Berlin Learning Program 2024

Welcome to Widen the Circle's Berlin Learning Program! We are looking forward to the time we will spend together in Germany exploring issues that are central to understanding our collective memory and the ways in which German and American societies have attempted to reconcile with their respective troubled pasts.

We have created an itinerary that will help our group understand Germany's history and how this history has been—and continues to be—dealt with on the local and national levels. During our time together, we will hear from experts and visit sites that will give us important context. Many of the presenters you will be meeting have been involved with Widen the Circle for years.

While engaging in these broader conversations, we will also take time to focus on close-to-the-ground, local projects initiated by Obermayer Award winners that will give us unique perspectives that are often missed. We will explore how Germany's efforts—from the big broad attempts and the small personal efforts to confront its past—have shaped German society, and continue to shape it right now. We’ll explore and discuss how these efforts have shaped numerous national conversations, including those surrounding Germany's contemporary Jewish community, growing diversity, refugee policy, the war in Ukraine, and the current situation in Israel and Gaza. We will take time to thoughtfully synthesize what we’ve learned and consider the applications of these lessons in a U.S. context.

We have created this information resource to share key details about the Berlin Learning Program trip. In the meantime, read through this webpage, ask us questions, and get yourself prepared for a rewarding week of exploration and discovery.

Preliminary Schedule 

• The following is a day by day overview of the week we’ll be spending together. Please note that it is subject to updates before departure.

Thursday, January 25th: Welcome to Berlin

• We begin our program by meeting in the hotel lobby at 3:30pm for a welcome meeting followed by a short neighborhood tour.

• We’ll end our first day together with a group dinner near the hotel.

Friday, January 26th: What is “Memory culture” & what does it look like?

• In the morning we’ll visit a primary school in West Berlin to see how one community honors its complicated history and encourages remembrance amongst students.

• After a group lunch we’ll visit the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, one of contemporary Berlin’s most important and recognizable landmarks. 

• To close our first full day together we’ve organized a special Shabbat visit to the Fraenkelufer Synagogue in Kreuzberg. Largely destroyed during Kristallnacht, we’ll take a brief tour of the surviving portion of the once impressive neoclassical structure, and learn about the community's fascinating history since 1945, including current reconstruction plans. We’ll have Kiddush with community leaders. 

Saturday, January 27th: Memory Culture in Action

• In the morning, we’ll join a Berlin teacher and long-time partner of Widen the Circle to visit a memorial at a deportation site curated by students from a local high school. We’ll learn about the memorial, what it means for the young people in this community today, and have the chance to join a few of them for lunch and conversation. 

• FREE IN THE LATE AFTERNOON. Time to rest or continue exploring the city center. We can offer you ideas of things to see.

• In the evening, we will join 2021/2022 Obermayer Award winners for a dinner reception at the hotel. (Due to the pandemic, the 2021 and 2022 award ceremonies were conducted virtually. This is a chance to meet and celebrate with these inspiring awardees.)

Sunday, January 28th: Sharing history & expanding conversations

• We’ll start with a history tour of the old Jewish Quarter of central Berlin. 

• During the afternoon we’ll join some of the Berlin students we met on Saturday to see the premier of a documentary film about their class trip to Oklahoma, exploring the experience of learning about remembrance work and local history initiatives in the United States. 

• In the evening, we will attend the 2024 Obermayer Awards banquet dinner near the hotel.

Monday, January 29th: Honoring the 2024 Awardees

• In the morning we will visit the House of the Wannsee Conference, the site of the meeting where senior Nazi officials organized the “Final Solution” to murder the Jews of Europe in 1942. Our visit will demonstrate how a site of monumental importance can be designed to help visitors connect this complex history with German identity and contemporary social issues. 

• Later, we will partake in an Afro-German history tour through central Berlin, learning about an often overlooked aspect of history that is struggling to be recognized. 

• In the evening we will attend the 2024 Obermayer Awards Ceremony at the Red Town Hall on Alexanderplatz.

Tuesday, January 30th: Meeting the Awardees & Closing Thoughts

• We’ll have the opportunity today to visit with some of the awardees in Berlin. One works in an area where the far right is ascending and has encountered stiff resistance to his work. The other works on very intimate remembrance in the dwellings of former Jewish residents, and we’ll meet her where she lives. We will see some of their work in action and get the chance to speak with them in a reflective, intimate setting. 

• We’ll close our program with a final discussion followed by a group dinner. 

Wednesday, January 31st: Departure

• Auf Wiedersehen! Breakfast at the hotel and depart on your own. 

Guiding Questions

The Berlin Learning Program will be structured around three themes. We will be having continual conversations throughout the trip about history, understanding and connections between Germany and the United States. Each activity scheduled in the itinerary serves to further our conversation and exploration of these questions:

• How has German remembrance culture developed and what is its connection to prejudice in modern Germany? We’ll explore important points of German history, as well as the complex and ever evolving process through which the country grapples and remembers its past. Ultimately we’ll try to understand how this process of remembrance and memory is connected to topics more related to contemporary society, such as diversity and migration, combating the far-right, and inclusivity and anti-prejudice initiatives. 

