We named our radio show for Christopher Isherwood, but perhaps he named his book for Robert Walser. The original local expat author? Click here to read a letter from translator Susan Bernofsky about Walser’s move to from Switzerland to Berlin at twenty-seven, in 1905. Her new translation is just out in English and available in Berlin at Dialogue Books, Schonleinstrasse 31.

Mondays, 18:15-19:30
8 Euro
All levels welcome, all equipment provided
Play 2C/OSHO studio
Schlesische Str. 38
Kreuzberg
(a short walk from Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn station)

Our friend Max Erbe has just opened a pop-up Bargain Book Shop on Immanuelkirchstrasse 33 in Prenzlauerberg for December only. The Shop’s mix of ca. 2000 illustrated English-language and German books are from 5 to 50 EUR, with a few exceptions for special and collector’s editions.The spotlight is on art, architecture, photography,
design, children’s books and cookbooks.

Picture above from Kristina Koeper’s lovely blog Mostly Berlin

Most of the books are priced at half their original price, or even less. Many are imported from the UK or US. The Shop is a trove of rare and very special titles, some of which are out of print. Opening hours
will be 11 am to 8 pm from Monday to Saturday. For more information please contact Max Erbe at info@maxerbe.com

Missed the first chapter of The Detroit-Berlin Connection on All Things Considered this morning? You can listen to Martina Guzman’s piece here.

MARTINA GUZMAN
Martina Guzman is WDET’s community reporter. Before coming to WDET, Martina worked as a screenwriter for various public service initiatives and as an independent marketing and public relations consultant for television, live music events, film festivals, magazines, and political candidates. In 2009 Martina directed her second feature documentary, The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato which aired on Public Television. Martina has been recognized as Best Individual Reporter by the Associated Press of Michigan. She has been a guest lecturer at Brown, Columbia and Duke University as well as the University of Notre Dame, The University of Michigan and the University of Texas-Austin. Martina is a graduate of The Journalism School at Columbia University.

REED KROLOFF
In addition to his role as a principal in jones|kroloff, Reed Kroloff is the Director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, and a nationally known commentator in the world of architecture and urban design. Reed came to Cranbrook after serving as Dean of Architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans where he shepherded the school through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and co-chaired the commission charged with developing the initial master plan for rebuilding the city in the wake of the storm and subsequent flooding. Prior to establishing jones|kroloff, Reed served as Editor-in-Chief of Architecture magazine. Under his direction, Architecture received more awards for editorial and design excellence than any magazine of its type, and quickly became the country’s leading design publication.

Reed previously taught at Arizona State University, where he was the Assistant Dean and a tenured professor. At ASU, he received the first-ever “Award for Academic Excellence” from the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects.Reed’s work on competitions was profiled in a lengthy article in the “New York Times” in January 2004. He holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, and was a recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2003. He serves on numerous boards and advisory councils, ranging from the United States General Services Administration Register of Peer Professionals to the Public Architecture Foundation.

RISHI S. JAITLY
Rishi Jaitly joined The Knight Foundation in 2011. He directs Knight’s grant-making in Detroit.Previously, Jaitly co-founded and led Michigan Corps, a social network of Michiganders committed to change in their home state. He continues to be volunteer chairman of Michigan Corps’ board and is co-founder of Kiva Detroit. Prior to founding Michigan Corps, Jaitly worked as director of strategic partnerships and public policy at College Summit Inc., America’s leading non-profit organization increasing the college enrollment rate of lower-income high schools. He also was head of government affairs and public-private partnerships for Google in South Asia; he began his tenure with the company in Silicon Valley where he supported communications for Google’s CEO and led Google.org’s product partnerships with the United Nations. In Asia, he successfully convinced the government of Pakistan to end its nationwide block of Blogger and YouTube (2008, 2009) and the government of Bangladesh to end its nationwide block of YouTube (2009). In India, he led the development of a Google product that informed and engaged voters by showcasing critical governance data during the 2009 general election.

Jaitly, a former member of Princeton University’s Board of Trustees and Commissioner of Higher Education in New Jersey, has a bachelor of arts degree in history from Princeton.

JOHN KORNBLUM
John Kornblum is one of the leading experts on transatlantic economic and political affairs and on the evolving role of the Atlantic community in a multi-polar world. He lectures and writes widely in both German and English and is known especially for his commentaries on the implications of globalization on both sides of the Atlantic. During his more than 30 years of diplomatic service, Kornblum played an active role in several of the major events leading to the end of the Cold War. Since 2001, he has worked in the private sector, primarily in Germany, including eight years as German Chairman of the international investment bank Lazard Freres. He now is Senior Counsellor at the international law firm Noerr LLP and advisor to a number of European and American corporations.

