Barack Obama’s historic victory in the 2008 US presidential elections was welcomed with enthusiasm not only in America, but throughout the world. In Germany, where unfavorable views of the US had reached an all-time peak during the Bush years, public interest in the presidential race was unprecedented. A crowd of more than 200,000 gathered in Berlin to hear Obama give his speech on the future of transatlantic relations in July 2008. And a record number of nearly 11 million Germans watched the inaugural ceremony broadcast live on television. The President’s call for change and a new beginning has clearly nurtured worldwide hopes for a new era in American politics at home and abroad.
A little less than one year after the elections, we will begin to take a look at what the new administration has been able to accomplish or get underway during Obama’s first few months in office. How much change has been possible with regard to key issues such as international relations, environmental policy, or social justice? In a series of six public events hosted by Hebbel Theater Berlin, national and international experts will review important aspects of the Obama administration’s political agenda, with special emphasis on transatlantic relations.
Panel discussionFoto: © Peter Groth
On Equal Terms? US Development Policy under Barack Obama
The first installment of the AMERICA RELOADED series took a look at the US role in international organizations. Jean Ziegler, Swiss sociologist and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, presented his new book Hatred of the West: How Poor Peoples Defend Themselves Against the Economic World War (Verlag C. Bertelmann), followed by a discussion with representatives of international organizations on the US role in the context of global developmental cooperation. Will the West take on responsibility and respect its own values? Have we really seen the emergence of a new style in US foreign policy, one characterized by an emphasis on multilateral cooperation? What are the preconditions for beginning a real dialogue among equal partners?
Politics and Web 2.0: the Obama Method
Hey there: Barack Obama is using Twitter! With his groundbreaking and highly successful online presidential campaign, Barack Obama revolutionized political communications, effectively using social networking sites on the Internet for fundraising and constituency building. As President, he continues to use communities such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Flickr to create an unprecedented level of transparency and openness in government. In the second installment of “America Reloaded”, Thomas Gensemer, the man who masterminded Obama’s online presidential campaign, will explain how the Internet can motivate people to get politically involved offline. Just two weeks after the German federal elections, he discussed with German new media strategists and politicians whether Obama’s methods may also work over here.
© 2006, Alexandra Novosseloff
Walls between People
“The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand”, Barack Obama said in his Berlin speech in July 2008, standing not far from where the Wall once divided the city. “The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.“ On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the third installment of AMERICA RELOADED will be devoted to walls and borders that continue to separate peoples. After an initial presentation of striking photography by Alexandra Novesseloff, we will discuss selected examples. What is the Obama administration’s approach to tearing down existing walls, especially in places where US interests are involved, e.g. the Israeli border, the US-Mexican border fence, or the invisible borders between the West and the Muslim world?
The First Black President: Has Martin Luther King’s Dream Come True?
For the first time in US history, a black family has moved into the White House. Is Barack Obama’s historic victory a sign of the fact that the United States has finally overcome the legacy of slavery and transformed into a “color-blind” society which judges human beings only by the content of their character, as Martin Luther King put in his famous 1963 speech? What does Obama’s Presidency mean to the black community, especially in troubled inner-city neighborhoods that keep struggling with poverty, violence and unequal opportunity? America Reloaded is proud to present Johnnie Owens, one of the community organizers who worked with Barack Obama in the South Side of Chicago in the early eighties and continues to build communities there at the grassroots level. Join us for a conversation on social justice and the current state of race relations in the United States.
Obama on Green Economy
Obama's Green USA: the Superpower reinvents itself!
As far as climate and environmental policies are concerned, everybody seems to be sure: the United States are among the worst climate poluters in the world. Environmental consciousness is only poorly developed. Old Europe, on the contrary, portraits itself as an innovator in both policy fields.
However, prejudices aside, what really is the situation in the US and especially regarding "green" issues? President Obama has avowed himself to the "Green New Deal" and called for his fellow Americans to take the lead with regard to climate protection.
Just about how "green" are the USA and how much "greener" can Obama make them? To what extent does the superpower really take responsibility: politically, economically and - very pragmatically - at the grass roots level.
With international guests we will discus both the theory and the reality of Obama's plans to lead the United States out of the financial and economic crisis into a bright, "green" future.
30 March 2010, 19.00 h | Theatre Hebbel-am-Ufer, HAU 1 | Admission 5€, reduced 3€; Members of the Freundeskreises Amerika-Haus Berlin free.
"Energy Ad", Obama Campaign
"Yes, we can" - but what? One Year Barack Obama
Only a year after Barack Obama's enthusiastically commentated inauguration, the hopes and high rising expectations of the beginning - at least in the USA - appear to have gone: while, according to polls, being supported at the time by almost 70% of his fellow citizens, Obama's approval rates today are down to 48% with the rest being outright against him. How can this remarkable drop in approval be explained, all the more, since Obama does indeed bring about the promised change in a lot of policy fields, not least regarding the health sytsem reform.
In this last installment of the series "America Reloaded" we intend to take stock of the promised change. With international guests we will recapitulate the major visions of the "new politics" under Barack Obama as well as the reasons for his current image loss.
The discussion is followed by a reception.
31 March 2010, 19.00 h | Theatre Hebbel-am-Ufer, HAU 1 | Admission 5€, reduced 3€; Members of the Freundeskreises Amerika-Haus Berlin free.