• How do local/community projects have an impact on these issues? Together let’s explore grassroots projects led by every-day members of German society that attempt to bring positive change and impact to their communities. From teachers and students, to artists and historians, we’ll meet individuals shaping a better future. 

• What is bridge building and what is its potential to have a positive impact on remembrance and issues of prejudice? The power of anti-prejudice and remembrance initiatives is most positive when it is amplified and shared, inspiring others and perpetuating the process. One of our core objectives is to build bridges between practitioners, stakeholders and initiatives in both the US and Germany, deepening impact and collaboration in both countries and creating a discourse that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Media List

Below is a list of books, articles, and media that we feel are important resources towards preparing for our program together. We understand that you have a limited amount of time before we meet in late January, so we’ve gone ahead and focused our highly suggested reading recommendation to just one article, supplemented by a series of shorter reads, plenty of interesting podcasts, and even a few YouTube videos.

The book we’ve chosen to highlight at the top of this reading list, Learning from the Germans by Susan Neiman, was selected because it touches on a number of the themes we’re focusing on. We know that time is tight, so please start with Chapter 7. There is also a great audio version of the book available.

From there, we’d encourage you to take a look at the remainder of the content we’ve collected for you, all of which is sorted into three broad areas of focus, with one that specifically relates to our organization. We’ve tried to display them in order of importance, with the most pertinent on top.

Any questions, urgent curiosities or requests for further recommendations can be directed towards Rebecca, rebecca@obermayer.us.

• Present day Germany and contemporary issues

  • Video — “Robert Habeck on Israel and Antisemitism” Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, 2023. Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor of Germany, speaks about the situation for Jews in Germany after October 7, 2023, and Germany’s historic responsibilities.

  • Podcast — Day X, Part 2: “In the Stomach” from The New York Times, 2021: About a right wing officer in the German army who planned a series of assassinations. This part explores antisemitism and the growth of neo-Nazis via the life of one of his targets, leading human rights activist Anetta Kahane.

  • Podcast — A Deep Dive Into the Alternative for Germany from Center for the Analysis of the Radical Right, 2020: A look at the first far right German nationalist party to be seated in the Bundestag since the Nazis.

  • Article — “‘We Live in a Different World Now’: Dispatch From a Changed Germany.” from The New York Times, 2022: Comparing the Ukraine crisis to a widespread wakeup call in Germany, a critical moment for society.  

  • Video — Open or closed: Is Germany a country of immigration? From DW News, 2020: Exploring the realities and history of migration, as well as the conversations surrounding it in modern Germany.  

• German-Jewish History and the Holocaust

  • Book — Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, by Susan Neiman, 2019: Explores perspectives on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights-era South, and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin.

  • Article — "Monuments To The Unthinkable" by Clint Smith from The Atlantic, 2022: Clint Smith explores how nations can memorialize their atrocities, visiting Germany to understand how the country has come to terms with its past, and considering how these lessons might be applied in the US. Smith followed this up with a podcast on Radio Atlantic called “How Germany Remembers the Holocaust,” which we would also recommend listening to after having read the article.

  • Podcast — Being Jewish in Germany — What does that look like as the country marks 1,700 years of Jewish life? From KCRW Common Ground Berlin, 2021: Marking 1700 years since the arrival of the first Jews in Germany, a series of interviews with young people shines light on the state of the community in modern Germany. 

  • Podcast —Max Czollek on Diversity and the New German Nationalist Culture in Voices for Democracy, 2021: Confronts ideas of nationalism in modern Germany and actively challenges the idea of integration into contemporary society. Will Jews remain a distinct minority in Germany? What does the future of pluralism look like here?

  • Podcast — The New German Jews from the BBC, Germany: Memories of a Nation, 2014: Explores the dynamics and shape of the modern Jewish community in Germany in this series by the British historian Neil MacGregor. 

• Widen the Circle & the Obermayer Awards

  • Podcast — Not Just Some History from Kind World at WBUR, 2015: About Arthur Obermayer and his son Joel, who came to see his father in a new light after he learned that one of his father's projects helped connect a web of people all over the world.

  • Article — Widen the Circle, “The Obermayer Awards: A Brief History”: A one-page account of how the Obermayer Awards came to be.

  • Article — “Obermayer Awards overcome silence with stories of German-Jewish history” from The Christian Science Monitor, 2016: Arthur Obermayer's German Jewish history awards bring forgotten lives to light, personalizing the past to heal communities today.

About Widen the Circle

Widen the Circle works with people uncovering local history, history related to trauma and injustice, and using the lessons of that history to create a more just world today.

 We believe that exposing local history related to hate and injustice — history told through the lens of community — is a powerful way to help individuals acknowledge and address that injustice today.

 Our goal is to increase the impact of work being done at the grassroots level — community by community — by remarkable individuals and organizations in Germany and the United States.

“Every day, the haters and the aggressors of this world get the headlines in the newspapers. But that’s not the whole story. There are so many people full of love and tenderness and compassion and passion who try to do the right things, who try to make things right for the world. And who stand up every day against prejudice and hate.” — Gabriele Hannah

THIS WALL BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER

Students at this Berlin elementary school, built on the site of a synagogue, have been building a wall for the past two decades. It delivers a powerful message about community.