THE FELLOWS AND VISITORS OF THE2013-2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

DER TAGESSPIEGELSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013VOLUME 69 / Nr. 21 816

AMERICANACADEMY

Theinternational humanrights regime ismuch newer than we usually realize, andmoreintenselycontested.Afteroverfourdecades of rapid growth since themid-1970s, its future is clouded by therise of new forces at home and abroad.

It was a revolution in international af-fairs when in 1945 the UN Charter incor-porated the principle that "the UnitedNations shall promote … universal re-spect for, and observance of, humanrights and fundamental freedoms…" andcommitted its members to "joint and se-parate action" for the achievement ofthese goals. Although the human rightsconcept built on earlier ideas (like theeighteenth-century rights of man) andmovements (like the nineteenth-centuryanti-slavery movement), human rightsas we understand the concept today wasunprecedented in several ways: therights were "universal" instead of apply-ing only to citizens or specified vulnera-ble groups; they not only set limits butimposed positive obligations on govern-ments; they obligated not only govern-ments but "all organs of society," andthey were codified not only in nationallaws and constitutions but in internatio-nal law. In 1948, the UN General Assem-bly spelled out the rights the UN wouldpromote by adopting the Universal De-claration of Human Rights.

From this root grew what is today acomplex body of international humanrights law. The website of the UN HighCommissioner for Human Rights listsabout 100 conventions, protocols, andstatutes,bywhichsovereignstatesunder-take commitments to one another abouthow they will treat their own citizens.

Most of the treaties have been joined bymost states in the international system.

Besides the explosion of normative en-actments, the global social movement topromote human rights has expanded.One website lists over eleven thousandself-proclaimed human rights civil so-ciety organizations in existence aroundthe world today. Human rights has beenmainstreamed into American foreign po-licy since the mid-1970s and became apillar of European Union foreign policywith the adoption of the Common Fo-reign and Security Policy (CFSP) in1992. The family of UN institutions de-voted to human rights has grown: forexample, the Office of the High Commis-sioner for Human Rights was establis-

hed as recently as 1993. The EuropeanCourt of Human Rights and the In-ter-American Court of Human Rightswere established in 1953 and 1979, re-spectively, but both experienced drama-tic increases in their dockets starting inthe late 1990s. The African Court of Hu-man and People's Rights was establis-hed in 2004. "Humanitarian interven-tion" – justified if not necessarily moti-vated by human rights priorities – has be-come an increasingly common featureof international politics.

Today, this record of expansion is at aturning point. Human rights has ene-mies. Within the US, they include legaltheorists who question the legitimacy ofinternational law and say that Americanobligations are defined solely by ourown Constitution; cultural relativistswho believe that people outside the USdo not want the same rights that wewant; cultural conservatives who be-lieve that we ourselves should not havesome of the rights that advocates havelabeled universal (such as equality forwomen and sexual minorities); and pro-secutors of the "war on terror" who be-lieve that national security trumps dueprocess and justifies torture.

Outside the US, the challengers to hu-man rights include powerful authorita-rian governments such as those of Chinaand Russia, which exert increasing influ-ence on the way newly emerging normsare defined for such issues as the properbounds of information freedom on theInternet, and the right of civil society or-ganizations to receive financial supportfrom abroad. Women's human rightscontinue come under attack in funda-

This new academic year has specialsignificance for the American Academyin Berlin, as it does for Germans andAmericans alike. 2014 is the twentiethanniversary of the Academy's founding,by Richard C. Holbrooke and a smallgroup of Germans and Americans com-mitted to maintaining strong intellectualties through the indeterminacies of thepost-Cold War world. But 2014 alsomarks the one-hundredth anniversary ofthe onset of Europe's civilizationalself-immolation during World War I, andthe 25 years since the West's triumphover Communism following the fall of theBerlin Wall. This confluence causes usto reflect both on what we have achievedand what we are facing.

There were so many certitudes after1989, whether "the end of history" orthe triumph of the West and marketcapitalism. History, famously written bythe victors, however, is not always truehistory. Today, globalization, technologi-cal change, and the maturing of a newgeneration mean that things we thoughtwere stable are now changing beyondrecognition. Given the efflorescence ofnew global challenges, the context ofUS-European relations is also changing,in some ways dramatically. Thus, as wecomplete our twentieth year, the Aca-demy is proud to say that we have builta dynamic foundation of academic, cul-tural, and intellectual dialogue thatspans not just across Germany andAmerica, but also across conventionalprofessional divisions, the kind of reachnecessary to generate new thinking andnew ideas indeed, new traditions.

Today, Germany finds itself requiredto think over its approach to the worldin the space it inhabits. The country'ssuccess has led it to become recogni-zed as one of the world's most admi-red. But with success comes responsibi-lity. This was the point of PresidentObama's appeal in his Berlin speech onJune 19 that "complacency is not thecharacter of great nations." He unders-cored how deeply the United States wis-hes to work with Germany in articulatinga shared understanding of responsibi-lity, which is, after all, a central tenet ofdemocratic political theory.This year's class of fellows and guestsis especially attuned to the traditionsand the opportunities for managingchange in relations across the Atlantic.The time generously granted their inves-tigations in Berlin also makes it possi-ble for them to develop real and lastingrelationships with their German counter-parts. It is precisely these relationshipsthat generate deeper cultural understan-ding and initiate the kinds of active anddynamic intellectual exchange that willhelp us all to address key challenges ofthe present century. Gary Smith

— The author is Executive Director ofthe American Academy in Berlin

American Academy in BerlinSupplement of Der Tagesspiegel.Editors: Rolf Brockschmidt,with Malte Mau and R. Jay Magill (AAB).Art Direction: Sabine WilmsAdvertising: Jens RobottaAddress: 10876 BerlinPhone: +49 30 29021-0Front Page Photo: Annette HornischerThe American Academy in BerlinAm Sandwerder 17-19; 14109 Berlinwww.americanacademy.deChairman: A. Michael Hoffman

American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_2

By Andrew J. Nathan

In 1953 the Uni-ted Nations foun-

ded the Euro-pean Court ofHuman Rights

to secure funda-mental civil and

political rightsto everyone

within itsjurisdiction.

