American Academy in Berlin

The American Academy in Berlin is a research and cultural institution in Berlin that fosters a greater understanding and dialogue between the people of the United States and the people of Germany.^[1] The American Academy was founded in September 1994 by a group of prominent Americans and Germans, among them Richard Holbrooke, Henry Kissinger, Richard von Weizsäcker, Fritz Stern and Otto Graf Lambsdorff, and opened in 1998. The organization is entirely funded by private donations, with support coming from private individuals as well as corporations and foundations on both sides of the Atlantic. The American Academy provides residential fellowships and short-term stipends for visiting leading American scholars and artists.

The American Academy is located in the Hans Arnhold Center in a villa on the shores of the Wannsee, a lake within the identically-named district in the southwestern part of Berlin. It was the home of banker and cultural leader Hans Arnhold and his family before they were forced to emigrated to the United States in the 1930's. It was then appropriated and occupied by Walther Funk, the Minister of Economics of the Third Reich and later president of the Reichsbank. After the Arnold family regained ownership, the villa was sold to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1958. Being located in the American Zone of occupation after World War II, it was used as a recreation center by the U.S. Army and as a meeting center for political officials and Americans until after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Since June 1999, the organization has been publishing the Berlin Journal biannually, a magazine that contains conference and media reports and other aspects of the academy's work.

The American Academy also maintains an office in New York.

See also

• American Academy in Rome

References

External links

• The American Academy in Berlin