November 16, 1999
"Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans and Caucasus: Some General Considerations"The German Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Dr. Michael Libal, discussed the theoretical guidelines for intervention in ethnic conflict.
Ambassador Libal's recent diplomatic experiences include Director in charge of South-Eastern Europe (especially the former Yugoslavia) at the Office of Foreign Affairs from 1991-1995, and head of the OSCE-Mission in Georgia from 1996-1998. He emphasized especially the circumstances leading to violent conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union. He concluded that it is especially important to consider the invididual conflict and its history.
Spring 1999
May 12, 1999
Kosovo - Human Rights and the German Greens
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Sascha Mueller-Kraenner, Director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Washington Office, lead led a discussion with students and faculty about German political reactions to the intervention in Kosovo, with special emphasis on divisions that have emerged within the Green Party over this issue and the implications of these divisions for the role of the party in the German government.
April 13, 1999
Jewish-German Dialogue: Jews in Germany:
Past and Present
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Susan Stern, author of the highly acclaimed book "Jewish Voices from United Germany" and senior lecturer at the Goethe-University Frankfurt, and Dorothee Lottmann-Kaeseler from the Active Museum of German Jewish History in Wiesbaden, lead a discussion on "Jews in Germany: Past and Present." As part of the Holocaust Remembrance Week, this program continued to address many of the questions raised in March. Dorothee Lottmann-Kaeseler described the work she does at the Active Museum of German Jewish History. The members of the museum have collected information about Wiesbaden's Jews. Their goal is to write the history of the Holocaust by looking at individual personal histories. She showed us a documentary film: the people of Wiesbaden commemorated the deportation of Jews in Wiesbaden in a march trough the city on November 9 1998, each person carrying a sign with the name of a Jew who was murdered. At the end of the march, the names were read aloud. The film also followed the history of a number of names: Where did these people live, how did they die or survive. Ms. Lottmann-Kaeseler also presented a short film about the digital reconstruction of Wiesbaden's synagogue, produced by students of design at Wiesbaden University. Susan Stern spoke about Jews in Germany today and the difficulties facing the small Jewish communities in Germany, especially after the influx of Russian Jews that began in the early 1990's.
March 15, 1999
Jewish-German Dialogue: Dr. Andreas Nachama
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On March 15, 1999, Dr. Andreas Nachama, Chairman of the Jewish Community in Berlin, was a guest speaker at the Jewish-German Dialogue. Dr. Nachama lectured about the historical development of Jewish communities and Jewish-German relations in Germany after 1945. He emphasized the strong ties between Germany and Israel and spoke about the ways in which young Germans are educated about the Holocaust today. Nachama described as most successful the regional programs in which students research the history of their town village. Such very personal encounters with the Nazi-past and anti-Semitism are supplemented by larger institutionalized places of remembrance such as the 'Topographie des Terrors' in Berlin, which Nachama is working with as a historian.
March 12 and 13, 1999
Workshop on Social Policy and Devolution
Event program 1
/ Event program 2
The center sponsored this event directed by Professor Jytte Klausen (Department of Politics, Brandeis University).
The issues discussed in the lectures and discussion-group included questions about the role of states in setting national and universal standards in response to decentralization and privatization, multiculturalism and equity, and tradeoffs between local autonomy and redistributive capacities. Among the contributors and commentators were Alain Noel, Ilona Ostner, Deborah Stone, Robert Reich, and Claus Offe, as well as faculty and advanced undergraduate and graduate students at Brandeis University.
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