Amerikahaus--Soft power and missing links


 Today we had a lecture by Dr. Markus Faltermeier, from the Amerikahaus. It was really interesting to learn about American soft power history in Germany. After WWII, the United States did all it could to "reeducate" Germany, both with U.S. ideas of capitalism and democracy. A reading room, originally intended for U.S. military, became a place for Germans to access media with different perspectives.

 During our lecture, I asked about the Amerikahaus' reaction to the R.A.F. and I found out that although the Amerikahaus has records from the end of WWII to the 1960s, the records of the Amerikahaus between 1960s-1990s are rather spotty. There seems to be a bit of a mystery as to why the history of Amerikahaus is missing... possible conspiracy theories pending...

 The Amerikahaus previously was part of the USIA, but is now supported by the Bavarian state and private funding. This means that the Amerikahaus can have events that are more critical of the United States and not just be an American propaganda mouthpiece. Last week I was lucky enough to attend a pop-up exhibition of Black Lives Matter:






 Attending the Black Lives Matter pop-up exhibit was an amazing experience. There were a few Afro-Germans who talked about their experiences in the U.S., an African-American who now lives in Munich, and a LMU student who studied at Wayne State University. Their insights helped me look at U.S. in an entirely different way.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Navigation Challenges

Image
Never having been to Germany I found myself confused and often times lost, even though I had my phone with navigation. Even equip with directions, navigating through the cities and towns of Germany was a challenge for myself and others in the program. Now imagine people coming into Germany, without previous counsel and without reliable phone service. Some people may even come without a device to provide such directions. Getting to and from different locations in Germany is hard as it is, but can prove to be much more challenging for migrants coming into the country.  To get from my hotel to the migrant facility just outside of Fürstenfeldbruck I had to find the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), ride the train about 45 minutes out of central Munich, get off and immediately look for the bus station to ride for another 15 or so minutes. All the while, making sure to not miss the correct train or bus stop. After staying for two weeks the navigation system began to feel much more manag...
Read more

Dachau

A given for those traveling, especially abroad, is taking a mountain of pictures. I was a bad traveler, because I took very little . I took an entire DSLR camera to Germany with the intent to bring back an album, but I felt very different when I got there. I respect  those who did because there is a small part of me that regrets not being as on-the-ball about it, but by the first day with the  Fürstenfeldbruck  Caritas crew I felt that  I needed to remove myself from technology as much as I could.  The culmination of my own personal life prior to arriving in Germany only intensified this feeling, and in the end, I am glad that I was able to  fully  entrench myself in l iving like a different person for a while.    This  cemented when we visited the concentration camp in Dachau.  The  morning of this same day we were given a tour  of Munich but through the lens of WWII and the Socialist  P arty of Germany, their rise, ...
Read more

“No One Chooses to be a Refugee” ~ Umar Barrie

Image
How does one make the decision to leave behind all they have, all they have ever known, and all they hold dear to begin again in a country that is not their own, in a culture that is unfamiliar, and integrate into a society that in many cases does not want them?   In my efforts to study and understand migration patterns and refugee efforts, I have sought most to determine the reasons it becomes necessary for one to make such an unbelievably difficult decision. Throughout the course of history, people have left their homes to seek a better life elsewhere in cases of war, famine, natural disaster, violence, or persecution. For those of us who have not experienced such a crisis, the thought of leaving behind all we know to face uncertainty is unimaginable. During this study abroad, some of us have had a limited experience of arriving alone in a country where we do not read, write or speak the language and navigate cities that at times do not feel the most welcoming.  We have had ...
Read more