effect on critics, who struggle to as a protest against the job losses brought about by global discriminate between the more consequential affronts to trade and new technologies. But it is a mistake to see only democracy and passing distractions. the bigotry in populist protest, or to view it only as an eco- The hard reality is that Donald Trump was elected by nomic complaint. To do so misses the fact that the upheav- tapping a wellspring of anxieties, frustrations, and legiti- als we are witnessing are a political response to a political mate grievances to which the mainstream parties have failure of historic proportions: the right-wing populism as- no compelling answer. This means that, for those worried cendant today is a symptom of the failure of progressive about Trump, and about populism, it is not enough to mo- politics. bilize a politics of protest and resistance; it is also neces- In recent decades, the Democratic Party has become a sary to engage in a politics of persuasion. Such a politics party of a technocratic liberalism more congenial to the pro- must begin by understanding the discontent that is roil- fessional classes than to the blue-collar and middle-class ing politics in the US and in democracies around the world. voters who once constituted its base. A similar predicament Moral outrage can be politically energizing, but only if it is afflicted Britain’s Labour Party and led, following its defeat channeled and guided by political judgment. What the op- in the last general election, to the surprising election of an- position to Trump needs now is an economy of outrage, dis- ti-establishment figure Jeremy Corbyn as party leader. ciplined by the priorities of an affirmative political project. The roots of the predicament go back to the 1980s. What might such a project look like? To answer this Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had argued that question, we must begin by facing up to the complacencies government was the problem and that markets were the 26 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

solution. When they passed from the political scene, the Such rethinking should begin with the recognition that center-left politicians who succeeded them—Bill Clinton in these grievances are not only economic but also moral and the US, Tony Blair in Britain, Gerhard Schröder in Germany— cultural; they are not only about wages and jobs, but also moderated but consolidated the market faith. They softened about social esteem. the harsh edges of unfettered markets but did not challenge the central premise of the Reagan-Thatcher era—that market mechanisms are the primary instruments for achieving the public good. In line with this faith, they embraced RETHINKING a market-driven version of globalization and welcomed the PROGRESSIVE POLITICS growing financialization of the economy. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration joined with Republicans in promoting global trade agreements and de- ere are four themes that progressive parties regulating the financial industry. The benefits of these -pol need to grapple with if they hope to address the icies flowed mostly to those at the top, but Democrats did H anger and resentments that roil politics today: in- little to address the deepening inequality and the growing come inequality; meritocratic hubris; the digni- power of money in politics. Having strayed from its tradi- ty of work; patriotism and national community. tional mission of taming capitalism and holding economic power to democratic account, liberalism lost its capacity Income inequality: The standard response to inequality is to inspire. to call for greater equality of opportunity—retraining work- All that seemed to change when Barack Obama ap- ers whose jobs have disappeared due to globalization and peared on the political scene. In his 2008 presidential cam- technology; improving access to higher education; remov- paign, he offered a stirring alternative to the managerial, ing barriers of race, ethnicity, and gender. It is summed up technocratic language that had come to characterize liberal in the slogan that those who work hard and play by the public discourse. He showed that progressive politics could rules should be able to rise as far as their talents will take speak a language of moral and spiritual purpose. them. Alas, the moral energy and civic idealism he inspired as This slogan now rings hollow. In today’s economy, it is a candidate did not carry over into his presidency. Assuming not easy to rise. This is a special problem for the US, which office in the midst of the financial crisis, he appointed -eco prides itself on upward mobility. Americans have tradition- nomic advisors who had promoted financial deregulation ally worried less than Europeans about inequality, believ- during the Clinton years. With their encouragement, he ing that, whatever one’s starting point in life, it is possible, bailed out the banks on terms that did not hold them to ac- with hard work, to rise from rags to riches. But today, this count for the behavior that led to the crisis and offered lit- belief is in doubt. Americans born to poor parents tend to tle help for ordinary citizens who had lost their homes. His stay poor as adults. Of those born in the bottom fifth of the moral voice muted, Obama placated rather than articulat- income scale, 43 percent will remain there, and only 4 per- ed the seething public anger toward Wall Street. Lingering cent will make it to the top fifth. It is easier to rise from anger over the bailout cast a shadow over the Obama pres- poverty in Canada, Germany, Sweden, and other European idency and would ultimately fuel a mood of populist pro- countries than it is in the US. test that reached across the political spectrum—on the left, This may explain why the rhetoric of opportunity fails the Occupy movement and the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, to inspire as it once did. Progressives should reconsider the on the right, the Tea Party movement and the election of assumption that mobility can compensate for inequality. Trump. They should reckon directly with inequalities of power and The populist uprising in the US, Britain, and Europe is wealth, rather than rest content with the project of help- a backlash against elites of the mainstream parties, but its ing people scramble up a ladder whose rungs grow further most conspicuous causalities have been liberal and cen- and further apart. ter-left political parties—the Democratic Party in the US, the Labour Party in Britain, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Meritocratic hubris: The relentless emphasis on creating in Germany, whose share of the vote reached a historic low a fair meritocracy, in which social positions reflect effort in the last Federal election, Italy’s Democratic Party, whose and talent, has a corrosive effect on the way we interpret vote share dropped to less than 20 percent, and the Socialist our success (or the lack of it). The notion that the system Party in France, whose presidential nominee won only six rewards talent and hard work encourages the winners to percent of the vote in the first round of last year’s election. consider their success their own doing, a measure of their Before they can hope to win back public support, pro- virtue—and to look down upon those less fortunate than gressive parties must rethink their mission and purpose. themselves. Those who lose out may complain that the To do so, they should learn from the populist protest that system is rigged, that the winners have cheated and ma- has displaced them—not by replicating its xenophobia and nipulated their way to the top. Or they may harbor the de- strident nationalism, but by taking seriously the legitimate moralizing thought that their failure is their own doing, that grievances with which these ugly sentiments are entangled. they simply lack the talent and drive to succeed. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 27

When these sentiments coexist, as invariably they do, think it through, political parties will have to grapple with they make for a volatile brew of anger and resentment the meaning of work and its place in a good life. against elites that fuels populist protest. Though himself a Patriotism and national community: Free trade agree- billionaire, Donald Trump understands and exploits this re- ments and immigration are the most potent flashpoints sentment. Unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who of populist fury. On one level, these are economic issues. spoke constantly of “opportunity,” Trump scarcely mentions Opponents argue that free trade agreements and immigra- the word. Instead, he offers blunt talk of winners and losers. tion threaten local jobs and wages, while proponents reply Liberals and progressives have so valorized a college that they help the economy in the long run. The passion degree—both as an avenue for advancement and as the ba- these issues evoke suggests something more is at stake. sis for social esteem—that they have difficulty understand- Workers who believe their country cares more for cheap ing the hubris a meritocracy can generate, and the harsh goods and cheap labor than for the job prospects of its own judgment it imposes on those who have not gone to col- people feel betrayed. This sense of betrayal often finds ugly, lege. Such attitudes are at the heart of the populist backlash intolerant expression—a hatred of immigrants, a strident and Trump’s victory. One of the deepest political divides in nationalism that vilifies Muslims and other “outsiders,” a American politics today is between those with and those rhetoric of “taking back our country.” without a college degree. To heal this divide, Democrats Liberals reply by condemning the hateful rhetoric and need to understand the attitudes toward merit and the insisting on the virtues of mutual respect and multicultur- work it reflects. al understanding. This principled response, however, valid though it is, fails to address an important set of questions implicit in the populist complaint. What is the moral significance, if any, of national borders? Do we owe more to our LIBERALS AND fellow citizens than we owe citizens of other countries? In a global age, should we cultivate national identities or as- PROGRESSIVES HAVE pire to a cosmopolitan ethic of universal human concern? SO VALORIZED A These questions may seem daunting, a far cry from the small things we discuss in politics these days. But the pop- COLLEGE DEGREE ulist uprising highlights the need to rejuvenate democratic public discourse, to address the big questions people care THAT THEY HAVE about, including moral and cultural questions. DIFFICULTY Any attempt to address such questions, to reimagine the terms of democratic public discourse, faces a power- UNDERSTANDING ful obstacle. It requires that we rethink a central premise of contemporary liberalism. It requires that we question the THE HUBRIS A idea that the way to a tolerant society is to avoid engaging MERITOCRACY CAN in substantive moral argument in politics. GENERATE.

REVITALIZING PUBLIC DISCOURSE The dignity of work: The loss of jobs to technology and out- sourcing has coincided with a sense that society accords less respect to the kind of work the working class does. As his principle of avoidance—this insistence that economic activity has shifted from making things to man- citizens leave their moral and spiritual convic- aging money, as society has lavished outsized rewards on T tions outside when they enter the public square— hedge fund managers and Wall Street bankers, the esteem is a powerful temptation. It seems to avoid the accorded work in the traditional sense has become fragile danger that the majority may impose its values and uncertain. on the minority. It seems to prevent the possibility that a New technologies may further erode the dignity of work. morally overheated politics will lead to wars of religion. It Some Silicon Valley visionaries anticipate a time when ro- seems to offer a secure basis for mutual respect. bots and artificial intelligence will render many of today’s This strategy of avoidance, this insistence on liberal jobs obsolete. To ease the way for such a future, they pro- neutrality, is a mistake. It ill-equips us to address the mor- pose paying everyone a basic income. What was once jus- al and cultural issues that animate the populist revolt. For tified as a safety net for all citizens is now offered as a way how is it possible to discuss the meaning of work and its to soften the transition to a world without work. Whether role in a good life without debating competing conceptions such a world is a prospect to welcome or to resist is a ques- of the good life? How is it possible to think through the tion that will be central to politics in the coming years. To proper relation of national and global identities without 18_07_freundlich_americanacademy_NEU.indd 1 27.08.18 16:58

Otto Freundlich, »Ascension«, 1929, 200 × 104 × 104 cm (im Vordergrund) und »Composition«, 1933, 230 × 100 × 100 cm (im Hintergrund), Gips, Ort: Jüdisches Museum Berlin (Dauerleihgabe: Galerie Michael Werner), Foto: Andrea Stappert Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 29

asking about the virtues such identities express, and the in what philosophers call “liberal public reason.” The first is claims they make upon us? an economic doctrine, whereas the second is a principle of Liberal neutrality flattens questions of meaning, iden- political morality that insists government should be neutral tity, and purpose into questions of fairness. It therefore toward competing conceptions of the good life. misses the anger and resentment that animate the populist Notwithstanding this distinction, there is a philosoph- revolt; it lacks the moral and rhetorical and sympathetic re- ical affinity between the neoliberal faith in market reason- sources to understand the cultural estrangement, even hu- ing and the principle of liberal neutrality. Market reasoning miliation, that many working class and middle class voters is appealing because it seems to offer a way to resolve con- feel; and it ignores the meritocratic hubris of elites. tested public questions without engaging in contentious Donald Trump is keenly alive to the politics of humili- debates about how goods are properly valued. When two ation. From the standpoint of economic fairness, his popu- people make a deal, they decide for themselves what val- lism is fake, a kind of plutocratic populism. His health plan ue to place on the goods they exchange. Similarly, liberal would have cut healthcare for many of his working class neutrality is appealing because it seems to offer a way of supporters to fund massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Yet to defining and justifying rights without presupposing any focus solely on this hypocrisy misses the point. When he particular conception of the good. withdrew the US from the Paris climate change agreement, The neutrality is spurious in both cases. Markets are not Trump argued, implausibly, that he was doing so to protect morally neutral instruments for defining the common good; American jobs. The real point of his decision, however, its liberal public reason is not a morally neutral way of arriv- political rationale, was contained in this seemingly stray ing at principles of justice. Conducting our public discourse as if it were possible to outsource moral judgment to markets, or to procedures of liberal public reason, has created an empty, impoverished public discourse, a vacuum of pub- TO REINVIGORATE lic meaning. Such empty public spaces are invariably filled DEMOCRATIC by narrow, intolerant, authoritarian alternatives—whether in the form of religious fundamentalism or strident na- 100 cm (im Hintergrund), Gips, Ort: Jüdisches Museum Berlin (Dauerleihgabe: Galerie Michael Werner), Foto: Andrea Stappert

× POLITICS, WE NEED tionalism. 100

× That is what we are witnessing today. Three decades TO FIND OUR WAY of market-driven globalization and technocratic liberalism TO A MORALLY have hollowed out democratic public discourse, disempowered ordinary citizens, and prompted a populist backlash MORE ROBUST that seeks to clothe the naked public square with an intolerant, vengeful nationalism. PUBLIC DISCOURSE. To reinvigorate democratic politics, we need to find our way to a morally more robust public discourse, one that honors pluralism by engaging with our moral disagreements, rather than avoiding them. Disentangling the intolerant as- remark: “We don’t want other countries and other leaders pects of populist protest from its legitimate grievances is no to laugh at us anymore.” Liberating the US from the sup- easy matter. But it is important to try. Understanding these posed burdens of the climate change agreement was not re- grievances and creating a politics that can respond to them 104 cm (im Vordergrund) und »Composition«, 1933, 230 ally about jobs or about global warming. It was, in Trump’s × is the most pressing political challenge of our time. □ 104

political imagination, about averting humiliation. This res- × onates with Trump voters, even those who care about cli- A version of this essay was delivered as the mate change. For those left behind by three decades of Academy’s 2018 Airbus Lecture and draws upon market-driven globalization, the problem is not only wage the author’s “Lessons from the Populist Revolt,” stagnation and the loss of jobs; it is also the loss of social published by Project Syndicate, and “Populism, esteem. It is not only about unfairness; it is also about hu- Liberalism, and Democracy,” published in miliation. Philosophy and Social Criticism (2018). Mainstream liberal and social democratic politicians miss this dimension of politics. They think the problem with globalization is simply a matter of distributive justice; Otto Freundlich, »Ascension«, 1929, 200 those who have gained from global trade, new technologies, and the financialization of the economy have not adequately compensated those who have lost out. This misunder- stands the populist complaint. It also reflects a defect in the public philosophy of contemporary liberalism. Many liberals distinguish between neoliberalism (or laissez-faire, free market thinking) and the liberalism that finds expression

18_07_freundlich_americanacademy_NEU.indd 1 27.08.18 16:58 30 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

OUT OF THIS WORLD

Whence Afro-German Afrofuturism? by Priscilla Layne

he term “Afrofuturism” was first coined by cultural brought to bear on black bodies (branding, forced critic Mark Dery, in his 1994 essay “Black to the Fu- sterilization, the Tuskegee experiment, and tasers T ture,” which described a decades-old cultural and come readily to mind). theoretical phenomenon that had since spanned several countries in the African diaspora. Afrofuturism encom- Articulating the African diasporic experience through passed the space fantasies of jazz artist Sun Ra and the sci-fi science fiction allowed Black musicians, artists, and writ- stories and novels of Octavia Butler, and African diasporic ers to highlight the alienating, inhumane, and otherworldly artists’ engagement with science, science fiction, specula- treatment of Black people throughout history. (I capitalize tive fiction, and fantasy. Dery proposed that African Amer- “Black” because I use it as a political category rather than icans in particular had found solace in engaging in sci-fi a term that suggests separate races exist.) From the out- narratives, whether in literature, music, or film. Consider- set, some of the key questions Afrofuturism has been con- ing the strangeness of African diasporic life, science fiction cerned with are: Who is human? To what extent have Black had become one of the most suitable genres for addressing people been excluded from the category of humanity? How their experiences. Dery writes, does the legacy of dehumanizing Blacks (both in slavery and colonialism) continue to plague Black lives, whether African Americans, in a very real sense, are descendants those of unarmed Black men shot by police in the US or the of alien abductees; they inhabit a sci-fi nightmare in lives of Black migrants who die in the Mediterranean? which unseen but no less impassable force fields of Up until now, much of the scholarship surround- intolerance frustrate their movements; official histories ing these questions has focused on the United States. But undo what has been done; and technology is too often the problem of anti-Blackness is also a German problem. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 31

In February 2017, for example, a damning report about to do with postwar Germany’s commitment to not recog- Germany was issued by the United Nation’s Working Group nizing the constructed category of race. of Experts on People of African Descent, claiming that In the US, citizens are frequently asked to check a box African refugees were regularly faced with racism and vio- indicating whether they are white, Black, Asian, Native lence in Germany. This might come as a surprise, consider- American, or Other. In Germany, no such category exists. ing that, only a year earlier, Germany was praised for taking This does not mean, of course, that race has been a non-issue in post-1945 Germany. Rather, Blackness had become the new parameter according to which Germanness was defined and policed. One especially visible example of this WHITE GERMANS binary thinking was the case of the 5,000 Afro-German children born during the immediate World War II years to HAVE EQUATED German women and African American GIs. Dubbed “Brown Babies,” they aroused fears that their inherent otherness GERMANNESS WITH (their Blackness, not their dual nationality) would make it impossible for them to assimilate. Suggestions were float- WHITENESS SINCE THE ed to have the children adopted by African American families abroad. Barring that, and accordant with paternity EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, laws at the time, children born out of wedlock—as most of these children were—became wards of the state. Many of AND THEREFORE the children were removed from the homes of their biolog- ical mothers and fathers to grow up in orphanages. BLACK GERMANS The generations of Afro-Germans born since then have diverse backgrounds; some are second or third genera- WERE CONSIDERED tion Afro-Germans; some have African American, African, Caribbean, or Afro-European parents. Still, this sociohistor- AN ONTOLOGICAL ical context puts Black Germans in an epistemological bind. Though they have experienced racism, exclusion, harass- IMPOSSIBILITY. ment, and violence motivated by a perceived racial difference, the historical taboo surrounding the term “race” has prevented white Germans from acknowledging such mis- in over one million Syrian refugees. But it is possible to both treatment as racism. Instead, discrimination is often ex- accept Syrian refugees and reject African refugees, if one plained away as an interpersonal singular incident, or as identifies the problem not as xenophobia, but of anti-Black- motivated by xenophobia. But “xenophobia,” of course, re- ness. That bias has a long history, of course, and one that fers to a fear of someone foreign; many Black Germans presages Afrofuturism’s appearance on the scene in German are German citizens, were born and/or raised in Germany, art, literature, and theater in recent years. speak fluent German, and are, as scholar Fatima El-Tayeb claims, quite successfully “integrated.”1 As a result, Black espite a presence in Germany that reaches back Germans suffer from a racism they are not allowed to name. centuries, Black Germans have only in recent de- For decades, Black Germans have approached this di- D cades been acknowledged as a part of the national lemma by attempting to gain recognition for their member- community. Since the 1980s, Black German scholars such as ship in the national community. Over the course of the past May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, Fatima El-Tayeb, and Mar- forty years, autobiographies have been published about the ion Kraft have not only traced the historical documenta- experience of being both Black and German, including by tion of this presence, they have also theorized why white Black Germans born in the Weimar era (Theodor Michael’s Germans have been so invested in ignoring and exclud- Black German: An Afro-German Life in the Twentieth ing Black German history. Scholars have pointed to three Century, 2017), prior to Hitler’s rise to power (Hans-Jürgen main reasons: white Germans have equated Germanness Massaquoi’s Destined to Witness, 1999), following World with whiteness since the eighteenth century, and therefore War II (Ika Hügel-Marshall’s Invisible Woman, 1998) and Black Germans were considered an ontological impossibil- who grew up in East Germany (Gerd Schramm’s Wer hat ity, labeled with derogatory monikers such as Mohr or Neg- Angst vorm schwarzen Mann, [Who’s Afraid of the Black er. Second, though there have been several movements led Man] 2011). Additional volumes are published each year, of- by Black Germans who wished to be recognized as mem- ten with titles that focus on the author’s otherness. Faced bers of the national community—including during the Wei- with a German public that has long tried to erase or obscure mar Republic and, later, in the 1980s—their relatively small number made it difficult to achieve the kind of critical mass 1 Fatima El-Tayeb, “Blackness and its Queer Discontents,” in Re- mapping Black Germany: New Perspectives on Afro-German History, necessary for a political movement to garner broader atten- Politics and Culture, edited by Sara Lennox (Amherst: University of tion. Third, part of Black Germans’ structural invisibility had Massachusetts Press, 2016), 243-259. 32 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

a Black presence, Black German autobiographical texts of- Ayivi (First Black Woman in Space, 2016). Increasingly since ten function as an act of declaration that demands recog- the mid-2000s, in fact, a young generation of Afro-Germans nition of Black German subjects. Throughout the twentieth has turned increasingly towards the Afrofuturist modes of century, the act of claiming German subjectivity has been science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy. This is -per an important speech act claiming a more inclusive defini- haps because of all of the dangers facing Black people across tion of German identity not based on whiteness. the West:—police brutality, the prison industrial-complex, Even though white Germans have become more com- hate crimes, necropolitics—sad developments that evince fortable with and accepting of Black Germans, in the current a world where it is difficult for Black life to exist. The ques- political moment—plagued by anxieties about globalization tion of whether or not Black lives will matter in the future is and migration—this acknowledgment is not enough to bat- a concern not just for African Americans, but also for Black tle anti-Black racism in Germany. While Black German auto- people in Germany, where anti-Blackness enters public dis- biographies may testify to the ways in which Afro-Germans cussions in the form of neo-Nazi violence, mistreatment of can be accepted as part of the national community, their Black refugees, and the disregard for Black life lost in the existing status as ethnic German citizens might be what Mediterranean. A Berlin chapter of Black Lives Matter was makes such acceptance more feasible. This is not the case founded in late 2017. for the other Black people in Germany— immigrants, asy- lum seekers, and refugees. The prime imaginative mover of Afrofuturist sentiment glob- The consideration of how the status of citizenship can ally is creating a world beyond earth that is safe for Black impact anti-racist activism has also affected the Black people, especially because so many representations of the German community at large. While much of the early Black future have been populated solely by white people. Sun Ra German activist work in the 1980s and 1990s concentrat- (neé Sonny Blount), one of the first Afrofuturist artists, not ed on the experience of Afro-Germans or Germans with only claimed to be from Saturn, but in his landmark film one white German parent and one parent who is from the Space is the Place (1974), he envisioned that he would take African Diaspora, in recent years this focus has widened to African Americans and Latin@s away from the racism and include Black people in Germany who may not be citizens oppression of the United States on a space ship. Over forty and not ethnically German. This shift can be seen, for exam- years later, his message has not lost its relevance. African ple, in the decision by the organization Initiative Schwarze diasporic artists and intellectuals are rethinking our con- Deutsche (Initiative of Black Germans) to change its name cept of the world, and to what extent our current world, to the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland whether that refers to earth, a specific country, or a spe- (Initiative of Black People in Germany). This purposeful in- cific neighborhood, might be deadly for Black people. In clusion of all Black people in Germany in Black German ac- Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates envisions that tivism acknowledges, firstly, that the problems of racism do his childhood neighborhood of West Baltimore was a sep- not only affect Black German citizens, and, secondly, that arate “world,” subjected to different laws of gravity and the way in which non-citizen Blacks are dehumanized in force than the world inhabited by white Baltimoreans. Vi- anti-immigrant political rhetoric can affect Black German sual artists like African American Nick Cave and Nigerian citizens. That’s the poison of blunt racism: it does not dis- Yinka Shonibare create statues of “soundsuits” and “Afro- criminate. This is why scholar Peggy Piesche proposes the nauts,” respectively, suggesting that Black people need a possibility that “. . . citizenship for Black (Germans) and POC special protective covering to shield them from toxic at- remains a mirage.”2 mospheres on earth. In the beginning, theorization of Afrofuturism was ngaging with Afrofuturism has been one strategy closely tied to African American culture, owing to the im- Afro-German artists have relied upon to provide mense trauma of slavery that looms particularly large. But E new, liberating representations of Black people, to this model does not necessarily work when discussing Black expose structural racism, rewrite the past, explore the fu- European Afrofuturism, which typically locates its African ture, and to try out alternative, more hopeful worlds in their diasporic roots in postwar migration, whether American art—from the “Afronauts” painting cycle (1999), by Daniel soldiers occupying Germany, African immigrants traveling Kojo Schrade, and the poetry of Philipp Khabo Köpsell, to to Europe to study or work, or African refugees fleeing for the prose of Sharon Dodua Otoo, in the novella Synchronic- economic and political reasons. And so, as the future draws ity (2014) and her Ingeborg-Bachmann-Prize-winning short closer every day, it is worth asking what in Afrofuturism story “Herr Gröttrup setzt sich hin” (“Herr Gröttrup Sits particularly appeals to contemporary Afro-German au- Down,” 2016), to the plays of Olivia Wenzel (Mais in Deutsch- thors and artists, and what kinds of interventions might land und anderen Galaxien [Corn in Germany and Other Gal- they be trying to make into the Afro-German archive and axies], 2015, and We are the Universe, 2016) and Simon Dede the German discourse on race by way of Afrofuturism. If we can understand more clearly what they are doing, and why, maybe we can then understand how Afro-German 2 Peggy Piesche, “Towards a Future African Diasporic Theory: Black Collective Narratives Changing the Epistemic Map,” Afrofuturism is a way to break entrenched binary ways of frauen*solidarität 1 (2006): 24. thinking about race, culture, and identity. □ OPEN HOUSE FOR OPEN MINDS.

Opened on 27/09/2018

A unique space that connects and excites: the PalaisPopulaire. Where art, culture and sports meet. Where people from all over the world enter into conversation. Look forward to extraordinary exhibitions and inspiring events.