Photo:AFP ImageForum

AgainstComplacency

Imprint

The Global Struggleover Human Rights

Much is at stake in thecontestation over theinternational human

rights regime. Can thislong-cherished strategyto create a safer worldbe rescued from newchallenges at home

and abroad?

mentalist communities not only in theMuslim world but in other religious com-munities. Advances in communicationstechnology empower not only citizensbut also political police around theworld. New weapons like drones, laserblinding weapons, and cyber weaponsraise new challenges to the laws of war.Even the human rights movement'sfriends can hurt it, when they stretchthe norms too far and reduce the sacro-sanct quality of the original idea, whichin the end is its most important asset.

Much is at stake. Human rights is notonly a matter of culture and values. It isalso a long-standing matter of European

and American strategy to create a saferworld for individuals and our societies.We are safer as citizens, businesspeople,scholars, and tourists when we live in aworld with reliable rule of law. Regimesare more stable when they are groundedin the consent of the people. As nations,we can trust each other more when eachcountry's strategic intentions are sha-ped in an open political process. Thereis ever more reason to work to developthe strategic vision that gave rise to themodern human rights regime in the af-termath of the Second World War.

— Andrew J. Nathan is Class of 1919 Pro-fessor of Political Science at ColumbiaUniversity

President Obama said that he has spentfour and a half years working to endwars, not to start them. Has the adminis-tration the will to push for military ac-tions against the Assad regime?

I think the option is still on the table.This is a risk the Obama administrationhas decided it is prepared to take tostand firm against this threat to huma-nity, essentially against the use of chemi-cal weapons. A likely scenario could bea Security Council resolution that setsforth a procedure for disarmament,which, should Syria not comply, entitlesUN member states to "use all necessarymeans" to enforce the resolution or pro-mise "serious consequences" fornon-performance.

Will the perpetrators of chemical attacks inSyria be held accountable for their deedsbeyond weapons inspections?

I firmly believe that someday those indi-viduals should be held accountable un-der the law, including for other atrocitycrimes in Syria. The Security Councilcould leverage justice for peace by requi-ring that unless Syria fully cooperateswith the disarmament procedures therewill be an automatic referral of their useof chemical weapons to the Internatio-nal Criminal Court. Russia should be

able to agree to that because it has pled-ged Syrian cooperation and claims it isthe rebels who launched the attack.

What can Germany contribute?

Firstly, Germany can lend its voice insupport of what President Obama is see-king to achieve in the talks with the Rus-sians. Secondly, as a NATO member,Germany can stand very firm in defenseof NATO principles, including articlefive of the Washington Treaty, the col-lective self-defense provision of NATOmembers, and thus of Turkey. Third,Germany is already demonstrating itscommitment to the humanitarian catas-trophe by accepting significant numbersof refugees. There's never a shortage ofwhat can be done to support the refugeecamps in the region itself.

Will the Syrian regime survive this crisis,maybe even with Assad as president?

The more interesting question is whet-her Bashar al-Assad's future dictates li-ving in exile or ultimately facing the barof justice in Den Haag.

— David Scheffer is Professor of Law,and Director, Center for International Hu-man Rights at Northwestern UniversityInterview conducted by Malte Mau.

3_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel American Academy 2013

The Red LineThe first US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes

Issues on the question of accountability in Syria

Stable regimes are groundedin the consent of the people

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In the winter of 1889, the small Galiciantown of Wadowice, in the Austro-Hunga-rian Empire, was gripped by a sensatio-nal trial. The defendants were Jewish tra-vel agents from the nearby town of Os-wiecim - known to the world today asAuschwitz.

Located at the juncture of Prussian,Russian, and Austrian railway lines, Os-wiecim had recently developed a boo-ming emigration business. Since 1880,hundreds of thousands of East Europe-ans trekked toward the German ports ofHamburg and Bremen en route to Ame-rica. The 65 defendants in the case wereaccused of seducing emigrants into aban-doning their homeland with false promi-ses of American riches. In reality, prose-cutors argued, East European peasantswere delivered to hard labor in Ameri-can factories, mines, and brothels.

If the Wadowice trial had been justanother exposé of local corruption, itmight have passed unnoticed. But thecase came to implicate much more thana group of shady travel agents. As theprosecuting attorney argued in his clo-sing statement, the trial was a referen-dum on emigration itself, "one of themost important, burning problems ofthe day." And emigration, he insisted,posed a grave threat to the basic ideal offreedom in the Habsburg Empire. Heclaimed that the travel agents of Oswie-cim were guilty of no less than "introdu-cing a slave trade into the free land ofAustria."

The trial at Wadowice marked the be-ginning of a century-long campaign topreventemigrationfromEastCentralEu-rope. After World War II, the "captivity"of East Europeans behind the Iron Cur-tain became a quintessential symbol ofCommunistunfreedom.In1948theUni-ted Nations included freedom to emi-grateonits listofbasichumanrights.Thecollapse of Communism is indelibly lin-ked to images of champagne corks pop-ping atop the Berlin Wall and Easternersstreaming into theWest for the first time.Today, freedom of mobility within Eu-ropeandamongEuropeans isconsideredone of the hallmark achievements of theEuropean Union.

The Iron Curtain did not, however,simply descend overnight in 1945,1948, or 1961. Its foundation was argu-ably laid a century earlier, when Habs-burg officials and social reformers firstmobilized to stop the haemorrhagingflow of population to the West.

Numbers offer some clue as to whyemigration became a burning social andpolitical question in Austria-Hungary.In the first decade of the twentieth cen-tury alone, one in ten citizens – five mil-lion people – left the Empire. Between1901 and 1910, almost 25precent of allimmigrants to the United States hailedfrom the Habsburg lands.

After the First World War, borders clo-sed in the West, but the campaignagainst emigration only escalated in theEast. One of the first priorities of East

Central Europe's new self-declared na-tion-states was to prevent people fromleaving them. Restrictions on emigra-tion almost immediately followed theestablishment of new nation-states inEast Central Europe.

Following World War II, East Euro-pean governments were more deter-mined than ever to reverse the tide of mi-gration from East to West. Postwar emi-gration policies reflected familiar con-cerns: a radical push for national homo-geneity, the need for labour to fuel eco-nomic reconstruction, and the pro-nata-list ideology pervasive across Europe af-ter 1945. By 1947 the Czechoslovak go-vernment – still technically a republicandemocracy – had banned emigration en-tirely, along with all travel abroad for pri-vate purposes, including tourism or visi-ting family abroad.

