Past Events

Poster Exhibition: Bertolt Brecht's PAPER WAR: Exile in America 1941-1947

Monday, October 23, 2023, 4:00 PM

Newcomb Hall, 3^rd Floor

Please join the Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies for our presentation of the ground-breaking exhibit "Bertolt Brecht's PAPER WAR: Exile in America 1941-1947", opening on October 23, 2023 on the 3rd floor of Newcomb Hall at 4:00pm. Refreshments will be served, and the exhibit will remain on display through the end of the semester.

This year marks the 125th birthday of the influential German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer Bertolt Brecht. Brecht is known for his leanings to the political left, and social and sociopolitical issues were a central element of his work. When the Nazis came to power, he had to flee Germany, eventually making his way to the US. As a suspected communist, he came under FBI surveillance and was interrogated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. Brecht remains one of the most staged modern dramatists of modern times and continues to hold enormous appeal to those advocating and working for social change.

Designed by curator and artist Grischa Meyer, the exhibition looks through Brecht’s glasses with contemporary eyes, reflecting on his views on the American way of life during the time of Roosevelt, Truman, and McCarthy, combining his writings and the newspaper clippings he used for inspiration.

The exhibit is presented in partnership with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Foundation with funding from the German Foreign Office, the Goethe Institut, and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Germany's Energy Transition in Times of War and Climate Crisis: Pipelines, LNG Terminals, and Fridays for Future

Monday, September 25th, 2023, 5:00 pm

Rogers Chapel

The Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies and the Environmental Studies Program, in partnership with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, is pleased to present Professor Sabine von Mering of Brandeis University for her lecture on the history of the Energiewende at 5:00 pm in Rogers Chapel, followed by a catered reception.

Germany is widely praised for shouldering the start-up cost to the energy transition to renewables, and has been long seen as a climate leader in Europe. In her talk, Prof. von Mering will provide a critical assessment of this image by providing three different perspectives:

1. A brief overview of the history of the Energiewende and its successes from the 1980s to present;
2. A closer look at climate action and activism in Germany, from the anti-coal activists of Ende Gelände, to the youth movement Fridays for Future, to the civil disobedience actions of Letzte Generation;
3. A discussion of the challenges posed by the Russian war against Ukraine and how it connects to climate fights in the US, especially to the swift expansion of LNG terminals.

Sabine von Mering, Ph.D., is Professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. A member of the core faculty in the Environmental Studies Program, she also serves as Director of the Center for German and European Studies (CGES). She is the 2022 recipient of the Volkmar and Margret Sander Prize which honors “individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the cultural, political, and academic relationship between the German-speaking world and the United States.” She is currently a 2023 Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Professor von Mering is a local affiliate with the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University and a climate activist with 350 Mass.