Konrad Adenauer Foundation

Abbreviated as KAS, this political foundation offers civic education conferences and events. They state their main goals are, “our civic education programs aim at promoting freedom and liberty, peace, and justice. We focus on consolidating democracy, on the unification of Europe and the strengthening of transatlantic relations, as well as on development cooperation.[i]” They are named after the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Konrad Adenauer. The foundation was created in 1955 as the Society for Christian-Democratic Civic Education, but adopted their new name in 1964. They are not only focused on the people of Germany, they are also involved in other countries, in fact they say, “Our offices abroad are in charge of more than 200 projects in more than 120 countries.[ii]” They are considered a think tank for the basis of political possibilities in Germany. Their Academy in Berlin focuses on the economy, politics, science and society. The KAS offers over 2500 events per year for people to attend. These events attract over 145,000 participants collectively. The group also provides moral and material support to intellectually gifted young people across all of Europe.

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[i] http://www.kas.de/wf/en/71.3628/, sept 15 2012

[ii] “ ”, sept 16 2012

Group Work:

The group work was a little choppy, but turned out well during the presentation. Every ones parts made it up there and was spoken on. The communication was a little difficult due to the group size and available meeting times.

BERLIN

BERLIN

BERLIN

Location: Berlin is located in the northeastern corner of Germany on the banks of the river Spree

Area: 883 sq km (340 sq mi)

Population : 3,438million people as of 2008

Economy: 

 Berlin's economy is based around their three main industries: communications, life sciences, and transportation. Berlin's technology sector is extremely fast growing as new modern technologies are being brought in. Being the second largest city in Germany tourism has always been big and it is becoming increasingly important to Berlin's economy. The entertainment and clubs alone attract over ten thousand tourists. Even though Berlin is one of the most modern states in Germany and one of the most popular tourist destinations, it has the most people living off of welfare; and has accumulated more debt than any other city in Germany.

History

  Berlin joined the Republic in 1990 after west and East Berlin were united again. Before 1871 Berlin was one of the many German states that were scattered through the center of Europe.  It was one of the most active and economic states in “Germany” thanks to the industrial revolution. Before 1918 Berlin was as it is now the capital of Germany.  During the first world war the citizens of Berlin often suffered from a lack of food due to military operations .

 Before that in 1914 the famous Reichstag was constructed and used as the parliament building. Before 1948 it was the capital of Nazi Germany and was heavily damaged by bombing and building to building combat. There was a high unemployment rate in Berlin due to the Great depression before the rise of the Nazi party.

  Well known sites includes
1. Brandenburg Gate:

 Located on the western edge of Pariser Platz just inside the former East Berlin is 26m (65 ft) high, 65.5 m (213 ft) wide and 11 m (36 ft) thick.Built according to the plans of Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791, the Brandenburg Gate is modelled on the Propylaeum of Athens’ Acropolis. It consists of twelve Doric columns, six on each side creating five portals. The Quadriga, a statue consisting of the goddess of peace, driving a four-horse triumphal chariot is mounted above the gate, which is flanked by two smaller buildings in similar style which served as gatehouses.
When the Nazis as­cen­ded to power they used the Gate as a party sym­bol. The Gate sur­vi­ved World War II and was one of the da­ma­ged struc­tu­res still stan­ding in the Pa­ri­ser Platz ruins in 1945.The gate was badly da­ma­ged with holes in the co­lumns from bul­lets and ne­arby ex­plo­si­ons. Fol­lo­wing Germany's sur­ren­der and the end of the war, the go­vern­ments of East Berlin and West Berlin res­to­red it in a joint ef­fort. The holes were patched, and were vi­si­ble for many years fol­lo­wing the war.
During 1990, the Qua­driga was re­mo­ved from the gate as part of re­no­va­tion work car­ried out by the East Ger­man aut­ho­ri­ties fol­lo­wing the fall of the wall in No­vem­ber 1989. Ger­many was of­fi­ci­ally re­uni­fied in Oc­to­ber 1990.
On De­cem­ber 21, 2000, the Bran­den­burg Gate was pri­va­tely re­fur­bis­hed at a cost of six mil­lion Euros.
On Oc­to­ber 3, 2002, the tw­elfth an­ni­vers­ary of German Reunification, the Bran­den­burg Gate was once again re­o­pened fol­lo­wing ex­ten­sive re­fur­bish­ment.
The Bran­den­burg Gate is now again clo­sed for ve­hi­cle traf­fic.

2. The Reichstag

Designed by Paul Wallot is situated at the northern end of the Ebertstrasse and near the south bank of the Spree River not far from the Brandenburg gate is Germany's parliament building.In 1918 the first German republic was declared from its balcony.In 1933 it was set on fire ostensibly by enemies of the newly installed Nazi government who used this as a convenient excuse to tighten their grip on power. During the second war it was damaged by allied bombing and was one of the last building in Berlin to fall to the soviet army in 1945. it was damaged during the second war by allied bombing and was one of the last building in Berlin to fall to the soviet army in 1945.
During the reconstruction, the building was first almost completely gutted, taking out everything except the outer walls, including all changes made by Baumgarten in the 1960s. Respect for the historic aspects of the building was one of the conditions stipulated to the architects, so traces of historical events were to be retained in a visible state. Among them were graffiti left by Soviet soldiers after the final battle for Berlin in April–May 1945. Written in Cyrillic script, they include such slogans as “Hitler kaputt” and names of individual soldiers. However, graffiti with racist or sexist themes were removed, in agreement with Russian diplomats at the time.The large glass dome at the very top of the Reichstag has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which would not only cause large solar gain, but dazzle those below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year. The dome is no longer open to visitors without prior registration.
The reconstruction was completed in 1999, with the Bundestag convening there officially for the first time on 19 April of that year. The Reichstag is now the second most visited attraction in Germany, not least because of the huge glass dome that was erected on the roof as a gesture to the original 1894 cupola, giving an impressive view over the city, especially at night.