Unter den Linden 5, 10117 Berlin www.db-palaispopulaire.com

180829_DeuBa_PP-Opening_AZ_BerlJournal_210x280_RZ-Korr_39L300.indd 1 29.08.18 12:07 FEATURES New Work by Academy Fellows and Friends

Truckstops on the Information Superhighway by Tung-Hui Hu 36

The Young Man Who Sells Antiques by Jesse Ball 40

Becoming a White Man in the Theater by P. Carl 44

Artist Portfolio Lucy Raven text by Pavel S. Pyś 46

The Origins Myth by Fred M. Donner 54

The Absent Epic by Haun Saussy 57

World Literature by Martin Puchner 60

Mobilizing Fear by Carina L. Johnson 64

The Laws of War by Peter Holquist 68

Perm-36 by Joshua Yaffa 72

Secular Sacred Groves By Jared Farmer 76

The Holbrooke Forum Digital Diplomacy By Corneliu Bjola 78

Lucy Raven, still from AO, work in progress, 2018 36 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 TRUCKSTOPS ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Epistles from a prehistory of the cloud

by Tung-Hui Hu

n 1970, the same year that were absorbed by the thought that computer scientist John McCarthy cars and vans could be used to create asked whether home computer a new information network. networks could lure TV viewers Ant Farm’s “Truckstop Network” Iaway from the tube with alternative was born of the idea that one might sources of information, a modified reverse the dreary flow of information Chevrolet van hit the road. Equipped (and, arguably, propaganda) pumped with a clear plastic bubble, antenna, into peoples’ homes by ABC, NBC, and TV window, silver roof-mounted CBS by taking information into one’s speaker domes, and a dashboard own hands. Excited by the potential camera, the van bore a striking resem- of the new Portapak handheld video blance to a B-52 bomber. For the next camera, Ant Farm began to experiment year, this peculiar vehicle would be the with programming their own video home of the experimental architecture feed. Enter the Media Van: on a year- collective Ant Farm, a group perhaps long tour through colleges and other best known for their 1974 artwork points of interest, they shot video Cadillac Ranch, which buried ten of “dancing chickens, an okra farmer, antique Cadillacs nose-first in a Texas a ground-breaking in Scottsdale, wheat field, their distinctive tailfins aspiring pop singer Johnny Romeo angled skywards. First, though, they belting out a ballad in the Yale School Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 37

of Architecture . . .”, to quote curator “like food and gas, as nutrients neces- California deserts where they set up Steve Seid. If commercial television sary for survival.” inflatable structures—the Truckstop refused to broadcast these images, Indeed, the computer aspect was nodes would be connected by the their souped-up Media Van would essential to this plan: not only would simplest yet most robust piece of bring the network directly to the it link all the planned truck stops, Cold War infrastructure, the interstate audience’s door. or “nodes,” in Ant Farm’s parlance, highway. And by placing the nodes For Ant Farm, as for many citi- into a nationwide “communication at the side of the highway, it was zens’ video groups, radical liberation network,” but it would also direct possible to build an existence where movements, environmentalists, gue- the visitor to the services available at the journey was the destination, and rilla television activists, Yippies, and where the motion of the network McLuhanite experimenters, the late was the point of the network. Cars 1960s and early 1970s became a test Truckstop traveling between the nodes thus bed for questions that would preoc- Network was more became packets; remaining in constant cupy network culture: If you could than an extended motion, each packet would not stop at design a two-way, “feedback network,” road trip; it one node for long before traveling to could you even out the structures of another node—in other words, “pack- power and create a more participatory was also an et-switching,” the technology that the media environment? And if you could investigation into internet now uses to route and deliver change the media, would its viewers the possibilities packets of information from one end see differently? These are large ques- of mobile living. of the world to the other. Without a tions, but ones that have inevitably centralized node (although at one lost their potency over time, because point Ant Farm envisioned a central so many of these structures have come other truck stops—a wood-working computer to direct traffic), the network into fruition: viewers feed back images shop, or astrology lessons, for exam- would constantly move information and videos to television shows all the ple. Truckers could be sent to other from point to point while avoiding the time, as with citizen-generated videos nodes via several highway directions; concentration of information in any and tweets that regularly air on the a placemat passed out to audiences one place. Moreover, the nodes were evening news, and YouTube has be- on the Ant Farm tour maps several of cheap, inflatable, and flexible. In effect, come an even more eclectic repository these cross-country routes, including Ant Farm had envisioned an anarchic, for images than cable ever was. the “Overland Route” (Chicago to Salt distributed network for mobile living. We take distributed networks, Lake City to the San Francisco Bay) and their properties, such as two-way and the “Sunset Route” (Los Angeles e may be tempted to interaction, for granted. As Yale art to New Orleans). On the flip side of the dismiss this plan for historian David Joselit reminds us, placemat, a star identifies potential “mobile living” as so while video and community-access Cold War surplus sites that could be much New Age artist cable may be a “cautionary tale re- reused as nodes, an act of reappropri- Wcant. But Truckstop Network articulat- garding the internet’s claims as a site ating what Mark Wasiuta describes as ed an idea of mobility that would soon for radical democracy,” it is an embar- the nation’s “expanding computerized profoundly shape the internet. For the rassing lesson to learn, particularly military network and its underground first internet protocol was designed given how quickly those technologies command centers.” A sketch for one to solve a very similar problem: while became commercialized and assimilat- of these sites, identified as a former there was an existing computer net- ed into the system of power they once desert missile silo near Wendato (likely work, known as ARPAnet, it consisted claimed to subvert. Wendover, Utah), contains plans to of fixed links that connected bunker- But Truckstop Network was more transform layers of the silo into various sized computers. Military planners than an extended road trip; it was also layers for maintaining software (film/ envisioned a more flexible system for an investigation into the possibilities video) and hardware (auto/bus), all soldiers on the move, and commis- of mobile living. Standing on the hinge wired via a solar dish to its nervous sioned researchers at the Stanford between auto window and computer system/core. Research Institute (SRI) to experiment window, it proposed a countrywide For Ant Farm, the interconnec- with mobility. Though there is no network of truck stops for “media tions turned each node into what they evidence that SRI’s engineers saw any nomads.” Placed just off the highway, referred to as a “physically fragmented of Ant Farm’s media productions, they each truck stop would offer an array . . . ‘city’” of media. Distributed across nonetheless shared a similar vision: of services for those living on the road: the country in places where “land is media would need to be produced and housing, electricity, and water; truck cheap and codes are lax in between consumed on the road. repair and a communal kitchen; but the cities”—one thinks of the arid For SRI’s engineers, this meant also communications services—com- field in Amarillo, Texas, where they retrofitting a “bread truck”-style van to puters and video equipment—seen, executed Cadillac Ranch, or the test the difficulty of broadcasting and 38 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

receiving network signals on the move. itself, simultaneously decentralized story of how the leopard got its spots. They wanted to see if, for instance, and yet an infrastructure from the Even the story of SRI’s test contains their packet radio connection would Cold War—remained. many other interwoven threads. As remain intact if the van went under It is unknown whether the video the van’s driver, protocol engineer a highway overpass. (Packet radio is freaks and the network engineers Jim Mathis, describes, its final stop an early version of today’s cellular driving in Portola Valley rubbed shoul- was chosen because it was a “‘hostile networks.) Rigged on the inside with ders over a beer, though Ant Farm did environment’—in keeping with rele- a DEC LSI-11 computer and two packet visit the Xerox PARC computer archives vance to military application.” Mathis radio transmitters, the SRI van ran its in the early 1970s, to research an up- continued, “This was the parking lot of first successful test in August 1976, six coming exhibition. Some contact is Ross[o]tti’s biker bar in Palo Alto, still years after Ant Farm’s own media van. certainly possible; after all, there was well in reach of the repeater units at The test was of a protocol that would a rich relationship between the Mt. Umunum and Mission Ridge—and bridge the aerial network—the Packet counterculture and computer scien- with a good supply of local bikers Radio Network, or PRnet—with the tists of the San Francisco Bay Area. For who gave the appearance of hostility ground-based ARPAnet. The inter- instance, the former Merry Prankster after the requisite number of beers.” network they built was a way of allow- Stewart Brand became the publisher There’s a knowing wink here at the ing a highly mobile, even ethereal of the seminal Whole Earth Catalog—a need to keep up appearances with the network—packet radio—to tap into a kind of freewheeling World Wide Web project’s military sponsors, even as the pre-existing, fixed network infrastruc- in print that inspired the hobbyists van contained several other projects, ture. It was the first time two disparate who founded the Berkeley Homebrew including a computer program for computer networks were bridged, and Computer Club, and, in turn, catalyzed encoding speech run by the “Network as a result, it is considered the first in- the development of the personal Speech Compression and Network ter-network, or internet, transmission. computer. But tracing a direct link Skiing Club,” that reflected a more The two media vans soon went between the two groups is largely utopian heritage within SRI of using into storage: SRI’s to a forgotten back beside the point, because it only computers to augment human capabil- lot; Ant Farm’s to a bunker in Marin reinforces our popular imagination of ities. SRI’s engineers placed a Mickey County, California. But the inter-net- technologies as inventions developed Mouse phone inside its van to test this working protocol SRI tested in 1976, through scientists working in their program over the packet network; this TCP, would cement the growth of what labs, government funders responding research in digital speech resulted in would be christened the “internet” in to policy dictates, or entrepreneurs the decidedly unmilitary Speak & Spell 1983, and the networks’ shapes would who stumble upon overlooked needs. toy for children. resemble the possibilities—the free- What that story misses is how tech- In their specificity, in their dom of the road; a constantly moving, nology is always shaped by wider improvisatory strangeness, the trans- physically fragmented existence— debates and structures of thought missions of a Mickey Mouse phone or once offered by the highway. For its embedded in culture—and why we a dancing chicken from a media van part, Ant Farm’s “information super- need to study not just inventions in rub against the grain of universalist highway” had articulated a new kind their narrow moment of realization claims for what media or technology of lifestyle, where media processors but the cultural and aesthetic prob- do. Yet these weird and unexplainable could go mobile, feeding information lems that recur throughout time. moments offer the potential for an (often in the form of video) back into Let me offer an example. We alternate, reparative reading of inter- the cloud. Even the shift from the typically read that ARPAnet and the net culture. A few miles down from media of the van to digital media was internet were “invented” by the US Rossotti’s, you could buy a catalog not a particularly hard one to envision. military as a way of creating com- containing Ant Farm’s latest inflatable On one drawing of Truckstop Network, munication links that could survive architecture projects or video sche- Ant Farm mused that: a nuclear strike. But if we subscribe matics from Brand’s “Whole Earth to this story’s world view, then the Truck Store,” a physical precursor to “EVENTUALLY WE WILL ABANDON imagined network that we come away the Whole Earth Catalog. It is hard PHYSICAL MOVEMENT FOR TELE- with is the deeply paranoid vision of to resist the conclusion that the first PATHIC/CYBERNETIC MOVEMENT today: a global system where all nodes node on the inter-media network was (TELEVISION) AND OUR NETWORK are seemingly connected, and thus a truck stop, or, in the case of SRI, a WILL ADAPT TO THE CHANGE.” fertile ground for conspiracy theories; biker bar. an insecure world of kill switches No matter that American highway cul- and malicious actors and “mutually A vigorous debate about power ture itself had begun to decline due to assured cyberdestruction,” against and the centralization of networks was the oil crisis. The potentialities that the which we are told to defend ourselves. in the air in the late 1960s and early highway once represented—the idea In truth, that narrative of military in- 1970s. Computer scientists, sociol- of the highway without the highway vention is a just-so story, like Kipling’s ogists, urban planners, government Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 39

bureaucrats, privacy advocates, epidemiologists, and, of course, the aforementioned video artists were keenly aware of the centralizing tendencies of networks. At a congressio- nal hearing on privacy in 1966, these experts asked what might happen if the new computer network became a “natural monopoly” like the electricity or telephone companies and began

The transmissions of a Mickey Mouse phone or a dancing chicken from a media van rub against the grain of universalist claims for what media or technology do. to concentrate our personal data into data centers. They spoke to a receptive audience; the congressmen likely thought of FCC commissioner Newton Minow’s earlier warnings about the “concentration of power in the hands of the networks” in a speech decrying the “wasteland” of television programming. Though the companies are different now, these questions remain stubbornly relevant to our present day. By taking the literal technology out of the picture, we can better see the various networked imaginaries before HERE Technologies they were solidified in place as the internet—and perhaps that can help believes in the power us imagine life after it. □

This essay is derived from Tung-Hui of location data to Hu’s 2015 book A Prehistory of the Cloud, published by The MIT Press. transform lives. Reprinted with permission.

From autonomous driving to the Internet of things, we are building the future of location technology that enables people, businesses and cities to build a better world for everyone. Find out more at here.com

Fiction by Jesse Ball

Dermot More, was a I worked at the antique store every seller of antiques, which day. It is a special store. The rules of is to say that I was lucky the store are, it is open when I am enough to work in an there, or when the old man is there, I, antique store, and to have and if we are there we will sell you obtained some knowledge something if you want to buy it and about the past, and about the things if we like you. We try to be there as of the past, enough knowledge at much as possible. It is a store where least to allow me to speak on behalf sales are rare. We might sell one item of these objects, and convince cus- per day. That would be pretty good. So, tomers to buy what would otherwise a lot of the time we sit around, the old be mere curiosities, but which, man and I, or the old man sits alone or after careful description, become I sit alone, and no one comes in at all. necessities. A home must be filled But, there is a light on! There is the with meaning, I always say—and street with its bent black metal light- some of it must come from your life. posts and the narrow glass windows But some may come from the lives of the shops, and at the end, our shop, of others. Admit that light, if you with its light on—and you may come are brave enough. That is one of my in if you like. If you do, if you did— pitches. then we would perhaps say nothing at Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 41

Image courtesy Creative Commons CC0 42 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

all to you. You’d come in and the door which are many and grand, has In the midst of this fine broadcast, would shut softly behind you. reached such an age that they go the door opened and shut. There in the Ahead you would be confronted nowhere and see no one. They are shop was a young man in an overcoat. by a series of beautiful cabinets. Each huddling against the warmth of their I did not look at him. He went up and cabinet has on the outside a thin and final moments. This gives the street down the aisles for some period of perfectly painted script and written in some of its old-fashioned charm. time and finally approached me. that thin and perfectly painted script He stood near me and I sat, look- a set of words, and described by those How do I remember the days? ing fixedly at the table. I did not move words, the contents of the cabinet. You Whenever anyone asks me this, I say— my gaze from a small point there, a may purchase the contents if you like, I do not know what day it is. I never do. small point there on the table. It is and you may ask to have the cabinet But I always remember what I sold. And an old piece of furniture, and there opened if you like. You may also open 24 days ago, the thing that I sold was: are many pits and cracks. Perhaps the cabinet if you like. The key is ac- a red bird. two-thirds of the way across, there tually in the lock waiting to be turned, It was a painted bird, very small. is a sort of stamped depression, and and that stands for every one of the The bird was made from wood. It was within the depression, a coin-shaped 64 cabinets. carved from several notched pieces scratch. That is the place that I often At our antique shop, we have 64 that fit together without glue. The style look at when I wait for customers to cabinets, and each one contains an of the bird was this: it was a stylized go far far out of their way in order antique that may be purchased. When bird. A bird, for instance, would not to get my attention. Although I can’t one is bought, we replace that with recognize it (the antique) as a bird, say for sure that I was looking at another antique from our stores. Those even were the [painted] bird to be made that spot, I am nearly positive that I antiques that are not in cabinets may alive (which, of course, is impossible). was. It is the only spot for a time like not be bought, not for any price. This is The bird was rounder than birds that. Perhaps for other employees of the understanding that exists between are, and the beak was pointy in a the shop there could be a different ourselves, the antique shop propri- needle-like way. The eyes were large spot on the table, but for me, no. I etors, and the antiques themselves. and oval and not as precisely placed discovered that point on the very first They must wait their turn. as an actual bird’s eyes would be. By day I was employed, and have used it Of course, I am taking quite a bit this I do not suggest that there is a effectively ever since as a sort of stoic on myself by saying I am one of the moment wherein someone places an cloak that keeps the respectability of proprietors. In fact, I am a sort of actual bird’s eye. I know that no one the shop unblemished. glorified servant. I serve in the antique does that. Case number 53 holds the Anyway, the young man stood shop only at the behest of the actual red bird. The bird is made of wood there, and listened to the radio owner and his wife, either of whose and covered in paint. What is special broadcast for a little while. The music displeasure would immediately and about the red bird has to do with the stopped, and there were just Russian paint. Twenty-four days ago, I sold the voices coming out of the little box. red bird to a young man. This is how At some point, the voices began to it went: laugh, and the young man laughed too. a young man entered the store at Don’t you think it’s funny? he  about one in the morning. I was sitting asked me. That was quite a joke. in the window listening to a radio Can I help you? I asked this young permanently disqualify me. At such broadcast on a small table-radio set. man. Either it was nonsense—he did a time, I would be given a little sack The radio broadcast was an afternoon not know Russian, or he did. Either he with some payment and sent off. concert in a Moscow home, chamber thought the joke was funny, or he did Although this has never happened, I music. I believe the concert had been not. Either his remark was, in absolute have often imagined it happening, as held some fifty years ago. The broad- essence: I am a person of interest, I sit through the late hours of the night cast was exceedingly pleasant and please believe me, or it was, together in the window of the antique shop. delivered everything one would want we share having heard X where X is a Part of the charm of the antique from such a broadcast. Occasionally joke made by a now-dead musician. It shop is that the proprietor of the there were interviews in Russian, might as well be accepted as the latter, antique shop, or the attendant, if you which were pleasant to the ears of I suppose. Shouldn’t we always enjoy will, sits in the very window where he one like myself, who does not speak the finest world we can? Even if it is in may be observed by anyone going up Russian. Above all, I hate hearing parts shattered and imaginary? and down our little street. Of course, stupid things said in my own language, I would like to look at one of the no one ever does go up or down that and so I much prefer to hear people cabinets. Which one, I said. Any of street. The only reason would be to speak languages I do not understand. them, he said. Number fifty-three, I come to the antique store. Everyone That way, I can receive their fellowship said, holds the red bird. I would like who lives in the houses of the street, without noticing their delusions. to see it, then. Come with me. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 43

We went down the aisle to questions to the paint that has been The young man made a short number 53. The cabinets are not in used to cover the bird. sharp whistle. If I hadn’t been watch- order. The first thing one has to do I opened the cabinet. ing him, I would have suspected a as an attendant in the antique store Very good, he said. Very, very good. bird had come into the shop. Indeed, is to learn the order of the cabinets. The price is? even looking at him, it was no longer Equally, one could say, it is never Considerable. so clear—was he a bird dressed as a important to know the order of the I will pay with a check. But first, man? Oh, I’m just joking with you now. cabinets, as that knowledge can never let me ask you: the paint . . . I know very well that he was just an once actually be put to use—or never My friend, we do not simply sell antique-buyer. is. All the same, we attendants like these objects. You must, of course, in So, he taught you to whistle like to pride ourselves on knowing the one way or another, apply to purchase a bird? numbers. By that I mean, when I have them. In this case, please, if you don’t He did, and then this. thought about a conversation that I mind, explain to me why you should The young man pulled down the would have with other attendants, of like to be the owner of this bird. collar of his coat to show me a scar which there are none (there is only A note here about the antique shop: that ran across the side of his neck. the proprietor and myself), I have the owner has sufficient wealth to live I was shot once, while sitting on often considered little in-jokes and until his death. He does not require the lawn of my uncle’s house. I was statements that we might make in more. The shop is merely a way for him shot while whistling. perfect confederacy of understanding. of interacting with the world. As such, We sat there for a moment and I One of these involves the necessity he will only permit his goods to go to felt that it would be acceptable to sell of understanding the order of the worthy purchasers. This was impressed this young man the red bird. cabinets. I can draw a map at any upon me thoroughly at the time of You ask about the paint, I said. I time of the cabinets and also write my job examination. What is the ideal cannot go on record speaking about out verbatim all the descriptions of customer? was met with my answer (of the paint, but I will say this about it: the cabinet contents. I can do that not which I am rightfully proud): such a red paint: were one to imagine only for the current collective offering how such a paint might be obtained, of the shop, but for every collective The ideal customer is the actual one would think thusly: offering that we have made in the last owner of the object, who is a thief would have to be employed five years. We attendants do not be- chronologically displaced from to sneak into cathedrals all throughout lieve this to be a special skill or even his ownership. It is our job Europe and take the long preserved notable, and I do not tell you this now to bring these time-periods relics of 16 or 17 saints. Those relics in order to brag, but merely in order into alignment. would have to be brought to a secret to be clear about what the job entails, place and ground up along with the should you consider applying for it, We, therefore, attempt to inves- rusted metal of a train wheel that had or for another job like it. I say that, tigate the character and rationale of crushed a man. Then the mixture must but I don’t believe there is another job our customers, especially by asking be laid out on a thin pan for years on like it. Although I am not vain about them to speak. As example, I bring the a rainless mountain peak where now myself, I am certainly prideful about young man’s speech from the red-bird and again a sovereign lidded cloud the shop. It is simply the greatest sale, which went something like this: passes over failing ever to look down. antique shop there has ever been. There is a story, said the young man, If there were such a red color as No shop of any sort comes close to it. that is told about me by my grandfather. this, I said, it is in such a way that it Enough about that. Also, I am The story was told by him before I was might be made. We take no respon- forced to take back the final part of born, and he continues to tell it to this sibility for the regrettable thefts that that paragraph as it breaks the rules of very day. Here it is: have been reported now these many composition. I who have not been in he says that a child who whistles years, and we are sorry to hear that every shop in the world cannot say it like a bird is always in danger of being the great cathedrals of Italy have truthfully. I will restate: to this poor shot, whether in a house or out in the scarcely a relic left to rub between attendant of an antique shop who has woods. He says that he has both been them. Nonetheless, I offer to you this scarcely gone anywhere on the globe, this child (been shot), and been the fine red bird. You say you will pay it appears to be an unquestionable fact one who has shot the child. He says with a check? that the very antique shop in which he that under no circumstances should I wrapped the bird in a fine white labored is the finest in the land. children be taught to whistle, and if cloth and then in another of thicker I led the man to the fifty-third they are taught to whistle, then they silk and then another of wool and cabinet. should never never be taught to whis- finally a coarse canvas. Before I open this cabinet, I must tle like a bird. Of course, my grandfa- That was the sale of the red bird. □ tell you, I said. The bird is non-notable. ther taught me when I was very young Please confine your comments and how to whistle just like a bird. 44 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 BECOMING A WHITE MAN IN THE THEATER

by P. Carl

ast year, the online criticism is dominated by white men. does well-paid artistic directors, platform Howlround I help This is especially true of the first-line executive directors, curators and to run published an article theater critics in many cities and, of all kinds of other gatekeeper types by a group of distinguished course, in New York. Also, the idea that in the cultural universe, which Lwomen—theater practitioners and structural bias exists is hardly new. In explains why some say we/they scholars—about the inherent bias in fact, we have an entire country strug- react defensively . . . to any grass- criticism in American theater that is gling with this issue right now. Further, roots rebellion. primarily written by white men. The that there is a thing called “patriarchy” article was not a personal attack on didn’t seem that radical to me either. For Jones and others, it is interest- any single individual; it states quite But 252 online comments later, I ing that democratization feels like a clearly: “The complaint is not per- saw that it was. Many white male form of rebellion rather than a way of sonal; in other words: it is structural. commentators responded defensively. being inclusive. When we dare to point Individual critics are ‘not the enemy.’” Chris Jones, a leading Chicago the- out structural bias and to question The article then implores, “We need a ater critic, responded in the Chicago the professional establishment, we more expansive and informed notion Tribune, further contemplating the are performing acts of consciousness. of how critics come to decide what is pitfalls of the democratization of the When we choose to refer to acts of ‘good,’ and a more honest conversation arts, asking ultimately how he and consciousness as acts of rebellion, the about why ‘good’ is often associated other gatekeepers will get paid if demand for democratization gets too with plays by and about white men.” everyone can have an opinion about easily reduced to personal attacks, and As someone who was part of the what is “good”: can be dismissed as lacking empathy. conversation to publish the piece, I The demand for democratization isn’t didn’t think this was such a radical Alas, this new radical democrati- rebellious, but rather our responsibility provocation. We know that the field of zation threatens critics, just as it as citizens—to push our field to be Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 45

more representative of the America bring my orange juice and gave me it. In this universe, is it any surprise we live in. The “gatekeeper types” have free breakfast the rest of the week. I that white men would step in to lead represented a small and exclusive part went into a store to buy a suit jacket the way as arbiters of art (as critics of our democracy and we must be the following week in Boston and had and artistic directors)? They so fully challenged, and we don’t have to react several male employees try to help trust their point of view, of course they defensively. Rather, we might have to me. (I have a long history of buying would think it valid and informed and feel the precariousness that women men’s clothes before the transition, open-minded. This field is filled with and trans people and people of color and good luck getting anyone to look misogyny. I couldn’t see this as clearly know so very well. at you!) When I went to pay, the clerk until I stopped sitting in its way. asked me if the jacket was on sale his has been for me an and I said no. He let me know that it I see the current mess we’re in—this inexplicable year of seeing would likely go on sale so he would radical moment where we no longer the world in a completely just give me half off. Other white men accept certain truths about art as different way: I have gone treat me in an entirely different way. conveyed to us by the gatekeepers—as Tthrough a gender transition. I joined It’s a strange kind of warmth, a lot of an opportunity to lead the way toward a club. I became a white man. And, as “hey buddy, how’s it going?” And then a new America. The arts can actually I like to jokingly say, I picked a really there is riding around in a Lyft. Who push us forward here because imagi- complicated time to become me— knew men talk a lot? They talk a lot to nation is one of the things we will need despite popular opinion, trans wasn’t other men, I guess. They sometimes to create a new reality in our institu- a choice for me. talk about women in ways that make tions (artistic and critical) that serves as By becoming myself, I entered me cringe, they talk about sports, and an invitation to our radically diverse a world of privilege I knew nothing cars and politics and culture, but, in communities. Theater belongs to us all, about, a world I had heard about general, I notice getting around is women and trans people and people for sure but one I could have never more relaxing, less threatening. It’s of color all belong on Broadway, and imagined. Don’t get me wrong, being just easy to get from here to there in a we should all get to participate in the a trans guy is super complex and filled way it never was before. It’s so many economic reality that has been the with a million discriminations—just small privileges that you would never sole property of white men for too try navigating the healthcare system notice them unless you never had long. Democratization isn’t the death for example. And I have news for you: them before. This is called structural of excellence and professionalism and the American theater is really trans- bias, and if you’ve benefitted from it expertise, it is the evolution of it. It is phobic. Landmines of micro-aggres- you are unlikely to know it because it’s the beginning of new ways for us to sions blow up in every direction, even not a privilege you’ve personally asked live and experience culture together from open-minded, socially conscious for, it’s just been handed to you as you and to advance the medium we love individuals. I have been stunned at move around the world. to new heights. the level of discrimination I have faced Another thing I notice as a guy: For this shift to occur, those trying to transition. men, and not just white men, use their bemoaning inclusion as a potential One day I was ambiguous to the privilege all the time in the theater. threat and loss have to gain a new world, sometimes “he” and sometimes Somehow I can see this so much more level of self-awareness about how they “she” . . . and then one day I was a man. clearly when I’m not the victim of have benefitted from and wielded their What happened? What is that thin line it. They constantly interrupt women. privilege. In the ways that those of us that makes clarity for us between “he” They generally think their point of denied privilege for so long have had and “she”? view is more informed and they never to adapt to untenable circumstances— Once I started to walk through hesitate to jump in and speak up and well, white guys, we might have to stop the world as a white man, everything let you know this. And white men interrupting all the time and listen and changed in my day-to-day reality. specifically have no idea the ways in feel uncomfortable. □ Now, those who encounter me for the which navigating the world of work in first time don’t know I’m trans. Guess the theater is just easier for them. They A longer version of this essay what? This white man’s world is a don’t think they should experience was first published in 2017 on world of incredible daily privileges. obstacles and seemed shocked when Howlround.com, an online platform It’s a world that I would describe as things that happen to women and for theater-makers worldwide. the opposite of one filled with mi- people of color all the time, happen Reprinted with permission. cro-aggressions; a world where things to them. The men I’ve seen behave just get handed to you without even this way aren’t individually bad peo- asking. The first weekend I was in New ple, they take advantage of the priv- York as a man, I had people waiting on ilege that has been handed to them me at the hotel in a way I had never but too often they do so unaware, and experienced before. A waiter forgot to get defensive when they are called on

Lucy Raven

Artist Portfolio all images Lucy Raven, stills from AO, work in progress, 2018

52 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 53

Throughout her research-driven practice, Raven has repeatedly turned her attention towards the LUCY relationships between architectural sites, industrial production processes, and places of labor. Her works RAVEN address the often-invisible networks or exchanges that facilitate services and products, revealing transnational trade agreements and contemporary global connectedness (though designed in California, do you realize, dear reader, what has gone into the making of your iPhone in China?). Raven’s photographic animation China Town (2009), for example, traces the journey of raw copper ore from a pit mine in Nevada to a Chinese smelter, where it is turned into copper wire, a material used widely as a conduc- A brief introduction tor in the electrification of buildings and telecommu- for the unfamiliar viewer nications networks. In The Deccan Trap (2015), Raven forges a relationship between imagery of Indian by Pavel S. Pyś technicians converting outsourced Hollywood films from 2D to 3D in an office in Chennai, and the carved stone reliefs of the Ellora Caves, a temple complex in Maharashtra. Described by the artist as a “sci- fi fable,” the video work compares how labor—the shaping of forms out of solid, stone material in a real Reflecting on the problem of documentation, sculptor place, and the molding of pixelated immateriality Carol Bove wrote, in a 2001 Art Journal article: “The of- in virtual space—tricks the eye in the creation of a ficial photo takes one moment from [the artwork’s] life perspectival illusion of depth. and confers on it a special status.” The claim to know an Why might Raven be so attracted to the Steward artwork through its photographic reproduction is a du- Observatory Mirror Lab? Drawing on the history of bious one, as all those essential properties—size, scale, cinema and animation, her work is rooted in questions texture, color, smell, temperature, and duration—evade of how images are crafted, manipulated, produced, the frozen, singular image. In the case of moving-image and consumed. Take RP31 (2012), for example, a strobo- artists like Lucy Raven, the problem centers on the film scopic montage of 31 Hollywood test patterns—called still, an elevated, illustrative excerpt deemed to offer “recommended practices” by the Society of Motion maximal insight. I will try to avoid falling into this pesky Picture and Television Engineers—typically seen solely trap by considering instead some images taken by Ra- by a movie-theater technician to adjust focus, aper- ven that, for now, claim the role of “preparatory mate- ture, and framing for optimal viewing. With each frame rials” for AO—a work in progress—to consider broader corresponding to one test pattern, Raven points to this themes underscoring her practice. typically unseen directive, while also prohibiting its full The images reproduced here are either microscop- contemplation due to the work’s rapid succession of im- ic or simply casual in nature. While they show what agery. In RP31, The Deccan Trap, as well as other works, appears to be a high-end industrial complex, there are Raven turns to acts of looking and seeing to explore the suggestions of the everyday: a bright-red painted fin- limits of perceptibility and the ways in which technology gernail points to shards of glass or lumps of gel, while aids or tricks the human eye. elsewhere workers are seen in the background chatting When considering Raven’s interest in telescopic and smiling. These originate from the Steward Obser- mirrors in Arizona, I am reminded of the painter Vija vatory Mirror Lab, located underneath a football sta- Celmins, whose work sources images of stars and dium in Tucson, Arizona (incidentally, the artist’s city of galaxies. “I’ve always liked the scientific image,” she birth). Sterile and technical, as well as candid and infor- said, in a recent Tate film about her work, “because it’s mal, Raven’s images show the production of state-of- sort of anonymous, and often the artist for the image the-art 27-foot parabolic mirrors manufactured for the has been a machine [. . .] I like the idea that I can world’s largest telescopes. The painstaking production relive that image and put it in human context.” Raven, process bridges handmade and industrial techniques much like Celmins, is interested in how the mechani- to yield sophisticated mirrors that allow scientists to cal affects the personal, determining the nature and capture the most detailed images of our universe. boundaries of experience. 54 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 THE ORIGINS MYTH

Looking anew at Islam’s material beginnings by Fred M. Donner

famous French in western Arabia of Islam’s prophet, descendants) and new converts to historian of Muhammad (d. 632). Islam from areas outside Arabia, be- The religions Ernest At last, as Renan’s pronounce- tween people from different Arabian Renan (1823-1892), over a century ago, ment suggests, we could trace with tribes, and—perhaps most bitter of confidently pronounced that “Islam confidence the early history of the all—between different members of was born in the full light of history.” first Muslim community Muhammad the close circle of Muhammad’s initial He intended this statement to stand founded, including its struggles supporters, who came to compete in contrast to the uncertainty that against Muhammad’s former home- with each other for political and reli- surrounds the life of Jesus and the town of Mecca. We could reconstruct gious leadership of what had rapidly earliest history of Christianity. Renan’s an overview of the expansion of the become a sprawling empire, covering judgment was based on the fact that community after Muhammad’s death, thousands of square kilometers. We scholars of his generation were busily and its rapid establishment of political could marvel at the successes of the discovering and for the first time control over geographical Syria, Iraq, Arabian forces marching under the publishing medieval Islamic chroni- Iran, Egypt, and areas even farther new banner of Islam as they confront- cles, biographical dictionaries, poetry, afield. We could also study the inner ed, and again and again defeated, the and other works in Arabic that pro- divisions of the nascent Muslim or armies of the two great powers of vided a rich account of Islam’s origins. Islamic community, riven by rivalries the day, the Later Roman (Byzantine) Compared with the little we know between earlier and later supporters Empire based in Constantinople of Jesus, it seemed as if we could of the prophet, between Muhammad’s and the Sasanian Persian Empire, recover countless details about the life original Arabian followers (and their based in Ctesiphon (near modern Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 55

