History

December 20, 2013 0

Happy Weekend Review: An Old-New Christmas Market

Let's just come right out with it: It's hard to beat Christmas in Germany. Glühwein, cookies, classic lights, decorations strewn across homes and street corners, a calendar that expects, nay, requires you eat a chocolate per day... it's simply wonderful. Though I grew up in the US, my family celebrated Christmas the Teutonic way. I have more than fond memories of hiding the Buttergebäck and Lebkuchen in the laundry room from our Opa so he wouldn't devour them in one sitting, ripping open a human-size Adventskalendar in the course of one night made by our Oma... [Read More!]

October 29, 2013 0

Beyond Berlin: the Istanbul Connection

Istanbul gives Berlin its baseline. In kind, Berlin is richly integrated into the complexity of Istanbul. For no relationship is ever purely one-sided. And so a Berlin : Istanbul connection, which moves beyond Gastarbeiter music and Fatih Akin films, is what one can find after six days immersed in the shapes and silhouettes of this city of 13 million... [Read More!]

August 25, 2013 1

Rave: Why Remembering the Holocaust is Good for Immigrants

In 2005, Germany officially became an immigration country with the establishment of its federal office for migration. The question - who are the Germans anyway? - has become increasingly important in deciding what to impart to these newcomers set to stay. Expats are good at constructing Germanness for the Germans themselves, often leaving out the Holocaust in such a description of 'German identity', however. Today's Germany - an immigration country - is a republic built on tragic events like the Holocaust, just as France is a country built on colonialism. Everything has a context, and it is this context that immigrants to Germany should learn to understand for the sake of a more complete country - a civic society which respects differences and celebrates them... [Read More!]

June 9, 2013 2

Weekend Review: Germany’s ‘Brown Babies’ (how America’s good-guy image might get a run for its money)

Berlin can be a historical mine field. Escaping the fact that genocide, division, tyranny, even the colonial division of Africa began on this ground is an impossible feat. As American tourists wander through the many memorials to the lost, murdered, and persecuted that saturate the city with this remembrance of tragedy, I have to ask myself: Do we Americans think that we were always the “good guys” in this mess? [Read More!]

June 6, 2013 1

The N-Word

When I posted the Who's/Whose Normal? article a few weeks ago, I expected the "N-word" of interest to be Neger, a term that falls somewhere between "negro" and "nigger" on the translation and offensiveness spectrum. Instead, the strongest reactions came in response to another N-Word: Nazi... [Read More!]

June 1, 2013 1

Happy Weekend: A Roma (Re)Image

Your perception of the Roma is inaccurate. I apologize for the bluntness, but you and I both know it's true. And I know you and I both know it's true because it's true for me, and I've studied this stuff. Not only have I studied this stuff (e.g. migration, integration, intercultural relations), but I consider myself a beacon of political correctness, yet I've still dressed up as a gypsy for Halloween more times than I care to admit. Why? [Read More!]

May 29, 2013 5

Prejudice with Condiments: understanding Schwabenhass

The ketchup- or cheese-smeared faces of Swabian and Berliner icons are just one small part of a culture war between imagined identities and exaggerated actors, i.e. the alternative Berliner vs. the fancy-schmancy Swabian. The worst part in this so-called Spätzlekrieg or 'Spätzel war' is the escalation from humorous prodding to line-crossing slogans. Parallels between Nazi persecution of the Jews, particularly in the insignia of Kristallnacht, can be found across the city. Berlin is a city rife with history; is its memory this short? [Read More!]

April 18, 2013 0

Welcome to Collidoscope Berlin!

The term Collidoscope was bornon a train ride, when we (Kelly and Sophia, hello!) were taking a trip together to a small town in Northwest Germany. We wanted a word to describe the imperfect yet spectacular collision of cultures that takes place within a city. A word to represent the many varied and distinct people, perspectives, and spaces contained within one metropolis... [Read More!]

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