Joint European Union Study Group Seminar

Date: 

Monday, October 31, 2016, 12:15pm to 1:45pm

Location: 

Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Goldman Room

“Berlin and Germany: The Success of Unification and the New Divisions”

Speaker:

Peter Schneider, Author; John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow, Center for European Studies, Harvard University.

Co-sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellowship.

Contact:

Roumiana Theunissen
rtheunissen@fas.harvard.edu

Chair:

Karl Kaiser, Senior Associate, Program on Transatlantic Relations. Adjunct Professor of Public Policy, Emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School.

Lunch will be available before the seminar.

About:

Berlin has been after World War II the one German city where the division of Germany was still visible. After the fall of the wall Berlin has become the city where the process of unification – infrastructure, salaries and pensions, the mixing of the populations – has made more progress than in the rest of the country. There are still significant cultural differences. Nevertheless, Berlin has become a magnet for the pioneers of the IT-economy, for the international nightclub and party-goers, and for many new citizens. The year 2015 marks a historical incision. While a majority of Germans greeted the migration of 900 000 refugees from Syria and Africa – 85000 ended up in Berlin – with an unprecedented welcome culture, a minority reacted with fear, aggression and arson assaults against homes for asylum seekers. One half of these attacks are committed in East Germany with a fifth of Germany’s population. A new right wing party (AFD) is establishing itself with two digit results in recent state elections – a new phenomenon in post war Germany. The issue of the “refugee crisis” dominates the debates of the whole country and creates new divisions and alliances – not only in Germany but also in the EU. Two unanswered questions seem to fuel the general confusion: How to integrate millions of mainly muslim migrants? How to cope with a new era of mass migration of which we have only seen the beginning in 2015?