Baghdad)—the powers that had, be- biography of Muhammad were not and Michael Cook (b. 1940), which fore Islam’s sudden rise, dominated all true historical reports but rather synthesized the sometimes arcane the lands of the Near East and eastern later inventions designed to provide work of earlier skeptics and their own Mediterranean. There was also the text a plausible context for verses of the insistence on sound historical method of the Qur’an, Islam’s sacred scripture, Qur’an. The Dutch Orientalist M. J. de into a frontal assault on the traditional considered a text dating to the time of Goeje (1836-1909) critiqued the narra- view of Islam’s origins, and proposed the prophet Muhammad and contain- tives about the rapid expansion of the a radically different historical recon- ing the substance of the divine revela- Islamic community that took place tions he claimed to have received. after Muhammad’s death. Yet despite Renan’s confidence in information these early expressions of caution, The traditional found in this vast corpus of medieval most scholars of Islam—in the West as Islamic narrative or literary sources well as in the Islamic world—accepted Islamic origins was widely shared by scholars in his the traditional origins narrative with day, and continued to be the domi- only minor adjustments, dismissing narrative reigned nant assumption among scholars of the critiques of their more skeptical supreme through Islam and Islam’s history until quite colleagues as relevant only to very recently. Some scholars, especially limited or narrow issues and not appli- much of the twen- Muslim scholars, continue to accept cable to the main body of the sources. the reliability of these sources even The traditional Islamic origins narra- tieth century, even today. As a result, if one looks into tive thus reigned supreme through most encyclopedias or introductory much of the twentieth century, even among scholars world history or world religion text- among scholars of Islam and Islamic of Islam and Islamic books, even those published recently, history. one finds a description of how Islam Around 1970, however, a more history. began that tracks almost unwaveringly comprehensive and fundamental cri- from the narrative constructed by the tique of the sources for Islam’s origins medieval Islamic community—what began to take shape, rooted in a grow- struction based mainly on archaeo- we can call the “traditional Islamic ing awareness that most of the tradi- logical, documentary, and non-Islamic origins narrative.” tional sources were not contemporary sources. After its publication, scholars with the beginnings of Islam but only of early Islam could no longer proceed, There can be no doubt that some, produced later—a century, and some- as their predecessors had for over perhaps many, aspects of this tradi- times many centuries, later. Albrecht a century, simply to mine detailed tional Islamic origins narrative may Noth (1937–1999) produced several information from the Arabic narrative tell us “what actually happened” when studies that suggested that many of sources on the naive assumption that Islam arose in the seventh century. the reports about early Islam found they could in this way reassemble But even in the nineteenth century in traditional narrative sources were a trustworthy picture of what had some skeptical voices were raised literary constructs with little historical happened. that cast doubt on the reliability of foundation. Günter Lüling (1928-2014) these traditional sources. The great and John Wansbrough (1928-2002) pro- a result, responsible Hungarian Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher posed radical reinterpretations of the scholars who today (1850-1921) demonstrated irrefutably Qur’an text, completely different from As wish to explore Islam’s that a number of the sayings attributed each other but both casting doubt on origins and its early history do so by to the prophet Muhammad, even the traditional view of the nature and pursuing one, or both, of two distinct those deemed most sound by Muslim origin of the text, and therefore of the approaches. On the one hand, one can tradition, were, in fact, fabrications whole origins narrative in which it had continue to work with the traditional dating from later centuries and been situated. narrative sources, but rather than reflecting later religious, political, or The crucial turning-point was merely quoting them uncritically, one social concerns. The Belgian Jesuit the publication, in 1977, of the book must painstakingly pick them apart to Henri (1862-1937) argued that many of Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic understand the motivations of their the episodes in the Sīra or traditional World, by Patricia Crone (1945-2015) compilers, and the motivations and 56 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

sources of information of the many describe how a particular person was analysis, is important, but it tends informants from whom they transmit appointed governor of, say, Kufa, in to tell us about a very narrow range material, and so to come to some Iraq, by an early caliph. We might be of issues. By comparison with coins, sense of where and how the material inclined to be skeptical about such inscriptions from the seventh century transmitted has reached us, and what reports too, but in some cases there can inform us about a wider range axes it grinds. This is laborious, and it exists a coin minted in this place and of subjects, but they are very few in may seem to some a fool’s errand, but time in the name of this very governor, number. Archaeological evidence is despite the fact that these traditional confirming the validity of the report in an increasingly important source, but narrative sources are full of later the chronicle. There is, in other words, often mute on questions such as the distortions, tendentious elaboration, some sound information in the tradi- ideas and motivations of the people and sheer fantasy, we should not tional narrative sources; the problem who made them. simply dismiss them because they is to tell which reports are sound and Perhaps the greatest potential also contain at times nuggets of sound which are not, and it will take a lot source of accurate new information information. of careful work with these sources to about Islam’s origins lies in written For example, the chronicles tell separate the wheat from the chaff. documents from the seventh century, us about a figure named Shurayh. , So much for the first approach. The the majority written on papyrus. who was appointed as judge (qadi) by alternative is for scholars to work with Although hundreds of thousands of the early caliph ‘Umar around 640 CE. actual documents dating from the Arabic papyri from the Islamic cen- He is depicted as an exemplary judge seventh century, the period of Islam’s turies survive in museums around and is said to have served in this post inception and early development. the world (including many in Berlin), for fifty, sixty, or even seventy(!) years. (This is, in part, what the authors of only a very small fraction of them— Hagarism had tried to do.) Such docu- perhaps less than one-tenth of one ments have the advantage of providing percent—date back to the seventh Perhaps the greatest incontrovertible evidence of what century. The vast majority date to the was happening during the early years eighth, ninth, or tenth centuries (and potential source of of the new community’s existence, papyrus was replaced as a writing before the standard origins narrative medium entirely by paper in the accurate new infor- was formed, with its back-projections eleventh century). The Arabic papyri mation about Islam’s of later concerns and likely distortions have the distinct advantage, however, and idealizations of the origins period. that they include many different origins lies in written Given the difficulty of unraveling the kinds of documents: official decrees, later narrative sources, the exam- tax records and receipts, adminis- documents from ination of true documents from the trative records and correspondence, seventh century (inscriptions, coins, private letters, shopping lists, prop- the seventh century, architecture and art, and written erty leases and sales, marriage con- the majority written documents on papyrus, leather, wood, tracts, etc. They can thus shed light and other media) seems an obvious on many aspects of life in the period on papyrus. tactic to adopt. when Islam, as we now know it, was The challenges here are also gradually coalescing as a coherent daunting, however. For one, there have religion. However, in the extant early docu- survived very few actual documentary The challenge today is to identify ments (e.g. Egyptian papyri) the office sources from the seventh century CE, every surviving seventh-century of qadi is not mentioned until the end the period before the crystallization of Arabic papyrus document or fragment, of the eighth century. It seems likely the dogmatic vision of the traditional to collect and study them, and then therefore that these chronicle reports origins narrative we find enshrined publish them, so that the potentially were invented at that later time in in the narrative sources. We do have revolutionary information they con- order to legitimize the new office a large number of coins issued by the tain can find its way into the work of of judge, by providing an apparent Believers’ movement (as I prefer to call scholars who study Islam’s origins. precedent for it in the heroic days of the early Islamic community), starting The evidence they and other seventh- the first caliphs, who had by this time within a few years of Muhammad’s century documents contain will come to be viewed as the rashidun, death, and a highly dedicated band of provide the surest way to see behind those “rightly guided [by God].” numismatists is busily studying this the dogmatic formulations of the On the other hand, in these same coin evidence, often using mind-bog- traditional Islamic origins story of sources we find other reports that find glingly sophisticated technical meth- the narrative sources, and help us at confirmation in early documents. We ods. This coin evidence, as it becomes last to see “what actually happened” have, for example, reports, similar increasingly available through pub- in the formative phases of Islamic in form to those about Shurayh. , that lication of the results of numismatic history. □ Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 57

THE ABSENT EPIC

China and the politics of narrative

by Haun Saussy

n epic, as everybody knows, us as natural that the earliest docu- Weniad, the story of King Wen’s found- is a long tale, usually in ments of many cultures—Gilgamesh, ing of the Zhou Dynasty, in 1046 BCE. chanted verse, telling of he- Mahābhārata, Beowulf, Prince Igor, The Others have found epic qualities in the roes and gods who establish Nibelungenlied, and so on—are epics. first complete history of China, Sima Athe world order—most often by fighting Periods of imperial expansion, discov- Qian’s Shiji, composed before 90 BCE. a war, sometimes by undertaking a ery and conquest, likewise prompt the The problem with these solutions is perilous journey, sometimes both. Both composition of epics (The Aeneid, The that they take Hegel’s pronouncement Giambattista Vico and G.W.F. Hegel Lusiads, Paradise Lost). as definitive and try to answer him on maintained that epic enables nations But as Hegel asserts, in Lectures on his terms. Why indeed would China to discover their freedom to act in the Aesthetics (1835), “the Chinese have no want to have a national epic, except in world, their collective identity, and national epic.” There are certainly long order to keep up with the neighbors? the limits of their power. Epic founds heroic narratives in Chinese literature, What if the Chinese, left to their own the “we.” The Greeks knew them- but they arise too late in history to devices, were perfectly indifferent to selves not only as the descendants have a foundational role. Many con- the charms of the epic until the mod- of the heroes of the Iliad, but also as cerned people have tried to nominate ern period brought them face to face the people who continually listen to or synthesize a Chinese epic. The with Western historiography? the Iliad. History, in the dual sense scholar C. H. Wang, for instance, has Up to now, precisely “indifference” of the events of the past and of their bundled a series of short poems from has been my answer to the question. perpetuation in memory, is often the ancient Book of Odes to make a But wider reading in the literatures said to begin with the epic. It strikes connected narrative that he called the of Asia in order to get an idea of the 58 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

relationships and influences of litera- But Chinese literati were having of the Gesar are a characteristically ture on a continental scale suggests to none of it. Literary values in China, it Central Asian mix of “foreign themes me a stronger response: active rejec- seems, implied not ignorance of epic transported by Buddhist missionaries, tion of epic, up to the moment when but an active rejection of it. Sogdian merchants, Muslim travelers, epic could be exploited for political Indeed, acquaintance with the obscure marketplace singers and other ends. epic tradition is a marker of the vagabonds,” wrote the late Sinologist degree to which the non-Chinese in Rolf Stein, “combined with and super- pic traditions centering the Chinese empire shared cultural imposed on indigenous Tibetan stories, upon a hero who unites dis- resources in which the Chinese took particularly those from the Amdo region.” parate tribes, defeats enemies, no interest. When the Panchen Lama An oral epic accumulates and digests and founds a conquering visited Beijing in 1780, his conversation any material that is seen as valuable Edynasty are the dominant verbal art- with the Qianlong emperor concerned for developing its themes. Ironically, form over a vast range of territory that the factual basis of the Gesar; the Lama since epics are supposed to be foun- is today technically within China but prepared for this interview by gather- dation-legends of national uniqueness, not culturally Chinese. The Kyrghyz ing information from a learned col- Asian nomad epics in particular are epic of Manas, the Uyghur epic of league, the abbot Sumpa Yeshe Paljor. extremes of hybridity. Oghuz Khan, and the epic of Janggar Epic, like Tibetan Buddhism, provided A Mongol text of the Gesar epic sung by Mongolians, Kalmyks, and was printed in Beijing in 1716. The Oirats exemplify this story pattern, Chinese label on the outside attests to but the largest share of scholarly The epic of King Gesar a misunderstanding: it reads Sanguo attention has gone to the Gesar epic is “the longest single zhi, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” of Tibet. piece of literature Taking the Three Kingdoms—a Chinese The epic of King Gesar, according currently in the world historical novel from the 1300s dealing to its translator Robin Kornman, “is with the period 160-280 CE— for the generally accepted [as] the longest canon, encompassing Gesar is a bit like mistaking Goethe’s single piece of literature currently in some 120 volumes Faust for the Iliad because Helen of the world canon, encompassing some and about 20 million Troy appears in both. There is, how- 120 volumes and about 20 million words.” ever, a connection, though weak. One words,” and it appears to have arisen of the heroes of the Romance of the in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Three Kingdoms is the loyal general The epic recounts the birth, ordeals, a kind of “cultural glue” for uniting Guan Yu, deified under the name of and military campaigns of King Gesar the Inner Asian peoples of the Manchu Guandi. Temples dedicated to Gesar in of Ling, who overcomes adversaries at imperium, but it would presumably the Tibetan, Central Asian, and North home, wins a wife, resists the charms have been without appeal to the Asian areas were known to Chinese- of a number of witch-princesses, Chinese. Gesar, the Janggar epic, and speaking settlers as “temples of Guandi.” conquers 18 strategic castles, and the epic of Oghuz Khan were never But anyone who had taken a good look subdues the kingdoms of the Four translated into Chinese until the late at the legends, paintings, or statues Directions to install a realm of peace twentieth century. The Manchus knew concerning Gesar would quickly under- and justice. Warrior epic, trickster the low regard Chinese had for steppe stand that here was a different hero, fables, anecdotes of skill, tales of peoples and nomads (the very people a Buddhist wonder-working warrior- magic, and acts of spiritual combat among whom epic has traditionally king whose efforts at uniting three combine with events from the history flourished) and did not seek to spread Tibetan kingdoms came a thousand of Eastern Tibet in the twelfth centu- Manchurian cultural practices among years after the division of China into ry. The epic circulates in Mongolian, the people they ruled. the three kingdoms fought over by Manchu, Turkic, Tangut, Ladakh, The origins of these Gesar, Janggar, Guan Yu and his rivals. Perhaps the and other versions, though Tibetan and Manas epics are multiple. They misunderstanding was just “good versions are considered primary. The arose in a variety of milieux that en- enough” to do what it was meant to divinified Gesar, in fact, is honored couraged cultural mixing: the pan- do: find a library pigeonhole for a book in temples throughout Tibet, Central Asian migrations of Mongol armies, that no Chinese scholar was going to Asia, Manchuria and Mongolia. And the wanderings of Turkic peoples, the read anyway. so, in terms of literary geography, the commercial oases of the Silk Road, epic in full flower was right next door and the passages between India, Tibet, As a cultural practice, an oral epic to China, and China was ruled for and Central Asia. One of the formative lives only as long as it is remembered centuries by peoples who indulged influences on the Gesar epic was the by speakers and listeners. Its survival in epic (the Yuan or Mongol dynasty, Ramayana, available in a condensed depends on its retaining appeal and 1276-1368; the Qing or Manchu dynasty, Tibetan version from at least the elev- relevance. When conditions change, 1644-1911). enth century. Among the components the text is bound to change too, or Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 59

else be forgotten, in whole or in part. Like one who, beholding the face In the traditional Chinese imagi- Roman Jakobson and Petr Bogatyrev, of a friend, nation of geography and culture, wild in their 1929 study of oral folklore, and barbaric peoples were drawn Arrogantly denies that he recog- call this dependence on the public to the Central Regions in search of nized him. “preventative censorship by the com- the civilizing benefits of rites, music, *** munity.” Put differently, this principle and governance. That cultural goods Those who do not see the true means that an oral epic relies on could come from outside the Chinese nature of what is being shown external social conditions if it is to be domain was unthinkable. Even when kept in memory and passed on. Are nihilists who only believe in China was ruled by “barbarian” dynas- TheGesar epic was supported by material relative phenomena. ties, the realm of culture was, at least the institutions of Lamaist Buddhism, in theory, an undiluted heritage of the the state religion of two Chinese dynas- *** Chinese sages. ties. The poem was traditionally recited Moreover, there are those who Present-day China has inherited in a trance by bards who claimed to be claim that this subject gives rise the boundaries set by the Qing emper- possessed by the spirit of King Gesar to attachment and aversion ors, who established a protectorate himself, solving both problems endem- over Tibet, conquered the Muslim And thus this epic contradicts ic to oral epic: fidelity and authority. principalities that now make up the dharma. Printed editions were sponsored in the Xinjiang, and retained their old base nineteenth century by learned Lamaist If so, wouldn’t one also have in the steppes of Mongolia and clergy, most notably the influential to claim that the philosophical Manchuria. But ruling as a centralized Jamgön Ju Mipham (1846-1912). Other texts, Buddhist and non-Buddhist state with an overwhelming Han warrior epics lived on as means for histories alike, Chinese majority, China has had to communities to retain their history develop cultural policies distinct Are also not the dharma? and identity. Their appropriation for from the Manchu practice of cultural the aims of a multiethnic empire must distinctiveness, and has worked out have resulted in adaptations to the a position on ethnic minorities and new circumstance, for even more than n 2003 the Gesar epic was added national cultural heritage reminiscent written texts, oral texts express their to UNESCO’s list of items of of the Soviet “nationalities question.” conditions of production. When new Intangible Cultural Heritage, and So now, in his closing speech passages were added to the epic, these the Chinese government laid out to the National People’s Congress were often explained not as innova- Ia nine-year action plan for archiving in March 2018, Xi Jinping can claim tions but, in traditional Tibetan fashion, recitations, training young perform- the Gesar and the other epics for as the “discovery” of hidden wisdom ers, and building performance venues “China”: “The Chinese people have treasures (termas). One would expect across Tibet, Central Asia, and Inner always been industrious and creative; an orally recited text to be updated Mongolia. It may be that by endowing our motherland produced Laozi, in perpetuity, but specialists in a text these national minorities’ heroic tales Confucius, Zhuangzi . . . and other copied and archived by doctrinally fas- with an infrastructure, the multieth- world-renowned creative thinkers tidious clergy, as the Gesar has been for nic modern Chinese state is seeking . . . she inherited the soul-shaking hundreds of years, must also account to defuse their autonomist potential. great epics of King Gesar, Manas, for any differences that are introduced. After all, the heroes of the epic led and Janggar.” But Xi mispronounced Interpretation is another form of uprisings against rival groups and “Gesar” as “Sage’er,” suggesting that adaptation to changing circumstances. conquered their neighbors, including, he didn’t know anything about this Gyurmed Thubten Jamyang Dragpa’s in some instances, China. One report “national treasure.” When people late nineteenth-century recension from the Indian Defence Review (the on Twitter called him out, the state actually closes with a defense of the standpoint of which should be obvi- media went back and edited the epic genre: ous) views the celebration of the no- recording to switch the syllables madic epic tradition as Machiavellian, around. Indeed the repackaging of suggesting that episodes of the Oghuz these epics as part of Chinese cultural Although there are some so-called Khan epic focusing on Chinese treach inheritance serves political ends, scholars who object ery are being revised away and that however much it departs from the To the accounts of the biography statements about the relative dating epics’ history, language, and content. of Gesar Norbu Dradül of the Manas and Oghuz Khan epics The Chinese “inheritance” of these ep- are to be read not as mere philological ics makes them another venue for the Claiming they are a string of lies; disputes, but as an aspect of the “One Belt One Road” initiative—one In that case, if asked to write the contest between Khyrghyzes and certainly less costly than high-speed true account, they will have no Uyghurs for cultural pre-eminence in rail, airports, harbors, and foreign clear source or answer, the region. investment. □ 60 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 WORLD LITERATURE

The curious history of a German-American idea

by Martin Puchner

n the afternoon of to the rule. Wrong again. The master’s their originators, before they emerge January 31, 1827, Johann voice was stern: “Nothing could be with increasingly clarity over time. Peter Eckermann, faith- further from the truth. The Chinese World literature is different. We know ful secretary to Johann have thousands of them, and had exactly when it was born, because OWolfgang von Goethe, went over to them when our ancestors were still Eckermann recorded his conversations his master’s house, as he had done living in the woods.” Eckermann was with Goethe, and because he pub- hundreds of times in the past three confused, but Goethe wasn’t done lished them afterwards.1 and a half years. Goethe reported yet and reached for the term that The story of how this publication on what he had done since they would truly stun his secretary: “The came to pass illustrates an important last talked. Apparently, he had been era of world literature is at hand, and feature of world literature: that it reading a Chinese novel. “Really? everyone must contribute to acceler- relies on a literary marketplace. In That must have been rather strange!” ating it.” World literature—the idea of Eckermann exclaimed. “No, much less world literature—was born. so than one thinks,” Goethe replied. It is rare that we can pinpoint the 1 Johann Peter Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Eckermann was surprised and ven- birth of an idea. Usually, ideas pop Lebens, volumes 1 and 2 (Leipzig: Brockhaus, tured that surely this Chinese novel up in different places under different 1837). Goethe‘s quotes are from this source, must be quite strange, the exception names, only dimly known even to pages 322 and 325. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 61

Johann Joseph Schmeller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1838). Oil on canvas, 36cm x 44.3cm. Copyright: bpk/Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin/Ruth Schacht 62 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

1827, Goethe was at the height of his their status and in their traditions, and Portuguese and other colonial languag- fame, and widely regarded as the tended to look down on everyone else. es, without succumbing to some of greatest writer of his age (Ralph Waldo The situation in a provincial the prejudices prevalent in colonizing Emerson singled him out as “the writ- Germany was very different. Weimar cultures. er” among his six representative men). was at the receiving end of cultural At first, Goethe was ridiculed— In order to serve Goethe, Eckermann trade, imitating Parisian fashion, including by the Grimm brothers, had given up on his studies in law, at manners, and literature. In reaction Wilhelm and Jacob—for his interest in the University of Göttingen, in 1822. to this dependency, German writers world literature, but the idea slowly He was too poor to afford a coach, so were looking for an alternative source caught on. One of its appeals was that had walked to Weimar, which took of inspiration, and many found it by it could be used to circumvent the him three weeks, to offer his services studying, for the first time, German dominant export cultures of England as secretary and all-purpose assistant traditions and folkways. and France. This was particularly im- to the famous writer. Goethe happily Goethe didn’t like being on the portant for small literatures that were accepted, though he paid Eckermann receiving end of French culture either, hoping to gain more prominence— almost nothing. Eckermann had grown but he was skeptical about the obses- not least among them Yiddish, which sion with German folk art that was would be an essential chapter in the happening all around him. Instead, American contribution to world litera- German writers were he looked farther afield. While ture, via the wealth of literary knowl- looking for an alter- most of his associates were either edge brought by German émigrés. consuming the literature exported Here, we’ll leave Goethe and jump native source of in- from France or looking to German into Yiddish in the next century—and spiration, and many folk traditions, Goethe sensed that a into my family’s own curious literary new era was at hand, the era of world entanglements. found it by studying, literature. This era was shaped by a for the first time, single, integrated market in which both ancient and more recent works n the early twentieth cen- German traditions circulated in translation. (The idea tury, Yiddish was in a difficult and folkways. was taken up by Marx and Engels in position. As the Germanic the Communist Manifesto.) The world language spoken by Jewish market in literature allowed Goethe I communities in Eastern Europe, up in abject poverty and was used to read not only Chinese novels, but it was mostly seen as a spoken dialect. to getting by with very little, but he also the Sanskrit drama Shakuntala Assimilated Jews looked down on it was barely making ends meet. Casting (which influenced his Faust), as well and chose German or Russian as the about for ways to better his lot, he as Persian and Arabic poetry (which language in which to produce serious realized that a book containing his inspired his poetry collection West- works of literature and thought. At conversations with Goethe could bring Eastern Divan). the same time, Zionists advocated in additional funds. Goethe allowed The new market in literature for a return to Palestine, which also the scheme to go forward, but demand- was shaped, in no small manner, by meant that they regarded Yiddish as ed that the book be published only European colonial empires, which the language of exile that should be after his death. were forcing different parts of the replaced by Hebrew. Thanks to Eckermann, we know world into closer contact. One of the Besides those internal enemies when and where world literature few Chinese novels Goethe was able of Yiddish, there were countless was born, but not why. Why did this to get his hands on, for example, was other detractors. These were, above idea emerge in the provincial town Hau Kiou Choaan, or The Pleasing all, anti-Semites who saw Yiddish as of Weimar, which barely numbered History, translated by Bishop Thomas a bowdlerized form of German, and seven thousand inhabitants, and not, Percy, a representative of the East feared that it would sully the purity as one might expect, in one of the India Company, the vehicle through of the German tongue—much the metropolitan centers such as London which Britain exploited its colonies way intermarriage sullied the purity or Paris? Those centers, it turned out, in the east. Germany, of course, didn’t of German blood. bred their own brand of provincial- have colonies, which meant that Despite these formidable oppo- ism. Writers in London and Paris Goethe didn’t have to reckon with nents, there existed a vocal group of knew themselves to be at the center European colonialism directly. Nor writers and intellectuals who wanted of the cultural world, which meant was he prone to the feeling of Western to elevate Yiddish from the status that their works were being translated cultural superiority bred by colonial- of a spoken dialect to that of a real and exported everywhere. These ism. He was able to profit fromthe language. How might they achieve writers didn’t need to look elsewhere colonialism of others, enjoying world this lofty goal? The Yiddish scholar for inspiration. They felt secure in literature translated into English and Max Weinreich famously quipped Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 63

that the difference between a dialect urprisingly, world Central Europe from the Middle Ages and a language was merely one of literature took hold in to the twentieth century. The language power: “A language is a dialect with postwar America. One was a strange mixture of German, an army and a navy.” The promoters reason was the expansion of Yiddish, and Hebrew, and it was kept of Yiddish didn’t start manufactur- S universities in the aftermath secret to allow vagrants, beggars, and ing ships and weapons, however. of World War II, fueled by the GI Bill. thieves to communicate in private. Instead, they sought to regularize the Large numbers of returning soldiers Rotwelsch was a purely spoken lan- language by codifying its spelling and flocked to colleges and universities, guage, and by the time my uncle came grammar. Above all, they promoted causing an unprecedented expansion across it, it was dying out. Yiddish literature. They had already of higher education. These new pop- He decided to rescue it by locating translated the Hebrew Bible and were ulations had to be educated in new the few remaining speakers, and by now hoping for a high-status contem- ways, since colleges could not pre- collecting sources and dictionaries. porary literature in Yiddish sume that they had all been exposed But in order to turn Rotwelsch into a to emerge as well. to the same classics in high school. legitimate language, he took inspira- In this situation, world literature In response, universities invested in tion from Ravich’s velt literatur and became a rallying cry. The cry was led new types of general education and planned to create a world literature in 1939 by Melech Ravich, who called survey courses with titles such as Masterpieces of Western Literature or וטַארעטיל) for a Yiddish velt literatur By this he meant that Yiddish Masterpieces Rotwelsch . . . was .(טלעוו was a literature written in different of World Literature. a strange mixture parts of the world, from Eastern Europe These courses created a new, to the United States. But he also meant specialized market in world literature: of German, Yiddish, that it was something to aspire to: world literature anthologies. Among and Hebrew, and Yiddish writers should be able to gain them was the Norton Anthology of a place in world literature even though World Masterpieces. By the time I inher- it was kept secret they were being ignored by the ma- ited this anthology as a general editor, to allow vagrants, jority export cultures of Europe. World half a century later, it had grown to literature promised a path to literary six volumes and changed its name to beggars, and thieves prominence outside the metropolitan Norton Anthology of World Literature. to communicate in centers of cultural power. It had also changed its selection in By 1939, promoters of Yiddish response to the so-called canon wars private. had other problems. Due to the rise of of the 1980s and ’90s, including more Nazism and the early stages of World texts by women as well as a wider out of Rotwelsch. To this end, he un- War II, there was a mass exodus of range of non-Western literature. dertook a massive project, translating writers and scholars from Germany Today, the Norton Anthology is into Rotwelsch parts of the Bible (both and German-occupied Europe. The used in over a thousand colleges, uni- the Old and the New Testaments) as Jewish scholars Leo Spitzer and Erich versities, and high schools, a testament well as excerpts from other works of Auerbach, both advocates of world to the fact that world literature is thriv- world literature. literature, were among them. They ing in the United States. Almost half of Günter Puchner died in his forties, fled to Istanbul, which became a node its adopters are located in the South, of a brain aneurism, his project unfin- in the world literature network. Their somewhat in contrast to the region’s ished. I inherited his archive, his field experiences in Istanbul were varied. alleged provincialism. Or perhaps the notes, his dictionaries, and his library, While Spitzer undertook the study American South is continuing the tra- and have been carrying around this of Turkish in order to connect with dition begun with Goethe: using world trove for twenty years, always thinking the cultural traditions of his host literature as a defense against the that, one day, I would continue this an- country, Auerbach sought to save the export culture of metropolitan centers. cestral inheritance that has entangled vestiges of Western civilization—and Be that as it may, no other country I my family for three generations. complained that he didn’t have a good know has embraced world literature, And so, at last, in spring 2018, I am library to do so. and instituted it in higher education, diving into this long-overdue endeavor. Both Spitzer and Auerbach soon as fully as the United States. As I do so in Berlin, I cannot help but left Istanbul and immigrated to the take inspiration from the proximity to United States, along with many other I first encountered world litera- the place where world literature began European writers and intellectuals, ture through a more unusual source: almost two hundred years ago. □ taking the idea of world literature my uncle, Günter Puchner. A writer with them. The American chapter and composer, he became fascinated in the story of world literature had by an underground language called begun. Rotwelsch, a thieves’ cant spoken in 64 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 MOBILIZING FEAR

