THE BERLIN JOURNAL A Magazine from the American Academy in Berlin Number Thirty-Four 2020–21 Race to the top by Mosi Secret the Roman Roots of Racial capitalism by Nandini B. Pandey an inteRview about whiteness with Claudia Rankine GReta GaRbo and saRah beRnhaRdt by Lois W. Banner and James N. Green fiction by Alexandra Kleeman and Ayana Mathis aRtist poRtfolio Amy Kurzweil someone’s dauGhteR by Naghmeh Sohrabi CONTENTS We are deeply grateful to focus features notebook 4 32 84 6 Race to the top 34 LEFT ALONE 86 AnGela meRkel Receives by Mosi Secret by Lois W. Banner the henRy a. kissinGeR pRize 10 Little white oveRcoats 38 SaRah beRnhaRdt’s knee 88 The 2019 RichaRd c. holbRooke by Robert Reid-Pharr by James N. Green woRkshop 14 The subject shouldn’t chanGe 42 jellyfish 88 Beyond the Lecture STEFAN an interview by Alexandra Kleeman podcast with Claudia Rankine 46 ARTIST poRTFOLIO 89 An eveninG with VON HOLTZBRINCK 16 The Roman Roots of Racial Amy Kurzweil kent naGano capitalism 54 Franklin, 1969 90 Profiles in scholaRship by Nandini B. Pandey by Ayana Mathis 92 Book Reviews 22 A histoRy of violence 58 Fresh aiR by Liliane Weissberg, by Erik Linstrum by Susan Bernofsky Veronika Fuechtner, and Paul Reitter 26 ATtackinG Zwarte Piet 60 no RefuGe 96 Alumni books by Allison Blakely by Hakim Abderrezak 97 SuppoRteRs and donoRs 64 Gate of teaRs for his generous support by Nathalie Peutz of this issue of the Berlin Journal. 67 Someone’s dauGhteR by Naghmeh Sohrabi 72 The andRew w. mellon woRkshop Ronald Radano, Gavin Steingo, Ciraj Rassool, Berit Ebert, and Moira Fradinger CONTRIBUTORS PRESIDENT’S NOTE The Past in the Present Fall 2020 Holtzbrinck Fellow Mosi at Boston University. University of Abderrezak, the spring 2021 history at the University of the Secret is a Brooklyn-based writer. Southern California professor Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Western Cape, South Africa. Berit Robert Reid-Pharr is a professor emerita of history Lois W. Banner is Humanities, is an associate profes- Ebert is head of programming and of African and African American the fall 2020 Anna-Maria Kellen sor of French and Francophone development at the American studies at Harvard University and Fellow. James N. Green, the spring studies at the University of Minne- Academy in Berlin. Moira Fradinger, the spring 2021 Anna-Maria Kellen 2021 John P. Birkelund Fellow, sota. Nathalie Peutz is an associate the spring 2020 Andrew W. Mellon Fellow. Claudia Rankine, the Fred- teaches Latin American history at professor of anthropology at New Fellow in the Humanities, is an erick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Brown University. Alexandra Klee- York University Abu Dhabi and the associate professor of comparative Yale University, was a Distinguished man is an assistant professor of spring 2021 Berthold Leibinger literature at Yale University. Spring Visitor at the Academy in fall 2019. creative writing at The New School Fellow. Spring 2021 Holtzbrinck 2020 Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow Nandini B. Pandey is the spring and a future Mary Ellen von der Fellow Naghmeh Sohrabi teaches Liliane Weissberg is the Christopher “all chanGed, chanGed utteRly.” Is Yeats’s verse about the 1916 in Minneapolis, and a series of similarly shocking events. 2021 Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow Heyden Fellow in Fiction. Cartoon- Middle East history at Brandeis H. Browne Distinguished Professor Irish uprising and its bloody end an epigram for 2020? The Academy-affiliated writers and scholars contend in this issue in History; she teaches classics at ist and writer Amy Kurzweil is the University. Ronald Radano is a in Arts and Sciences at the Univer- the University of Madison-Wiscon- fall 2020 Dirk Ippen Fellow. Emma professor of African cultural studies sity of Pennsylvania. Paul Reitter, disruption of ordinary life by the Covid-19 pandemic, which with the past and present of this subject: Fall 2020 fellow Mosi sin. Spring 2021 Axel Springer Allen is the cartoon editor of the and music at the University of a spring 2018 John P. Birkelund has claimed around a million deaths worldwide, surpasses Secret presents an excerpt from his forthcoming book, about Fellow Erik Linstrum teaches New Yorker. Writer Ayana Mathis Wisconsin-Madison; he was the Fellow, teaches in the German anything since the end of World War II. There is a sudden glut a 1960s effort to integrate a Southern boarding school; an history at the University of Virginia. is the fall 2020 Mary Ellen von der spring 2019 Andrew W. Mellon department at Ohio State Univer- of articles by international affairs analysts about an impend- interview with Yale professor and 2019 Distinguished Visitor Allison Blakely is the inaugural Heyden Fellow in Fiction. Fall 2020 Fellow in the Humanities. Gavin sity. Spring 2020 Anna-Maria ing restructuring of the global order. The future of globaliza- Claudia Rankine addresses white privilege and the mirage Gerhard Casper Fellow in spring Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow