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Twenty Years After: Experts to Offer Views on Berlin Wall Anniversary at UC Conference on Nov. 8-9

Photos By: Richard Schade

   A two-day conference at the University of Cincinnati on Nov. 8-9 will welcome experts from around the world to a comprehensive examination of any of the 20th anniversary events that will look at what the fall of the Berlin Wall meant.

Dismantled segments of the Berlin Wall

“November 9, 1989 – The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Twenty Years After” will feature leading experts and discussions in areas as diverse as international relations, history, architecture, the arts and immigration. The conference is being sponsored by the University of Cincinnati and the Chicago office of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.

To give a sampling of viewpoints that will be offered at the conference, we asked several presenters the question:

What is the most significant unexpected change in areas you study that has come about in the wake of 20 years of history since the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Below is a sampling of their answers.

James Sheehan, Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of History and Freeman Spogli Institute Senior Fellow, Stanford University, who will present “Twenty Years After:  Three Questions About the End of the Cold War” at the conference:

“I am most surprised by what did not change: NATO continues to exist, the U.S.  is still in Europe, the European Union has expanded eastward. In many ways, the revolutionary collapse of the Soviet Union created enormous changes in the east (not a surprise once the process began), but left the essential western institutions in place.”

Paul Kubicek, Chair of the Political Science Department, Oakland University , who will present “The ‘Wall of the Mind’ and Nostalgia for Separation in the Reunified Germany” at the conference:

“I would say that the push for greater European unity, as manifested in the euro, creation of a common market, passage of the newest Lisbon treaty  and, of course, the expansion of the EU to more countries is the most unexpected development.  I do not think many thought the EU could expand geographically and deepen integration as well as it did. Europe today is more unified than at any time in European history.  In 1989, some dreamed of such a development, but it has become more of a reality than most of us thought.  At present, states such as Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia are in line to join the EU. This would have been inconceivable 20 years ago (and, of course, Croatia and Macedonia did not exist as countries 20 years ago)."

Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, who will present “Global 1989?” at the conference:

The events of 1989 created upheaval not only politically but in the structures of capitalist economies that continue to evolve today, particularly because of factors related to the transition to a unipolar world, Sassen says. “There are few resemblances between these post-1989 economic histories and the celebration of post-1989 peace and freedom in countries once part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Yet these economic histories emerge after 1989 in most of the world, including former Soviet-controlled countries. All of this points to a systemic feature of advanced capitalism, one that may have been held in check by the Cold War but which rises to its full capacities (for destruction) once freed from the constraints of bipolar restraint. The end of the Cold War pronounced the free market victorious and neoliberalism the best growth policy for countries.” (More of Sassen’s views, including interviews, can be found on her Web page, http://www.columbia.edu/~sjs2/ )

Benjamin Robinson, Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies, Indiana University, who will present “Forgotten, but Not Gone: On Socialism’s Real Existence” at the conference:

Initial shock in the 1980s over what the collapse of East Germany and other Eastern European socialist governments meant has given way to additional reflection on what actually defined those governments, Robinson says. “An increasing number of commentators and thinkers are trying to grasp what the unity of the epoch from 1917 to 1989 was and what lends it its relevance to today. Part of this reconsideration is due to frustration over how easily socialist commitments either became subsumed under a liberal status quo or turned into a conservative repudiation of all social experimentation as tantamount to terrorism. Scholars have come to realize that without a more positive account of how the Soviet epoch related to reality, socialism is degraded to either a feel-good utopia or the plaything of ideologues like Sarah Palin and Ron Paul. Suddenly, as a rightwing populism is discovering socialism everywhere in any agenda critical of the marketplace, scholars are realizing that a specific socialist legacy and agenda needs to be reclaimed from the disorienting days of the early 90s when everything – most of all the reality of socialism – was mistakenly cast aside.”

Jennifer William, Chair of German, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Purdue University, who will present “ ‘Welche Synagoge?’ or, How Visible are Jews and Judaism in Post-Wall Berlin?” at the conference:

“The Jewish culture of Germany has changed tremendously in the past 20 years. Germany’s Jewish community has gone from diminishing to thriving and rapidly growing, This change is due to the great influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union following more liberal immigration laws since Germany’s unification.  On the one hand, this sea change in the Jewish culture of Germany has sparked tensions between the ‘established Jews’ – those who were in Germany already before 1989 – and the immigrant Jews, who are largely secular and often not particularly interested in Jewish tradition. On the other hand, some see the increasing numbers in the Jewish community as contributing to an important normalization process, as Jews in Germany become more visible than they have been in decades.”

Richard Schade, Professor of German Studies, University of Cincinnati, and Honorary Consul of Germany, who will present “Berlin Wall Installations in the United States” at the conference:

“German Studies has been confronted with several issues in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. How should the cultural and literary legacy of communist East Germany be assessed, now that the nation no longer exists? What is the function of current writers and public intellectuals in chronicling the historical and cultural processes that led to the fall of the wall? What is their role in disassembling the wall in the minds of so many Germans, in crossing the cultural divide between East and West? Where is the one masterpiece of fiction which might make sense of the profound world-historical paradigm shift? With the expansion of the 'free world' to include nations of the former Soviet bloc, how might their literatures be integrated into a truly European discourse? The fact that Hertha Mueller, a Romanian-German living and writing in Berlin, is this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature may indicate the validity of a transnational cultural imagination. These responses are so specific as to elude the average America, yet I think it important to emphasize that Germany and German culture has repositioned itself, and  had to reposition itself, since the fall of the wall and unification, just to remain relevant in the global marketplace of ideas.”

“November 9, 1989 – The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Twenty Years After” runs throughout each day on Nov. 8-9 at UC’s Tangeman University Center, with presentations free and open to the public. More details, including a full schedule of panels and presentations, can be found at the conference Web site, http://www.artsci.uc.edu/german/berlinWall/.