Propagandizing German– Ottoman conflict by Carina L. Johnson

t the end of the twentieth ship by birthright in 1999, the public of the Ottoman polyreligious state by century, German public controversy surrounding soccer presuming that all Turks are and have discussion about Turkey player Mesut Özil’s resignation from always been Muslim. An examination focused on its relationship the German national team, in July of anti- and pro-Turkish rhetoric reveals Ato Europe. This topic lay at the heart 2018, highlights how fraught German its non-Islam focus. It has, instead, of two complex political and social identity continues to be for people of been directed toward a people and questions: first, what should become Turkish descent. And Turkish President polity—first the Ottoman Empire and of the Turkish guest workers and their Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s shift away then its largest successor state, Turkey. families who had been living in central from earlier pro-democracy policies Europe for decades or, in the case of has only encouraged some opponents The past has often been invoked in their children, for their entire lives? of Turkey’s membership in the EU contemporary anti-Turkish rhetoric, Second, should Turkey be welcomed to continue defining Turks as unas- implicitly proposing that the cultural into the European Union? Each debate similable because they are Muslims. memory of longstanding German– raised deeper questions about the European and US press and Ottoman conflict and antipathy justifies legacies of Europe’s Christian past, academics increasingly refer to this a position of exclusionary gatekeeping. of citizenship rights determined by repudiative rhetoric as part of a This, however, is a selective recollec- descent, and of cultural plurality in broader Islamophobia, also applied tion of the past. At the beginning of German and Austrian society. Voices to Arab and South Asian Muslims. the twentieth century, for example, the for and against Turkish integration Such an encompassing approach new nation state of Turkey was the ob- drew on the lessons of history to facilitates a Europe-wide view, and ject of admiration, of Turcophilia. For support their positions. anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic rhetoric German observers struggling to forge Today, critiques of Turkish integra- are undeniably entangled. Yet while new states after the collapse of their tion have become ever more entangled Islamophobia is deployed in the public own German and Austro-Hungarian with anti-Islamic rhetoric in the wake sphere for political ends, the very empires, Turkey was heralded as a tri- of terrorist attacks, proclamations of term identifies a religion, Islam, rather umph of secular modernization, offer- Europe’s essential Christian identity by than a racialized group or ethnicity as ing a model for a new German nation prominent figures, and the crisis of the locus of fear and concern. Efforts state. Rather than revealing centuries refugees fleeing violent conflicts in Iraq, to subsume the “Turkish question” of unremitting antipathy, the history Afghanistan, and Syria. Although within discussions of the place of of German Turcophobia illustrates the Germany did create a path to citizen- Islam in Europe ignore a long history extent to which the “fear of the Turk” Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 65

Magni Turcarum Dominatoris Imperium. A map of the Ottoman Empire, circa 1730, by Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757)

has been selectively mobilized across Friedrich III and Maximilian I had Roman Empire expected a repeat history in the service of political aims. some success mobilizing Austrian and offensive in the near future. During the It is no accident that in the history of Tyrolian troops to fight in Hungary, next two years, the Habsburgs worked German sentiments about “the Turk”— in the continuation of their ongoing to negotiate an agreement with the whether a metaphor for the subjects dynastic conflicts with the Hungarian newly Protestant estates: a guaranteed, of the Ottoman state or a reference to crown and in response to Turkish raids limited-time toleration of evangelically their ruler—the episodes of Turkish in eastern Austrian lands. Yet repeated reformed worship in exchange for aggression are the best known. appeals to the imperial estates were contributions of money, materiel, and The milestone military conflicts met with little enthusiasm. manpower for the Turkish wars. that have been deployed for political In the 1520s, under Holy Roman Even as these points were being purposes include the conquest of Emperor Charles V and his brother, negotiated, Nuremberg printers pro- Constantinople and the fall of the Ferdinand, German lands remained duced an unprecedented number of Byzantine Empire (1453), the First unresponsive to Habsburg and Hun- woodcuts and pamphlets about the Siege of Vienna (1529), the Long War garian warnings about the Turkish siege, creating the first large-scale (1593-1606), and the Second Siege of threat, even after Louis II of Hungary print-era propaganda campaign to rely Vienna (1683). Some of these uses were was killed, in the 1526 Battle of Mohács, on the Turkish threat. Through words successful, some less so, but the events between Ottoman and Hungarian and images, the prints emphasized and their politicized memories contin- forces. Only with the Siege of Vienna the frighteningly swift advance of ue to be invoked in the present day. in October 1529 did the Turkish threat the Ottoman forces and portrayed The first of these instances was became tangible to many in the Holy scenes of violence and cruelty against Sultan Mehmed II’s conquest of the Roman Empire. News of the siege was civilians. Alongside litanies of suffer- Byzantine capital, Constantinople, in sent out in an urgent appeal for help, ing and lurid details of captivity, the 1453. The papacy reacted by redou- carrying with it stories of violence and presses also exhaustively discussed bling its efforts to galvanize Latin destruction wreaked by the Ottoman the terrifying discipline and fighting Christendom into a military response. army as it marched up the Danube. In prowess of the Turkish troops, which These calls for a new crusade were response, cities and princes ceased made them undefeatable. An import- largely ignored. Imperial officials also delaying and rushed to send troops to ant attribute of these troops’ success sought support for a large-scale armed liberate Vienna. With winter coming, was, according to the pamphleteers, response to the expanding Ottoman the Ottoman army departed Austria the Christian origin of the janissaries. Empire. Holy Roman Emperors in November, but many in the Holy Well over a hundred pamphlets and 66 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

woodcuts were produced between late sixteenth century] (1978) and Karl than Nicholas of Cusa. A German-born 1529-1530. That they were made by Vocelka, Die Politische Propaganda humanist who spent the bulk of his new-technology entrepreneurs with- Kaiser Rudolfs II [The Political career in Rome, he wrote On the Peace out any known state support suggests Propaganda of Emperor Rudolf II] of Faith in 1454. It called for religious their popularity and profitability. (1981) reveal the close links between peace and the tolerance of diversity, Among the results of this media blitz the imperial political agendas and grounded in the idea that the divine about Christian suffering at the hands anti-Turkish propaganda. The empire Creator had sent many different teach- of the Ottomans was the 1532 Peace imposed a larger, more regularized ers to the peoples of the world before of Nuremberg. With this agreement Turkish tax across all of the Holy the birth of Christ, thereby producing in place, many imperial cities mus- Roman Empire, in order to fund the the different religions of the world. tered their citizens to serve alongside construction of a fortress system This strand of religious relativism princely troops for the 1532 and sub running along the southeastern border was shared by other humanists in the sequent campaigns. between Habsburg and Ottoman second half of the fifteenth century. In Through this second mobilization territory. The accompanying rhetoric less rarefied circles, a 1456 Nuremberg of fear in commercially popular print (over 400 works were produced during carnival play written by Hans Rosenplüt and an array of imperial efforts, in- the reign of Emperor Rudolph II alone) also playfully presented the Ottoman flammatory rhetoric against the Turks served to inspire payment of the tax. Emperor’s wisdom and virtue in proliferated. Along with speeches de- It unified the Holy Roman Empire contrast to corrupt officials and -au livered at the imperial diets and recess by allowing its subjects to transcend thorities in the Holy Roman Empire. promulgations, the imperial state also the divisive topic of religious reform Desiderius Erasmus advocated for mandated prayers and processions within “the Christian republic” and religious peace, publishing essays in seeking divine intervention and mercy focus on what was now known as the 1515 and in 1530 that held up Turks as for the German targets of the Ottoman hereditary enemy (Erbfeind), the Turk. virtuous foils for the many Christians threat. Over time, the state mandated The tax would also fund troops and who failed to live up to their faith’s church alms boxes for soldiers and material during various short hot wars moral demands. In Martin Luther’s civilians who had borne the brunt of and the Long War from 1593 to 1606. 1518 explication of his “Ninety-Five Turkish military violence. The height- With the close of the Long War, Theses,” he argued against papal calls ened antipathy toward the Ottomans the Habsburgs and Ottomans settled for a Turkish crusade, as part of his at- made it possible for Habsburg rulers into cold-war hostilities, until conflict tack on papal remittance of sins. With to gain broad public support for their again flared into open warfare in the the Siege of Vienna, Luther shifted his Turkish policies during the subsequent 1680s. The 1683 Siege of Vienna ended position to advocate for resistance decades. quite differently from that of 1529. In to the “Turk.” This exhortation to The Habsburg court sponsored 1683, the Ottomans were not the ter- resistance was paired with another skilled personnel to produce and rifyingly undefeatable enemy. Instead, calling for resistance to the papacy: disseminate knowledge about the the Ottoman siege was broken, and while Luther has been held up as a Ottoman military host and Ottoman the Austrian military began pressing strong promoter of antipathy toward society more broadly. The tradition eastward, in a slow but heartening se- the Turks, he did so in the service of of gathering information from ries of victories across eastern Europe. another aim, the reform of the Latin those with first hand experience of In that climate, fear of the Turks could Christian church. Turkish domination, in particular be set aside for moral explorations of Popular anonymous pamphlets through captivity, dated back to the Turkish difference. also praised the religious tolerance of second half of the fifteenth century. the Ottoman empire, suggesting that Ferdinand’s chief Turkish translator for et even as Turkish fear it was possible to find greater religious over thirty years was a former captive. in the public sphere was freedom to practice true Christianity Urban Sagstetter, orphaned during the promoted by printers there. While these pamphlets are First Siege of Vienna, became court looking for surefire best- often dismissed as satirical, in the mid- preacher and eventually Bishop of Ysellers, and imperial authorities seek- sixteenth century, a community of Gurk. Hugo Blotius’s first inventory of ing material support for their antag- anti-Trinitarians who had fled the Holy the Austrian National Library in the onistic policies against the Ottomans, Roman Empire in search of religious 1570s identified all the volumes on another strand of thought towards the toleration formed in the Ottoman the Ottoman Empire so that military Ottomans existed in works authored capital. planners could access knowledge by humanists and religious reformers. about their enemy systematically. Some notable figures, in fact, praised The questions that history asks Important historical studies by the empire’s religious tolerance and about German-Turkish interactions Winfried Schulze, Reich und Türken- diversity. A powerful response to are, of course, shaped by the public gefahr im späten 16. Jahrhundert the 1453 fall of Constantinople, for debates and questions swirling around [Empire and the Turkish Threat in the example, was composed by no less the historians as they conduct their research. Winfried Schulze, for example, undertook research for his foundational 1971-74 study just as guest-worker recruit- ment was ending, and the number of Turkish nationals choosing to remain in Germany began to visibly outstrip those of any other nationalities. More broadly, archives are catalogued according to the priorities of the time that they were organized; their categories reflect, with good reason, the institutions and structures How do that produced the records. Thus, there is often a section in archives on the state administration of the Turkish tax, a topic you fight of great institutional interest to local authorities—who sought to account for their responsible payment of these financial obligations—and to imperial author- an enemy ities, who sought to prevent tax evasion. There is no corresponding section for quotidian experiences of non-elites. with many In 2018, there are more nontradition- al resources available to scholars. Their research no longer needs to rest exclu- faces? sively on official discourses of the past, whether speeches and promulgated re- cesses of the imperial diets, sermons and publications by clerics and other writers endorsed by the state, or the print and manuscript texts of the humanists and reformers who shaped so much of the print discourses. Archival researchers plus types of cancer exist can now uncover non-official histories with increasing success by utilizing the 100 techniques developed by social and Up to times faster analysis cultural historians to study women and of data in the search colonized people. These methods under- 100 for a cure score the importance of archival preser- vation and access to historical records, so that historians can investigate questions that have become freshly relevant. The evidence is fragmentary: the alms for a returning captive German or a captive Turk, a paid laundry bill, a salary list, a court case, a baptismal entry, a margin note in a printed book, a memento of a journey tucked into a manuscript, an ink sketch, or an inventory of death goods. These, in the end, are the quotidian traces that allow historians to move beyond official production and uses of the Turkish threat to uncover other histories of German-Turkish engagements across the centuries. □ CanWeLiveBetter.com

Source 1: What is Cancer?: Types of Cancer. National Cancer Institute, 2015 Source 2: Exascale Computing Project Funds Three CI/ Argonne Projects. Computation Institute & The University of Chicago, 2016

BerlinJournal_AZ_105x280+3_EN_Cancer_v7.indd 1 13.08.18 17:31 68 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 THE LAWS OF WAR

From the Lieber Code intellectual of international conferences and to the Brussels lineage for the agreements—most notably, the 1874 THE law of war dates Brussels Conference and the Hague Conference back at least to Hugo Grotius (1583- Conventions of 1899 and 1907—which 1645) and to several peace agreements addressed military conduct between by Peter Holquist dating from 1648 (Peace of Westphalia) armies but also covered the rela- and 1713 (Treaty of Utrecht), and several tions between armies and civilian in between. While these treaties estab- populations. lished peace agreements throughout Perhaps surprising in light of Europe following a century of blood- today’s geopolitics, it was not a liberal shed, they did not establish laws for Western European power but rather war itself. In fact, it was only from the Russian empire that played the the mid-nineteenth through the early most prominent role in extending the twentieth century that the law of codification of these laws and customs war as we know it today—such as of war. So much so, in fact, that the the criteria for distinguishing “legal concepts of lawful warfare crafted combatants” from “illegal combat- by the Russian empire during the ants”—crystallized into formal codes last third of the nineteenth century defining the “laws of war.” These codes continue to serve as the framework for emerged specifically from a series international humanitarian law today. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 69

Imperial Russia’s precocious role extended study tour, taking him to fact, that the patriotic press came to involved drafting all the preparatory Vienna and Heidelberg. As fate would term it “the almost-foreign ministry” materials for both the 1874 Brussels have it, he would find himself on the or “the ministry of foreign names.” Conference (the first attempt to border between the North German And the age was also Victorian, an era codify the “laws and customs of land Confederation and France during the of specialists, self-improvement, and warfare”—although the Brussels early stages of the Franco-Prussian emerging academic disciplines such as Code went unratified) and the 1899 War of 1870-71. Before too long, howev- international law and political science. Hague Conference, which largely er, he returned unscathed to Russia to There were three proximate causes confirmed the guidelines developed take up the chair of international law for the 1874 Russia-convened Brussels but not ratified in 1874. Prior, in the at St. Petersburg University. Conference that brought Mertens and 1868 St. Petersburg Declaration, it Just a few years later, Martens had Bluntschli together. The first was the was Imperial Russia that invoked the a chance to see Bluntschli again. When Russian government’s sense of mission “laws of humanity” to justify limits the Russian government convened the in the realm of the laws of war, carry- on weapon technologies. And it was first conference to discuss a draft code ing over from its achievement in se- again Imperial Russia in 1915, in the for the laws of land warfare at Brussels curing the 1868 Petersburg Convention, “Entente Note to the Ottoman Empire,” the first treaty to ban a specific weap- regarding the Armenian genocide, that THE RUSSIAN ons technology, exploding bullets, on introduced the term “crimes against EMPIRE’S FOREIGN the grounds of “the laws of humanity.” humanity” in a penal sense and pro- MINISTRY WAS HOME TO The second reason was the reaction posed prosecution of state officials for SO MANY NON-RUSSIANS of European governments, militaries, such crimes. and societies to the vicious conduct of AT THE TIME, IN FACT, What drove these advanced the Franco-Prussian War, with French Russian initiatives? What were their THAT THE PATRIOTIC use of franc-tireurs—or “free shooters,” intellectual origins? Oddly enough, PRESS CAME TO TERM IT irregular military formations operating they were sets of regulations created “THE ALMOST-FOREIGN as detached militias—and the German for armies during the United States MINISTRY.” recourse to reprisals and collective Civil War at the behest of Abraham punishment of civilians. Lincoln’s War Department, known in 1874, he and Bluntschli found them- But there was also a third factor. as the Lieber Code. The following selves sitting across from one another It was one thing for people to decry brief history explains the interaction at the conference table. The Swiss the violations by the French and of several cosmopolitan figures that Bluntschli was the legal advisor to the German forces, but what could actu- helped to bring the Lieber Code from German delegation, and Martens—an ally be done about it? Martens, in his New York City to Brussels and lay the orphan who had risen as a scholarship 1872 letter to Russian war minister foundation for the modern laws of war. student—was legal advisor to the Dmitrii Miliutin proposing a confer- status-conscious Russian delegation. ence to address precisely this question, In early 1870, a 24-year- Their participation in these meetings drew attention to a possible solution: old Russian student of likely represented the first instance a code or handbook of the laws and IN international law, fresh of legal scholars actually contributing customs of land warfare. Indeed there from the defense of his Magister thesis to the drafting of international codes was a general thrust for codification at St. Petersburg University, attended rather than simply commenting on in international law in the nineteenth the lectures of the Swiss-born scholar them after the fact. century, and Russian political and Johann Caspar Bluntschli (1808-1881), This was so because though the legal culture particularly favored this at Heidelberg University. The Russian nineteenth century was a national- approach to law. But there was a more Ministry of Education had dispatched izing age, it also remained an age of immediate precedent, and a surprising the young Baltic-born scholar, Fedor empires, which saw cosmopolitan one at that: Martens insisted that the Martens (1845-1909)—later known and multiethnic elites, such as Martens type of code he was proposing could through German and French trans- and Bluntschli, circulating among the indeed be feasible in war, because lations of his work as “Friedrich echelons of power. The Russian em- something like it had recently been Fromhold von Martens” and “Frédéric pire’s foreign ministry was home to tried and proved viable in practice: the Frommhold de Martens”—on an so many non-Russians at the time, in United States government’s General 70 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

Order 100, or “Instructions for the work, and Union armies confronted of deception, but disclaims acts Government of United States Armies widespread guerilla warfare by of perfidy; and, in general, military in the Field,” introduced in April 1863 Confederate supporters in the terri- necessity does not include any act for Union forces in the US Civil War— tories they occupied. (One of Lieber’s of hostility which makes the return a document more commonly known, sons fought and died for the South, to peace unnecessarily difficult. after its author, as the Lieber Code. two others fought for the North). In the summer of 1862, Lieber’s acquain- In its entirety, the Lieber Code Lieber Code tance Henry Halleck was appointed spells out the rights and duties of pris- was composed General-in-Chief of the Union armies, oners of war and of capturing forces. THE by a German and he commissioned Lieber to pre- It also describes the state and ends of émigré and university professor pare a formal memorandum about the war, the state of occupied territories, named Francis (Franz) Lieber. Born conduct of war, which he wrote as a and the permissible and impermissi- in Prussia in 1798 or 1800 (records long essay entitled “Guerilla Parties ble means to attain those ends. And are unclear), he had enrolled in the Considered with Reference to the addressing some of the most pressing fight for his country’s liberation from Laws and Usages of War.” Halleck had international geopolitical develop- Napoleon and took part in the 1815 the text printed and distributed to the ments of the time, it discussed the Waterloo campaign, where he was Union armies, so that it “would help nature of states and sovereignties, wounded in the neck and left for dead. guide Union policy toward irregular of insurrections, rebellions, and wars. Once recovered, he was accepted into fighters until the end of the war.” The European states generally paid the University of Berlin but denied following year, Lieber drafted General little attention to the Lieber Code, entry because of his membership in Orders 100, a set of instructions for but some legal scholars did—among an anti-Prussian fraternity (Berliner the Union Army on the laws of war— them Lieber’s friend Johann-Caspar Burschenschaft) and instead attended thereafter known as the Lieber Code Blutschli, who translated the Code the University of Jena, where, in and now widely considered to be the into German and included it in his 1820, he graduated with a doctorate first written recital of the customary 1866 Das modern Kriegsrecht der civili- in mathematics. In 1821, he traveled laws of war. sirten Staaten als Rechtsbuch darge- to Greece to fight for Greek inde- The Lieber Code demanded that stellt, which appeared just prior to pendence. A committed progressive armies at war respect the humane, the 1866 Austro-Prussian War. In (Prussian authorities jailed him for ethical treatment of populations in his 1868 master’s thesis, about the four months in 1819 and again for eight areas they occupied. It codified law rights of private property in wartime, months in 1824-25), Lieber emigrated that expressly forbade the killing of the young Martens extensively from Germany and made a life in the prisoners of war, except in cases when discussed the Lieber Code, citing it United States, becoming a professor the survival of the unit holding them from Bluntschli’s 1868 Das moderne of political science and history, first was threatened. It also forbade the Völkerrecht, where it was included as at the University of South Carolina, use of poisons, holding that the use an appendix in the complete English and then at Columbia University, in of such agents puts any military force original. Four years later, in his 1872 New York City. Aside from editing the outside the conduct of the civilized letter to Russian war minister Dmitrii Encyclopedia America, and writing nations and peoples. Section 16 of the Miliutin and in an 1873 newspaper books and pamphlets, he also served Code expressly prohibits this kind of article proposing an international as confidante and assistant to Alexis cruelty: conference, Martens explicitly invoked de Tocqueville, as the Frenchman Lieber’s General Orders 100 and was compiling what would become Military necessity does not admit praised the US government for being Democracy in America. of cruelty—that is, the infliction of the first government to introduce When the US Civil War erupted, in suffering for the sake of suffering a formal code for conduct based 1861, Lieber drafted several codes and or for revenge, nor of maiming or on the laws and customs of war for guidelines for the US War Department, wounding except in fight, nor of its armed forces. He regretted that, then run by Edwin M. Stanton. It was torture to extort confessions. It hitherto, European states had failed irregular warfare—detached militias, does not admit of the use of poi- to follow this excellent example. That, snipers, un-uniformed soldiers, sabo- son in any way, nor of the wanton he averred, would now be left to tage—that inspired much of Lieber’s devastation of a district. It admits Russia. □ Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 71

We make CMS_LawTax_CMYK_28-100.eps breakthroughs happen.

Your contact:

Dr Thomas Meyding T +49 711 9764 388 E [email protected]

cms.law

RL_CMS_AZ_BerlinJournal_210x280mm.indd 1 07.08.18 15:58 72 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

Gulag Perm-36 (Kuchino near Chusovoi, Russia). Postbox on the camp wall. Photo: Wulfstan. Courtesy Creative Commons 1.0 Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 73 PERM-36

An encounter with Russia’s unfinished past

by Joshua Yaffa

The later years of The monotony of the Russian coun- IN the Soviet Union, Perm- tryside can be disorienting, but in the 36—a prison camp hypnotic, even calming sense of deep located in the forests outside of Perm, meditation: the snow, the trees, the an industrial city just east of the Ural wooden houses with wisps of black Mountains—held political prisoners smoke snaking their way to a heavy and individuals convicted of transgres- sky, could have placed me anywhere sions against the Soviet state. After the in the thousands of miles of expanse Soviet collapse, it became a unique between Smolensk and Khabarovsk. historical museum. The brainchild of I entered the museum—or, just a group of local historians and enthu- as fair to say, the prison—as visitors siasts, this memorial complex and did in the 1970s and 1980s: through civic platform became a forum for a heavy door that leads to a corridor discussing not only the history of the walled off with iron bars, where Gulag and political repressions, but guards would inspect people coming also the lessons and implications of and going. Having made my way those events for the present day. through the passageway of metal gates, On the day of my visit to Perm- I walked out into the prison yard, an 36, on a gray and windy day in the open expanse of low-slung buildings spring of last year, a film of melting encircled by a series of perimeter ice covered the center of town. But as fences. A shabby wooden fence, I drove out of Perm itself, toward the topped with a ring of rusted barbed site of the onetime prison, that slush wire, stood before a taller, much more gave way to forested slopes covered solid metal one. (As museum guides in the clean white snow of midwinter. always mention, there was not a single 74 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

successful escape at Perm-36.) An lessons from the recent past, Perm-36 University, in Warped Mourning (2013), empty guard-tower watched over the was more discordant—it stuck out to his probing work on how modern grounds, covered in a knee-high casing me because of its rarity. It was not Russia remains haunted by its unfin- of snow. one among many such sites in Russia; ished examination of the past. This As I walked around Perm-36, I it did not slot into nationwide edu- dynamic, of the Soviet terror’s can- couldn’t help but reflect on the ex- cational and civic programs on the nibalistic quality, reached its absurd perience of postwar Germany, where subject of repressions, because such culmination in 1992, during the one questions of historical guilt, respon- programs did not exist. Perm-36 was attempt, which ultimately failed, to sibility, and memory have long since an anomaly, and, set in a forest several denote the Communist Party a crimi- become defining aspects of the nation- hours from the nearest city, a hidden nal organization. As part of the trial, its al culture. A comparison with one of one, at that. lawyers argued that since party mem- the Nazi regime’s concentration camps, bers disproportionately suffered from now remade as a memorial and mu- repressions, the party had already seum, felt inevitable. Both Perm-36 experiences of been punished. Party members were and a place like Dachau, or Auschwitz, THE how postwar both executioners and victims in the Germany and same historical process, the argument post-Soviet Russia have confronted and seemed to go, so let’s just call it a draw. tried to exorcise—or not—the demons Etkind describes how the “self-inflict- of their respective histories could ed” nature of Soviet terror complicates People were killed not be more opposed. The reasons the impulses that usually appear after or imprisoned are multitude, and, in a way, obvious. violent societal catastrophe: striving to Much less time has passed since the understand the calamity, mourning for for reasons that fall of the Soviet Union than the end its victims, and yearning for justice. did not comport of the Nazi regime, which, of course, Making such catharsis even more was much shorter-lived than Soviet difficult is that in the Soviet Union with observable rule. Postwar Germany had been people were killed or imprisoned for reality, thus making defeated militarily and was under reasons that did not comport with foreign occupation—which made observable reality, thus making under- understanding all possible many of the prosecutions of standing all the more illusory. As Etkind the more illusory. former Nazi officials accountable for notes, a Jew caught in the Holocaust mass crimes. No outside force admin- understood himself as a Jew; he recog- istered Russia in its transition, and no nized the category and his belonging to legal processes were ever held to sort it, even if he obviously did not find through the responsibility of officials this a reason to exterminate him. in Poland, function as memorial com- from the Communist Party, KGB, and But who was a kulak? An enemy of plexes and museums, set on the im- other organs. Nor did such attempts the people? A counterrevolutionary mediate site of camps set up and run at making sense of collective guilt and element? These were paranoid fictions by totalitarian regimes. The ultimate shared trauma take place in society that did not exist in a person’s actual function of Auschwitz, of course, was itself, at least not in a coherent way, life, yet carried deadly meaning. the murder of its prisoners; Perm-36 recognized by all. Historian Mikhail Geller writes, “The was meant to isolate and punish those But perhaps the most important difference is that in Hitler’s camps, the state considered its enemies, but, factor was the nature of Soviet repres- the victims knew why they were unlike the Soviet camps of the 1930s, sions: they were directed at enemies killed.” Those who perished in the did not seek their physical destruction. within, whether supposed traitors and Gulag, however, “died bewildered.” For the purposes of historical spies within the Communist Party or It is that bewilderment, that inability memory, the more meaningful distinc- would-be saboteurs and “wreckers” on to explain—except for pure chance— tion is that, whereas today’s Auschwitz the factory floor. “If the Nazi Holocaust who lived and who died, meant that is representative of a broader societal exterminated the Other, the Soviet all those who took part in the Soviet consensus in Europe, part of a col- terror was suicidal,” writes Alexander project were in some way implicated. lective effort to remember and draw Etkind, a professor at Cambridge Just as the victim could not be seen as Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 75

the Other, neither could his execution- even Kovalev. He answered Kovalev’s researcher at a biophysics institute in er. In 1956, after Stalin’s death and the question by saying he only sent him Moscow. He depended on the insti- emptying of the Gulag, the poet Anna to the punishment cell for good cause, tute’s in-house workshop to make Akhmatova observed: “Now two which he went on to explain was him microelectrodes, detailed parts Russias are eyeball to eyeball. Those “discipline.” It wasn’t that Kovalev had that he needed for his experiments. who were in prison and those who put necessarily done anything wrong—or There was always a long wait, months them there.” maybe he had; that wasn’t important— that could stretch on to infinity— but the camp bosses said he should be which could be circumvented if you sent off to the punishment cell and so gave the guys at the workshop a bit I was in that’s what Kukushkin did. of booze. So Kovalev would fill out WHEN Perm, I The German students were stupe- procurement orders with descriptions heard a sto- fied. They seemed deeply upset, and of experiments he had no plans to ry of how, in the mid-1990s, a group wanted to leave Perm-36 immediately. ever carry out, but which required of German university students came It wasn’t the story of Kukushkin several liters of laboratory-grade to Perm-36 as volunteers, to help following orders that so disturbed spirit. He’d pour it into smaller bottles with repair and construction projects. them, but the handshake the two They were a motivated, enthusiastic men shared, their bonhomie. Kovalev bunch, full of well-intentioned notions tried to explain that Kukushkin was of memory and historical justice. not a sadist or a torturer, or a guard A former political prisoner turned at Auschwitz. “He didn’t chase people A political human-rights activist named Sergey to their deaths in gas chambers or prisoner and his Kovalev was there, too—he came shoot them in the middle of the prison often to work through ideas with the yard,” he said. Kukushkin, rather, was guard should not museum’s founders and offer up old back then a young guy trapped by shake hands, and memories. The German students began circumstance and zombified by Soviet to ask him about his time as a prisoner propaganda. If anything, Kovalev from that flows at Perm-36, and he told them stories empathized with him. When you think a whole way of how he was sent to the punishment about it, Kovalev went on, “his status cell for an unfastened shirt button. wasn’t much higher than ours, he was of seeing the Kovalev called over someone else not really a free man, but captive to world. who worked at the museum, Ivan the same whims of the camp admin- Kukushkin, a bearded and lumbering istration.” He lived in barracks that man in his fifties. The two shook weren’t much different from those hands warmly. “Tell them, Kukushkin,” housing prisoners, and, for the most Kovalev said. part, ate the same lousy food on and bring them to the workshop as As Kovalev explained, Kukushkin which nearly everyone in the Soviet a bribe to get the parts he actually was a former guard at Perm-36, and Union subsisted at the time. “In a cer- did need. “If life is arranged this had watched over Kovalev during tain sense we shared a common fate.” way, if I can’t carry out my scientific his years as a prisoner, and had even The Germans were not convinced; work without theft, then how can I ordered him to the punishment cell they were bound by strict, categorical judge Kukushkin?” Kovalev asked the more than a few times. He still lived norms, an ethical prism born of Germans. “I can’t look at him from in the village near Perm-36, and had Germany’s admirable—if often inflex- on high when I’m part of the same reinvented himself as the museum’s ible—attitude to totalitarianism and system. I’m just as implicated in lies.” security guard, and did some odd those who serve it. A political prisoner The German students nodded, jobs around the property. He helped and his guard should not shake hands, but Kovalev wasn’t sure they under- reconstruct the room where prisoners and from that flows a whole way of stood. □ were inspected for contraband and seeing the world. forbidden materials. Kukushkin was Kovalev tried one last argument. honest, and a hard worker, and had He told the German students of the the respect of the museum’s founders, time, before his arrest, when he was a 76 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 SECULAR SACRED GROVES