As a diplomat, John Kornblum served exclusively in Washington and Europe. After participating in the Quadripartite Negotiations on Berlin from 1970 -1973, he returned to Washington for a decade of important assignments, including service on Henry Kissinger’s Policy Planning Staff. In this period, he played an important role in formulating American policy in the emerging fields of human rights and conflict prevention and later devised methods to implement the Helsinki Final act within the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Kornblum later served as US Minister and Deputy Commandant in divided Berlin, where he conceived Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, and as Deputy American Ambassador to NATO in Brussels. John Kornblum was Ambassador and head of the US delegation to the CSCE in Helsinki and Vienna 1991 – 1994. . As Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 1995 to 1997, Kornblum served as deputy chief of the 1995 Balkan peace negotiations and later, as Special Envoy to the Balkans, he oversaw implementation of the Dayton Agreement. In this same period, Kornblum also managed work on a revised American security concept for Europe, leading to the enlargement of NATO and to a strengthened and renamed OSCE. From 1997 to 2001, he was American Ambassador to Germany.

In addition to his business activities, John Kornblum has served on a number of private and public boards including Bayer AG, Thyssen Krupp Technologies, Motorola Europe and Russell Reynolds Inc.He is a Trustee of several organizations, including the American Academy in Berlin and a member of the Board of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and of DICO, Deutsches Institut for Community Organizing. In 2011, John Kornblum was appointed to the German Chancellor’s Advisory Board on Immigration and Integration. For his role in the Balkans, John Kornblum was made an honorary citizen of Sarajevo in 1997.

CHRISTOPH SATTLER
Christoph Sattler is a renowned architect in Germany, and a cofounder of Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht GmbH (1974). His firm, based in Munich and Berlin, is focused on new buildings as well as restoration of museums, hotels, office buildings and residential buildings. His firm designed the new Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. It won the competition for and was involved in the comprehensive urban planning of the Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz in Berlin, the Potsdamer Platz train station and is also involved in the master plan for the Museum Island in Berlin as well as the “Schloss”, to name only a few of his accomplishments.

DIMITRI HAGEMANN
Dimitri Hagemann is a former journalist turned entrepreneur. He is the founder and owner of the techno nightclub, Tresor. Hegemann later founded the Tresor record label, which featured Detroit techno artists such as Jeff Mills and Juan Atkins. The record label has also featured artists such as Robert Hood, Stewart Walker, Joey Beltram, Pacou, Blake Baxter, Cristian Vogel, House of Fix and many others. Hegemann has been involved in the Berlin arts scene since for more than three decades. In the early 1980’s he produced the Berlin Atonal festival. Hegemann is credited with creating the transatlantic techno bond between Detroit and Berlin.

Fifty seven year old Dimitri Hegemann involves himself in things that are decidedly different. He brings things into movement. On the one hand there are the unusual forms of expression in image and sound, on the other hand there are the spaces for alternative culture. Among the many examples are the Atonal festivals, and the development of the internationally renowned Tresor clubs which was one of the first bringing together of East and West youth in Germany through the then new electronic music scene coming from Detroit. The simplicity was in making it happen and inviting the new public. In the last few years Hegemann has dedicated himself to abandoned industrial spaces. The process of transforming a technical architectural structure into a living cultural space is a strategy for creating jobs in a new modern working area. Indeed his contribution is giving the successful development from subculture to creative industries an important meaning.

Currently Hegemann is working on two projects: a former waterworks facility in Grunewald in which he desires to develop into a museum for the American light artist James Turrell, and the various construction sites in the former electrical factory in Berlin Mitte where the Berlin Staatsoper will soon do a guest performance. Hegemann believes that there are many Berlin solutions in the younger past that can be used for Detroit.

One of the trailers created by Martina Guzman and Veronica Zaragovia for The Detroit-Berlin Connection, the radio series coming up on Berlin Stories for NPR next week!

Please join us at 16:00, Thursday December 1st, at the U.S. Embassy, Pariser Platz 2, for The Detroit-Berlin Connection, a panel discussion on urban renewal in post-industrial cities. The event is a celebration of our first collaboration with a U.S. NPR station, a series of the same name that will run on NPR Berlin 104.1FM next week during the morning broadcast of All Things Considered. You can also listen to the pieces on WDET’s website. Click here to read a great posting by Sugarhigh about it.