Postwar migration politics also repre-sented the opening act to the new andmore polarizing ideological dramas ofthe Cold War. Now more than ever, stateofficials in Eastern Europe linked emi-gration to slavery, capitalist exploita-tion, and moral ruin. Meanwhile, in theCold War West, "escapees" from the So-cialist bloc became living symbols of to-talitarian oppression. During the ColdWar era, the ability to emigrate came todefine the very boundaries betweenEast and West, along with the meaningof freedom itself.

In the aftermath of the Cold War, mo-bility and freedom remain tightly linkedin our understanding of democracy andhuman rights. And yet the right to emi-grate is illusory in most of the world. A"human right" to exit one's country islittle more than a ticket to statelessnessin a world of closed borders. For manyemigrants, migration is a path to impri-sonment and immobility in the West, rat-her than to freedom. In the UnitedStates, thousands of asylum seekers(and tens of thousands of immigrants)are detained for months or years in jailsor jail-like detention centers while theircases are adjudicated. Freedom of move-ment within the European Union hasbeen accompanied by increasingly strictmeasures to keep out non-European im-migrants. In 2012, 335,895 individualssought asylum in EU member states. Alt-hough the EU adopted a Common Euro-pean Asylum System in June 2013, desig-ned to harmonize the treatment of asy-lum seekers, thousands remain in deten-tion in substandard conditions.

The fundamental conflict between ide-als of national sovereignty and freedomof movement may ultimately be impossi-ble to reconcile. Debates about emigra-tion and immigration, however, are inex-tricable from this longer history of ideasabout slavery, freedom, and free labor.In crafting migration policies today, weshould take heed of this history. Oncestates begin to see migration as a tool ofpopulation policies, it is all too easy totreat migrants as members of groups rat-her than individuals. Twentieth-centuryhistory has demonstrated that whenstates begin to see individual migrantsas members of "surplus" or "desirable"populations to be imported or exportedat will, both mobility and freedom are il-lusory for everyone.

— Tara Zahra is Professor of East Euro-pean History at the University of Chicago

By Tara Zahra

American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_4

Almost there: Eastern European emigrantson a ship in 1900, of the New York coast. Animmigration test awaits them. Photo: mauritius images

Exodus from the EastThe Iron Curtain did

not simply descend afterthe Second World War.

Its foundation was laid acentury earlier, when

the Habsburg Empiretried to stem the

increasing flow of itscitizens to the West

The right to emigrate isillusory in most of the world

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Holtzbrinck Fellow. Celebrated authorKiran Desai draws from her rich cultu-ral background to create charactersthat must reconcile the pull of contem-porary love and the force of traditionalroles. Her 2006 novel, The Inheritanceof Loss, was translated into fortylanguages and won numerous awards.While in Berlin, Desai will be workingon a new novel, The Loneliness of So-nia and Sunny, which examines mani-festations of solitude across geogra-phical, technological, and emotionalterrains of the globalized world.

Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow inFiction. We are encouraged to worshipthe nuclear family by laws, mores, cul-ture, and tradition. But family is not al-ways so easy. Ben Marcus, an authorand professor of creative writing at Co-lumbia University, will use his stay inBerlin to work on a new novel that rumi-nates upon the intense, sometimesdisturbing dynamics of family life. Yethaving just published a new collectionof short stories, Leaving the Sea (firstin German, as An Land gehen), he'llfirst be making the literary rounds.

Daimler Fellow. On the eve of 9/11,the writer Leslie Dunton-Downer en-countered the singing voice of a youngMuslim man named Aqnazar in themountainous area of Tajikistan. Shewent on to learn classical Persian andTajik, direct a play for Aqnazar in Paris,co-produce a documentary film, andaccompany him on a US tour. Dunton -Downer's memoir project The Rumi Sin-ger will take the reader on a journeythrough the musical landscape of Taji-kistan in the context of global eventssurrounding September 11, 2001.

Dirk Ippen Fellow. Dexter Filkins isbest known for his coverage of thewars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and forgroundbreaking coverage of America'sdeepening military and political crisisin the region. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in2002 and a recipient in 2009, Filkinsis also author of the 2008 book TheForever War, about his experiences inIraq and Afghanistan. Now a staff wri-ter at the New Yorker, Filkins will beworking in Berlin on a historical novelthat moves between Europe andPakistan.

Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow inFiction. His sterling reputation prece-des him. Jonatham Lethem, theMacArthur-winning author of prizewin-ning books, among them MotherlessBrooklyn (1999 and The Fortress ofSolitude (2003), will be in Berlin tocontinue a project he is calling "LoveBoy, The Class, and Other Future Ficti-ons," a basket of in-progress novelsand novellas. Lethem holds the estee-med Roy E. Disney Chair of CreativeWriting at Pomona College, theposition tragically vacated by DavidFoster Wallace.

Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in theVisual Arts. Known for her engage-ment with the human figure and use offound materials, Huma Bhabha'sworks veer towards the grotesque. Fewartists have addressed the pathos ofPromethean overreach with thestrength of this Pakistani-born Ameri-can sculptor, whose work is in the col-lections of the Whitney Museum andMoMA, among many others. In Berlin,Bhabha will continue resuscitating thepossibilities of figuration and developbronze sculptures in preparation for anexhibition in 2014.

Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in theVisual Arts. Photographer and mediaartist LaToya Ruby Frazier, whose workhas been shown at the Whitney Bien-nial (2012), the Venice Biennale(2011), and MoMA's PS1 (2010), be-lieves the city of Eisenhüttenstadt, out-side Berlin, will provide a compellingcomparison to Braddock, Pennsylva-nia, where she has long lived and wor-ked. Frazier's heartbreaking documen-tation reports the decline of Brad-dock's once-flourishing steel industrythrough projects that marry social do-cumentary photography and the powerof everyday speech.

Inga Maren Otto Fellow in MusicComposition. Matthew Goodheart is acomposer, improviser, and sound ar-tist from San Francisco whose workshave been performed throughoutNorth America and Europe. Followingan early career as a free-jazz pianist,he found a renewed interest in compo-sition, focusing on microtonality,acoustics, and the spatial propertiesof sound. In Berlin, Goodheart will be-gin work on a curiously complex piecefor fourteen musicians divided intofour ensembles and eight compu-ter-controlled metal percussioninstruments.