Steingo is an associate professor Kellen Fellow Veronika Fuechtner tion, a phenomenon that has shaped the period since the of progress that clouds discussion when “you can read the 2021 and a professor emeritus of Susan Bernofsky teaches writing of music at Princeton University. is an associate professor of German revolutions of 1989, has been thrown into question by both paper, turn on the television, and see that black kids are European and comparative history at Columbia University. Hakim Ciraj Rassool is a professor of studies at Dartmouth College. the virus and rising populism. Business leaders are recon- being killed.” Racism, of course, is hardly endemic to the US sidering their supply chains, and some American political alone, as Boston University historian and spring 2021 fellow leaders speak of “decoupling” from a rising China. Experts Allison Blakely examines in the continuing debate over the the beRlin jouRnal the ameRican academy C. Boyden Gray, Vartan Gregorian, suppoRt agree that US–German relations are at a postwar nadir, and Dutch folkloric figure of “Black Pete,” a centuries-old char- in beRlin Andrew S. Gundlach, Florian the talk of trade war between the US and Europe after the acter in Christmas stories and plays. Antiquity provides a Number Thirty-Four, Henckel von Donnersmarck, Stefan The Academy is funded primarily by November elections hangs in the air. It may be a characteris- somewhat hopeful counterpoint, as suggested by spring 2021 2020–21 pResident von Holtzbrinck, Dirk Ippen, private, tax-deductible donations. tic of modern times that we always feel we live in a moment fellow Nandini B. Pandey, a classicist at the University of Daniel Benjamin Wolfgang Ischinger, Josef Joffe, Contributions may be made: of crisis, but for once the claim seems justified. Wisconsin-Madison, in a fascinating essay on how ancient publisheR Daniel Benjamin chief opeRatinG officeR Michael M. Kellen, Michael S. Klein, in GeRmany editoR R. Jay Magill, Jr. Christian U. Diehl Joseph Koerner, John C. Kornblum, Quite a time to be assuming the leadership of an insti- Rome evolved a society of thriving diversity through the by bank transfer to: manaGinG editoR Tony Andrews Regine Leibinger, Wolfgang tution dedicated to deepening cultural and political ties extension of citizenship and the manumission of slaves. American Academy in Berlin adveRtisinG Mareike Clauß, Am Sandwerder 17–19 Malchow, Nina von Maltzahn, Berliner Sparkasse between the two greatest powers in the West. I arrived at Gender inequities and, conversely, the growing accep- Kelly Pocklington 14109 Berlin Kati Marton, Julie Mehretu, Nader BLZ 100 500 00 the American Academy in Berlin in August, after a flight on tance of individuals with hitherto marginalized or excluded desiGn Susanna Dulkinys, Tel. +49 (30) 80 48 3-0 A. Mousavizadeh, Michael Müller Account: 660 000 9908 a near-empty plane and a stop at a nearby doctor’s office, gender identities, also focus the attention of Academy schol- Julia Sysmäläinen Fax +49 (30) 80 48 3-111 (ex officio), Sandra E. Peterson, IBAN: americanacademy.de Jeffrey A. Rosen, Volker where I was tested for the coronavirus. The Academy—with ars. Yale professor and spring 2020 fellow Moira Fradinger DE07 1005 0000 6600 0099 08 Copyright © 2020 Schlöndorff, Peter Y. Solmssen, its superb and innovative staff—was in full gear, arrang- and the Academy’s head of programs and development, Berit BIC: BELADEBEXXX American Academy in Berlin 14 East 60th Street, Suite 604 Anthony Vidler, Christine I. ing online programming, helping to acclimate three fellows Ebert, provide a lengthy overview of “Gender Dissidence in ISSN 1610-6490 New York, NY 10022 Wallich, Maureen White, Thomas in the united states who, because of dual citizenships, could get to Wannsee, the Twenty-First Century,” while fall 2020 fellows Lois Banner, Tel. +1 (212) 588-1755 Chatterton Williams, Andrew by check payable to: and working hard to secure the admission of the remaining of the University of Southern California, and James Green, coveR imaGe Morel Doucet, Jaded Fax +1 (212) 588-1758 Wylie, Leah Joy Zell American Academy in Berlin Moonlight (Gardenia), ceramic, 14 East 60th Street, Suite 604 scholars and writers still in the United States. of Brown University, examine how Greta Garbo and Sarah 2019. Image courtesy the artist foundeR Richard C. Holbrooke chaiRmen emeRiti New York, NY 10022 My arrival in Berlin was genuinely exciting. I was in my Bernhardt each navigated and shaped the gender expecta- and Galerie Myrtis. Photo: David foundinG chaiRmen Thomas Gahl Hodges Burt, Karl M. von by bank transfer to: last months as a journalist here in 1994, when Ambassador tions of their times. Gary Lloyd. L. Farmer, Henry A. Kissinger, der Heyden ABA Number: 021000089 Richard Holbrooke announced the creation of the Academy. These are vital investigations at a time in which the calls Richard von Weizsäcker Bank: Citibank, NY Later, in spring 2004, I had the privilege of being an Academy for rectifying injustice are urgent.