Center for German and European Studies

December 18, 2024

In-Person Event

In The Green Ages, historian Annette Kehnel explores sustainability initiatives from the Middle Ages, highlighting communities that operated a barter trade system on the Monte Subiaco in Italy, sustainable fishing at Lake Constance, common lands in the United Kingdom, transient grazing among Alpine shepherds in the south of France, and bridges built by crowdfunding in Avignon. Kehnel takes these medieval examples and applies their practical lessons to the modern world to prove that we can live sustainably—we’ve done it before!

December 10, 2024

The Tauber Institute Hybrid Event

Rebecca Wittmann of the University of Toronto will present the paper "Haunted and Hallowed Grounds: Confronting the German Past in the First Person" at the Jewish Studies Colloquium.

November 25, 2024

CGES In-Person Event

Join us for the following panel discussions with 3 guest speakers:

Indeterminate Roots: Learning to Teach with Kafka (Evan Parks)

Turn, turn, turn: Kafka’s parables and the history of the mashal (Abigail Gillman)

Description of a Struggle: Kafka’s Prague Novella Revisited (Veronika Tuckerová)

November 20, 2024

CGES Online Event

Although women have held elected office in many countries around the world in recent decades, the United States still clearly lags behind, despite having witnessed three Secretaries of State (but no female Secretaries of Defense). Despite women’s demonstrated political leadership around the  globe, sexism is alive and well, especially when it comes to formulating foreign, defense and security policies. In this webinar we bring together two scholars who are studying women’s role in politics, to discuss what a feminist foreign policy could and should look like.

November 18, 2024

CGES In-Person Event

In 1942, a Jewish mother, Hella Zacharias, and her five-year-old daughter went into hiding in the Berlin underground. Through Hella's own resourcefulness and the help of others, both mother and daughter survived through the war. In My Illegal Life (Germany, 2024), writer Esther Dischereit, Hella's second-born daughter, follows the traces of her mother's and half-sister's experiences in hiding.

November 18, 2024

CGES In-Person Event

Über Ein Haufen Dollarscheine. Eine Mutter, eine Tante und ein Neffe. Superlative des Jüdisch-Seins: eine Familie von Shoa-Überlebenden und deren Nachkommen, in Deutschland, Italien und schließlich in den USA. Zeitreisen in auch absurden jüdischen Zuständen und in einer postnationalsozialistischen Gegenwart. Unerwartet beginnt ein Festessen an Thanksgiving in Chicago mit einem Schwarzen und einem weißen Amen. …

November 13, 2024

CGES Online Event

Join three German experts to learn more about what may have led to the recent electoral successes of the right-wing extremist AfD (Alternative for Germany) in the German states of Thüringia, Saxony, Brandenburg, and the European Parliament, as well as similar developments in other European countries.

October 30, 2024

CGES In-Person Event

Goebbels and the Führer tells the story of the dynamic interaction of Adolf Hitler and Goebbels from the eve of Kristallnacht to their suicides in the ruins of Berlin in 1945. The film depicts how Hitler and Goebbels wielded demagoguery, disinformation, and manipulation as weapons to devastating effect. The first serious feature film on Hitler in twenty years, Goebbels and the Führer was written and written and directed by German filmmaker Joachim A. Lang, with the support of Thomas Weber, who served as a consultant on the film.

October 25, 2024

CGES In-Person Event

Aydemir’s award-winning novel is a fast-paced, character-driven family saga set in Germany and Türkiye at the end of the 20th century. In the novel, the Turkish-born protagonist, Hüseyin, has spent the past 30 years working in Germany, and his dream of buying his very own flat in Istanbul has finally come true. But he dies of a heart attack the day he moves in. His family in Germany travel to Türkiye for the funeral. In chapters narrated from the perspectives of the individual family members, we learn about each character’s personal djinns (supernatural spirits from Arabic mythology).

The complexity of migration, family, relationships, and life choices is at the center of Djinns. The book invites readers to develop empathy for all the characters.

October 22, 2024

CGES Online Event

Join us for a conversation with two experts who have created "pop-up" climate museums in The Netherlands and the US to learn more about developing new ways to communicate the climate crisis on both sides of the Atlantic.

October 15, 2024

CGES Hybrid Event

Romani people have been discriminated against and persecuted ever since their first documented appearance in Europe in the 15th century. Join Alexandra Senfft as she talks about her research into the persecution and discrimination of the Sinti and Roma and also highlights their resistance and resilience as well as their self-empowerment based on the family history of the German Sinto Romeo Franz.

September 24, 2024

CGES Hybrid Event

September 13, 2024

CGES In-Person Event

Join Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future Germany and the Lydian String Quartet for a journey into the universe and back, and a conversation about climate justice on Friday, September 13, 12-1:00pm in Usdan International Lounge on the Brandeis campus.

September 10, 2024

CGES welcomes all students (back) to campus! Come join us for a reception to learn about upcoming Fall 2024 event programming, German courses, and try out some tasty German treats such as Berliners and Pretzels. The CGES team will be there to answer any questions you have about our Center and German at Brandeis and refreshments will be provided. We look forward to seeing you!