About the Institute
Director’s Message – Fall 2009
The Nanovic Institute’s fall calendar is full of exciting events. Before I tell you about a few of these activities, I’d like to share with you some personal reflections about one of the most important historical developments of the modern age.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. It was a Thursday. I can clearly remember watching the event on television and being completely stupefied at what I was seeing. Hundreds and then thousands of people were rushing through the crossing points between East Berlin and West Berlin. They no longer had any inhibitions about challenging the normally fearsome authority of the border guards. The guards looked confused. They were undoubtedly wondering whether they could go to West Berlin, too!
Everyone can agree that the Wall’s fall is one of those rare events that has truly changed the course of world history. But as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of this event this fall, it is striking how little we can agree about the significance of the Wall’s passing. As Chou Enlai once quipped about the French Revolution’s impact on China, “it is too early to tell”!
To give us an insider’s perspective on the Wall’s demise, we have invited Horst Teltschik to give a major address on Monday, October 12 at 8:00 pm. Teltschik was Helmut Kohl’s national security advisor and the principal architect of the negotiations that led to the unification of Germany. He will share some thoughts with us about the implications of these developments for German-American relations today. In addition, we have invited our old friend Ambassador JD Bindenagel to lead a panel discussion about the East German revolution at 4:00 p.m. JD, the proud father of two Notre Dame graduates, was deputy US ambassador to East Germany in 1989 and then served as ambassador to unified Germany in the mid-1990s. Four of our colleagues from the History Department (Tom Kselman, Mikolaj Kunicki, Semion Lyandres, and Alex Martin) will be respondents.
Another way to gain a perspective on the Wall’s fall is to recognize the extent to which it has shifted our focus away from Cold War themes to other aspects of contemporary Europe. One theme that is now gaining greater attention is the impact that shifting religious, ethnic, and local identities are having on the way Europeans view themselves. Thanks to our colleagues Catherine Perry and Alison Rice, we will have a splendid conference on the influence of Islamic faith on European literature on November 16-17. In every way, this symposium will be a unique event. Rather than focusing on the familiar controversies involving Islam, we will concentrate instead on one of the most important, yet understudied and underappreciated, aspects of the lives of European Muslims. Our 11 participants, who number among the most prestigious writers and poets in Europe, will address the “place of Islam” in the writing process; in the literature of geography, memory, and exile; in familial generations; and in debates about the power of literature.
Of course, we don’t want you to think that our focus on the last couple decades means that we have forgotten about old Europe, or even old, old Europe. This year, we are pleased to contribute to the Notre Dame’s extraordinary Shakespeare Festival and film traditions. We will focus our entire annual film series on films about his plays. As I have learned, Shakespeare was centuries ahead of the 20th century’s proponents of European unification. Of his 38 plays, only 7 were centered exclusively in England. Thus, we will present a truly all-European film festival, ranging from Ernst Lubitsch’s anti-Nazi satire, “To Be or Not to Be” to the Finnish “Hamlet goes Business.” I gather that the latter has something to do with cornering the market in rubber ducks.
I look forward to seeing everyone at these and the scores of other Nanovic events to take place this fall.
Best wishes,
Jim
A. James McAdams
William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs
