AGI

Society, Culture & Politics

The AGI Society, Culture & Politics Program focuses on crucial topics within the German-American dialogue, including: demographic change, migration/integration, and aging societies; electoral politics at the national, state, and European levels, and comparative analysis of Germany and the United States; diversity within Germany, Europe, and the United States; the politics of collective memory and identity, Holocaust remembrance and reconciliation, and shifting conceptions of national identity that shape perspectives and policy responses.
Reset

Battle for the Bundestag: German Election of 2009

On September 27, 2009 the German voters decided in favor of a change in the German government. After four years of a grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD, the …

German Unity – A Project

The Wall should have been left standing: as a memorial. As a commemoration in stone it would be a resistance to amnesia. Because the past is uncertain, and becomes ever more uncertain over the years, even when we try to remember how it really was, we can no longer speak with certainty. We must rely on our memory and that is deceptive and hallucinatory…

Kulturpolitik versus Aussenpolitik in the Past Sixty Years

Senior Non-resident Fellow Dr. Frank Trommler, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, examines the history of the Federal Republic’s foreign cultural policy and how it has expanded and changed since after World War II. Dr. Trommler writes that the decentralization of foreign cultural policy in the Federal Republic has opened a more creative and attractive exchange with other countries, something that has led to the betterment of all parties involved.

Different Beds, Same Nightmare: The Politics of History in Germany and Japan

Policy Report 39 In Policy Report 39, “Different Beds, Same Nightmare: The Politics of History in Germany and Japan,” Professor Thomas Berger examines the characteristics of Germany and Japan that …

Denazification in Retrospect

Denazification and (mis-)perceptions about it have had an impact on the development of German democracy over the last sixty years, writes Dr. Rebecca Boehling, AICGS Senior Non-resident Fellow and Director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Dresher Center for the Humanities. Dr. Boehling looks back at the implementation of denazification and concludes that this process had a major say in the evolution of German society since the founding of the Federal Republic.

Religious Literacy and Religious Education in Europe and the United States

Issue Brief 27 Finding a balance between secular education and teaching the lessons found in religion is quite difficult, as experienced by public school systems in both Germany and the …

A New Map for American-German Relations: Memorandum to the New U.S. President

In January 2009, you—Mr. President—the United States, and the world will be facing numerous challenges of enormous importance ranging from the crisis in the global financial markets to the global …

Why is There No PISA Shock in the U.S.? A Comparison of German and American Education Policy

When the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) released the results from its third cross-country comparison of the knowledge and skills of high school students in early December 2007, …

The Pope’s Purpose

Differing Catholic Communities While the Pope is making his historical visit to Washington and New York this week, he is grappling with a community of Catholics that looks different from …

Religion and Public Policy: A German-American Comparison

German-American Issues 9 AGI is pleased to present German-American Issues 9, “Religion and Public Policy: A German-American Comparison.” The essays presented in this publication examine the issues of faith-based initiatives, …

Sixty Years After the Founding of the Jewish State: Are German-Israeli Relations Still “Special”?

German-American Issues 8 In the sixty years since Israel’s founding, German-Israeli relations have been nothing if not complex. On the occasion of Israel’s sixtieth anniversary, the essays in German-American Issues …

Stem Cell Politics in Germany and the United States

Issue Brief 24 It has become fashionable to contrast a religious United States with a secular Europe. As with most broad generalizations, this one contains some truth. Levels of religious …