3. Potsdamer Platz

Once the busiest crossing in Europe, The Potsdamer Platz was completely destroyed after the war. In 1988 the new Potsdamer Platz, full of modern buildings, officially opened. It is named after the city of Potsdam, some 25 km to the south west, and marks the point where the old road from Potsdam passed through the city wall of Berlin at the Potsdam Gate.
The large new underground station, shopping arcade and entertainment center have brought new life to the Potsdamer Platz. It still is more of a tourist attraction than a 'natural' square, but with the construction of more residential buildings in the neighborhood, the area has started to grow back to its former status: one of the liveliest squares in the country.

4. Holocaust Memorial

Designed by U.S. architect Peter Eisenman's to commemorate the murder of six million Jews at the hands of Hitler and his forces Occupies about 205,000 square feet (19,000 square meters) of space near the Brandenburg Gate and just a short distance from where the ruins of Hitler's bunker is buried, the Berlin Holocaust Memorial is made up of 2,711 gray stone slabs that bear no markings, such as names or dates.
The slabs undulate in a wave-like pattern. Each is a five-sided monolith, individually unique in shape and size. Some are only ankle high while others tower over visitors. The paths that are shaped between the slabs undulate as well. Visitors may walk through the memorial in any direction as there is no set pattern to the stones. The architect has said that he hopes it will merely become a natural part of the city, blending in with its background; used for shortcuts on the way home from work or a place of peace and quiet on a chaotic day.

5. Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a massive cement wall built after World War II (August 1961) which separated the city in an eastern and western part, was the symbol of the Cold War. Built by the government of the DDR to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West,This spread families and friends apart. The tense situation lasted long, most of the Berlin Wall has been demolished since the border between East and West Berlin opened finally in November 1989, the wall, and its entire symbolic halo, was taken down.

Famous people from Berlin

1. Georg Simmel

Simmel was a representative of the first generation of German sociologists. Even today he remains famous as the author of 'The Philosophy of Money', 'The Metropolis and Mental Life' and 'The Stranger'. Although born in Berlin to a large Jewish family, he was raised,a Catholic. He studied philosophy and history at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he received a title and the position of 'privatdozent in 1885'. His lectures on philosophy, ethics, psychology and sociology attracted Berlin's intellectual elite. In 1903, along with Max Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies and Rudolf Goldscheid, he founded the German Society for Sociology. His works served as the core of the future theory of symbolic interactionism, in that he claimed that a society is a web of multiple human relations between individuals who are in constant interaction with each other. In 1890, Simmel married Gertud Kinel, who, writing under the pseudonym of Marie-Luise Enckendorf, was a philosopher herself, and the couple had a son. It wasn't until 1914 that he received a full professorship from the University of Strasbourg. Simmel was the author of hundreds of articles and about twenty books.He died from cancer in September of 1918, shortly before the end of World War I., according to Europe Cities.

2. Marlene Dietrich

born on 27 December 1901 in Leberstrasse 65 on the Rote Insel in Schöneberg, now a district of Berlin, Germany. She was the younger of two daughters (her sister Elisabeth being a year older) of Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine,who married in December 1898. Dietrich's mother was from a well-to-do Berlin family who owned a clock making firm and her father was a police lieutenant. Her father died in 1907. Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. In interviews, Dietrich stated that she had been approached by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but had turned them down flat. Dietrich, a staunch anti-Nazi, became an American citizen in 1939.

During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945, she performed for Allied troops on the front lines in Algeria, Italy, England and France and went into Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, "aus Anstand" — "out of decency".

3. Alexander Von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt was born on September 14, 1769 in Berlin. As officer's sons, he and his brother Wilhelm received their basic education from private tutors, which were selected from the leaders of the Berliner Enlightenment. Alexander von Humboldt studied natural sciences and mining in Fribourg and worked in the Prussian civil service from 1792 until 1796. As of 1788, he had developed three research programs, "Physical Geography," "Physics of the Earth," and "Theory of the Earth," which he turned into a methodology in 1793. Charles Darwin described Humboldt as the greatest scientific traveler of his time. He died on May 6, 1859 in Berlin, according to Art Directory.

4. Nastassja Kinsk

Born in Berlin, lived in Rome through early childhood, then in Germany, Venezuela, France, England and the United States. Attended school while living in each country. She began her acting career at the age of 13 - and simultaneously continued her education while earning a living and providing for herself and her mother.

Kinski began her career in her teens. Her first film was directed by Wim Wenders' "Wrong Move” (1975), followed by a German television movie directed by Wolfgang Petersen, “For Your Love Only” (1976.) Nastassja met and worked with director Roman Polanski, who subsidized her acting training. At 15-16, Polanski sent her to study English and go to the Lee Strasberg School in Los Angeles for a year. She also studied film at Cinematheque Francais in Paris, continued taking drama classes in New York and London, preparing to do “Tess” (1980), a lavishly produced adaptation of Thomas Hardy's “Tess of the D'Urbervilles.” Started shooting at the age of 17 for almost a year and ended the film on her 18^th birthday. Shortly thereafter, Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris, Texas; and Faraway, So Close!. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Kinski was widely regarded as an international sex symbol. She posed for a Richard Avedon poster wearing nothing but a large, live python which spiraled around her body.