tapmag

Welcome to the fourth installment of our mini-series on transatlantic blogs. Today with the first blog we introduce that is written in the U.S.: Dialog International by David Vickrey. He covers a vast scope of transatlantic topics—from literature and culture, over history, to politics and economics. His analysis is always on point and he continues to surprise with his in-depth knowledge of German affairs.

His first entry from July 2004 pretty much sums up his motivation: “This blog serves to support dialogue about culture and politics, with a special emphasis on repairing German-American relations.”

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Teach for America has been sending graduates from top universities to poor communities for 20 years. In addition to teaching, they are meant to be role models for their students. Now the idea is implemented in Germany, too – but not everyone is happy with that.

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Americans have a lot of stereotypes about the beer brewers in lederhosen from Germany. Germans know that. They love to tease Americans for their “narrow” worldview, and like to tell them that in fact, if it hadn’t been for one vote, German would be the official language of the Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika today. Well, not really.

It is these misconceptions and misunderstandings Scot W. Stevenson likes to target with his blog USA erklärt. Scot explains everything from humoristic differences, administrative particularities, and popcultural references that Germans have a hard time to understand. Post after post, using his (and his parents’) wide knowledge about German and American culture, his readers are lead towards a more accurate picture of America.

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Welcome to part two of our mini-series on transatlantic blogs. Although, Atlantic Community defies this category. It’s a network, think tank, public publishing system and arena for debate—all at once. Come to think of it, it is a blog, just supercharged by the ideas and opinions of its hundreds of members.

It was founded by the Atlantische Initiative in 2007, and is an excellent starting point to explore global issues and politics on a broad scale. David Lebhar was so nice to answer our set of questions on behalf of the Atlantic Community editorial team.

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There is a niche for everyone on the Internet, the saying goes. tapmag feels quite comfortable in the transatlantic corner, so we thought maybe it’s time to take a look around and meet our compatriots.

Every week, we will feature one blog that we think you should know. To kick of the series, we invited Igor and Adrian from Amerika Wählt to answer our questionnaire. Their blog has intensely covered the past elections, and they will continue to report on American politics, the Obama administration and everything else with wit and knowledge.

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Opening today at Berlin’s world renowned Bauhaus Archive “Andreas Feininger – New York in the Forties,” an exhibition which includes many of the artists own favorite shots. Having given his main body of work to the CCP in Tucson Arizona, Feininger held those few personal favorites back and finally gave them to the later founded Andreas Feininger Archive in Tübingen. Now they are on display in Berlin.

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Soon to be inaugurated President-elect Barack Obama might make a comeback to Berlin, the German weekly Focus reports. And this time it might be nothing less than the Brandenburger Tor for Germany’s favorite US President since the days of JFK. [Read more]

As we’ve been wondering what to do with our political interest now that THE election is over, here is a suggestion: Why not take part in politics ourselves?

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One indicator for the influence of a nation in the world is the number of people willing to devote their academic career to the studies of said nation. According to this measure, the future isn’t looking very bright for the United States, if you follow this article in Time magazine. Applications for American Studies have significantly dropped in Great Britain in the last years, even though regional studies are still in fashion.

source: UCAS

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Grand seigneur of the intellectual left in the US, Noam Chomsky has given the Spiegel an interview. He makes it pretty clear that Europeans shouldn’t hope for much from a possible President Obama.

SPIEGEL: “Change” is the slogan of this year’s presidential election. Do you see any chance for an immediate, tangible change in the United States? Or, to use use Obama’s battle cry: Are you “fired up”?

Chomsky: Not in the least. The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion.

SPIEGEL: But he does say things that Europe has long been waiting for. He talks about the trans-Atlantic partnership, the priority of diplomacy and the reconciling of American society.

Chomsky: That is all rhetoric. Who cares about that? This whole election campaign deals with soaring rhetoric, hope, change, all sorts of things, but not with issues.

He has more to say about the state of American democracy and the 2008 elections. Chomsky touches upon the role religion plays for campaign managers, the narrow spectre of choices voters are given and McCain’s honest suggestion that this election really is about personality and not issues, as the Obama campaign claims. The full interview is here.