Checkpoint Charlie Foundation contributed to a transatlantic exchange between young adults from Berlin Kreuzberg who traveled to Eugene, Oregon, to play basketball with peers and bond over shared interests and activities. The objective was to give the players an opportunity to explore the world in the context of their passion of basketball. It was a success. The trip enabled them to expand their horizons and gave them a break from the tough environment that is Berlin Kreuzberg. The connections made with the players in Eugene are lasting results of this trip. Some of the Berlin players even hope to score an athletic scholarship for an American university in the future.

The Ballona Waachnga Project at Floating University, supported by the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, consisted of two pieces, created by Halina Kliem and David Horvitz, two LA-based artists.

Halina Kliem explored the connections between the Ballona Wetlands in Los Angeles and Floating University a “Natureculture learning site,” in Berlin. Her installation included two outdoor screens that displayed images of wildflower lifecycles, spider webs, pollinating bees, and growth phases of reef. The close-ups provided an intimate look at the natural life in the wetlands.

David Horvitz’s performance included human voices mimicking the sounds of Ballona creek meandering towards the Pacific Ocean. “A Language Unknown” was thus the transcription of the sounds into the English alphabet. Playing them in Berlin connected the LA wetlands and the Berlin wetlands in a unique way.

The interdisciplinary artists and their art-pieces brought impulses to Berlin that stimulated a broad array of senses while calling attention to the importance of climate care and awareness.

Checkpoint Charlie Foundation is happy to have supported the artists in this project.

Anfang April 2023 nahm das Jessup-Team der Humboldt-Universität an den internationalen Rounds der Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competiotion in Washington D.C. teil.
Nach spannenden Vorrunden, in denen die deutschen Vizemeisterinnen Clara Schweinbach, Elisa Arslan, Mia Hanebeck und Judith Scherer gegen Teams aus Panama, Kosovo, Indien und Sierra Leone antraten, verpasste das Humboldt-Team knapp den Einzug in die Advanced Rounds. Allerdings konnten Judith Scherer und Elisa Arslan einen großartigen Erfolg verbuchen: Unter den mehr als 500 Teilnehmer*innen belegten sie die Plätze 13 und 20 im Best-Oralist-Ranking.
Wir danken der Checkpoint Charlie Stiftung für Ihre großzügige Unterstützung.

Die Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition ist der renommierteste, älteste, und mit Teilnehmern von über 800 Universitäten auch größte Moot Court der Welt. Die Teilnehmer simulieren einen fiktiven völkerrechtlichen Fall vor dem Internationalen Gerichtshof in Den Haag. Er begann im Jahr 1960 als interner Moot Court an der Harvard University und wird seit seiner Öffnung für weitere Teams jährlich von der International Law Students Association (ILSA) in Washington, D.C. ausgerichtet. In Deutschland findet jährlich an wechselnden Universitäten ein Vorentscheid zur Auswahl der deutschen Vertreter statt.
In dem diesjährigen Fall ging es um Friedensverträge, Kriegs- und Sanktionsrecht und internationales Umweltrecht.

Dieses Jahr konnte das Team der Humboldt-Universität den zweiten Platz bei der Nationalausscheidung des 2023 Jessup Moot Court Competition gewinnen und sich damit für die Weltmeisterschaft in Washington D.C. qualifizieren. Das diesjährige Team bestand aus Clara Schweinbach, Elisa Arslan, Judith Scherer und Mia Hanebeck und wurde von Anton Kamke, Jasper Kamradt, Nitya Grosser und Simon Ruhland betreut. Nachdem Mitte Januar 2023 nach Monaten harter Arbeit die Schriftsätze abgegeben wurden, konnten sich die Studentinnen vom 01. bis zum 04. März 2023 in den mündlichen Verhandlungen gegen Teams aus ganz Deutschland durchsetzen. Der diesjährige Moot Court wurde von der Hertie School Berlin ausgetragen. Nach gewonnen Matches in den Vorrunden, im Viertel-, sowie im Halbfinale traf das Team im Finale im Kammergericht Berlin auf die Bucerius Law School und musste sich knapp geschlagen geben. Judith Scherer wurde als „Best Oralist“ des Wettbewerbs ausgezeichnet und konnte gemeinsam mit Elisa Arslan den Preis für die „Best Overall Performance Respondent“ gewinnen.M

The Tempelhof-Schöneberg district office honored the two anniversaries of the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Airlift and the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy speech with a civic festival and ceremony on June 24, 2023.

Well over 1,000 guests came to Schöneberg City Hall. After the welcome by District Mayor Jörn Oltmann, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, U.S. Ambassador Amy Gutmann and Kennedy nephew Timothy Shriver addressed the Berliners in greetings.