Ancient trees in modern times

by Jared Farmer Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 77

hat is the world’s modern brand of rational forestry known living thing.” This bristlecone oldest tree?” is a and the primordial bond between the pine quickly became known as very old question. forest and the Volk. “Methuselah.” After the announce- Theophrastus and, later, The category merkwurdige Baume ment, the US Forest Service set aside WPliny, Pausanias, and Josephus each originated in the early modern period, the surrounding land, and named the made investigations. Their antique when it suggested freak forms of reserve after Schulman, who died lists were mythological as much as vegetal growth worthy of cabinets of heart failure as his article went to botanical. The plants in question had of curiosity. By the time of German press. associations with gods, heroes, oracles, unification, in 1871, “remarkable trees” Schulman Grove is a “grove” only prophets, and sanctuaries. The oldest grew to include legendary plants in the attenuated sense of a Greek trees of the classical world grew in endowed with historical associations “sacred grove,” a cultural inheritance haunts, not in the wilds. (e.g., the Luther-Ulme in Pfiffligheim), passed down by Roman poets. It Today, Guinness World Records often situated romantically near spas remains to be seen if science and maintains a list of oldest things, and hiking paths. Under the influence statute, without religion or literature, including trees. The latest oldest tree, of Prussian botanist Hugo Conwentz can sanctify a grove in perpetuity. In approaching 5,000 years, is a contorted (1855–1922), German provinces des- the White Mountains, there is no altar. specimen of Great Basin bristlecone ignated old trees as Naturdenkmäler The oracles from Arizona have left pine (Pinus longaeva) on the desolate (natural monuments) in the opening with their extracted data. Compared slopes of the White Mountains in years of the twentieth century. Natural to sacred trees in the Levant (tied off eastern California. Guinness does not history associations published region- with rags), or South Asia (wrapped in invoke the authority of any deity but al tree guides, or Baumbücher. cotton string), or Japan (cordoned with rather that of Dr. Edmund Schulman Across the Atlantic, in the United rice straw rope), old bristlecones bear (1908–1958), the dendrochronologist States, contemporaries of Conwentz instrumental signs of devotion: alumi- who discovered the specimen in the made their own nationalist compi- num tags stamped with alphanumeric 1950s. lations of remarkable and historic identifiers. Schulman’s main tool for discern- trees (e.g., the Washington Elm in The hiking path called Methuselah ing a tree’s age was a “Swedish incre- Cambridge). These American dendro- Walk is something ancient made anew— ment borer,” which should have been philes operated on the assumption a secular sacred grove, a scientific called a “German increment borer” be- that the nation’s “ancient trees” exist- pilgrimage site. It inspires the denken cause the invention had been perfected ed only in remote mountainous areas in Naturdenkmal. But thinking with by Max Robert Preßler (1815–1886), of the Far West. The distribution of non-visible tree-rings may be too of Dresden. His Zuwachsbohrer was giant sequoia—singular to the Sierra abstract for would-be pilgrims. In the an elegant instrument that allowed Nevada—and the establishment of absence of sacred rites, visitors follow extraction of a pencil-thin core sample dendrochronology—unique to the the rituals of tourism. Photographers without damage to the organism. University of Arizona—strengthened in pursuit of sharable images trample Nineteenth-century German foresters that (incorrect) assumption. the soil around gnarled bristlecones used coring tools to conduct arboreal In the 1940s and 1950s, Edmund that visibly possess Merkwürdigkeit. censuses. Schulman, of Tucson, took many The search for meaning in ancient Even as Germans like Preßler western field trips, bumping over trees continues as long as people care made inventories of forests, they dirt roads, coring old conifers, and about—and care for—old things. In an took note of merkwurdige Baume compiling a database of tree-rings unwise future that is no longer un- (remarkable trees) to be preserved, that allowed him, without computers, imaginable, Homo sapiens may bring not felled with the others at optimal to deduce multi-millennial climatic forth a world so new that oldness rotation age. Honoring individual changes in the American Southwest. loses its significance. Then, effectively, trees resolved a cultural contradiction, Writing for National Geographic in 1957, the latest oldest tree would become for Germans celebrated both their he revealed the location of the “oldest the last. □

Photo: Jared Farmer, 2018. / This photo was taken at the edge of the Forest Service parking lot at the Schulman Grove, very close to where the scientist pitched his summer camp in the 1950s. The aluminum tag was originally placed by Edmund Schulman’s successor, Wes Ferguson. “TRL” stands for Tree-Ring Lab, the short name for the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, at the University of Arizona. This particular tag fell off the tree a few years ago. A forest ranger found it, took it home, soldered it to a cut piece of aluminum from a can (to give it more sturdiness), and nailed it back in place. I know this because the ranger showed me. Most visitors never notice this bristlecone—even though they drive right past it, or park beneath it—because it’s not on the official trail. 78 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 THE HOLBROOKE FORUM

Contrary to Machiavelli’s prediction Digital diplomacy—that is, the use that innovation is always difficult to of digital technologies in support of Digital implement, the first stage of the digital diplomatic objectives—is therefore transformation of diplomacy has been no longer an inchoate field of expertise Diplomacy an astonishing success. For a profession trying to find its balance in a world with an inbuilt propensity for cultivat- challenged and disrupted by the From tactics to ing tradition, defending institutional advance of social media technologies. hierarchy, and resisting change, the rise At the same time, Machiavelli might strategy of digital diplomacy has been nothing still have a point, as organizational short of a revolution. Within less than structures in general, those of MFAs by Corneliu Bjola a decade since the launch of the first in particular, are notoriously difficult social media networks, 90 percent of all to change, and early successes might UN member states have established a thus fail to translate into long-term Twitter presence, and 88 percent have results. To do this, digital diplomacy opened a Facebook account, with a would need to demonstrate that And it ought to be remembered combined audience of 325 million and it holds not only tactical value for that there is nothing more difficult 255 million, respectively, of followers communicating MFA positions and to take in hand, more perilous to and users. Driven by the opportunity to interests, but also strategic signif- conduct, or more uncertain in its engage with millions of people, in real icance as an element of statecraft success, than to take the lead in time, and at minimal costs, Ministries by understanding how technology the introduction of a new order of of Foreign Affairs (MFAs), embassies, impacts relationships between states, things. Because the innovator has and diplomats have developed a con- and developing the capabilities to re- for enemies all those who have stellation of new tools and methods in spond to those opportunities. In other done well under the old conditions, support of their activities. They range words, for digital diplomacy to boost and lukewarm defenders in those from the use of dedicated platforms for its institutional profile inside MFAs, who may do well under the new. engaging with diaspora communities it must escape the temptation of – Machiavelli and foreign publics, communication staying within the confines of public with nationals in times of internation- communication and demonstrate its al crises, to the development of consul- strategic value in advancing foreign ar application for smartphones. policy goals. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 79

The paper will approach this digital cannot give MFAs Superman definition of measurable goals, target question in two steps: first, by ad- strength, but it can help them channel audiences, and parameters for evalu- dressing four misconceptions about the strength they already have more ation. The goals determine the target the role of digital diplomacy as an efficiently and productively. audience, which in turn determines instrument of foreign policy; and, The second and fairly entrenched the platforms, methods, and metrics second, by explaining how digital misconception is the Walk in the to be used. This implies that training diplomacy can move from tactics to Park Myth, which supports the view cannot be limited to the art of crafting strategy. It will be thus argued that that “going digital” is easy and MFAs messages, but must rather profession- the “Machiavelli trap” is hardly inev- can successfully pursue their digital alize itself and focus on developing itable in this case, and that the inno- diplomatic ambitions with relatively skills by which digital diplomats can vative thrust of digital diplomacy can modest investments in training and strategically harness the power of be enhanced by better understanding resources. The speed by which the digital platforms towards achieving what digital diplomacy can do, what global public has migrated to the digital predefined and measurable goals. it cannot do, and by not blurring the medium reinforces the idea of acces- The third and growing mis- lines between the two. sibility of social media platforms and conception is the Extinction the notion that anyone with basic Myth, according to which digital technical skills can take part in, shape, diplomacy will gradually replace or Misconceptions and influence online conversations. make redundant traditional forms What this view neglects to acknowl- of diplomacy. On the weaker side of The first and surprisingly common edge, however, is that with no clear the myth, there exists a perception misconception about digital diplomacy direction or strategic compass, the that digital technologies have the is the Superman Myth, which claims tactical, trial-and-error methods by capacity to fundamentally change that digital technologies can grant how diplomats perform their tradi- extraordinary powers to those using tional functions of representation, them, and in so doing, it can help The speed by which communication, and negotiation them increase their diplomatic clout to the point that they may even to levels they might otherwise not the global public put an “end to diplomacy,” as Lord be able to reach. It is largely for this has migrated to the Palmerstone similarly quipped when reason that small and medium-sized the telegraph arrived. Stronger ver- states (e.g., Sweden, the Netherlands, digital medium re sions of the myth go a step further Mexico, Israel, and Australia) have inforces the idea of and acknowledge the possibility of proved so keen adopters of digital having physical embassies and even diplomacy, as the latter presented accessibility of social diplomats replaced at some point itself to them as a great opportunity media platforms by virtual reality (VR) and artificial to “punch” diplomatically above their intelligence (AI). While digital tech- political or economic weight. It is thus and the notion that nologies have demonstrated clear assumed that by being able to directly anyone with basic potential for revolutionizing how reach and engage millions of people, diplomats conduct public diplomacy, MFAs and their network of embassies technical skills can deliver consular services, or manage could positively shape the views of take part in, shape, crises, one should nevertheless be the global public about the country of mindful of the fact that the core origin, and, in so doing, increase the and influence online function of diplomacy, that is, rela- diplomatic standing of the country in conversations. tionship building and management, bilateral or multilateral contexts. The cannot be accomplished without argument has a seductive logic, not close and sustained human contact. least because of the scope, scale, and which MFAs seek to build their digital The myth may thus be right about reach that digital diplomacy affords profile and maximize the impact of the fact that by increasing efficiency, MFAs to pursue. At the same time, it their online presence cannot demon- digital technologies would likely suffers from a structural flaw: namely, strate their value beyond message reduce the number of diplomats that digital technologies constitute dissemination. In other words, the required to perform certain routine a distinct source of power, which, if adoption of digital tools without an functions. At the same time, the “ex- properly harnessed, can offset defi- overarching strategy of how they tinction” hypothesis is hardly credi- ciencies in hard or soft power. In fact, should be used in support of certain ble; the negotiation of human values the way in which digital technologies foreign-policy objectives runs the risk and interests cannot be delegated operate is by creating a platform of digital diplomacy becoming decou- to machines, and the amount of through which other forms of power pled from foreign policy. The strategic trust and mutual understanding that can be projected in support of certain use of digital platforms imposes makes the wheels of diplomacy turn foreign-policy objectives. In short, the order on digital activities through the cannot be built without humans. 80 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 Fall 2017 · thirty-one · the berlin journal 80

The fourth, and rather dark, mis- conducting digital diplomacy to the strategic objectives (productive net- conception about digital diplomacy is more ambitious objective of “getting working) c) How to adapt and upgrade the Darth Vader Myth, which sees the it right.” “Diplometrics,” the new term the repertoire of skills necessary for positive potential of digital platforms coined by MFAs for measuring digital addressing (a) and (b) (i.e. training). for engagement and cooperation at impact, seeks, for instance, to identify From a communication per- risk of being hijacked by the “dark quantitative combinations of factors spective, algorithms, visuals, and side” of technology and redirected (measurable objectives, progress indi- emotions are key features of the for propagandistic use. The digital cators, engagement ratios, etc.) that digital medium as they inform, disinformation campaigns attributed can best track and shape the impact shape, and define how well MFAs’ to the Russian government, which of digital policies and campaigns in messages travel online. More specif- has allegedly been seeking to disrupt real time. At the same time, getting ically, they structure the framework electoral processes in Europe and digital diplomacy right cannot be of interaction between MFAs and the United States in recent years, reduced to an exercise of ﬁne-tuning their intended audiences by tailoring offer credible evidence in support of quantitative metrics of message messages to individual preferences, this view. More worryingly, how the dissemination. It must also involve defining cognitive frames of interpre- digital medium operates makes it an a qualitative approach by which to tation, and managing expectations, easy target for use in propaganda. capture whether digital engagement respectively. Trial-and-error methods Algorithmic dissemination of content can shape the views of the target seeking to align these factors into and the circumvention of traditional audience and whether it can generate suitable combinations work normally media filters and opinion-formation online relationships of relevance for well when the audience is generally gatekeepers makes disinformation offline diplomatic activity. sympathetic to the messenger as the spread faster, reach deeper, become Against this background, there is perception gap is relatively small and more emotionally charged, and, most now a growing understanding that hence, easy to bridge. The situation importantly, become more resilient due “getting it right” cannot result from becomes much more complicated to the confirmation bias thatonline merely “copying and pasting” methods when the audience has unstruc- echo-chambers enable and reinforce. and strategies from political communi- tured preferences or even negative That being said, one should be cation or business marketing. It re- perceptions of the MFA’s policies. mindful that any technology faces the quires instead a closer understanding The solution in this case rests with problem of double use, as the case of the intrinsic characteristics of the using analytical tools that can accu- of nuclear energy clearly illustrates. digital medium. MFAs must therefore rately reveal the preferences of the Trends are also important to consider: move beyond the current focus on the audience (data analysis), capture with 3.02 billion people or 38 percent of public-facing, “front-end” of digital the breadth of the perception gap the world population expected to be diplomacy (message dissemination (sentiment analysis), and then com- on social media by 2021, a fast growing and engagement) and think carefully bine these insights into alternative rate of global mobile penetration and about how to design the “back-end” models (prescriptive analysis) with the anticipated launch of the 5G tech- architecture supporting their digital good foresight power, on the basis nology in the next few years, the strategies and operations (data anal- of which an action plan can be then potential for positive and meaningful ysis and network development). In selected and pursued. For example, if digital diplomatic engagement is other words, without a good under- the strategic objective set by the MFA strong and substantial. As long as the standing of the processes by which is to increase the level of remittances prospective benefits of digital diplo- data is shared online, of the way in sent back home by the diaspora, the macy outweigh the risks, the pollution which communities form and evolve views of the intended audience on of the online medium by the “dark online, and of the connection between the topic first need to be aggregated side” would likely stay contained, the two, MFAs will not be able to move and examined; a set of narratives although its pernicious effects might up to the next level of professionaliza- must then be designed and tailored not be completely eliminated. tion of digital diplomacy. to the digital profile of the intended Three key objectives should guide audience; the returns on investment MFAs’ efforts in this direction: a) value of alternative digital strategies Getting It Right How to minimize the perception gap need to be compared and assessed; between the audience and the MFA’s and, finally, an action plan has to In an effort to move beyond these self-image (perception convergence); be developed for implementing and misconceptions, MFAs have started to b) How to ensure that online networks monitoring the online and offline shift their policy priority from merely support and enhance the MFA’s impact of the agreed digital strategy. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 81

From an engagement perspec- to convert NN digital influence into projecting messages effectively, and tive, the type, size, and reach of the “offline” influence? reacting successfully to online events “network of networks” that MFAs (or The first and second consider- in real time. The changing repertoire embassies) build and manage online ations speak to the issue of effective- of skills would prompt, by necessity, can make a significant difference for ness. It is important for MFAs to make a rethinking of the training methods their ability to amplify and protect sure that their online community of in- and delivery platforms that diplomatic their digital influence. The more fluencers includes a good combination academies currently use in their work. diverse, larger, and more connected of policymakers, journalists, academ- From knowledge-dissemination sys- ics, diplomats, and diaspora leaders, tems centered on offline lectures and who take an active interest in MFAs’ seminars, diplomatic training in the The innovation policies. The third and fourth consid- digital age would need to embrace erations highlight the risks that digital knowledge-generation models deliv- potential of digital networks may pose to MFAs’ activity. ered on multiple online platforms and diplomacy remains More specifically, MFAs need to make focused on data-driven simulation, sure their messages reach beyond scenario building, and social network largely untapped, the immediate layer of sympathetic analysis. but in order to access audiences, and that their network has To conclude, the innovation po- sufficient fail-safe solutions (e.g., algo- tential of digital diplomacy remains it, it is important rithms and/or counter-narratives) to largely untapped, but in order to to understand what prevent or deflect potential hijacking access it, it is important to understand attempts by rival groups. Finally, the what digital diplomacy can do, what digital diplomacy connection between the MFA and its it cannot do, and to avoid blurring the can do, what it can- online network should be sufficiently lines between the two. While the main strong so that it could lead to offline focus of MFA attention has thus far not do, and to avoid results of relevance for the MFA (e.g., been the public-facing “front-end” of blurring the lines research input from academics, media digital diplomacy (message dissemi- reports from journalists, partnership nation and engagement), the next step between the two. initiatives from other diplomats, etc.). needs to involve a more active role in Finally, from a skill-development establishing the “back-end” architec- perspective, MFAs need to review ture supporting MFAs’ digital strat- these networks are, the stronger the spectrum of skills that diplomats egies and operations (data analysis their ability to extend themselves require in order to be successful in and network development). This way, in multiple configurations and, by their work in the digital age. More the gap between digital diplomacy extension, the greater the digital specifically, they need to identify what and foreign policy opened up by the influence of the MFA. Building digital traditional skills are less relevant, or tactical use of digital diplomacy can be networks is, however, a delicate no longer relevant, what skills are reduced and minimized via a strategic matter. It cannot be reduced to still relevant but need to be updated, approach that connects foreign-policy an effort of attracting followers and what new skills are required for goals to target audiences, engagement indiscriminately; it must take aim mainstreaming digital technologies methods, skill development, and at creating online communities into MFAs’ activities. One would online/offline influence. □ with a strategic compass so that expect, for instance, that digitization they can support and enhance the could be of great use in consular ser- This article first appeared online MFA’s foreign-policy objectives. Five vices, for example, by reducing work- as part of the Richard C. Holbrooke questions are particularly important load around inquiry, announcement, Forum’s publication series. For to consider when building the “net- and document processing. Skills article references, please see: works of networks” (NN): What type related to communication, reporting, americanacademy.de/digital-diplo- of NN is most suitable for advancing and cultural engagement will remain macy-tactics-strategy/ the MFA’s goals? How should one relevant, but they need to demonstrate activate NN in support of the MFA’s proficiency for the digital medium as policies? How should one avoid the well. New skills such as data analytics, “preaching to the choir” trap? How visual reasoning, and adaptive think- to ensure NN is not used by adver- ing would be particularly valuable for saries against the MFA itself? How reading patterns of online behavior, NOTEBOOK News from the Hans Arnhold Center

Celebrating Twenty Years of Fellowships 84

West Coast Initiative 94

Alumni Seminars 95

The 2018 Kissinger Prize 95

Welcoming New Trustees 96

The Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities 97

A Higher Loyalty 97

Profiles in Scholarship 98

Book Reviews By John Rockwell and Christina Schwenkel 100

Alumni Books 104

Supporters and Donors 105

Photo: Ralph K. Penno 84 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF FELLOWSHIPS

To commemorate twenty years of the American Academy in Berlin’s fellowship program, the Berlin Journal asked a number of former fellows to contribute a short piece about their residencies. We also asked a few benefactors and trustees about why they support the Academy’s fellowships and programming. What follows are their responses.

By Michael Kellen, Marina Kellen Anna-Maria said, at the Indeed, these are the French, Andrew Gundlach, and Academy’s ceremonial opening, qualities that Stephen and Nina von Maltzahn in November 1998, “and so, in a Anna-Maria Kellen experienced very real sense, this house has firsthand in the America they ack in 1994, Stephen M. always been a cultural center.” came to in 1936 and 1939, re- and Anna-Maria Kellen— Today, as we look back on spectively—qualities they sought Bour mother and father, twenty years of fellowships to promote in their public aunt and uncle, grandfather founded to deepen intellectual and private lives, and in their and grandmother—saw the and cultural understanding be- wide-ranging, decades-long phil- value in Richard C. Holbrooke’s tween Americans and Germans, anthropic activity. “It is amazing idea of establishing a lasting we are humbled by the hundreds what one can experience in one American presence in Berlin, of alumni who have made the lifetime, if one lives long enough,” following the departure of the Arnhold family home their own Stephen used to say. For us, his Berlin Brigade. They also felt the home for a semester. These family, it is amazing to continue personal value in having such a impressive scholars, writers, to support the legacy of the presence housed in the Wannsee artists, and composers have Academy’s fellowship program villa where they first met and enjoyed the villa as a place of he helped to make possible. courted, and where Anna-Maria study, reflection, and conver- Though Stephen and Anna- spent some of her most forma- sation—not just with German Maria are no longer with us, it tive childhood years. peers but also, perhaps even is particularly moving to see It is for this reason that foremost, among themselves, the arc of history bend back Stephen and Anna-Maria forging discussions that cross even further, to their parents: bequeathed the Academy its disciplines otherwise not tres- the Wannsee villa that has, founding gift, in 1995, which passed: historians, legal schol- over the last twenty years, enabled Anna-Maria’s childhood ars, fiction writers, and painters hosted the Academy’s artists, Wannsee home to be transformed talking with journalists, political writers, and scholars was once into the Hans Arnhold Center, scientists, anthropologists, and animated by exactly the same named after her and her sister, philosophers. It is precisely this kind of cultural and intellectual Ellen Maria’s, father: the great mix, and in what has become one life when it was Hans and German banker Hans Arnhold. of the most vibrant cities in the Ludmilla Arnhold’s residence at Hans and Ludmilla Arnhold’s world, that propels the American Lake Wannsee. This is why, for Wannsee residence served as Academy in Berlin forward, giv- our family, in many ways, the a salon for many of Weimar ing Germans—and specifically American Academy in Berlin Berlin’s lovers of art and cul- residents of Berlin—a view into and its wonderful fellows com- ture. “So many of my parents’ the diversity, vibrancy, and im- plete a circle once broken and friends who visited here were mense creativity of American now again made whole. writers, artists, and musicians,” cultural and intellectual life. Deswegen: weiter so! Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 85

architecture, providing me the early spring of 2003, on a lot of traveling around the W.J.T. Mitchell with all of the access decisive a Bosch fellowship. This hap- country, but we also experi- Art Historian, for the project’s success. The pened to be the time when enced several speaking events University of Chicago work that I started during my the Iraq War began, and the and the general ambience of Berlin Prize Fellow, time in Berlin has produced coincidence—which was not the Academy. As it happened, Spring 2002 articles, lectures, and a book entirely coincidental, to be my then-16-year-old daughter manuscript that covers more truthful, since I had an idea first heard of Kenyon College I will carry memories forev- than a century of architectur- what was about to happen— during a conversation in the er of spring 2002, as a Berlin al history. enabled me to watch German library with some of the other Prize Fellow at the American But as much as the op- political culture in action, up fellows. That is where she Academy. First, there was portunity has enabled me to close and personal. I observed ended up going to college—a simply Berlin itself, which for pursue significant disciplinary a lot, and learned something. marvelous choice for her and the first time opened itself to questions, it also demanded It led to me writing an everyone concerned. So, you me as the trauma capital of that I confront my position essay entitled “Germany in see what I mean. the twentieth century, veering as an academic working in the Springtime,” which in I have only fond memo- impossibly through its phases a foreign context. I was at the harmonic confabulation with ries of the American Academy of wild Weimar democracy, Academy during the spring other events led to me being in Berlin these 15 years since fascist horror, and the long semester in 2003, and my asked to serve as principal my stay, and I remain grateful twilight of communism. I lecture was to be the first speechwriter to Secretary to everyone who helped make learned the secrets of the presentation after the start of State Colin Powell. That, it happen. I only regret that villa at Wannsee, descending of the second Gulf War. All in turn, in a way, led to my my fellowship was so brief. into the bunker after evening of a sudden, the fellows had becoming founding editor of cocktails to discuss its evolu- 24-hour protection, and my The American Interest. You just tion from the home of Hitler’s position as an academic, one never know how one thing finance minister to the that, for me, had been circum- may lead to another. American officer’s club. With scribed by professional in- As a second example of Rosanna Warren the amazing Evonne Levy, I terests, became public. Many the same phenomenon, or Poet and Scholar, went in search of National Germans, including intellec- mystery: it happened that my University of Chicago Socialist traces in architec- tuals, protested America’s wife and three children stayed Ellen Maria Gorrissen tural style and ornament, intervention and, as a result, with me during part of my Fellow, Spring 2006 and Jesuit propaganda in the many of them refused to fellowship. We were in the gar- forms of the Baroque. Derek attend the lecture. But many dener’s house, out by the main My time at the Academy was Chollet and I argued over the did. Beyond supporting my gate, which was truly a mag- an idyll, offering a paradox- Bush-Cheney run-up to the and the Academy’s decision nificent experience. We did ical mixture of solitude and invasion of Iraq, which was so to give the lecture, their pres- clearly on the horizon. People ence underscored the urgent were still talking about Susan need for academic openness Sontag’s fall 2001 stay at the in the face of intense political Academy, where she wrote controversy. A straightfor- Forging Essential Bonds her famous New Yorker essay ward lesson in principle, but, on 9-11, and I began to plan a on the ground, more potent, Relations between countries do not exist, per se. Only book about the imagery of the especially since I carried misbegotten “War on Terror.” it back to the University of the bonds between the people, their beliefs, their And then there was Reinold’s Kentucky. Here, the issues I customs, the trade of the material and the imma- welcoming kitchen, where I have since confronted may terial is what constructs relations. With time, these learned how to cook polenta not be significant at a global result first in threads and then in ties based on com- to go with my green-chilli scale, but, in an environment mon understanding. The fellowship program of the stew for the annual potluck. where so much is divisive, the American Academy in Berlin has, over many years, Let me know when I can come academic model of openness proved its power to forge these essential bonds back for a visit! has been as important as the architecture we talk about in between the United States and Germany, living from class. the strength of intellectual freedom, unconditional hospitality, and the belief in the good. It offers the very best academics, writers, and artists a unique Wallis Miller opportunity to enrich the world we live in, with their Architectural Historian, views, their insights, their debates, and their pres- University of Kentucky Adam Garfinkle Berlin Prize Fellow, Editor, ence in situ. It guarantees that we do not forget how Spring 2003 The American Interest our democracies and our relationships came into Bosch Fellow in Public existence, and how precious our values are, especially My time at the Academy Policy, Spring 2003 in an age of peace and unrest, of challenges and allowed me to embark on a progress. long term and a previously I was fortunate enough to under-researched project spend several weeks at the Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO, Holtzbrinck on German exhibitions of American Academy during Publishing Group 86 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

