When it comes to issues such as homeland, identity, globalisation, an increasing focus on the national level, openness, alienation, the disappearance of the familiar and the loss of long-standing patterns of order, what can and must policymakers and cultural professionals do?

We will explore these questions at an event in Umspannwerk Alexanderplatz in Berlin on 1 June 2018 as part of the Long Night of Ideas 2018.

The panel discussion on “How National Are We?” will address the topics of self-determination and self-reflection, as well as the issue of (too) open societies versus a retreat to the national level.

What are the causes of the increasing focus on the national level? Is the nation-state part of the solution or part of the problem? How national are we ourselves? And what can and must policymakers and cultural professionals do when Europe’s promise of a peaceful and democratic society is countered by an authoritarian model?

The panel will comprise the following members:
David Chipperfield, star architect
Shermin Lanhgoff, Artistic Director, Maxim Gorki Theatre
Michelle Müntefering, Federal Foreign Office Minister of State for International Cultural Policy

Chair:
Stephan-Andreas Casdorff, Editor-in-Chief of the “Tagesspiegel” newspaper

How National Are We?
1 June 2018
7.30 p.m.
Umspannwerk Alexanderplatz
Voltairestrasse 5, 10179 Berlin

The event will open with a performance by the Barenboim-Said Akademie’s Ramal Ensemble, which was founded in 2011 by Syrian musicians. In their own compositions, the ensemble combines Arab music with forms of music from the European tradition.

Under the motto, 15 Locations – 15 Ideas, the Federal Foreign Office and its partner organisations will open numerous interesting venues in the city for one evening as part of the Long Night of Ideas 2018. The aim is to make people think and to enable them to experience cultural relations and education policy for themselves.

Journalists can sign up for the event with the Press Division of the Federal Foreign Office (presse@diplo.de; tel: +49 (0)30 5000 2056) or Dr. Gabriele Minz GmbH, the agency coordinating communication on the events (presse@minzgmbh.de; tel: +49 (0)30 88 47 13 910).