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Calendar of Events

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Peter Eisenman, Architect
Presentation: "Visual Culture / Memorial Culture: The Berlin Holocaust Memorial"

Visual Culture / Memorial Culture: The Berlin Holocaust Memorial The memory of the Shoah remains a central part of German culture, even as the generation that experienced it most directly fades away. In the post-Unification Berlin Republic, the question arose as to how to visually memorialize the devastation of the European Jewish population. After a decade of controversy in both the international press and the German parliament, the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (also known as the Berlin Holocaust Memorial) was dedicated in May 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II. The American architect Peter Eisenman designed the vast undulating field of concrete pillars that has become one of the most significant commemorative sites in Germany.

Peter Eisenman will speak about his design for this memorial, its realization, and its controversial reception in his public lecture.

German Study-Away Programs Orientation Meeting
October 30, 2007:
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Pinette Dining Room - Thorne Hall

Come listen to the stories of students who have studied abroad in places such as Freiburg, Berlin, Munich, Tubingen and Vienna!

German Table

The German Table meets weekly on Tuesdays between 5:30 and 7:15 PM in the Pinette Dining Room in Thorne Hall.

Events and Speakers

The German Department actively sponsors outside speakers on topics related to courses being taught or issues of current importance. Recent highlights include a reading by German author Otto Emersleben during Berlin week in 2004, and visits by filmmakers Frank Beyer (2002) and Wolfgang Kohlhaase (2004). In fall 2005, the German Department co-sponsored a lecture by Bettina Mathes on the European "Headscarf-Debate" [Kopftuchdebatte] and a visit by filmmaker Amie Siegel.

German Studies scholars have lectured on a variety of topics, among them
"Sport and Gender in the Weimar Republic"
"Making Films in East Germany"
"Poetry and Hip Hop: Recent Black German Art
"Faust and Music"
"Racism, Sexism and Xenophobia in the United Germany"
"The Politics of Fashion,"
"Women and German Travel Literature"
"Ossi, Wessi, Wossi: Problems with German Unification"
"Two Patriarchies, One Germany: German Women after Unification"

March 31 - April 1, 2007
Esther Dischereit, a renowned German poet, novelist, essayist, stage and radio dramatist, and social activist, will visit Bowdoin’s German Department March 31-April 2, 2007. Ms. Dischereit will hold two campus-wide events in English which are free and open to the public. Her recent film /A Dress from Warsaw (Ein Kleid aus Warschau/) will be shown on Saturday, March 31, 2007, 7 p.m. in Smith Auditorium (Sills Hall), followed by a Q&A session. This event is sponsored by the Departments of German and Film Studies, the Bowdoin Film Society, and Hillel. The second event, /wordMusic/, is a performance by Esther Dischereit and percussionist and composer Raymond Kaczynski, whose mix of improvisation, rhythm and language create sound installations.
/wordMusic/ takes place on Sunday, April 1, 2007, 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium and is sponsored by the Departments of German, Music, English, Theater and Dance.

November 7, 2006
Dr. Wolfgang Vorwerk , Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany will introduce the topic Germany and the European Union, and will lead a wide-ranging discussion on issues affecting Germany today. Tuesday, November 7th, 4:00 p.m., Sills 107.

Lecture by Wolfgang Kohlhaase
The Legend of Rita - A Special Chapter of German Terrorism. November 12, 2004
The renowned German scriptwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase, born 1931, began his career with DEFA, the East German Film Studio, in 1950. He wrote scripts for many directors of international acclaim, among them Gerhard Klein, Konrad Wolf, Frank Beyer, and Volker Schlöndorff. He is a guest of Bowdoin's German department November 11 - 13, 2004.

Working with Schlöndorff (e.g. The Tin Drum, Oscar for Best International Film in 1980) for the first time in 2001, Kohlhaase co-wrote the script for the feature film The Legend of Rita. The film tells the story of a young West German woman, Rita, who is active in the German terrorist movement in the 1970s. Eventually she escapes to East Germany, where she hides and begins a new life. But then the wall comes down, and with it, Rita's new life.

Lilian Faschinger
September 22-25, 2004.
An award-winning writer and translator of fiction, the renowed Austrian author Lilian Faschinger holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Graz, where she worked for more than a decade as a lecturer. Since 1984, she has published several plays, collections of short fiction and poetry, and five novels.

Her most successful novel to date, Magdalena Sünderin (Magdalena the Sinner, Harper Collins, 1997) has been translated into sixteen languages. In addition, Women with Three Aeroplanes, a prose collection, and Vienna Passion, a novel, are available in English translations from Headline Review.