Dirk Ippen Fellow. After starting as anassistant photographer to fashion -photo icon Patrick Demarchelier, in1980, Dominique Nabokov branchedout and blossomed on her own. Herfashion, portrait, and interior imageshave appeared in the New Yorker,Vogue, Vanity Fair, Le Monde, and LeNouvel Observateur, among others. Na-bokov's books New York Living Rooms(1998) and Paris Living Rooms (2002)will soon be joined by an elegant third,Berlin Living Rooms, which she beganin 2012.

The 2013/2The Academy’s sixteenth class of fellows is compri

journalists, artists, policy experts, and one compand resources to pursue independent study an

as well as with Berlin’s vibrant aca

HUMA BHABHA

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER

MATTHEW GOODHEART

DOMINIQUE NABOKOV

American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_6

LITERATURE

ART AND MUSIC

KIRAN DESAI

BEN MARCUS

LESLIE DUNTON-DOWNER

DEXTER FILKINS

JONATHAN LETHEM

Anna-Maria Kellen Fellow. Some histo-rians of international relations haveargued that dictatorships cannot, bynature, develop nuclear weapons.Ergo, Iran will not. Wolf Schäfer, a his-torian at Stony Brook University, is wor-king on a topic that will help further illu-minate this assumption: he's compa-ring the Manhattan Project with NaziGermany's atomic program to see howfunctional and dysfunctional gover-nance and management factors canmake or break large and complex re-search and development programs.

Berthold Leibinger Fellow. During theCold War, the "captivity" of East Euro-peans behind the Iron Curtain becamea symbol of Communist oppression.But that curtain did not descend over-night. Its foundation, says University ofChicago historian Tara Zahra, was laidbefore the First World War. Based onarchival research in Austria, Czech Re-public, Poland, France, and Germany,Zahra's study suggests that East Euro-pean concerns about emigration, asmuch as Western xenophobia, werethe cause of fortified borders.

Siemens Fellow. Vanderbilt Universityhistorian Dennis Dickerson's book onthe African American civil-rights acti-vist William Nelson is long overdue.Nelson and other black leaders of the1950s – Benjamin Mays, Howard Thur-man, and Mordechai Johnson – werecrucial to the emergence of the Ameri-can Civil Rights Movement of the1960s. Dickerson's project deliversthe much deserved recognition of Nel-son as a broker of Gandhian nonvio-lence that forged the crucible of MartinLuther King's fight for racial justice.

Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow. One ofthe most important scholars of moder-nist art history working today, LindaHenderson, of the University of Texasat Austin, has revolutionized our under-standing of early twentieth-century art.Accordingly, her Berlin project on the"energies of modernism" will not beabout filling holes in existing scholar-ship. Rather, it will attempt totransform the ways we think aboutmodernism in relation to science as ittranspired at the onset of thetwentieth century.

Bosch Public Policy Fellow. There aremountains of books about the USarmy that fought in World War II but sur-prisingly few about the army that suc-ceeded it. Brian Linn, a military histo-rian at Texas A&M University, will em-ploy Elvis Presley to illustrate how themilitary changed in the post-World WarII era, when millions were "trained" tobecome ideal American citizens.Linn's exposure to German life will beimportant for rendering the symbioticrelationship between West Germanyand US soldiers during the Cold War.

Anna-Maria Kellen Felllow. In 2011,Ronald Suny, the director of the Eisen-berg Institute of Historical Studies atthe University of Michigan, published AQuestion of Genocide, in which hedealt with the causes of the Armenianmassacre. In Berlin, he will further in-vestigate the "why" of this genocide.Instead of making singular national orreligious conflicts responsible for themass slaughter, Suny emphasizes anarrative of perceived threat, whichmade the annihilation of Armeniansappear to Turks as a measure of ratio-nal self-protection.

Siemens Fellow. How is it that Machia-velli, that arch-theorist of cynical politi-cal manipulation, has lately featuredprominently in a number of projects ai-med at deepening the experience ofdemocracy? Tracing this curious tra-jectory while in Berlin, historian War-ren Breckman, from the University ofPennsylvania, will dive into Europeanpolitical thought, particularly Arendt,Strauss, and Schmidt, and into sometracts of left-wing theorists employingMachiavelli to articulate their versionsof radical democracy.

Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow inHistory. Germans are political; 'twasalways so. To prove it, James Brophy, ahistorian at the University of Delaware,is examining the links between Ger-man publishing and the broader publicsphere between 1770-1870. By focu-sing on the era's individual publishers,Brophy highlights dynamic political en-gagement across the ideological spect-rum, and thereby aims to put to restthe myth that German political culturebefore Bismarck was inherently pas-sive, obedient, or beholden toauthority.

2014 Fellowssed of twenty-seven outstanding scholars, writers,poser. The Berlin Prize affords fellows the timend to engage with their German counterpartsademic, cultural, and political life.

WOLF SCHÄFER

TARA ZAHRA

WARREN BRECKMAN

JAMES BROPHY

The fellows in PUBLIC POLICY andHUMANITIES follow on the next page.

HISTORY

DENNIS DICKERSON

LINDA HENDERSON

BRIAN LINN

RONALD SUNY

7_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2013

John P. Birkelund Fellow. Poet and cri-tic Susan Stewart, winner of a 1997 Ma-cArthur grant and a 2003 Book CriticsCircle Award, comes from Princeton Uni-versity with the ambitious agenda of fi-nishing two projects. The first is aboutthe representation of ruins in Westernart and literature. The second is thecompletion of a new book of poems. Forboth she will visit the Kupferstichkabi-nett and the Gemäldegalerie, engagingprimary material with both a critical anda creative voice.

Axel Springer Fellow. The election ofHassan Rouhani's to Iran's presidencyin June appears to be a victory for re-formers. New hope seems to be blos-soming, subsequent the crushing ofthe opposition Green movement in2009. Journalist Laura Secor has longfollowed the country's political transfor-mation, writing primarily for the NewYorker. In Berlin she will continue workon her book Fugitives from Paradise, acombination intellectual history, biogra-phy, and report about the emergenceof democratic reform in Iran.

Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow inHistory. The Neue Nationalgalarie isone of the most defining buildings de-signed by the visionary architect Lud-wig Mies van der Rohe, whose archi-tectural legacy in Berlin was establis-hed decades prior. Dietrich Neumann,a professor of modern architectureand urbanism at Brown University, hascome specifically to Berlin to continuework on a critical biography of the Bau-haus luminary.