sociability. Hours alone in constituted something like awing the shabby humanists contacts I made were endur- the studio each day opened the population in a boarding with a glimpse of How the ing; and the opportunity to into rich reverie: poems grew, house in a Balzac novel, and World Really Works. pursue focused and unin- like seeds randomly carried suggested all sorts of fictive But the greatest gift was terrupted work, while at the and deposited by the wind, possibilities. Those patterns the chance to explore Berlin. same time benefitting from and with another kind of were constantly rearranged by Magnificent, tattered, in con- the insights and experiences discipline, the magical library the appearance of short-term stant upheaval, the city wears of people working in entirely service, and the cooperation guests who popped in for a its scar tissue openly. To different fields, was unforget- of the willful intellect, I was few days at time, bringing walk its streets and examine table. I spent my entire career able to finish the book of new ideas, new arguments; its museums is to trace the teaching at a small liberal-arts literary criticism I’d been they were further rearranged saga of modernity, a sobering institution, and my time at mulling for several years. by the evenings when an text. And still unfinished. The the Academy represented the On the other hand, break- exotic flock of ambassadors, Academy is now part of that best high-octane refresher fasts, and even more, the former prime ministers, bank- story. course in the liberal arts evening dinners plunged us ers, and newspaper magnates sans frontières that one could into camaraderie. At the nu- fluttered in for some special imagine. cleus, the little clan of fellows lecture and lavish dinner, At a time when the transatlantic relationship has David E. Barclay become increasingly fraught, Executive Director, institutions like the American An Enduring Mission German Studies Association Academy are more essential George H.W. Bush/Axel than ever. We hear a lot these Springer Fellow, days about gemeinsame Werte. In 1994, when Richard Holbrooke was the US ambas- Spring 2007 The American Academy sador to Germany, he attended a dinner in Berlin at embodies them every single a conference to honor the American Berlin Brigade, One morning in Wannsee, I day. Long may it do so, for which was leaving the now-reunited city for the last was moping alone over a late another twenty years, another breakfast. Nothing could dis- fifty years, another century. time. I attended that dinner, and, in the midst of it, pel my dark mood, not even he took some of us aside to ask us to join the board the splendid view of the lake, of a yet to be formed “American Academy in Berlin”— or knowing that I was privi- to celebrate the continuing closeness of the United leged to have my cup of coffee States and Berlin. next to an Anselm Kiefer Mitch Epstein Since Richard Holbrooke was a US government painting. I was working on a Photographer and Artist official, he could not personally lead the organization deadline for an article, and I Guna S. Mundheim simply could not figure out an Fellow in the Visual Arts, at that time. Instead, it fell to Thomas Farmer, an appropriate opening. I’d been Spring 2008 eminent Washington lawyer, to become the insti- wrestling with it for hours. tution’s founding chairman, joined later by hon- Then Tom Powers showed up I think the greatest benefit as orary chairmen Henry Kissinger and Richard von and joined me. I complained an artist—and as an American— Weizsäcker. As a trustee from the outset, I can tes- to him about my problem, was to have a six-month tify that the mission of the Academy as envisioned and within a few minutes, his period where I was removed by Richard Holbrooke has been pursued successfully suggestions had solved my from my normal routines and dilemma. Where else could I way of seeing things in the beyond anything that could then be hoped for. mope over breakfast, only to States. I came to Berlin while Throughout its history, the Academy has played have a Pulitzer Prize winner I was working on American a key role in participating in the dialogue about join me and help me over a Power, my series about the global issues—through visiting political scholars, the writing hurdle? production and consumption Kissinger Prize, and the Holbrooke Forum—always One has many such of energy in the United States. maintaining its political independence. moments at the American It was useful to step back But the heart of the Academy’s efforts remains its Academy, and the best are and look at the US from the serendipitous and unplanned: European vantage. fellowship program. Hundreds of scholars and artists side conversations at dinner For American Power, I had have worked there and interacted with their German or late-night discussions in tremendous difficulty getting peers. The Academy is entirely financed by private the library, all in an ambi- access to sites in the US, so sources and relies on the generosity of US and ence that positively invites when I had the idea to look at German donors, who feel passionate about its mis- intellectual and personal Berlin’s twentieth-century his- sion. Without constantly validating the expectations enrichment. tory, as it was manifest in the of its supporters through ever-greater excellence, the I was not a Berlin novice present, I was afraid I’d run when I lived at the Academy, into similar obstacles. But the Academy could not survive. But today it is healthy in and I already had many con- Academy put in calls for me every respect and looking forward to a great future. tacts in the city, but the to restricted sites, and never Karl von der Heyden, Chairman Emeritus, intellectual intensity of my took “no” for an answer. That was so rewarding—whether American Academy in Berlin experience at the Academy was incomparable; the Berlin I wanted to go to some of Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 87

the embassies that dated that challenged my assump- into Matthias Osterwold, an work in the years to come. I back to the Nazi era, or to the tions. I could take nothing important figure in Berlin’s incorporated the sounds and German Ministry of Finance for granted. My experiences new-music community. He techniques of jammed radio building, which was once the ranged from hearing jazz told me how the Academy signals in compositions for headquarters for the German concerts at a small club with went to great lengths for their violin, string quartet, and a Ministry of Aviation—all a world-renowned German fellows’ research, but he won- piano duet. In 2017, when I these doors where opened artist (whom I had just met dered why the composition composed an opera based on for me. For me, a big part through the Academy) to fellows didn’t take advantage Orson Welles’s radio drama of being an artist is to walk drinking coffee in small cafés of the excellent resources. Our War of the Worlds, my research into something not knowing with brilliant philosophers, conversation inspired me to at the Academy took on an where it is going to go. I had to walking the streets late at apply to conduct research into even greater significance. War begun my Berlin series not night, taking in all the sights one of my favorite subjects: of the Worlds was a multi-site knowing exactly where it and sounds of that most jammed radio signals in World opera performed by the Los would lead me, and contro- vibrant of cities. War II and the Cold War. Angeles Philharmonic and versial government locations The situation at the Wannsee was just a narrated by Sigourney Weaver. became crucial to the work. Academy’s villa itself is stone’s throw from Babels- It was broadcast live from It was very meaningful to get superb. Its luxuries of food, berg, where I listened to Walt Disney Concert Hall onto into these places, especially drink, comfortable rooms, archived broadcasts during the streets of Los Angeles, via as an outsider. The Academy excellent espresso, and an my 2012 fellowship, an three World War II-era air raid facilitated all of that. unmatched view are entirely experience that shaped my sirens that were retrofitted Living in Berlin was very persuasive. Yet, for me, the special in itself. The Academy interaction with the other was a vehicle to meet and get fellows was the real boon. to know German artists and Night after night, conversa- artists from other countries, tions were true exchanges, Building Sustainable Networks because Berlin is truly an not just serial monologues, international city. What felt which so often can be the Over the past two decades of cooperation with the distinctly different in Berlin case with academic gather- American Academy, the Robert Bosch Stiftung has was that there was much ings. The topics veered from supported sixty Bosch Public Policy Fellows. The more of an open dialogue economics to the best theater among artists. It’s not as in Berlin to quantum phys- Academy selected exceptional individuals, who have cutthroat as New York, which ics. The range, depth, and filled the term “public policy” with meaning, covering is so commercialized, so fast. vitality of these conversa- a broad range of topics that reflect relevant issues The American Academy is tions—building and evolving, in the transatlantic debate: migration, digitalization, such a rich opportunity. I will moving across disciplines and the future of journalism, among others, as well always look back on my time and concerns—quickened as less obvious challenges, such as gene patents and there as having helped shape my own thinking in ways I drug abuse in rural areas. who I am as an artist. cannot begin to describe. I often found myself racing Part of our strategy is to carry the spirit of inter- up to my room after dinner national understanding beyond the political centers to write because the discus- on both sides of the pond. To this end, we have been sions had been so generative delighted to host American Academy fellows to Richard Deming and provocative. engage with the wider public in Stuttgart, through Director of Creative Writing, the event series “Head to Head.” Yale University Through its fellowships, the American Academy John P. Birkelund Fellow in the Humanities, has woven hundreds of threads across the Atlantic Spring 2012 Annie Gosfield to form a robust and sustainable network in the aca- Composer demic, cultural, political, and corporate communities I came thinking that the Berlin Prize Fellow in Music of Germany and the United States. The importance American Academy would Composition, of strengthening these bonds increases as forces of be an ideal place to get some Spring 2012 isolationism and fragmentation are gaining traction work done. What I found, worldwide. We are proud to have joined forces with however, was something In 2010, after multiple more than that—experiences, rejections, I acted against the American Academy in this endeavor, as fostering encounters, and exchanges, my instincts and applied transatlantic relations has been a key concern of the which have continued to for the Berlin Prize in Music Robert Bosch Stiftung’s international activities for shape my thinking and my Composition one more time. over 35 years. sense of the world ever since. The American Academy in With great appreciation for the work of the Weaving myself into the Berlin had an almost mythical American Academy to foster and elevate the trans- city’s cultural and intellectual reputation for great facilities, atlantic dialogue, we congratulate them on the life, I met artists, writers, phi- fascinating fellows, and losophers, and scholars, all of wonderful food, so it was twentieth anniversary of the fellowship program. whom offered me compelling worth the gamble. A few days Robert Bosch Stiftung new perspectives and ideas before the deadline, I ran 88 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

with new speakers. Five years static, noise, and 1938-era earthly broadcasts mixed connected to the question of after my fellowship, those radio signals into the mix, with faraway Martian atmo- policy toward China (my pri- jammed radio sounds found where they commingled with sphere, shifting back and mary area of expertise), and a perfect home, adding depth, an orchestra and seven opera forth in character and timbre, on this subject I met officials, menace, and a unique sonic singers. I used my library of like a radio drifting between scholars, think-tank staff, layer to my first opera. I snuck wild radio sounds to evoke stations. and activists, from whom I My time in Berlin wasn’t learned a great deal. only about jammed radio But these were only the signals, though. My fellow focal, professional activities of fellows were the most bril- my stay. Perhaps even more Fostering Diversity, liant, curious, and challenging valuable was the chance to Defending Values group of people I’ve ever learn about German history, known. Dinner at an old society, and culture, by spy haunt with Gary Smith, reading, casual interaction, What do the iconic artworks of the Soviet avant- Calvin Trillin, my partner language tutorials, travel, and, garde, the codification of the law of war, and the Roger Kleier, and John and in my case, intensive museum effects of new technologies on social structures have Helen Kornblum stands out in viewing. This benefit applied in common? They are all topics of projects by Axel my memory, and seeing great not only to me, but to my Springer Fellows at the American Academy—that is, opera with Pamela Rosenberg wife and two middle- and projects that Axel Springer has either funded in the was an education in itself. I high-school-aged children. came for the food and the The experience was like a past or will fund in the future. And they couldn’t be jammed radios, but left with semester of liberal education, more diverse. great friends, meaningful mind-stretching in many This is exactly what makes the Academy’s fellow- knowledge, and a higher dimensions, leaving a perma- ship program stand out. It is not only the obvious, the standard of discourse. nent trace of new information, mainstream that is being funded. Rather, this pro- insights, and interests. The gram is remarkable for its openness and the breadth, experience was intoxicating. as well as depth, of its support. This is also what And the Academy was always a home to come back to, get makes it so important: the diversity of the fellowship Andrew Nathan help if needed, share experi- program reflects the complexity of transatlantic China and Human ences, and enjoy camaraderie relations. Rights Scholar and great food. Transatlantic relations have grown over the course Columbia University As a China specialist, my of many years. They are strong and multifaceted. Axel Springer Fellow, view of the world spans the And they are based on shared values, cultural as well Spring 2013 Pacific, but I know far less than as political. They are flourishing because they are I should about the Atlantic I came to the American world. It is a blind spot attrib- growing on fertile ground—certainly in good times, Academy in the fall of 2013 to utable not to willful neglect but also in bad. Axel Springer stands for the same study German and European but to a lack of opportunity. liberal values that form the core of the transatlantic attitudes toward the in- The experience at the Academy relationship. These values are written into the com- ternational human rights was an intensive corrective, pany’s “constitution,” the Essentials. This is another regime, part of a slow-cooking leaving me still far behind reason why Axel Springer feels a special bond with book called The Struggle over where I would like to be, but the American Academy. Human Rights: Norm Creation immeasurably enriched. and Norm Change in the The world is experiencing dramatic upheavals. International System. Thanks Digitization is changing not only the way we work, to the hospitality and open- but also our societies. And it is accelerating, as well ness of German colleagues, I as fortifying, China’s rise to power. China will soon be made excellent progress on Susie Linfield leading the field of artificial intelligence. In the midst that goal, meeting officials at Journalist and Critic of these changes, transatlantic relations remain the Chancellery and Federal New York University Holtzbrinck Fellow, an anchor. Governments come and go, the political Foreign Office, scholars at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Spring 2013 climate changes, but the transatlantic friendship Politik, Deutsche Gesell- endures. It is essential for defending our values in a schaft für Auswärtige Politik My stay at the American changing world. (in whose journal I was Academy in Berlin was prob- To foster and cultivate transatlantic relations is privileged to publish an ably as close to heaven as I’ll a meaningful task. I’m thankful that the American article), several universities, ever get. It gave me the time, Academy has devoted itself to this endeavor, and and civil society activists space, freedom, and relax- for everything it has and continues to achieve. In the at the European Center on ation to begin researching Constitutional and Human my book on Zionism and the name of Axel Springer, but also personally, I’m glad Rights, German Amnesty, and Western Left. The Academy’s we are part of it. Human Rights Watch, among librarian and staff were Mathias Döpfner, CEO, Axel Springer AG others. Questions of human terrific, and I was amazed rights policy are naturally at the capaciousness of the Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 89

German libraries’ collection My forthcoming book There are many mornings my pores, and onto the pages of Jewish-oriented books The Lions’ Den: Zionism when I wake up and say to of my writing. I can barely (including some extremely and the Left from Arendt to myself: I wish I were back in express my gratitude. obscure ones). The irony of Chomsky will be published Berlin! researching Zionism in Berlin next year by Yale University did not escape me, yet there Press. Yes, it’s taken me was also something very a few years to complete, fitting about it: the histories but I don’t think I could Linda Dalrymple Henderson of Jews and Germans, even have written it without Jonathan Lethem Art Historian before the Shoah, cannot be the Academy’s initial, and Writer University of Texas at Austin disentangled. crucial, support. Pomona College Ellen Maria Gorrissen Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow, Fellow in Fiction, Spring 2014 Spring 2014 My fellowship at the Looking back from this American Academy, in spring An Intellectual Force distance, the particular 2014, had a truly transforma- miracle of my 2014 spring in tive effect on my scholarship. Keeping American thought and culture alive and well Berlin—along with the mercy I came to the Academy to in Germany is vital for sustaining the relationship the winter provided that year, work on a book project, “The after such dire warnings!— Energies of Modernism: Art, between the two countries. The American Academy was how distinctly it served Science, and Occultism in in Berlin as an institution should help ensure that both as a productive retreat the Early Twentieth Century,” they thrive. and, improbably, a re-im- which seeks to recover the This was also the opinion of Richard Holbrooke, mersion in the best kind of scientific and occult contexts who led me through the building on Am Sandwerder cosmopolitan urbanity. I credit for early twentieth-century art- in the early days of the American Academy. It was the unique properties of the ists, ranging from art in Paris important to him that intellectual America had a Academy with this unlikely (Cubism, Marcel Duchamp) and balancing act. We came as a Italian Futurism to the devel- forum in Germany, the country he knew well and family, one with young chil- opment of abstract painting by appreciated from his time as US ambassador there. dren; it was my first sabbatical the Russian Kazimir Malevich And that’s why he founded the American Academy. after taking, for the first time, and German Expressionist This goal can best be achieved through concrete a richly absorbing, but also Wassily Kandinsky. projects that give interested parties from both coun- demanding, college teaching In Berlin, I was able to tries the opportunity to meet, triggering engaging job. I needed to start a novel, work with library resources discussions and conveying new ideas. The American and, as a former resident at that were new to me, includ- Yaddo and other American ing those of the Max Planck Academy in Berlin’s fellowship program does an arts colonies, was intent on Institute for the History excellent job of fostering such exchange. Through this using the Academy as a place of Science, where I held a program, American intellectuals from all walks of life to woodshed with my work. I courtesy appointment made not only spend several months working on compelling did, with great success. What possible by the Academy. The academic or creative projects in Germany, but also I hadn’t accounted for, and Bibliothèque Nationale in present and discuss their specialist knowledge with am so astoundingly grateful Paris no longer allows physical for—and which seems to German audiences at public events. consultation of journals that me unlikely as I begin to have been digitized, but at the Over the past twenty years, the American enumerate it—is that in five Institute I was able to work Academy’s fellows have dealt with an incredibly wide months in Berlin, I attended carefully through volumes of array of topics: reflections on recent German history, the amazing Komische Oper the Revue Scientifique (1905– including problems faced after the end of World War production of Mozart’s Magic 1914) transferred from the II in 1945 and during the reconstruction of Germany; Flute, an equally amazing Staatsbibliothek. While Paris the art of writing; the impact of American theater; Schaubühne production of had traditionally been my re- Hamlet, an avant-garde musi- and the influence of architecture on the sensitivity of search destination, my time at cal installation at the Berghain, the Academy in Berlin changed a country, to name just a few examples. screenings at the Berlin Film that. I have twice returned to Our support of the American Academy in Berlin Festival, visited the Stasi Berlin for further research in makes it possible for us to continue to engage in dia- Museum, gave readings in the Staatsbibliothek and the logue with the intellectual America at a time when seven or eight other German Humboldt University library we look toward the United States with some concern. cities, saw Vienna, where I to consult copies of the German- One thing has been made patently clear through discovered the Museum of language books and period- Globes, and attended so many the Academy’s fellows: intellectual forces are the icals owned by Kandinsky, astoundingly rich presenta- opening up a new reading ones that change the world. tions by my fellow fellows. of his art and theory. And, of Prof. Dr. techn. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Berthold Leibinger, The boggling implications of course, my interactions with Founder, Berthold Leibinger Stiftung all this cultural absorption German scholars and with are still trickling out through German culture more broadly 90 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

confirm the critical role the invites, and the intersections What the Academy staff to fellow historians. Every American Academy plays in it arranges. Imagine this experienced and executed as moment, I felt wonderfully fostering understanding and dream: to be seated at a table its “normal,” to me, always connected, whether it be in interchange between Germans around which are gathered reached into the echelons of receiving (speedily!) hard-to- and Americans—a connection specialists in the abstruse and the supra-normal or para- find books and articles from more vital today than ever. the mundane, the beautiful normal. I was continuously Berlin’s libraries or enjoying and the true; each person surprised by the presence spring evenings with col- fine tunes her listening so as of this visionary, or that leagues and staff overlooking to begin to understand the genius, and the regular, daily the grounds, anticipating yet new language of the person appearance of such: there we another extraordinary meal. Mary Cappello to her left or to her right. are nibbling on a butter-filled Even though my stay was Writer Sometimes the conversation pretzel together, making plans perforce truncated, I never University of Rhode Island reduces to two, locked arm for the course of a common felt gypped, as a month at the Holtzbrinck Fellow, in arm; other times, it rises language. Academy gave me as much as Fall 2015 like a chorus. The basic tenet All the while, there is the I could have expected from a of interest—in the world, in discovery of a city impossible much longer stay anywhere things, in ideas, in the other— to get to the end of in any one else. The American Academy in brings the group together, and lifetime. Still, Berlin met me Part of the place’s secret Berlin is unrivaled in the trails them long after they’ve in this way: here were entire is that the Academy thor- particulars of the atmosphere parted in ways they can never institutes devoted to the sort oughly respects individual it cultivates, the colloquy it predict. of things I pondered solo in fellows’ need for extended, my attic study back home. quiet solitude. There are no I’ve tried to bring some of perfunctory distractions or those people, their modes of obligatory gabfests. Another inquiry or of composing art, part, though, is the sumptu- Holbrooke’s Vision their eschewal of stance and ousness of all that the place pursuance of stroll, to meet offers the rest of the time, the communities where I not least easy access to the Richard Holbrooke was one of my very good friends, work and live. Therein lies the musical glories of Berlin. I and I became involved with the Academy because “fellowship.” have nothing but wonderful of him. My family spent a few days with him in memories of my brief stay— Bonn and Berlin, when he was US Ambassador to and hope to return and forge Germany. During our times together there, Richard new ones down the road. talked often of his ideas for strengthening the bonds between the US and Germany, and particularly how Sean Wilentz Historian an organization like the Academy could play a vibrant Princeton University and essential role in promoting this objective. Siemens Fellow, Elliott Sharp I personally supported Richard’s vision for creat- Spring 2015 Musician and Composer ing the Academy as an important center that brings Inga Maren Otto Fellow in together scholars and experts who can discuss the The bounties of the Academy Music Composition, important and challenging issues confronting politi- are many—and I barely tasted Spring 2015 cal leaders and diplomats in today’s world. Typically, them! In 2014-15, various conflicts seemed to preclude Experiencing the memories Richard was very focused on making sure that the my being able to take up a of my fellowship at the Academy’s work should have a practical impact. fellowship, which I’d been Academy, I’m struck by how Richard would be delighted to know how much deeply honored to receive, but many positive factors con- the Academy has achieved in its twenty years and I was permitted to take up verged to provide the catalyst what a positive impact it has had in promoting a a month’s residence in May. for creative ferment within high-quality dialogue on a range of issues, including It was the best time of year an extremely congenial deepening the important relations between the US to appreciate Wannsee, but environment, often a rarity that turned out to be almost in such residency programs. and Germany. incidental. Our dinners together were the In view of the unilateral and unpredictable Thanks to the Academy’s launch pad, the catalyst for approach of the current US administration, the hospitality and care, I enjoyed discussions that might extend Academy’s role in promoting policy and cultural one of the most intense and way beyond the meal itself, dialogue and friendships between thought-leaders productive four weeks I can with no topic ever considered in the US and Germany, based on our deep shared remember. I finished off a off-topic. Talk might focus values, is more important than ever today. Richard book manuscript I’d been with laser-like intensity on fussing with for a year, and one item in the news or Holbrooke would have been exhorting us to do even got started on another one, common aspects in our work. more than we are doing if he were still with us. all the while building lasting It might just as well veer off Vincent Mai, Founder and Chairman, friendships with an extraordi- in a series of oblique and Cranemere nary group of fellows, ranging provocative digressions, ever from poets and musicians stimulating. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 91

Returning to the into a liquid border, a rip had ever heard him speak language, especially during Chauffeur’s House, where I in the German ideological German before; I didn’t even wartime and its aftermath, was staying with my family, I fabric between East and know he could. His crinkled, and so the soldier–mama’s would be buzzed with ideas. West, between communism demented brain could barely boy eventually sailed home, Our fellows presentations and democracy, and between recall what he had for break- wifeless. Our family’s history were much more than freedom and walled-in fast that morning, or how to was altered before it even academic exercises; they utopianism. It was a watery drive to his doctors appoint- began. Who knew? were public windows into segment of the “No Man’s ments, but his passable As I gazed out my bed- our thoughts and actions, Land,” the deadly strip be- German was now bubbling up room window at the sun set- amplified and reflected by tween hostile warring ma- from some buried source that ting over the Wannsee, I was the active participation of the chines, stitched together near was seeded seventy years ago. grateful that the American community of Berliners. Potsdam by the Glienicke “Fräulein schön!” and “Wirst Academy had provided me Wannsee might have Bridge of spies. du mit mir ausgehen?” He told an opportunity to be plunged been a touch remote, but we Back then, my father, me that he wanted to marry into the middle of this riveting felt hooked into the intellec- a young GI, guarded the his German girlfriend, but his context, in which my family’s tual and artistic life of the city, dark, mourning mansions mother did not approve. Love story and the great tides of whether it ventured out to us that hugged the waterfront, between two people does history once had intersected. or invited us in to homes and including the Arnhold not always speak the same venues. I was there to de- villa which now houses the velop concepts for my opera American Academy. A few Substance, and being placed times he fell asleep on guard in such a pleasurable bubble duty, which resulted in his Meeting Transatlantic had the desired effect—not commanding officer threat- Challenges in a finished product but in ening him with a firing squad. the opening up of avenues of He later told me he thought At its inception, the American Academy in Berlin possibility within the work he heard the low moan of was designed to transition post-unification concerns itself. While pressure may be ghosts inside the haunted into a necessary framework for advancing ideas, an important factor in pro- villas, especially on long culture, and diplomacy between the United States ductivity, the ability to take a winter nights, when it was and Germany. I believe that US Ambassador Richard deep breath or a walk on the bitter cold and he could hear lake, to step back from the the creaking ice sheaves on Holbrooke’s expansive experience, traversing the work, were equally valuable. the river. As he marched like dichotomy between the US Foreign Service and Wall a marionette, he entertained Street, was key in establishing the Academy as a himself by counting the icy platform for exchange between nations with over- puff breaths steaming from lapping and intrinsic values. his nostrils. I am proud that Perhaps at no other time in recent memory has Steven Hill he turned his back while the need for the Academy to fulfill its mission become Journalist some of the postwar, still-in- Holtzbrinck Fellow, terned Jews slipped away to more blatantly clear, to frame these intrinsic values Spring 2016 the promise of their faraway for today’s context in a way that can strengthen the Promised Land, and that he value-framework in order to meet evolving transat- I was a Holtzbrinck Fellow gave his GI chocolate bars to lantic challenges. at the American Academy in the starving Berlin Kinder. But The Academy’s world-class fellowship has cre- spring 2016. I soon melted I am ashamed that, when one ated—and will continue to create—a thought-leader- into the placid setting along boy stole his precious choc- ship model that exemplifies the value, exchange, and Lake Wannsee, amidst the olate, my father chased the ferries, boats, and waterfowl youngster down and drew his diverse viewpoints necessary to meet the transatlan- of all colors, stripes, and revolver, pointing it between tic challenges of today and into the future. I believe denominations. It was an the eyes of the petrified youth. that the Academy’s next twenty years will have an idyllic, picturesque haven for But, seeing the begging fear, opportunity to participate in what may be one of the doing my work. he threw away the pearl-han- greatest periods in modern human history. But it was tough to ignore dled beauty for which he had As our transatlantic societies begin answering that from the vantage of my swapped a lifetime of ciga- the difficult questions around the digitalization of bedroom window loomed rettes and well-placed favors, a number of reminders that but which now scalded his healthcare, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and as things were quite different humanity. we begin to meet the societal demands that come here in the years 1940 to 1945. Recently, during a phone with the Western world’s aging populations, human- Across the water I could spy call from Berlin to my now ity will be compelled to organize and mobilize its col- the elegant villa with the 90-year-old father, he began lective intellect—and this is where the Academy will sinister name—the Wannsee reminiscing about his former play a major role in creating transatlantic awareness Konferenzhaus, where the days here as a young soldier. I through leading global dialogue. Nazis’ Final Solution was was shocked as he suddenly planned. Post-1945, the began to speak German— Dieter Weinand, Member of the Board of whole sentences and coherent Wannsee was transformed Management, Bayer AG by the alchemy of politics phrases. No one in my family 92 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

Esra Akcan staff, who were united for world, an institution like the threatened our conservative Architectural Historian the advancement of ideas, American Academy, which parents that, if Trump won, Cornell University research, literature, and the gives financial and moral we’d stay in Berlin. I wish we Ellen Maria Gorrissen arts. How often is one gifted support to academics so they had. I’d rather be 217 pounds Fellow, with the extensive time for a can freely and independently of Tom Franklin walking Fall 2016 couple of months to pursue advance their studies, is around Berlin drinking that research and writing without nothing short of an oasis. delicious beer, in a country I cannot think of a better worrying about other daily Finally, I should mention where I admire its leader, place to finalize my book activities? And as an architect, that it was a challenge to than 193 pounds of Tom Open Architecture: Migration, I cannot help but addition- stay appropriately critical of Franklin drinking Bud Light Citizenship and the Urban ally mention the pleasures the historical immigration and watching our “president” Renewal of Berlin-Kreuzberg by of working in the Fellows policies and contemporary rip apart all I hold dear. IBA-1984/87 than the American Pavilion, located in the large refugee phenomenon in such Can I, um, come back? Academy in Berlin. Not only garden with a lake view. a scholar’s paradise, but it Maybe those automatic was it a rare luxury to reach We live in a world where was a challenge I was hon- grass-cutting machines will one’s topic with a 20-minute the humanities are fast ored to take. have a mysterious accident, public-transportation ride, declining in the university, and I can be your lawn guy? but it was also extremely and intellectuals are increas- Please? reassuring to be surrounded ingly silenced and trivialized by fellows and Academy in public discourse. In such a Tom Franklin Writer University of Mississippi Mark A. Pottinger Mary Ellen von der Heyden Musicologist and Cultural Bringing Fellows Fellow in Fiction, Historian to Frankfurt Fall 2016 Manhattan College Nina Maria Gorrissen In August of 2016, our fam- Fellow of History, White & Case has been privileged to work with ily arrived at the American Spring 2017 the American Academy’s fellowship program for Academy in Berlin. I’m a nearly five years—co-organizing lectures and dis- fiction writer, and was set My six-month residency at cussions in Frankfurt/Main, and providing fellows to work on a screenplay and the American Academy in with a platform in the Rhein-Main area to share a new novel. My wife, Beth Berlin was truly extraordinary. their work and discuss their thinking with the Ann Fennelly, is also a writer, I was able to complete chap- international business community. and her plans were to finish ters of my book manuscript; one book and begin another. present lectures and scholarly Without exception, we and our audiences are We brought our three kids, a talks at the US Consulate fascinated and impressed by the outstanding aca- daughter, 15, and two sons, General in Hamburg; meet demic quality of all fellows, whose research and 5 and 10. We were given the journalists, visual artists, lectures touch relevant themes for the transat- Chauffeur House, which music professionals, fellow lantic partnership between Germany and the US, couldn’t have been nicer. We academics, and patrons of including topics such as digitalization, the future put our kids into schools, and the arts; serve as an interview of work, the lessons to be learned from economic began our time in Germany. respondent on a Berlin radio It couldn’t have been bet- program; attend the opening history, foreign policy, and changes in the postwar ter—Berlin itself is a magnifi- of the new Pierre Boulez world order. cent city, full of green spaces, Saal of the Barenboim-Said By selecting and bringing together impressive great bars and restaurants, Academy; mentor American groups of sophisticated and diverse personalities, museums and an amazing graduate students who were and by enabling audiences in Germany to engage public transportation system. studying at Berlin-based uni- and exchange their views with such leading think- We jumped into Academy life, versities; and attend several ers in their field, the American Academy’s fellow- walking the grounds, gazing performances at the Deutsche at the lake, meeting our fellow Oper, Staatsoper, and Berlin ship program is truly unique and outstanding. In fellows. A highlight was the Philharmonie. this way, the American Academy enables and meals, the spectacular three- It was an amazing adven- multiplies cross-border dialogue in order to foster course dinners—and I have to ture, and one that convinced US-German relations. confess that I had arrived in me that now, more than ever, White & Case very much appreciates and Berlin at a sveltish 193 and left my true academic calling looks forward to continuing our cooperation with a pudgy 217. It wasn’t just the is to situate my scholastic the American Academy by hosting its fellows in food—the beer was so good work and political ideals in and cheap that it ruined me the present and not just in a Frankfurt and by further supporting the goals of for USA beer. distant historical reality. The the American Academy and its founders. We were there during opportunity to associate with Markus Hauptmann and Andreas Stilcken, the Trump election and so many diverse scholars watched our country begin while in Germany and yet Partners, White & Case LLP to disintegrate from afar. We still to connect with current Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 93

political realities facing us people I met, the work I made, Peter Schmelz SSR, Ukrainian SSR, and West today was truly the successful these are still solid. Musicologist Germany. As I did so, I found summation of what was I had never really had Arizona State University the intimate relations fostered achieved in my residency at such an uninterrupted period Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow, in and around the Academy the Hans Arnhold Center. I to pursue my work without Fall 2017 to be of crucial importance, am grateful for being given the relentless demands of as were the stimulating the necessary time to write, subsistence. On the shores My stay at the American conversations and colloquia research, and think about of the Wannsee, I had the Academy in Berlin was a among the policymakers, my work and its potential to freedom to do exploratory high point of my personal humanists, artists, and social shape not only the future of research, play with new and professional life. The scientists in my invigorating my career but also the aca- materials and components. Hans Arnhold Center, in cohort, who proved to be a demic community at large. From those results and in- Wannsee, was a welcoming useful sounding board and a sights emerged a whole new home-base as my family and I constant reminder to focus body of work—and with legs explored and took advantage on the broader impact of our to go far. of the vibrant sounds and research and inquiry. The American Academy sights of the great modern The American Academy Thessia Machado in Berlin is generous not only city that is Berlin—from the in Berlin nurtures a type of Sound Artist and with material support (which Philharmonic to the Science crucial—and nearly unique— Composer is all sorts of glorious), but Center Spectrum, from the public diplomacy that Inga Maren Otto Fellow also with support that comes Tiergarten to the Kolle 37 maintains connections, even in Music Composition, from the fundamental under- adventure playground, as well as traditional international Spring 2017 standing of the importance as many favorite bookstores relations suffer new stresses of the arts in the world. And and music stores, restau- and strains. □ Over a year has elapsed since they treat their artists like rants, and cafes. I built and my time in Berlin. The bits of they mean it! It is a place strengthened contacts with life that have accumulated where people, both staff and German academic friends and since color the experience guests, take the long view, colleagues, and expanded with a slightly dreamlike and see the arc of this cultural my knowledge of German quality. Images and impres- conversation across a much musical life in the 1960s, sions come in bursts: the longer time scale. immersing myself in the local light on the trees, the sound While still engaged and archives and libraries. And I of pebbles on the frozen lake, very actively participating in made full use of the Academy conversations, the funky music the affairs of the world, the facilities, its wonderful library, venues in Neukölln, the pattern Academy was able to provide and Fellows Pavilion. on the seats of the S7 train. an oasis of sanity and peace During my residency, I But the repercussions and during very turbulent and made strong headway on my ramifications, the impact confusing times. book about the intimate his- from that experience, is still That, and ping-pong on tories of Cold War musical ex- palpable and quite real. The the porch! changes between the Russian

