American Academy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American Academy in Berlin is a non-partisan academic institution in Berlin. It 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. Its main objective is to promote scholarly and cultural exchange between the United States and Germany. It is entirely founded by private donations, support for it comes from private individuals as well as corporations and foundations on both sides of the Atlantic.
It is located in the Hans Arnhold Center in a villa in the southwestern part of Berlin, in the Wannsee district. It was the home of banker and cultural leader Hans Arnhold and his family before they fled from Germany in the 1930's. It was then occupied by Walther Funk, the Minister of Economics of the Third Reich and later president of the Reichsbank. Being on the territory of the American zone of occupation during the Cold War, it was used as a recreation center by the U.S. Army then. Ownership transferred to the city of Berlin in recent years and the Academy began its work here in 1998.
It also has an office in New York.
Since June 1999, it has been biannually publishing the Berlin Journal, a magazine that contains conference and media reports and other aspects of the academy's work.