John P. Birkelund Fellow. It took theFrench poet and essayist Francis Ponge(1899-1988) more than half a lifetimeto decide to take up "the sun" as an ob-ject of consideration. Literary scholarThomas Schestag is working on an edi-tion of the Ponge's unpublished dos-sier "Le soleil," which involves delvinginto the poet's unique notebooks, sket-ches, and wordplay to survey Ponge'ssweeping, if cautious, literary imagina-tion, and providing transcriptions, trans-lations, and philological commentary.

German Transatlantic ProgramFellow. Given the number of people for-ced into migration by environmental,social, and military conditions, FelicityScott's project is timely. A professor ofarchitecture and theory at ColumbiaUniversity, her project will investigatethe responses to growing urban unrestin the developed and developingworlds between the years 1966 and1979, when unique forms of archi-tecture played a crucial role in the ma-nagement of urban populations.

Holtzbrinck Fellow. Why did some verysmart people at the end of World WarII make some very poor choices – parti-cularly Western intellectuals whochose to collaborate with the Soviets?Journalist and writer Sylvia Nasar – aformer correspondent at the New YorkTimes and Fortune, and author of thebestselling biography A Beautiful Mind(1998) – is in Berlin to seek an ans-wer. Here she plans to trace the archi-val trails of collaborators, among themthe OSS officer Jürgen Kuczynski.

Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow. To learnof the future, look first to the past.This advice is not lost on EgyptologistJanet Richards, of the University of Mi-chigan, who since 1995 has directedthe Abydos Middle Cemetery Project,an investigation of a late third-millen-nium BCE mortuary, where the tomb ofWeni the Elder, a political official, wasrediscovered. In Berlin, Richards plansto complete a book called Writing An-cient Lives, about ancient Egyptian re-sponses to large political crises.

SUSAN STEWART

Axel Springer Fellow. The idea of theuniversality of human rights is the cor-nerstone of international human rightslaw. But as political scientist AndrewNathan of Columbia University argues,human rights should not be viewed asa consolidated achievement; it requi-res the renewed cultivation of norms.During his stay in Berlin, Nathan willresearch European foreign ministriesconcerned with human rights issuesfor his study of the future of the inter-national human rights regime.

Bosch Public Policy Fellow. Havinghad a front-row seat as a policymakerand adviser to Madeleine Albright du-ring the Yugoslav Wars will be of greatuse to David Scheffer, the first US Am-bassador-at-Large for War Crimes Is-sues (1997-2001) and now a profes-sor of law at Northwestern University.In Berlin, Scheffer will be exploringAmerican foreign policy during theseyears, relying upon a hundred personalnotebooks, newly declassified cables,and highly focused interviews with keydecision-makers of the period.

Axel Springer Fellow. Where could bebetter than the American Academy inBerlin for writing a book about RichardC. Holbrooke, that towering figure ofUS diplomacy who founded the institu-tion in 1994, just as he was finishinghis tenure as US Ambassador to Ger-many and a year before his successfulnegotiation of the Dayton Accords.Award-winning author and New Yorkerstaff writer George Packer, who just pu-blished The Unwinding to criticalacclaim, will trace Holbrooke's careerfrom Vietnam to Afghanistan and Pakis-tan, his very last diplomatic mission.

JANET RICHARDSLAURA SECOR

DIETRICH NEUMANN

THOMAS SCHESTAG

FELICITY SCOTT

SYLVIA NASAR

ANDREW NATHAN

DAVID SCHEFFER

GEORGE PACKER

American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_September_21_2013_8

HUMANITIESPUBLIC POLICY

The American Academy in Berlin looksforward again to welcoming a number ofoutstanding distinguished visitors to theHansArnholdCenter.Duringtheirstays,which last from one to four weeks, visi-tors partake in a high-level program com-prised of a series of private meetings andpublic exchanges, including a publiclecture, to facilitate a robust exchange ofviews between Germany and the UnitedStates.

October opens with the Academy hos-ting, for several weeks, an internatio-nally acclaimed couple from PrincetonUniversity. Robert O. Keohane (AllianzDistinguished Visitor), one of the lea-ding theorists in international relationsand professor of international affairs atthe Woodrow Wilson School for Publicand International Affairs, will discussthe future of American leadership andmultilateral institutions in a post-hege-monic world on October 10.

Five days later, Nannerl O. Keohane (Ri-

chard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Visi-tor), the first female president of both awomen's college, Wellesley, and a majorresearch university,Duke,will address inthe importance of women's leadershipand discuss her more than three decadesofservicetothefieldofhighereducation.On October 16, Lisa Anderson (RichardC.HolbrookeDistinguishedVisitor),are-nowned specialist on politics in theMiddle East and North Africa and cur-rently thepresidentof theAmerican Uni-versity in Cairo, will explore the recentandcontesteddevelopmentsinArabpoli-tics. Financial expert David Lipton (KurtViermietz Distinguished Visitor), FirstDeputyManagingDirectoroftheInterna-tionalMonetaryFundandformerSpecialAssistant to the President Obama, willdiscuss Germany's role in an intercon-nected world on October 31.

Concluding this fall's impressiveroll-call is Vaclav Smil (EADS Distinguis-hed Visitor), a leading expert on energyandenvironmentalscience,whowillout-line trends in current and future globalenergy issues on November 14.

Fascinating guests have already confir-med their visits for spring 2014: RichardN. Haass (Lloyd Cutler Distinguished Vi-sitor), former Director of Policy Plan-ning for the US Department of State, USSpecial Envoy for Northern Ireland, andcurrently the president of the Council onForeignRelations;Thomas Campbell (Ma-rina Kellen French Distinguished Visi-

tor), Director of the Metropolitan Mu-seum of Art; George Rupp (Marina KellenFrench Distinguished Visitor), formerpresident of Rice University and of Co-lumbia University, in New York, andsince2002thepresidentoftheInternatio-nal Rescue Committee; Roberta Smith(Marina Kellen French Distinguished Vi-sitor),ChiefArtCriticattheNewYorkTi-mes; and Jane Holl Lute (Richard C. Hol-brooke Distinguished Visitor), formerDeputy Secretary of Homeland Securityandcurrentlypresidentof theCouncilonCyberSecurity.