THE SMART SET

n 2018-19, the American projects. For this driving Academy’s library service convenience, we have Daimler I team will be dashing AG to thank. Since 2012, their about in a dark gray smart support has contributed to forfour to get to and from the success of many research Berlin’s extensive network of endeavors—from scholarly libraries and archives. They monographs and novels to drive the smart to obtain the biographies and historical hundreds of books and archi- works. The Academy remains val materials requested by the grateful to Daimler for this Academy’s residential fellows sustained and meaningful René Ahlborn, Berit Ebert, Bertram Johne for their individual research commitment. □ Sophie Maaß Photo: 94 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

Amy Wilkinson at the BMW Representative Office, June 19, 2018. Photo: BMW Group BMW Photo:

Extraordinary Entrepreneurs.” Artificial Intelligence to Drug WEST COAST Wilkinson then discussed Discovery and Diagnostics” how to foster successful at the offices of the law firm INITIATIVE innovation in today’s fast- White & Case. paced, globalized economy The American Academy with executives from German in Berlin is grateful to Bayer he American Academy’s editor of the Los Angeles Times, and international startups as AG, BMW Group, Pascal newly established West Norman Pearlstine, joined well as major corporations. Levensohn, Alfred Möckel, TCoast Initiative brings Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Rounding out this year, and Pfizer Pharma GmbH for together entrepreneurs, Springer, for a conversation on October 4, 2018, the West generously supporting the scholars, and cultural leaders on “The Internet: Content. Coast Initiative brought West Coast Initiative, as well to discuss the impact of new Commercialization, Security, Dieter Weinand, a member as to the Bay Area Council technologies, educational and Privacy.” of the board and Head of Economic Institute, BMW models, corporate governance The first US-based event Pharmaceuticals of Bayer AG, Group, Axel Springer SE, and norms, and entrepreneurship of the West Coast Initiative, to Palo Alto to speak with White & Case for their gener- on the practices of German “Managing Disruption: How Pascal Levensohn about the ous hosting of events. □ and American professionals. to Ensure that Society “Implications of Applying Through this program, the Benefits from Technology Academy brings thought-lead- and Innovation,” was held ers from the US West Coast in San Francisco on March to Berlin—and the Academy’s 15, 2018. Journalist Steven Silicon Valley–Berlin fellows and visitors to the Hill, a spring 2016 Academy West Coast—for a spirited alumnus and author of The As a venture capitalist and corporate director living in the exchange across a range of Start-Up Illusion (2017) and San Francisco Bay Area, I have learned first-hand that good fields that are being affected Raw Deal (2015), and Jens ideas are generated from all corners of the earth, but that by dynamic technological Wohltorf, co-founder and CEO change. of Blacklane, a Berlin-based few regions offer a complete portfolio of innovation “infra- The West Coast Initiative limousine service and mobile structure” and the human capital necessary to optimally was inaugurated in Berlin app, debated the impact of bring good ideas to maturity. on October 10, 2017, with new technologies on labor In this spirit, I am immensely proud to support the a talk on “How to Build a markets and social security Academy’s West Coast Initiative, which aims to more inti- High Performance Board systems, as well as their mately connect Berlin’s innovation ecosystem with Silicon of Directors,” by Academy consequences for education Valley, through fostering meaningful discussion between trustee Pascal Levensohn, and training. The evening founder of Levensohn Venture was hosted by the Bay Area thought-leaders and influencers. Our work with this initiative Partners, and managing Council Economic Institute. drives engaged dialogue on relevant innovation topics among director of Dolby Family Back in Berlin, on June select academics, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives Ventures. An audience of two 19, 2018, Amy Wilkinson, the active in Silicon Valley and Berlin. My goal is to have these dozen Berlin-based corporate California-based founder and interactions lead to important collaborations that would and finance leaders then CEO of Ingenuity, bestselling simply not have occurred otherwise; the American Academy discussed board dynamics author of The Creator’s Code, can become a key partner in this process. I strongly believe and practical approaches to and Stephen M. Kellen improving board governance. Distinguished Visitor at the that doing so will both further the vision of its founders and A few months later in Berlin, American Academy, spoke cement the special role of the American Academy in Berlin for on February 7, 2018, the for- at a luncheon at the BMW generations to come. mer vice chairman of Time, Representative Office about Inc. and current executive “The Six Essential Skills of Pascal Levensohn, Founder, Levensohn Venture Partners Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 95

Harry Liebersohn Nina Bernstein Photos: Brian Byllesby Photos:

fellows Harry Liebersohn The next alumni seminar ALUMNI SEMINARS and Virág Molnár, the will be held on November 15, seminar convened panelists 2018, at Stanford University. drawn from Academy alumni Spring 2016 Distinguished ince the American serving as peer reviewers and New School facul- Visitor Francis Fukuyama will Academy in Berlin’s fel- and referring colleagues and ty—sociologists, historians, deliver a talk entitled “Identity: Slowship program began, friends as potential fellows. and political scientists—to The Demand for Dignity and in fall 1998, over 450 scholars, It is because of our alumni discuss “New Populisms and the Politics of Resentment,” writers, artists, and compos- that the American Academy’s Nationalisms: Transatlantic moderated by former ers have come to the Hans transatlantic network of Perspectives.” In two panels, American Academy and Arnhold Center for a semester scholars, writers, and artists this distinguished group Stanford president Gerhard of independent research and has become ever stronger of scholars spoke to recent Casper. Part two of the seminar creative work—from academ- over the years. challenges to democratic will feature a panel discussion ic monographs and essays to In the spirit of this norms in the United States on “Culture and the Politics of new novels, paintings, and network, the American and Western Europe—in Movement,” with alumni Josh compositions. We remain Academy in Berlin held Denmark, France, Germany, Kun (spring 2018) and Daniel grateful for the continued the first in a new series of Italy, and the Netherlands— Joseph Martinez (fall 2016), support of our alumni, who Alumni Seminars on April 5, in Eastern European coun- historian of Latin America Ana spread the word about our 2018, at The New School for tries such as Hungary and Raquel Minian, and spring 2018 fellowship program and Social Research, in New York Poland, as well as in India, Distinguished Visitor Tricia help in our selection process, City. Chaired by spring 2017 Turkey, and Russia. Rose. □

JOHN MCCAIN RECEIVES 2018 KISSINGER PRIZE

n late August, the American On the world stage, McCain Academy mourned the had long advocated a strong I passing of Senator John European Union, NATO, and McCain, a friend of the transatlantic alliance. Academy, who embodied The outpouring of heart- the best of the transatlantic felt sentiment upon Senator tradition. In this spirit, on McCain’s passing further May 3, McCain received the underscored the impact he Academy’s 2018 Henry A. had upon the positive image John McCain at the American Academy, June 10, 2013.

Kissinger Prize, in a private of America abroad—and Annette Hornischer Photo: ceremony in Washington, DC. accentuated the high-minded The prize recognized McCain principles and values for Prize recipients: Helmut von Kleist (2013); James for his principled leadership which he stood. The Academy Schmidt (2007); George H.W. A. Baker, III (2014); Giorgio throughout six decades of is proud to recognize McCain Bush (2008); Richard von Napolitano and Hans-Dietrich public service, his unwavering with its highest transatlan- Weizsäcker (2009); Michael Genscher (2015); Samantha political courage, and his tic honor, and to include R. Bloomberg (2010); Helmut Power (2016); and Wolfgang persistent ability to rally col- him in the distinguished Kohl (2011); George P. Shultz Schäuble (2017). □ leagues to bipartisan solutions. roster of previous Kissinger (2012); Ewald-Heinrich 96 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018 Photo: Annette Annette Hornischer Photo:

Klaus Biesenbach is the WELCOMING NEW TRUSTEES director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. Prior, he was t the fall 2017 and spring with a joint appointment, be- she was a co-founding part- director of MoMA PS1 and 2018 board meetings, ginning in 1997, in the School ner and portfolio manager at chief curator-at-large at the Athe trustees of the of Architecture. In 2001, Wanger Asset Management, a Museum of Modern Art, in American Academy in Berlin Vidler was appointed acting global small–mid-cap equity New York City. He is also the elected three new members: dean of the Irwin S. Chanin specialist, serving as head founding director of Kunst- Anthony Vidler, Leah Joy Zell, School of Architecture at of the international equities Werke (KW) Institute for and Klaus Biesebach. The Cooper Union, where team, lead portfolio manager Contemporary Art in Berlin he served as dean of from of the Acorn International (1990) and the Berlin Biennale Anthony Vidler is a historian 2002 to 2013. The author of Fund, and portfolio manager (1996). In 2006, Biesenbach and critic of modern and several acclaimed books of the Wanger European was named founding chief cu- contemporary architecture, of architecture, he has Smaller Companies Fund. rator of MoMA’s newly formed specializing in European received awards from the A member of the Council department of media, which architecture from the Guggenheim Foundation, on Foreign Relations and the in 2009 he broadened to the Enlightenment to the present. National Endowment for the Aspen Strategy Group, Zell department of media and He has served four terms Humanities, and the Getty is also co-chair of the board performance art. Biesenbach as chair of the Academy’s Center for the History of Art of trustees of the Chicago received International Fellows Selection Committee, and the Humanities, and Council on Global Affairs, Association of Art Critics and, prior, two years as a peer is a fellow of the National of which she was treasurer (AICA) awards for the exhi- reviewer. Academy of Arts and and on whose board she bitions “Marina Abramović: Vidler was a member Sciences. Vidler currently has served since 1998. She is The Artist Is Present” (2010), of the Princeton University teaches in the fall at The also on the Global Advisory “Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body School of Architecture faculty Cooper Union and the spring Council of Harvard University, Out (7354 Cubic Meters)” from 1965–93, during which at Yale University. from which she graduated, (2008), and “Fassbinder: Berlin time he served as the chair magna cum laude and Phi Alexanderplatz.” He also re- of the PhD committee and Leah Joy Zell is the founder Beta Kappa, in 1971. In 1979, ceived AICA awards for co-cu- director of the program in of Lizard Investors, an asset she received her PhD from rating the exhibitions “Kenneth European cultural studies. management business based Harvard in modern social and Anger, 100 Years” (version #2, In 1990, he was appointed in Chicago, and lead port- economic history. Previously, ps1, 2009), and “Roth Time: A William R. Kenan Jr. Chair of folio manager of the Lizard Zell served on the Harvard Dieter Roth Retrospective.” In Architecture. In 1993, Vidler International Fund, a limited University Board of Overseers 2016, Biesenbach was awarded moved to UCLA, where he partnership that invests and the Board of Trustees of the Bundesverdienstkreuz was a professor and chair of in international small-cap the German Marshall Fund of from the Federal Republic of the department of art history, equities. From 1992 to 2005, the United States. Germany. □ Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 97

Founded in 1969, The THE ANDREW W. MELLON Andrew W. Mellon Foundation endeavors to strengthen, FELLOWSHIP IN THE HUMANITIES promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and he American Academy in The projects of the Andrew Given current chal- to the well-being of diverse Berlin has been awarded W. Mellon Fellows in the lenges to the transatlantic and democratic societies by Ta grant of $1.4 million Humanities will focus on key relationship, the Academy supporting exemplary insti- from the New York-based themes the American Academy is especially honored by tutions of higher education Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. has identified for transatlantic the Mellon’s support of its and culture as they renew This grant has established the exploration: migration and fellowship program, which and provide access to an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship integration, race in compar- fosters intellectual exchange invaluable heritage of ambi- in the Humanities, which ative perspective, and exile between the United States tious, path-breaking work. □ funds two residential fellows and return. To this end, the and Germany. Mellon’s per academic year for an initial grant also covers a biannual funding underscores a shared period of three years. The in- workshop for scholars based in commitment to vigorous augural fellows for 2018-19 are both the US and Germany, to transatlantic scholarship Rosalind C. Morris, of Columbia be convened at the American and recognizes the American University, and Ronald Radano, Academy in Berlin by the Academy in Berlin’s ongoing of the University of Wisconsin- Mellon Fellow at the conclu- contribution to American arts Madison. sion of his or her fellowship. and letters.

Comey’s book details A HIGHER LOYALTY his experiences from two decades in the highest levels of American government: n Tuesday, June 19, Holger Stark in Berlin for a German as Großer als das Amt from his positions as US 2018, former director conversation about Comey’s (Droemer). Comey and Stark attorney for the Southern Oof the FBI James new book, A Higher Loyalty: spoke for roughly two hours, District of New York and Comey joined Die Zeit’s Truth, Lies, and Leadership and took questions from the deputy US attorney general investigative desk chief (MacMillan)—released in audience. under President George W. Bush, to taking the helm of the FBI under President Obama, in 2013, where he oversaw investigations into both Hillary Clinton’s email use at the State Department and allegations of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia—a position from which he was unexpectedly dismissed in 2017. A Higher Loyalty also offers a model of what comprises ethical leadership, and how that leadership drives sound de- cisions appropriate to mature democratic governance. “American institutions are stronger than one person,” Comey said, noting that the Trump presidency was awak- ening a generation to the importance of democratic engagement. The event was a cooperation among Die Zeit, Droemer Verlag, and the American

Photo: Phil Dera / DIE ZEIT PhilPhoto: Dera Academy in Berlin. □ 98 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

PROFILES IN SCHOLARSHIP

ANDREW W. MELLON increasingly engaged with as a discipline, and measures parties in wealthy OECD coun- FELLOWS IN THE Afrofuturism in order to cri- the extent to which its tries. He argues that increased HUMANITIES tique Eurocentricism, uncover normative principles shaped inequality and decreased job Rosalind C. Morris (Fall 2018) German racism, rewrite the actual policy, based on three opportunity are predicated on Professor of Anthropology, past, and imagine a more posi- case studies: Bulgaria and new strategies of corporate Columbia University tive future for black peoples. Anatolia (1877-78); the Boxer profiteering: purchasing Morris’s project analyzes trans- Rebellion in Manchuria (1900- intellectual property rights formations in the social Jared Farmer (Spring 2019) 01); and Galicia and Armenia (IPRs) and splitting produc- worlds of South African gold Professor, Department of during World War I. tion chains into subfirms. mining from 1994, when History, Stony Brook University Schwartz’s analysis aims to Apartheid ended, up until the In his project The Latest Oldest BERTHOLD LEIBINGER inform policy solutions for present global migration crisis. Tree: Survival Stories for a Time FELLOW better, faster, fairer growth. Through collaborative film- of Extinction, under contract Jennifer Allen (Spring 2019) making with undocumented with Basic Books, Farmer Assistant Professor, Department Prerna Singh (Spring 2019) migrants and itinerant miners, brings together the history of History, Yale University Mahatma Gandhi Associate Morris has created a growing of trees and the science of Allen is examining the range Professor of Political Science archive of subterranean life longevity to contemplate the of possible global catastro- and International Public in the mines that can help ethics of longterm thinking phes that captivated imagi- Affairs, Brown University forge more humane, informed in the Anthropocene. Climate nations in both East and West Singh is working on a book responses to the rising nation- change, he argues, requires Germany during and after the that explores why polities alisms caused by migration. caring far beyond the present Cold War. She then explores with similar epidemiological, moment. For all recorded the different approaches each socioeconomic, and demo- Ronald Radano (Spring 2019) history, trees have helped country took to hedge against graphic conditions have been Professor of African Cultural people think in such ways. these disasters by archiving characterized by different lev- Studies and Music, University materials and data. By tracing els of effectiveness in coun- of Wisconsin-Madison AXEL SPRINGER FELLOWS the evolution and gradual tering equivalently severe Radano undertakes a close Alexander Galloway (Fall 2018) cross-pollination of these two challenges posed by disease. analysis of the colonial-era Professor of Media, Culture, projects, Allen sheds light on She argues that health inter- African recordings of the and Communication, New the question of how contem- ventions are more likely to Phonogram Archive at Berlin’s York University porary Germany aimed to elicit popular support if they Ethnographic Museum, comb- In his project “The Crystalline salvage humanity after global are as aligned with prevailing ing through roughly 2,500 pho- Medium: Computation and destruction. cultural etiologies, rituals, nographic cylinders of African Its Consequences,” Galloway and treatments; embedded in performances produced in looks at the history and culture BOSCH FELLOWS IN PUBLIC appeals such as nationalism; Africa and in Berlin prior to of computation, broadening POLICY and communicated to local 1918. By critically observing the historical focus to include Joshua Yaffa (Fall 2018) populations by authoritative these sources in the context lesser-known nineteenth- and Moscow Correspondent, The institutions. of European–African colonial twentieth-century media such New Yorker relations and against the as the curious multi-lens cam- Many think of today’s Russia DAIMLER FELLOW background of Western ideas eras of chronophotographer as a country held captive Emily Apter (Spring 2019) of race, Radano aims to rethink Albert Londe, the algorithms by Vladimir Putin, but Yaffa Silver Professor of French and the history of black music as a of mathematician Nils Aall argues that the authoritarian Comparative Literature, New transnational concept. Barricelli, and the table-top war system Putin controls is, in York University game developed by filmmaker fact, made possible by the Apter’s project is both a polit- ANNA-MARIA KELLEN and philosopher Guy Debord. business and political com- ical theory of translation and FELLOWS promises Russian citizens an investigation into what Priscilla Layne (Fall 2018) Peter Holquist (Spring 2019) actually make. His book a “just” translation is. She Assistant Professor of German, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed about Russia in the Putin age, seeks to define “translational University of North Carolina at Term Associate Professor featuring a range of Russian injustice” by exploring con- Chapel Hill of History, University of voices, is under contract with temporary cases with political Layne is working on her Pennsylvania Tim Duggan Books. resonance: the problematic second book, Out of this World: Holquist explores the emer- translation of “unsafe spaces,” Afro-German Afrofuturism, gence and consolidation Herman Mark Schwartz gender violence across lan- under contract with North of the international law of (Spring 2019) guages in the communication western University Press, war in the late nineteenth Professor, Department of of the 2015 New Year’s Eve which focuses on Afro-German and early twentieth century, Politics, University of Virginia sexual assault case in Cologne, authors’ use of Afrofuturist focusing on the key role Schwartz is looking at the the untranslatability of concepts in literature and played by Imperial Russia. economic reasons behind “refugee” and “migrant,” and theater. Layne argues that His project traces how inter- increased ethno-nationalist, the political philology of the Afro-German artists have national law emerged there anti-immigrant, anti-system word “settlement.” Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 99

DIRK IPPEN FELLOW years of which as an artist multi-volume study of histor- Engaging the Hereditary Tung-Hui Hu (Fall 2018) and essayist in theater. In ical relationships among pre- Enemy.” Through the histories Associate Professor of English, Berlin, Carl is working on modern East Asia’s languages, of soldiers, refugees, and University of Michigan his book project, Becoming literatures, and cultures. homefront communities, she Hu’s Academy project, a White Man, under contract explores the complex social “Lethargy and the Art of Being with Simon & Schuster, which Martin Puchner (Spring 2019) and cultural consequences Unfit,” investigates the ambiv- explores what it means to Byron and Anita Wien Professor of the Holy Roman Empire’s alence of being caught inside become a “good man” in an of English and Comparative long conflict with the digital systems of surveillance America where art and poli- Literature, Harvard University Ottoman Empire. and algorithmic control. He tics are dominated by white Puchner is writing a history terms this feeling “lethargy,” masculinity. of Rotwelsch, a thieves’ argot Fred M. Donner (Spring 2019) which captures both the spoken in Central Europe Peter B. Ritzma Professor user’s disengagement from Paul La Farge (Spring 2019) from the late Middle Ages to of Near Eastern History, digital systems and the sense Writer, Red Hook, NY the early twentieth century. The Oriental Institute and that one can never entirely La Farge is writing “Way Out,” Admired by Franz Kafka as an Department for Near Eastern disconnect. Hu considers dig- a collection of short stories extreme version of Yiddish, Languages and Civilizations, ital artworks labeled by some linked by themes of confine- Rotwelsch persisted under- University of Chicago critics as passive, boring, or ment and escape. The book ground for five hundred years, Donner is working with apolitical, in the context of also looks at Carl Hagenbeck’s at the intersection of vagran- seventh-century CE papyri in recent developments in media invention of the modern zoo— cy and the state. Puchner’s the collection of the National theory and history. the likely impetus behind project is personal: his uncle Museums in Berlin, and ear- Kafka’s story “A Report to an bequeathed to him an archive ly-Arabic papyrus fragments ELLEN MARIA GORRISSEN Academy,” which inspired La of literary works he was from the Austrian National FELLOWS Farge’s own musings for this translating into Rotwelsch, Library. His findings will Gyula Gazdag (Fall 2018) collection. and his grandfather was a contribute to a more vivid Director of Film, Theater and Nazi historian railing against historical reconstruction of Television; and Distinguished INGA MAREN OTTO FELLOW the “subversive” dialect. the earliest origins of Islam. Research Professor Emeritus, IN MUSIC COMPOSITION University of California, Los Wang Lu (Spring 2019) MARY ELLEN VON DER Richard C. Holbrooke Angeles Composer and Pianist; HEYDEN FELLOWS IN Fellow Gazdag is continuing the work Assistant Professor of Music, FICTION George T. Frampton on his screenplay “Tourist Brown University Yaa Gyasi (Fall 2018) (Spring 2019) Trip to Hell,” which features Wang is working on a Writer, Brooklyn, NY Co-Founder and CEO, Partner a party of young men and multi-movement composition Gyasi is working on her ship for Responsible Growth women who go on a journey inspired by the replicas of second novel, in which she to Verdun and the Somme in iconic European landmarks— explores the psychic costs of 1921. After their car gets stuck, the Eiffel Tower, French immigration on a Ghanaian- Fall 2018 Distinguished Visitors they spend the night on the boulevards, Venetian canals, American family. In the book, and Guest Lecturers battlefield, and soldiers of the Dutch windmills—that have she also delves into the social German, French, and British been erected in the suburbs stigmas surrounding addic- AIRBUS DISTINGUISHED empires rise from the dead. of large Chinese cities. The tion and mental health among VISITOR In the morning, the tourists piece reflects the sonic simu- Ghanaians and Americans. Elizabeth Kolbert return to their hotel—yet lacra of Europe and East Asia Journalist and Author; Staff none of them remember the by fusing sounds of Venetian Jesse Ball (Spring 2019) Writer, The New Yorker previous night’s journey. gondola songs and Korean pop, Writer; and Professor, Creative Shanghai nightclub music Writing Program, School of the JOHN W. KLUGE Lucy Raven (Spring 2019) and alphorns, Parisian sound- Art Institute of Chicago DISTINGUISHED VISITOR Artist, New York, NY scapes and local Chinese opera. Ball is continuing work on Masha Gessen Raven’s multidisciplinary his next novel, “The Children Author; and Staff Writer, practice focuses on images of JOHN P. BIRKELUND VI,” about a world in which all The New Yorker work and image production. FELLOWS IN THE people older than twelve have Using animation, the moving HUMANITIES died, which is set right after LLOYD CUTLER image, still photography, Haun Saussy (Fall 2018) this mass death has occurred. DISTINGUISHED VISITOR installation, sound, and perfor- University Professor, The narrative follows the Roberta Cooper Ramo mative lecture, she encourages Comparative Literature, actions of a boy and his blind Attorney; and Former the viewer to “slow down Committee on Social Thought, sister as they travel through President, American Law the process of looking,” and and East Asian Languages a city trying to find their way Institute and American interrogates global industrial and Civilizations, University to safety. Bar Association systems and technologies. of Chicago Saussy’s book project, “The NINA MARIA GORRISSEN Marina Kellen French HOLTZBRINCK FELLOWS Nine Relays: Laying the FELLOWS IN HISTORY Distinguished Visitor P. Carl (Fall 2018) Ground for a Comparative Carina L. Johnson (Fall 2018) Ai Weiwei Writer; and Distinguished History of East Asian Professor of History, Pitzer Artist Artist-in-Residence, Emerson Literatures,” focuses on the College College overlapping literary worlds Johnson is working on a RICHARD VON WEIZSÄCKER P. Carl became a white man of East Asia before 1800. It book entitled “Homefront DISTINGUISHED VISITOR in 2017, after living half a will serve as a single-author Experiences of the Habsburg- Frances FitzGerald century as a woman, twenty prologue to a multi-author, Ottoman Wars, 1470-1620: Journalist and Historian 100 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

BOOK REVIEWS

other collaborations with Kurt Weill; but brutal and implacable. Yet this the films, most emerging from the dark tale sold in the millions, was famed UFA studio in Babelsberg (the translated into myriad languages, directors Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, and made into a radio show and film and G. W. Pabst; actors like Louise before the Nazis came along. Brooks and Peter Lorre); theater and Subtitled in German as “The Story music (Max Reinhardt, Otto Klemperer, of Franz Biberkopf,” it chronicles the Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, misadventures of the hapless yet and Arnold Schönberg)—all immortal- strangely sympathetic hero (Biberkopf ized in Harry Kessler’s memoir Berlin means “beaverhead”), from his release in Lights. And now we have the ongo- from prison after killing his wife to his ing German television series Babylon rape of her sister to odd jobs to petty Berlin, which offers an extraordinarily crime to his further relations with accurate recreation of the city in 1929, women, most of whom he pimps out, built around a detective story set amid to the murder by an evil “friend” of his rising political turmoil, frank sex, and one true love to the final dregs of his creepy glamour. empty life. Less well-known today but quint- It could be depressing—it should essentially exemplifying this efflo- be depressing—but there is so much rescence was Alfred Döblin’s Berlin more. Fassbinder, constrained by Alexanderplatz (1929), which has budget, the smaller television screens led a troubled afterlife, at least among of thirty years ago, and technical BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ Anglophones. It was translated into limitations (no CGI), concentrated on English in 1931 by Eugene Jolas, a the characters and shot them mostly BY ALFRED DÖBLIN friend of James Joyce. But it wasn’t in interiors. He had wonderful actors, exactly English: Jolas proudly pro- with Günter Lamprecht as Franz and Translated by Michael Hofmann claimed it as American, and his use Barbara Sukova as the murdered girl New York Review Books of American slang led to its dispar- and the too-glamorous but extraor- March 2018, 458 pages agement by many British critics. Their dinary Hanna Schygulla as his friend A review by John Rockwell disdain spread to the book itself, its and sometime lover Eva. But Babylon reputation further damaged by Nazi Berlin and Döblin go beyond character For nearly a century, Berlin during hostility. Döblin’s book languished in to give us the complexity and chaos the Weimar Republic has exerted an relative obscurity until 1980, with the of the city itself. irresistible fascination. An aura of telecast of Rainer Maria Fassbinder’s No space here to chronicle all the mordant decadence and grim poverty 15-hour, 14-part series. Now Döblin’s early twentieth-century efforts to illuminated by creative brilliance epic novel has, at last, appeared in a come to terms with the modern city, epitomized the brief life of the first new English translation, by Michael German and otherwise. From Walter German republic, especially between Hofmann, courtesy in the United Benjamin’s Arcades Project to the 1927 and 1931, after postwar inflation States of New York Review Books. Its Lettrists’ dérives (walking about a had eased and before economic de- pervasive Cockney slang may prove city like a philosophical flâneur) to cline and political violence foreshad- problematic for some American the social realist novels of Theodore owed Adolf Hitler. readers, but its attendant publicity Dreiser and John dos Passos to James The Threepenny Opera is the best- may kindle new attention to Döblin’s Joyce’s Dublin and Joseph Conrad’s known artistic product of that time book itself. London, writers struggled to reconcile and place, along with Christopher To his lifelong frustration, Döblin the individual with the metropolitan Isherwood’s stories and their offshoot, (1878-1957) was the archetypal one-hit mass. In the films of Weimar Berlin, the musical Cabaret. But there was so wonder. But what a hit! Instead of there were Walther Ruttman’s extraor- much more: the art of Otto Dix and Berlin’s romanticized glitter, Döblin dinary documentary Berlin: Symphony George Grosz; the literature, above all gave us the wormy undersurface—not of a Metropolis and Lang’s Metropolis, Bertolt Brecht’s poems and plays and bitterly witty, like Brecht and Weill, both released in 1927. Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 101

