The spread of COVID-19 and the ensuing global lock-down as governments try to slow the spread of the corona virus has tested individuals and institutions around the world. Since March of 2020, the ACG has stepped up its digital programming by hosting webinars and video discussions which bring together policy makers and thought leaders from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss some of the key issues shaping transatlantic relations in an unprecedented time. In addition to organizing events on its own, the ACG has also partnered with other organizations such as 1014 and Atlantik-Brücke to launch new series designed to reach beyond the ACG community.
On March 2 the ACG partnered with the Aspen Institute Germany to host the fifth discussion in this series focused on immigration and integration at the state-level in both countries.
In 2021, two Black victims of the Nazi regime were finally honored with so-called STOLPERSTEINE — (lit. “stumbling stones or blocks”) – pioneered by German artist Gunter Demnig in Berlin. With concrete cubes bearing the names of persecuted residents in front of their homes, victims are being remembered in Berlin and other German cities.
What was life like as a Black woman or man in Nazi Germany? Why did it take more than 75 years to honor Black victims of the Nazi regime? What are the many forms of racism in today’s Western societies, triggering a renewed global Black Lives Matter movement in 2020?
Featuring Prof. Robbie Aitken, historian of Black Europe, Sheffield Hallam University, who led the effort to place the Stolpersteine for Martha Ndumbe and Ferdinand James Allen; Dr. Tiffany Florvil, Associate Professor of 20th Century European Women’s and Gender History at the University of New Mexico; and Ms. Alice Hasters, journalist, blogger, and author who identifies as a Black German and publishes about her experience in today’s society. Moderated by Dr. Nicholas Boston, sociologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the City University of New York, Lehman College.
On March 2, the ACG hosted a discussion with Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, former Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, about Scholz’s speech and what it means for Germany and Europe more broadly.
On March 1, the ACG hosted a conversation with Dr. Claudia Major, Head of the International Security Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, about the unfolding conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the response of the NATO.
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin. On February 28 the ACG hosted a Kaffeepause on the developments in Ukraine and Germany’s response with former NPR international correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who now hosts the podcast “Common Ground.”