Malte Mau

Luminary GuestsThe Distinguished

Visitor program bringsleading Americans fromforeign policy, culture,

and economics to Berlin

9_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2013

Roger W. Ferguson, formervice chairman of the US Fede-

ral Reserve and a distinguis-hed visitor, discusses financial

developments with Germanpolitician Kurt Biedenkopf

Photo: Annette Hornischer

Sie haben die Idee und den Plan. Um Ihren Ideen eine Perspektive zu geben, unterstützen wir Sie mit Beratung und Finanzierungsangeboten.Sie sind der Unternehmer – wir sind die Förderbank in Berlin.

Wir geben Ihren Ideen eine Perspektive.

www.ibb.de

The DarkSeeking medical

novelty under thebattered gray skies

of Düsseldorf,Ben Marcus’s Julian

Bledstein headsdown a path to

nothing good

On a dark winter morning at the Müller-haus men's hostel, Julian Bledstein reachedfor his dopp kit. At home he could medicatehimself blindfolded, but here, across theocean, it wasn't so easy. The room stank,and more than one young man was snoring.The beds in the old gymnasium were sin-gles, which didn't keep certain of the guestsfrom coupling when the lights went out. So-metimes Julian could hear them going at it,fornicating as if with silencers on. He stu-died the sounds when he couldn't sleep,picturing the worst: animals strapped to bre-athing machines, children smothered underblankets. In the morning he could never telljust who had been making love. The mendressed and left for the day, avoiding eyecontact, mesmerized in the glow of theircell phones.

Julian held his breath and squeezed thesyringe, draining untold dollars worth ofquestionable medicine into the flesh of histhigh. He clipped a bag holding the last ofhis money to the metal underside of hisbed. His father's hard-earned money. Notenough euros left. Not nearly enough.He'd have to make a call, poor-mouth intothe phone until his father's wallet spit outmore bills.

He left the hostel and took the stone pathdown to nothing good. This morning hewas on his way, yet again, to meet Hayley'strain. Sweet, sweet Hayley. She would fail toappear today, no doubt, as she had failed toappear every day for the past two weeks. Itseemed more and more likely that hislovely, explosively angry girlfriendwouldn't be joining him in Germany – eventhough they'd spent months planning thetrip, Julian Googling deep into his unem-ployed afternoons back home, Hayley pin-ging him sexy links from work whenevershe could. A food-truck map, day treksalong the Königsallee. First they'd destroyEngland and France, lay waste to the OldWorld, then drop into freaking Düsseldorffor the last, broken leg of the journey.

It was meant to be a romantic medi-cal-tourist getaway, a young invalid and hislady friend sampling the experimental medi-cine of the Rhine. But they'd fought inFrance, and he'd come to Düsseldorf aheadof her. Now he waited not so hopefully, notso patiently – dragging himself between thehostel, the train station, and the Internetcafé, checking vainly for messages fromHayley – while seeking treatment at the cli-nic up on the hill.

Treatment, well, that perhaps wasn't theword for it. His was one of the hopeless con-ditions. An allergy to his own blood, as henot so scientifically thought of it. An allergyto himself was more like it. His immune sys-tem was mistaken, fighting against thehome team. Or his immune system knewexactly what it was doing. These days auto-immune diseases were the most sophistica-ted way to undermine yourself, to be yourown worst enemy.

Back home he'd tried it all, and felt no dif-ferent. The steroids, the nerve blocks, thepremium plasma. He'd eaten only greenfood until it ran down his legs. Then for along time he'd tried nothing. He'd triedschool, then tried dropping out, living, inhis mid-twenties, in his old room in his fat-her's house. Through it all, though, he hadmostly tried Hayley, as in, really really triedher, and he could see how very tried she'dbecome.

It was Hayley who'd pushed for this trip,so that Julian could finally have a shot at thenew medical approach they'd read so muchabout, a possible breakthrough with rare au-toimmune disorders. In Germany, a shiningoutpost on the medical frontier, they triedwhat was forbidden or unconscionable el-sewhere. And for a fee they'd try it on you.Massive doses of it. You could bathe in itsmiracle waters. You could practically getstem-cell Jell-O shooters at the bar onThursday nights. So long as, you know, youwaived – yes, waived – goodbye to yourrights, your family, your life. It was not sucha terrible trade.

On Julian's first day, the clinic had bran-dished a very fine needle. It had gleamed inthe cold fluorescent light of the guinea-pigroom. From his wheezing torso, the doctorshad drawn blood and marrow, his deep, pri-vate syrup – boiled it, then spoon fed it backto him until he sizzled, until he just aboutglowed. Of course the whole thing wasmore complicated than that, particularlythe dark arts they conjured on his marrowonce they'd smuggled it out of him. Theyspun it, cleaned it, damn near weaponizedit, then sold it back to him for cash. Zerosum medicine, since he'd grown it himself,in what Hayley, digging into his ribs, had cal-led "The Julian Farm." Except that the sumwas a good deal larger than zero.

And after a few weeks you'd be better. Inhis wellness fantasies, Julian always pictu-red himself scrubbed clean, nicely dressed,suddenly funny and charming. Better, inevery goddamned way. But, of course,throughout these treatments, as he'd disco-vered, your frowning doctors hedged andbalked and shat caveats, until the promiseof recovery was off the table, out of the

The Owlby Susan Stewart

I thought somehow a piece of cloth was tossedinto the night, a piece of cloth that flew

up, then across, beyond the window.A tablecloth or handkerchief, a knot

somehow unfolding, folded, pushing throughthe thickness of the dark. I thought somehow

a piece of cloth was lost beyond the line-released, although it seemed as if a knot

still hung, unfolding. Some human hand could nothave thrown that high, or lent such force to cloth,

and yet I knew no god would mind a squareof air so small. And still it moved and still

it swooped and disappeared beyond the pane.The after-image went, a blot beyond

the icy glass. And, closer, there stood wintergrass so black it had no substance

until I looked again and saw it tippedwith brittle frost. An acre there (a common-

place), a line of trees, a line of stars.

So look it up: you'll find that you could loseyour sense of depth,

a leaf, a sheafof paper, pillow-

case, or heart-shaped face,

a shrieking hiss,like winds, like

death, all tangledthere in branches.

I called this poem "the owl,"the name that, like a key, locked out the dark

and later let me close my book and sleepa winter dream. And yet the truth remains

that I can't know just what I saw, and ifit comes each night, each dream, each star, or not

at all. It's not, it's never, evidentthat waiting has no reason. The circuit of the world

belies the chaos of its forms-(the kindof thing astronomers

look down to writein books).