Döblin is an honored member Fassbinder focuses, is really the story up and lashes out behind her. We’ll see of that fraternity, with his precisely of his city, set against a cosmic context. you there, the dogs will come and eat rendered descriptions of people and Fassbinder tried to evoke that context what’s left of you. [. . .] It’s pitch-black. places and ample Berlin dialect. Döblin with his retention of the two angels Her face is pulp, her teeth are pulp, her worked as a doctor in poor Berlin who accompany Franz in his later eyes are pulp, her mouth, her lips, her neighborhoods, and knew the milieu days, along with a Hollywood-style tongue, her throat, her trunk, her legs, cold. Joyce was more a parallel than Crucifixion scene starring the principal her crotch, I’m yours. [. . .]” a direct inspiration. Döblin’s book has characters. Likewise with Döblin’s Everything after the murder could so much detail, more than Fassbinder oscillations of tenses and sudden be anti-climactic, and Döblin still has could hope to capture, despite his switches from first to third person. a hundred pages to go. Yet as a de- evident devotion to its source. Fassbinder hints at some of that in his compression chamber, it works. Franz Alexanderplatz is a large square own (uncredited) voiceovers and silent moves in a fog, dazed. He spends time in the heart of Berlin, lovingly de- film titles, but the omnipresence of an in a madhouse, tortured by proto-Nazi picted in Babylon Berlin. After the omniscient narrative description is the doctors, visited by hallucinations war, in which bombs crushed it and heart of the novel. of those he has loved and wronged. everything around it, the square sat Döblin was Jewish, and, at the The murderer is finally given a mild forlornly in East Berlin, but since the beginning, just out of jail, Franz is sentence, and Franz slips back into the fall of the Wall it has been reborn as a comforted by two Orthodox Jews, anonymity that defines the great city. vibrant crossroads. Individuals can get portrayed as comic but kind. After that, The other emblematic scene lost in the crowd. The story of Franz anti-Semitism and Nazism (a minor in the book is Döblin’s depiction Biberkopf is not just of one man’s electoral force in Berlin in the late of a slaughterhouse. The men work failure; it’s of him being crushed by 1920s) disappear, and even in most of indifferently and clinically, torturing fate, urban and supernatural. Fassbinder and Babylon Berlin, blessed beasts to feed bestial man. For Döblin, The text is constantly intercut with hindsight, they play a minor men truly are beasts, except that male with apocalyptic Biblical quotations role. In Döblin, one of Franz’s odd beasts don’t mistreat their females (“On her forehead her name is written, jobs is hawking the Nazi newspaper, with such brutal indifference. When a name of mystery, great Babylon, the they finish killing the day’s quota of mother of harlots and of earth’s abom- helpless animals, the slaughterhouse inations”). But also with citations The story crew become animals themselves: from classic Greek tragedies, weather of Franz Biberkopf “They come mooing and bleating down reports, set pieces about breadmaking the ramps. The pigs grunt and snuffle. and a slaughterhouse, physics, psy- is not just of one You’re walking in a fog. A pale young chiatry, storms straight out of King man’s failure; man picks up the axe, thwack, the Lear, ubiquitous construction (a reader blink of an eye, and lights out. At nine, today thinks how in just a few years it’s of him being they freed up their elbows, stuffed it will be rubble), mass transportation, crushed by fate, cigarettes in their fat mouths, and politics, military and cabaret songs. started belching out fatty restaurant Döblin collected clippings about all urban and smoke.” manner of phenomena and bundled supernatural. In 2008, Ian Buruma wrote an them into this book. Franz has his own essay in the New York Review of Books dérives: he walks constantly, compul- about Döblin’s novel and the DVD sively, making a litany of street names, release of Fassbinder’s film. In his summoning the concrete reality of the Völkischer Beobachter, but he’s no first sentence, he called the novel’s the city. Social realism meets stream Nazi, and nothing much is made of pervasive Berlin dialect “pretty much of consciousness, to their mutual it. At one point, he falls in with some untranslatable.” He ended his essay, enrichment. Döblin’s collages recall communists, but really he is indiffer- dismissive of Jolas, by dreaming that the technical whaling descriptions in ent to politics. “it is high time for the book to find a Moby-Dick, and his Biblical visions the Throughout, Döblin is fiercer and new translator brilliant and inventive religious annunciations in Angels in more intense than Fassbinder, in his enough to do justice to the text in America. physical descriptions and cosmic English.” Now Buruma is editor of the Some early readers objected to interjections, mixing voices and points New York Review, which, in partner- the interpolations, especially those of view symphonically. In the film the ship with Penguin Books in London, citations from the Bible—Hofmann murdered girl lies in the woods almost commissioned Michael Hofmann to says he was at first put off, too—but picturesquely. Here is Döblin, in the translate the novel anew. now they seem all of a piece, en- new translation: “Violence, violence is German-born and English- riching Döblin’s vision. The story of a reaper, by Almighty God employed. based, Hofmann might have Franz Biberkopf the man, on which Let me go. She wriggles and tries to get seemed brilliant and inventive 102 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

enough to do the book justice. In Akcan asks: How can one bring a new many ways, he has done so. But and genuine “ethics of hospitality” just as British critics rejected Jolas’s into a participation-based, urban American slang, some Americans, design process to produce a more just like me, find Hofmann’s reliance on city for all inhabitants, noncitizens Cockney to be intrusive, as foreign and citizens alike? as the original German. Neither To answer to this question, Akcan Jolas nor Hofmann had much turns to the International Building choice: one can’t translate slang Exhibition (IBA) experiments in “open mid-Atlantically. Fassbinder went architecture” and the construction of light on the dialect, too, and he public housing in Kreuzberg between didn’t even have to deal with trans- 1984 and 1987. Combining rich oral lation into a world language with a histories with archival research and wide range of dialects like English. architectural design analysis, Akcan For the most part, Hofmann’s documents the dynamic social lives prose reads perfectly fine in slang- of buildings through the conflicting free passages. His Cockney seems viewpoints of designers and inhabi- accurate, if English reviewers are tants, who also serve as resident-archi- to be believed, and he supplements tects, she argues. Through their voices, the novel with footnotes and an in- OPEN ARCHITECTURE: we learn of migrants’ struggle for ad- formative afterward. But apart from MIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP equate housing and the incongruities occasional awkwardnesses and the between utopian designs and the built inevitable use of English spelling AND THE URBAN environment, between architectural (labour, tyre), the pervasiveness of RENEWAL OF BERLIN- visions and occupants’ aspirations. words and phrases like “pouring KREUZBERG BY IBA These represent the lost opportunities beer down their necks” “commer- 1984/87 of open architecture, though not for a sants,” “if your luck’s in you’ll earn lack of trying. Through beautiful, color a few coppers,” “old Zannovich had BY ESRA AKCAN photographs of Kreuzberg as technical to leg it,” “the knacker,” “summer plan and as lived space, from urban Birkhäuser, duster,” and ”smuggins,” just to murals and local commerce to the April 2018, 405 pages adduce a few examples from the intimate spheres of the family, we see first pages, seriously impedes an A review by Christina Schwenkel a celebration not of the static built American’s appreciation of Döblin’s form—the centerpiece of architectural achievement. There is no shortage of visual rep- histories—but its reinvention. The So what to do? For economic resentations of Kreuzberg in the 1980s. pride expressed in the voices of female reasons, New York Review Books Images of squats, punks, and protests migrants and refugees as they discuss had to use Penguin’s template. dominate the popular imagination of their pursuit of, and improvements But at what cost to readability? West Berlin as center of radical politics made to, their housing while encoun- Maybe Berlin Alexanderplatz really during the Cold War. Neither are books tering stifling racism, makes clear is untranslatable into English. For on Berlin’s architectural heritage their unequivocal claims to non-open American readers, I would still and experimental design in short spaces in the city. recommend the Jolas. Why let supply. Esra Akcan’s extraordinary Open Architecture is a tremendous annoying Anglicisms get in the way study brings a new and much-needed accomplishment that invites the of a great modernist masterpiece, intervention into these all too familiar reader to act as a kind of postcolonial the toughest, truest literary discourses through her astute analysis flâneur, a non-gendered figure who achievement of Weimar Berlin? □ of the fraught relationship between strolls Kreuzberg’s streets, peering— architecture and noncitizens. at times voyeuristically—into the Kreuzberg, she reminds readers, open doors, hallways, courtyards, and was a poor, working-class, immigrant stairwells of its trademark buildings neighborhood, which tends to be and the intimate places that inhab- forgotten in nostalgic recollections of itants call home. This flâneur is not its German countercultures. This point Baudelaire’s wanderer of spectacular demands that whole new conversa- arcades of nineteenth-century Paris, tions take place about racialized rights but an observer of subsidized public to the city. In placing migrants at the housing in twentieth-century Berlin. center of Kreuzberg’s postwar history She or he is not enthralled by the and its debates over social housing, material world of commodities like Fall 2018 · thirty-two · the berlin journal 103

Benjamin’s flâneur, but confronted As Akcan shows, these approaches entries not selected by competition with the very people whose labor translated into distinctive, if not contra- juries. made such consumption, and dictory, ideas about open architecture. This book is not intended to be Germany’s economic “miracle,” pos- Members of IBA Neubau “disparaged read from cover to cover. On the con- sible: the so-called Gastarbeiter, or participation,” while IBA Altbau took trary, it invites the postmodern flâneur guest workers, a significant number participatory urbanism as its central to wander through, if not skip around, of whom were Turkish and live in mission. There were clear limits to this its pages. Six different strolls through Kreuzberg. They are the same people, ideal, however, despite its radical po- Kreuzberg and its environs frame the we learn, responsible for rebuilding tential to which people felt committed. book, punctuated by seven longer Kreuzberg: “We did the renewal,” a The refusal to build a mosque, for in- stops at IBA buildings that encourage Turkish woman in Akcan’s study stance—which fell outside IBA’s plan for the reader to linger in space and dwell asserts. It is a cruel irony that the hard restoring decayed dwellings—exposed on the words, descriptions, and images. and selfless work that noncitizens the cynical relations that underpinned As such, the book will appeal to a wide invested (and higher rents they paid) the practice of critical participation, readership in and beyond academia, into transforming this once-crumbling which dictated when noncitizens could which is itself a major accomplishment. borough into a desirable, vibrant speak, and when they would be heard. There is something for everyone here: neighborhood now puts it at risk of Even the most noteworthy attempts the architect, the anthropologist, and gentrification, threatening to displace at inclusion of inhabitants’ voices and the urban explorer. Architectural those very residents from their homes. interests were tinged with racialized historians will appreciate the scrupu- These invited workers were not anxieties. In the end, Akcan concludes, lous examination of architectural forms treated kindly by their hosts. Akcan IBA failed to adequately address immi- at each stop in the book, buildings that shows how institutionalized racism grants’ needs or safeguard their rights have become emblems of the city, and compounded everyday discrimination to the city in ways that proved mean- in some cases, tourist attractions. They in housing practices at all levels: from ingful and enduring. will revel in the detailed life histories landlords refusing to rent to migrants and philosophies of the designers (all (adding this outrageous clause to public Six different strolls men, with a rare exception, such as ads), to media warnings of an emerging Zaha Hadid). Anthropologists will wel- “Turkish ghetto” beset by crime, to through Kreuzberg come the humanistic portraits of the senate regulations that restricted the and its environs frame urban actors—mostly first generation settlement of noncitizens in Kreuzberg. female migrants—who appropriated Out of this racialized history the book, punctuated built forms to create entirely new social, emerged the International Building by seven longer stops spatial, and material worlds on their Exhibition (IBA) to promote urban own terms. And urban explorers, like renewal in West Berlin, including six at IBA buildings that myself, who enjoy venturing behind sites in Kreuzberg. Two dominant encourage the reader the facades of Berlin’s endlessly fasci- strategies guided this multiyear proj- nating buildings will be inspired to stop, ect that involved a surprising number to linger in space. look up, and look over the walls more of eminent and rising architects closely. One can detach the compre- (some turned starchitects, like Rem hensive map of the stops and strolls Koolhaas) and their teams: construc- The book is structured around at the back of the book and hit the tion of new buildings (Neubau) in these Neubau and Altbau projects and streets, or navigate the built world with West Kreuzberg and restoration of old their iterations of open architecture. Google street-view (I did both, and was buildings (Altbau) in East Kreuzberg. Part One introduces open architecture surprised by how many of my favorite These strategies, embroiled in debates as collectivity (or multi-authorship) buildings had been IBA projects!) about form and function, and mod- guided by the notion of “critical Open Architecture is much ernism and postmodernism, reflect- reconstruction” of the historical city. more than a city tour or a history of ed divergent perspectives on the role In Part Two, we see a more politicized buildings and their visionaries. It is a of Berlin’s architectural inheritance engagement with open architecture as somber reminder of the human stakes in future urban design. For example, democracy (or user-centric), one that involved in a participatory urbanism Neubau insisted on continuity in advocated for “gentle urban renewal” that privileges rights-bearing citizens. form, while Altbau embraced gaps and in harmony with the urban fabric. The Akcan’s call for an attention in urban permeability. The former argued for last section on open architecture as planning to migrants, exiles, refugees, an autonomous architecture free from multiplicity reconciles a Hegelian and other stateless persons who lack non-expert influence, and the latter theory of historical actuality with the legal and social protections of citi- advocated adaptable, democratic an imaginative history of possibil- zenship could not be more prescient at architecture with the involvement of ity through an analysis of unbuilt this moment. □ noncitizen users. projects; that is, those experimental 104 the berlin journal · thirty-two · Fall 2018

ALUMNI BOOKS

Esra Akcan Hristos Doucouliagos, Richard John Mauceri “Betrayal and vengeance have rarely been so Hannah is a fiercely intelligent PRAISE FOR HANNAH VERSUS THE TREE elegantly rendered as in this searing novel.” young woman, daughter of a “Betrayal and vengeance have —Amy Hempel powerful family’s black-sheep son, rarely been so elegantly rendered Open Architecture: Migration, B. Freeman, Patrice Laroche Maestros and Theirand raised to question whoMusic: has as in this searing novel. The been, is, and will be damaged by author invokes Roman history business deals meant to protect and mythology to accompany an and maintain the dynasty. A aristocratic, brutalized girl who is Citizenship and the Urban The Economics of Trade The Art and Alchemydevastating wrong is done to herof sacrificed by the family matriarch when she opposes a family scheme in a fatal flaw of judgment. The and her response is a battle cry of beautiful prose exposes and illu- astounding violence and beauty. mines the cost of underestimating As haunting as Shirley Jackson an extraordinary girl.” Renewal of Berlin-Kreuzberg Unions: A Study of a Research Conducting or Thomas Bernhard, as enthrall- —Amy Hempel ing as Nabokov or Joyce, Leland “Hannah Versus The Tree is unlike de la Durantaye’s debut novel is a anything I have ever read—thriller, radical departure from contempo- myth, dream and poem combined. rary storytelling. At once the story by IBA 1984/87 Field and its Findings Knopf, November 2017It tells the story of a terrible act of a terrific act of vengeance and of violence and a terrible act of of a lifelong love, Hannah Versus revenge, but in ways that hardly the Tree presents a new literary resemble contemporary fiction. A NOVEL genre, the mythopoetic thriller. Birkenhäuser, April 2018 Routledge, March 2017 Sometimes I thought I was reading ABOUT THE AUTHOR the Chorus’s part from a lost Greek tragedy, or perhaps an impossibly Leland de la Durantaye lives in Los updated Beowulf. Written in an Angeles. This is his debut novel. immaculate, lyrically charged, Michael MeltsnerMEDIA CAMPAIGN uncannily autonomous prose, this lovely novel is at once a modern • National Broadcast, Print, and Online Media Campaign story about money and politics and • Author appearances in LA, NY, Bay sexual violence, and an ancient Sinan Antoon Avery F. Gordon With Passion. AnArea, Chicago, Boston,Activist and 10+ cities fable of grievance and justice.” • Digital Galley on Edelweiss —James Wood • Goodreads Giveaway • Promotion on McSweeney’s Social Media Networks, Including Facebook, Twitter, The Baghdad Eucharist Letters from the Utopian Lawyer’s Life Instagram, and Internet Tendency

PUBLICATION DATE: November 20, 2018 • ISBN 978-1-944211-50-9 • $18 • 5˝ x 7˝ • 176 pp PUBLICITY: KRISTINA KEARNS, [email protected] The American University Margins. The Hawthorn Twelve Tables Press,Publication date, pricing, and cover art subject to change. Please consult final book before quoting. in Cairo Press, April 2017 Archive October 2017 Leland de la Durantaye Fordham University Press, Hannah Versus the Tree Mary Cappello, James October 2017 David Scheffer McSweeney’s, November 2018 Morrison, Jean Walton The Sit Room. In the Theater Buffalo Trace: A Threefold Matthias Middell, Michel of War and Peace Spring 2012 Holtzbrinck fellow Vibration Espange, Michael Guyer Oxford University Press, Leland de la Durantaye’s Spuyten Duyvil, European History in November 2018 debut novel, Hannah Versus September 2018 an Interconnected World: the Tree, published by An Introduction to Barbara Schmitter Heisler McSweeney’s in November W. S. Di Piero Transnational History An Artist as Soldier. Seeking 2018, is about the fiercely Mickey Rourke and the Palgrave Macmillan, Refuge in Love and Art intelligent daughter of a Bluebird of Happiness: July 2017 Peter Lang, August 2017 powerful family's black sheep A Poet’s Notebook son. Hannah has been raised Carnegie Mellon, Jane Kramer Tom Sleigh to question who was, is, and October 2017 The Reporter’s Kitchen: The Land Between Two will be damaged by business Essays Rivers: Writing in an Age of deals meant to protect and Laura Engelstein St. Martin’s Press, Refugees maintain the family dynasty. Russia in Flames: War, November 2017 Graywolf Press, A devastating wrong is done Revolution, Civil War, February 2018 to her when she opposes a 1914-1921 Nicole Krauss family scheme; her response Oxford University Press, Forest Dark Michael P. Steinberg is a battle cry of astounding September 2017 Harper, September 2017 The Trouble with Wagner violence and beauty. Hannah The University of Chicago versus the Tree has been her- Nathan Englander Vladimir Kulic Press, November 2018 alded as a new literary genre: Dinner at the Center of Toward a Concrete Utopia: the mythopoetic thriller. the Earth: A Novel Architecture in Yugoslavia, Margarita Tupitsyn Critic and fall 2010 Academy Knopf, September 2017 1948-1980 Moscow Vanguard Art: alumnus James Wood writes The Museum of Modern Art, 1922-1992 that Durantaye’s novel “is Jeffrey Eugenides New York, July 2018 Yale Univeristy Press, unlike anything I have ever Fresh Complaint: Stories August 2017 read—thriller, myth, dream, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Corien Prins, Collette and poem combined. [. . .] October 2017 Cuijpers, Peter L. Lindseth Dana Villa Sometimes I thought I was and Monica Rosina (Eds.) Teachers of the People: reading the Chorus’s part Myra Marx Ferree, (German Digital Democracy in Political Education in from a lost Greek tragedy, translation by Claudia a Globalized World Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, or perhaps an impossibly Buchholtz, Bettina Seifried) Edward Elgar, September and Mill updated Beowulf. Written Feminismen. Die deutsche 2017 University of Chicago Press, in an immaculate, lyrically Frauenbewegung in globaler September 2017 charged, uncannily autono- Perspektive mous prose, this lovely novel is Campus, March 2018 at once a modern story about money and politics and sexual violence, and an ancient fable of grievance and justice.” SUPPORTERS AND DONORS

The American Academy in Berlin is funded Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Bloomberg FRIENDS Up to $2,500 almost entirely by private donations from in- Philanthropies, Roland J. Bopp, Katherine and Hans Amann, American International Yacht dividuals, foundations, and corporations. We David Bradley, Sonja & Martin J. Brand, Stephen Club Berlin e.V., Patricia Ann & Douglas Arlig, depend on the generosity of a widening circle B. & Ellen C. Burbank, Gahl Hodges Burt, Barbara Freifrau von Bechtolsheim, Bernd of friends on both sides of the Atlantic and Gerhard Casper, Avna Cassinelli, Citi, Daimler Bohse, Diethart Breipohl, Eckhard Bremer, Julie wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to those AG, Michael Del Giudice, Antoinette Delruelle Brenton & R. D. Galbraith, Martin Bresnick, who support us. This list documents the con- & Joshua L. Steiner, Dinyar & Aashish Devitre, Irene Bringmann, Emily Freeman Brown & tributions made to the American Academy Remmel T. Dickinson, Blair Effron, Marina Kellen Samuel Adler, Martin Bussmann, Barbara from August 2017 to August 2018. French, Goldman Sachs, The Honorable C. & David Detjen, Astrid & Detlef Diederichs, Boyden Gray, Richard N. Haass, Mary Ellen & Birger Dölling, Brigitte Döring, Stephen E. Karl von der Heyden, Elizabeth Jennings & Gangstead, Bärbel & Ulrich Gensch, Marie- Fellowships and Distinguished Philip Tuinenburg, Jim & Heather Johnson, Luise Gericke, Michael Geyer, Nancy & Mark Visitorships Mary Ellen Johnson & Richard Karl Goeltz, Gruett, Ralf Gütersloh, Robert L. Harrison, Michael M. Kellen, Stephen S. Lash, Christie’s, Caroline & Cord-Georg Hasselmann, Lily & Pascal & Melanie Levensohn, Longaberger Klaus Heiliger, Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth, Brigitte ESTABLISHED IN PERPETUITY Family Foundation, Macmillan (a subsidiary of & Bernd Hellthaler, Klaus W. Hentges, Gudrun John P. Birkelund Berlin Prize in the Humanities Holtzbrinck Publishing), Vincent A. & Anne Mai, & Eberhard Jaeschke, Peter-Hans Keilbach, Daimler Berlin Prize Nina von Maltzahn, Catie & Donald Marron, Kati Fabian F. Kissing, Marion Knauf, Jürgen Kocka, Nina Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize in History Marton, Joachim Mohn, Nader Mousavizadeh, Evi Kurz, Peter Lindseth, Quincy Liu, Charles Mary Ellen von der Heyden Berlin Prize in Fiction Macro Advisory Partners, Noerr LLP / GWFF Maier, Wolfgang Matthies, Christel & Detlef Richard C. Holbrooke Berlin Prize USA Inc., Norman Pearlstine, Peter G. Peterson, Meinen, Richard & Ronay Menschel, Konstantin Holtzbrinck Berlin Prize Steven Rattner & Maureen White, Raymond Mettenheimer, Hans-Jürgen Meyer, Alfred Dirk Ippen Berlin Prize Roberge & George Barvinchak, Mr and Mrs Möckel, Bettina & Andreas Moegelin, Charles Airbus Distinguished Visitorship Jeffrey A. Rosen, Peter & Sarah Solmssen, & Carol Molesworth, Michael Münchehofe, Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship Robert and Gillian Steel, Michael P. Steinberg, Norman M. Naimark, Kathryn & Peter Nixdorff, Marcus Bierich Distinguished Visitorship in the TimeWarner, Vintage and Anchor Books, Gesa Wolfram Nolte, Arend Oetker, oneAssist GmbH, Humanities B. Vogt and Klaus D. Vogt, White & Case, Elizabeth Pond, Susan Rambow, Beatrice Lloyd Cutler Distinguished Visitorship Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Reese, Christa Freifrau & Hermann Freiherr Marina Kellen French Distinguished Roger M. Witten–WilmerHale, Elaine & James von Richthofen, George E. Rupp, Henry W. Visitorship for Persons with Outstanding D. Wolfensohn, Andrew Wylie / President, the Sapparth, Harald Schmid, Frank Scholz, Accomplishment in the Cultural World Wylie Agency, Leah Joy Zell, Joy Foundation Russell E. Schulz, Meike Schumacher, Donald Stephen M. Kellen Distinguished Visitorship W. Shriver, Manfred von Sperber, Lothar John W. Kluge Distinguished Visitorship Steinebach, A. L. Steiner, Suhrkamp Verlag Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitorship Individuals and Family AG, Volker Thießen, Christian Tomuschat, Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitorship Foundations Thomas A. Trautner, Thomas D. Vaughn, Verband der Automobilindustrie e.V., Judith ANNUALLY FUNDED FELLOWSHIPS Wechsler, Margaux de Weck & Bernd Bosch Berlin Prize in Public Policy FOUNDERS’ CIRCLE $1 million and above Beckmann, Olivier Weddrien, Lutz Weisser, Ellen Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation Sabine & Edwin Wiley, Emanuela Wilm Anna-Maria Kellen Berlin Prize and the descendants of Hans and Berthold Leibinger Berlin Prize Ludmilla Arnhold Andrew W. Mellon Berlin Prize in the Humanities Henry H. Arnhold Corporations and Corporate Inga Maren Otto Berlin Prize in Music Foundations Composition CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE $25,000 and above Siemens Berlin Prize Werner Gegenbauer, Stefan von Holtzbrinck, Axel Springer Berlin Prize Michael S. Klein, Regine Leibinger, William A. PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE $25,000 and above von Mueffling, Maja Oetker, Sandra E. Peterson, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BASF SE, The American Academy in Berlin’s fellowship Karen Roth, Bequest from Kurt F. Viermetz Bayer AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Robert Bosch program is made possible in part by a grant Stiftung, Cranemere GmbH, Daimler AG, from Carnegie Corporation of New York. TRUSTEES’ CIRCLE $10,000 and above Daimler-Fonds im Stifterverband für die Gahl Hodges Burt, Hans-Michael & Almut Deutsche Wissenschaft, Heinz und Heide Giesen, Henry A. Kissinger, Martin Koehler, Dürr Stiftung, Dussmann Stiftung & Co. Special Projects Anne M. Maitland & John P. Decker, Wolfgang KGaA, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Malchow, Achim Moeller GÖRG Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, Morrison HENRY A. KISSINGER PRIZE PATRONS $2,500 and above & Foerster LLP, Sal. Oppenheim-Stiftung im Bloomberg Philanthropies, Robert Bosch GmbH Automobilclub von Deutschland e.V., Roland Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Brinkmann, Gerhard & Regina Casper, Vivian White & Case LLP RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE FORUM S. Cohn, Margrit & Steven Disman, Norma Leonard Blavatnik, Carnegie Corporation of Drimmer, Heinz Dürr GmbH, Jutta von BENEFACTORS Up to $25,000 New York, Daimler-Fonds im Stifterverband Falkenhausen & Thomas van Aubel, Vartan Allianz SE, Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Alexander & Clare R. Gregorian, Helga Haub, Linda C.H.Beck Stiftung, Citi Private Bank, Georgieff, Vincent A. Mai, Wolfram Nolte, Dalrymple Henderson & George E. Henderson, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband e.V., Steven Rattner & Maureen White Mary Ellen & Karl von der Heyden, Dirk & Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Legerwall Marlene Ippen, Jürgen Leibfried, Pascal & Partnerschaft mbB, Berthold Leibinger GALA 2017 Melanie Levensohn, Mehretu-Rankin Family, Stiftung, Paradigm Capital AG, Pfizer Pharma Alfred A. Knopf, The Altman-Kazickas Michael Otto, William S. Paley Foundation, GmbH, Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG Foundation, Anheuser-Busch, Anna-Maria Inc., Thaddaeus Ropac, Mr and Mrs Jeffrey A. and Stephen Kellen Foundation and the Rosen, Wolfgang Spoerr, Suzanne Steinberg, We make every effort to be accurate in our descendants of Hans and Ludmilla Arnhold, Maren & Joachim Strüngmann, Christine I. list of donors. Please notify us of any errors A. T. Kearney, Inc., Bank of America, Bayer AG, Wallich, Will Foundation (Hans George Will) in spelling or attribution. Anzeige Coca-Cola/Carma Format: 210 x 280mm für THE BERLIN JOURNAL

THE BEST REFRESHMENT AFTER A HEATED DISCUSSION. Coca-Cola, die Konturﬂ asche und das rote Rundlogo sind eingetragene Schutzmarken der The Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola der The Schutzmarken Rundlogo sind eingetragene asche und das rote die Konturﬂ Coca-Cola,