Run-up to the Hamburg Election
On February 20, Hamburg’s Bürgerschaft election marks the first of seven major Land elections to shape the political atmosphere in 2011. The SPD – with main candidate Olaf Scholz – looks to gain some momentum with a victory in Hamburg, a result that could send a message to voters in the other elections later in the year and have implications for Chancellor Merkel’s federal coalition. AICGS has compiled essential links and media coverage surrounding the upcoming election in Hamburg, and will do so for each of the remaining Land elections throughout the year.
The Need for a Narrative
In this week’s At Issue, Executive Director Dr. Jackson Janes examines the efforts to deal with the shootings in Tucson and how both Germany and the U.S. try to come to grips with such violent acts.
Politischer Rückblick 2010 und Ausblick 2011
Dr. Dieter Roth looks back at the major German political events and figures of 2010 and discusses how these events and people changed the political landscape over the course of the year. Dr. Roth, a frequent contributor to the Advisor, then turns to his outlook for 2011 and concludes that it will be a very interesting year in the world of German politics for all parties and actors. This essay was originally written for a Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg program which aired on January 2, 2011.
American Education Reform Process in Isolation
While American education policy has mostly been conducted at the local level, recent reform efforts have been enacted at the federal level. These reforms, however, have been conducted in ‘isolation’ and with minimal consideration for international evaluations like the OECD’s PISA studies, writes Dr. Kerstin Martens, AICGS Visiting Fellow in fall 2010. Why are such reforms carried out independently of international studies? Dr. Martens examines this issue in her essay.
German Family Policy and the Idea of “Wahlfreiheit”
At 3.1 percent of GDP, Germany spends far above the OECD average on family benefits, whereas the United States spends only 1.3 percent of its GDP on family benefits. However, differences in spending are not the only contrasts regarding family policy in Germany and the U.S., writes former DAAD/AICGS Fellow Dr. Isabelle Kürschner. They also differ significantly with respect to parental leave systems, maternal employment rates, and the number of children born in each country. Dr. Kürschner examines the distinctiveness of German family policy in this Transatlantic Perspectives essay.
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“Football is not a matter of life or death,” claimed Bill Shankly, a former manager of Liverpool, one of England’s most well-known football clubs. “It’s much more important than that!” …
The Many Sides of Muslim Integration: A German-American Comparison
German-American Issues 13 While analyses on the integration of immigrants and especially Muslim immigrants have multiplied in recent years, debates in the U.S. and Germany differ on these issues. Even …
Religious Tolerance and Islam: A Comparative Analysis
Issue Brief 36 By most measures the United States today is a religiously tolerant country, despite its past history of discrimination against many minority faith communities, writes Mark Rozell, Professor …
A Nation of Joiners: Sports Clubs in Germany
There is no doubt that America looks back upon a long tradition of voluntarism and civic activity, organized by and large in voluntary organizations, writes Dr. Annette Zimmer, former DAAD/AICGS Fellow and Professor at the University of Münster. But it is not as well known, however, that Germany stands out for its club culture as well, including more than 90,000 registered sports clubs with more than 27 million members. Dr. Zimmer looks at the history of German club culture and concludes that while the overall attitude toward German sports clubs is strong, these clubs will increasingly face membership challenges in the future due to the changing structure of German society.
Transatlantic Counterterrorism Policy: Cultural, Economic, and Financial Aspects
Issue Brief 34 The fight against terrorism has been on the forefront of the U.S. and German agendas and shapes the relationship between both countries. While differences in counterterrorism policy …
Similarities in Difference: The Challenge of Muslim Integration in Germany and the United States
Issue Brief 33 In Issue Brief 33, “Similarities in Difference: The Challenge of Muslim Integration in Germany and the United States,” Mounir Azzaoui examines the status of Muslim integration in …
Der 9. November 1989 – Eine Erinnerung aus frauenpolitischer Sicht
The process surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall brought new freedoms for German women from the East, but at the same time new problems as well, writes Dr. Eva Maleck-Lewy, professor at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and a regular participant in AICGS events. This Transatlantic Perspectives essay examines the post-Berlin Wall transformation of women in Germany and discusses the remaining problems facing German women at current.