And still I thought a piece of clothhad flown outside my window, or human hands

had freed a wing, or churning gods revealedthemselves, or, greater news, a northern owl,

a snowy owl descended.

From Red Rover (University of Chicago Press)Susan Stewart is a poet, critic, andAvalon Foundation University Professor in theHumanities and Director of the Society of Fellowsin the Liberal Arts at Princeton University

American Academy 2013_Der Tagesspiegel_21. September 2013_10

By Ben Marcus

FELLOWSHIPS ANDDISTINGUISHED VISITORSHIPSESTABLISHED IN PERPETUITYJohn P. Birkelund Berlin Prizein the Humanities;Daimler Berlin Prize;German Transatlantic Program BerlinPrize: supported by European RecoveryProgram funds granted through theTransatlantic Program of the FederalRepublic of Germany;Nina Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prizein History;Mary Ellen von der Heyden Berlin Prizein Fiction;Holtzbrinck Berlin Prize;Dirk Ippen Berlin Prize;Guna S. Mundheim Berlin Prizein the Visual Arts

Lloyd Cutler Distinguished Visitorship;EADS Distinguished Visitorship;Marina Kellen French DistinguishedVisitorship for Persons with Outstan-ding Accomplishment in theCultural World;Richard C. Holbrooke DistinguishedVisitorship;Stephen M. Kellen DistinguishedVisitorship;Kurt Viermetz Distinguished Visitorship;Richard von Weizsäcker DistinguishedVisitorship

ANNUALLY FUNDEDFELLOWSHIPS ANDDISTINGUISHED VISITORSHIPSBosch Berlin Prize in Public Policy;Ellen Maria Gorrissen Berlin Prize;Anna-Maria Kellen Berlin Prize;Berthold Leibinger Berlin Prize;Inga Maren Otto Berlin Prize inMusic Composition;Siemens Berlin Prize;Axel Springer Berlin Prize;Allianz Distinguished Visitorship

ENDOWMENT GIVINGMax Beckmann DistinguishedVisitorship:Richard Artschwager; MayenBeckmann; Francesco Clemente;George Condo; Aaron Curry; TacitaDean; Thomas Demand; DeutscheBörse AG; Mitch Epstein; Galerie MaxHetzler & André Butzer; Jenny Holzer;Alex Katz; Louise Lawler;Barry Le Va & David Nolan; JulieMehretu; Matt Mullican; AlexanderOchs; Paul Pfeiffer; Anselm Reyle;James Rosenquist; Ed Ruscha;Victoria & Aurel Scheibler; BerndSchultz and the partners of Villa Grise-bach Auktionen GmbH, Berlin; Philo-mene Magers & Monika Sprüth, SprüthMagers Berlin / London; Christine &Günther Uecker; Xu BingMarcus Bierich DistinguishedVisitorship:Robert Bierich; Deutsche Bank AG

INDIVIDUALS ANDFAMILY FOUNDATIONSFounders’ Circle$1 million and aboveAnna-Maria and Stephen KellenFoundation and the descendants ofHans and Ludmilla Arnhold

Chairman’s Circle$100,000 and aboveMercedes & A. Michael Hoffman;Estate of Richard C. Holbrooke;Nina & Lothar von Maltzahn;Kati Marton; Inga Maren Otto

Director’s Circle$25,000 and aboveWerner Gegenbauer; Richard K. Goeltz;C. Boyden Gray; Stefan von Holtzbrinck

Trustees’ Circle$10,000 and aboveAlmut & Hans-Michael Giesen; AugustJ. P. von Joest; Wolfgang Malchow;Erich Marx; Alfred Freiherr von Oppen-heim-Stiftung im Stifterverband für dieDeutsche Wissenschaft; Si & Dieter Ro-senkranz; Kurt F. Viermetz

Patrons $2,500 and aboveRobert Z. Aliber; Anonymous; Heinrich J.Barth; Volker Booten; Gahl H. Burt;Georg Graf zu Castell-Castell; NormaDrimmer; Thomas Eller; Jutta von Fal-kenhausen & Thomas van Aubel;Julie Finley; Inge Groth-Fromm & Hart-

mut Fromm; Edith & Egon Geerkens;Clare R. & Vartan Gregorian; Lily &Klaus Heiliger; Dorothee & Tessen vonHeydebreck; Roe Jasen; Ulrich Kissing;Henry A. Kissinger; John C. Kornblum;Renate Küchler; Jutta & Hans-JoachimPrieß; Stefanie & Martin Seyfarth;Katharina & Wolf Spieth; ClemensVedder; Barbara & Jörg Zumbaum

Friends Up to $2,500Johannes Altincioglu; Hans Amann;American International Yacht Club;Barbara Balaj; Elizabeth Barlow;Manfred Bischoff; Diethart Breipohl;Eckhard Bremer; Irene Bringmann;Christian Bunsen; Ellen C. & Stephen B.Burbank; Candia Clark; Hon. Arthur J.Collingsworth; Georg Crezelius; Chris-tian Crones; Rudolf Delius; Barbara &David Detjen; Astrid & Detlef Diede-richs; Margrit & Steven Disman; BrigitteDöring; Andreas Dombret; Bärbel &Ulrich Gensch; Marie Louise Gericke;Golf- und Land-Club Berlin-Wannseee.V.; The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.;Jan Groscurth; Nancy & Mark Gruett;Ralf Gütersloh; Thomas Guth; DonaldHagan; Marisa & Carl H. Hahn; Brigitte& Bernd Hellthaler; Gabriele Henkel;The Hermes Foundation; Isabel & Petervon Jena; KfW Bankengruppe; MarionKnauf; Regine Leibinger & Frank Bar-kow; Nina & Daniel Libeskind; QuincyLiu; Beate & Wolfgang Mayrhuber; LisaF. & David J. Miller; Michael Münche-

hofe; Jan-Daniel Neumann; WolframNolte; Axel Osenberg; Susan Rambow;Beatrice Reese; Christa Freifrau & Her-mann Freiherr von Richthofen; Rafael J.Roth; Henry Sapparth; Harald Schmid;Björn Schmidt; Kerstin von Schnaken-burg; Geraldine Schroeder; Sky Deutsch-land AG; Manfred von Sperber; The FritzStern Fund of the Princeton Area Com-munity Foundation; Maren & JoachimStrüngmann; The Teagle Foundation;Thomas von Thaden; Lutz Weisser; Ri-chard von Weizsäcker; Sabine & EdwinWiley; Pauline Yu