The highlight of the ceremony was the broadcast of the original Kennedy speech on a large screen.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT1T2J1ZZsI[/embedyt]

Text Source: https://www.berlin.de/ba-tempelhof-schoeneberg/ueber-den-bezirk/veranstaltungen/artikel.1311924.php
Photo Source: Pressestelle Bezirksamt Tempelhof-Schöneberg

We are glad we got to welcome three students from Grossmont College in San Diego here in Berlin. First, they took a two-week-long German course which was followed by two weeks of interning at workplaces that suit their interests.

The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation planned a few events that helped the students get to know Berlin better. For example, we went on a city tour, toured the German Parliament Building, and had lunch with the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Additionally, we visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, watched a performance by the students of the public school for acrobatic arts, and attended the 60-year anniversary event of the famous JFK-speech in front of the town hall of Schöneberg – one of Berlin’s districts.

The picture shows the Grossmont-College group with a group of teachers from the USA in the House of Representatives with the Speaker, the Hon. Cornelia Seibeld.

Photo: Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin (House of Representatives of Berlin)

Democracy does not only affect one age group – every citizen should have the opportunity to get involved in democratic processes and understand democracy on a deeper level.

The Forum Demokratie invited 24 students from different cultural and social backgrounds from four schools to confront topics like civil rights, democratic developments, and political participation. These themes were worked into the framework of the American civil rights movement. New friendships, excitement about voting for the first time, and new knowledge are the result of the successful three-day workshop.

The photo project 2022 Edited in the form of a book is the result of a partnership between the OKS (Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie) in Berlin and the ICP (International Center of Photography) in New York City. The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation made a partial contribution to the printing costs of the book.

“When the chocolate fell from the sky”

Berlin 1949. It’s Gerda’s brother’s birthday. But in times of blockade, a birthday cake is a big challenge. There are no eggs anywhere. The chickens in the bombed-out houses of the neighbors haven’t laid any for a long time. What to do? The theatergoers accompany Gerda on her way through post-war Berlin at the time of the airlift. A black marketeer finally offers her two eggs in exchange for chocolate. But where will the candy come from? Then the girl hears that chocolate bars are supposedly falling from the sky at Tempelhofer Feld. Can she believe it? At night, she meets an American pilot in a dream who busily builds little parachutes and hangs chocolate on them. They become friends. But was it all just a dream? Sometimes dreams come true…

The family theater event for wintertime at Tempelhofer Feld, with free admission!

“Als die Schokolade vom Himmel fiel” (When chocolate fell from the sky) tells its story with the means of figure and object theater.
object theater, combined with acting, singing and narration. The play is staged as
staged as a station theater. The audience walks from place to place. 50 people per performance.

Accompanied by adults for children ages 5 and up. Another 16 performances are planned for May 2023.

CCS supported Theater ANU with about 20% of the production costs.

Photo: Johannes Gärtner

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

With Wings and Roots is an initiative of media makers, educators, and cultural practitioners in the US and Europe. They work together to change the debates around migration and belonging through storytelling and critical history. They produce films, videos, critical migration history timelines, installations, and events. They offer workshops, curricula, and other educational materials.

Thanks to the Foundation’s support, the educational and exchange platform https://withwingsandroots.org/ has been restored to its dual-practice functionality and updated in terms of content and technology. The – partly invisible, but immensely important – changes and reprogramming now enable long-term and stable operation. This is important because the website is to be used again more intensively as a basis for (cross-language) webinars and training courses, for example, but also for social media and international exchange projects in the future.

At night, in a town somewhere in South Dakota, years after a devastating flood. Houses and streets have been rebuilt. We are in the Rapid Motel, room 115, someone is talking. Let’s call him*her AD. Extremely talkative, AD unpacks one story after another, offering entertainment. The mood changes when the monologue turns into a dialogue, the undertones of which don’t suit AD at all. Sometimes witty, sometimes analytical, he*she navigates around his*her own worldview.

Who is this AD? Is AD passing through? On vacation? Or one of those residents who have missed the new start, permanently staying in a motel because they don’t have the money for more? What we know: AD is waiting for a motel guest to return. And the longer the stay, the more the room develops a life of its own: it fills with images and sounds, times overlap, spaces blur.

In the interaction of acting, musical field recordings, documentary film sequences and deconstructed soundtracks, the American Dream peels itself off like an onion, exposing the confusion its promises generate.

Rapid Motel is like psychoanalysis, with the American Dream on the couch.

November 18, 2022 Leipzig, November 20, 2022 Berlin, January 20, 2023 Zurich

Photo: © MIRROR MAZE GbR