CORPORATIONS ANDCORPORATE FOUNDATIONSPresident’s Circle$25,000 and aboveBank of America Merrill Lynch; BASFSE; Robert Bosch GmbH; Robert BoschStiftung; Cerberus Deutschland Beteili-gungsberatung GmbH; Daimler AG;Daimler-Fonds im Stifterverband für dieDeutsche Wissenschaft; Deutsche Luft-hansa AG; Dussmann Stiftung & Co.KgaA; EADS; Freshfields BruckhausDeringer LLP; GIESEN HEIDBRINK Part-nerschaft von Rechtsanwälten; GÖRGPartnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten;Fritz Henkel Stiftung; Hewlett-PackardGmbH; KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungs-gesellschaft; Pfizer Pharma GmbH; Por-sche AG; Susanna Dulkinys & Erik Spie-kermann, Edenspiekermann; TelefónicaDeutschland Holding AG;White & Case LLP

BenefactorsUp to $25,000BMW AG; Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceu-ticals; C.H. Beck Stiftung; CNC – Com-munications & Network Consulting AG;Deutsche Bundesbank; Dürr AG; FAK-TOR 3 AG; Fleishman-Hillard Germany /Public Affairs & Gov. Relations; GoogleGermany GmbH; Hotel Adlon; Investiti-onsbank Berlin; Berthold LeibingerStiftung; MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH;Waldorf Astoria Berlin; WilmerHale

Arts

The American Academy in Berlinis funded almost entirely by pri-vate donations from individuals,foundations, and corporations.We depend on the generosityof a widening circle of friendson both sides of the Atlanticand wish to extend our heartfeltthanks to those who support us.This list documents the contri-butions made to the AmericanAcademy in Berlin from Septem-ber 2012 to September 2013.

room, nowhere near the building.This morning he ducked the stares of

shopkeepers, who guarded their doorsagainst him, the pale American who spentno money. They must have come to recog-nize his sickly figure by now. What was leftof it. God knows they'd gawked. To Julian, it

seemed that they could see right throughhis clothes, and they were not amused.You'd need more than clothing to hide abody like his. You'd need a shovel, a tarp.Tarps were designed to cover men like him.

The shopkeepers stood and stared as Ju-lian passed. He could only walk faster, win-

cing, until they released him from eye con-tact. Had anyone, he wondered, ever stu-died the biology of being seen? The rava-ging, the way it literally burned when youfetched up in people's sightline and theytook aim at you with their minds? He wan-ted to summon a look of kindness and curio-sity in return, a look that might make themforgive his miserly ways, his trespass ontheir ancient, superior city. But his face la-cked the power to convey. He'd stopped try-ing to use it for silent communication – thesemaphore you performed overseas, absenta shared language, to suggest that you werenot a murderer. Such facial language wasfor apes, or some mime troupe in Vermont.Mummenschanz people who emoted for aliving. He ate with his face and spoke withit. Sometimes he hid it in his hands. Thatshould have been enough.

Anyway, why not let them think that hemeant them harm, these people of Düssel-dorf? Give them a good scare. A man dres-sed up as his own corpse, in a costume sim-ply called Julian. Too bad he couldn't distri-bute his gray pelt en masse, so that a popula-tion of eye-sunken Julians could limpthrough Germany, begging for candy, mutte-ring, "Trick or treat, Süßes oder Saures."For now, he was the only one who got towear it.

Ittookhimjustonesuckingsprintonaciga-rette to reach the train station, a domed buil-ding in rust-colored stone. After a few mor-nings inside, braving the crush of travelerswho reeked of chowder, he figured he didn'tneed to enter the dank space just to wait forHayley. A granite ledge opposite the stationoffered a perfect view of the decamping pas-sengers. Every morning locals poured fromthe building wrapped in hemp and straw.The fancier ones wore the waxed canvascoats of hunters. Occasionally an Americanor two spoiled the tasteful palette with vaca-tioncolors,releasinghigh-strungmoodsasifbymegaphone:Ihavearrivedinyourhistoriccity and I am the happiest person you willever know! Let me rub my joy on you! Theyshot into the town square like clowns firedfrom a cannon, mugging their snack-smea-red faces at some imagined camera.

Even if the Americans were shrewdenough to go native, shodding themselvesin the earth-brown padabouts of Europe-ans, wearing sweaters and satchels insteadof parkas and backpacks, then their faces,haunted by the tourist advisories, gavethem away. Julian pictured them on thetrain ride into town, the German landscapescrolling by in fairy-tale colors outside theirwindows while they huddled over their Fo-dor's, steeling themselves when they cameto the warning that visitors who showedfear or uncertainty were the first to be sin-gled out. Targeted through binoculars bycunning locals, led down unmarked streetsinto an alley designed precisely for killing,where they'd be robbed and erased from theworld. Even in modern Germany. Even inthe civilized world. Especially in the civili-zed world!

Tourists and, for that matter, all peoplewere merely accidents of physics, foamychuff in the wake of a larger activity. Thatwouldn't be explicitly stated in the Fodor's.Not in so many words. Bodies were the jetti-soned waste of something too great to com-prehend. And the so-called inner life ofthese bodies was biological sewage, produ-ced by an organism that was, itself, a higherform of waste. Duh! People were statisti-cally insignificant, a rounding error. Boofreaking hoo. Since he'd gotten sick, sincehe'd started frequenting online illness fo-rums, particularly the terminal ones, wherethe goddamn sunny side of life was systema-tically shut down, this had become ob-vious.

Maybe, though, in terms of day-to-day sur-vival, it was best to put this stuff out of hismind. Our smallness, the very very convin-cing way in which our presence failed to mat-ter, sometimes had to go without saying.

That was a tombstone inscription: JulianBledstein. He went without saying.

Or, Here lies Julian Bledstein. He lied tohimself and now he lies here.

— This story is excerptedfrom Ben Marcus’s forthcomingbook of short storiesLeaving the Sea (Knopf, 2014).

11_September_21_2013_Der Tagesspiegel_American Academy 2013

Final Destination."First they’d destroyEngland and France,lay waste to theOld World, thendrop into freakingDüsseldorf for thelast, broken leg ofthe journey."

Photo: ullstein bild

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