The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation is very happy to have supported this project, exactly where W.E.B. Du Bois studied for three semesters at the university named after Friedrich-Wilhelm at that time. This comes almost two years after a “Berlin Memorial Plaque” for the civil rights activist was unveiled at 130 Oranienstrasse, his former place of residence.

“William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, one of the leading figures in twentieth-century sociology, history, journalism, literature and civil rights activism, studied at what is now Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the years 1892-1894. His stay in Berlin and his studies with German economists, sociologists, and historians proved very influential in his thinking. Du Bois became the author of such seminal works as The Souls of Black Folk (1903), was the editor of The Crisis (1920-1934), and the co-founder of both the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909) as well as the Fifth Pan-African Congress (1945). In 1958, Humboldt-Universität awarded him an honorary doctorate.

For over twenty years, the American Studies Program has honored Du Bois’s legacy at Humboldt-Universität through two lecture series: the W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures and the Distinguished W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures. Until now, there has been no visible tribute to him on the university grounds. We are proud to announce that a plaque had been installed on the main building’s ground floor (next to the entrance to the Orbis Humboldtianus). Du Bois is the first U.S.-American and the first person of color to be honored by Humboldt-Universität; he is also the first person to be honored as a former student.”

Source:https://www.angl.hu-berlin.de/department/duboismemorial

Photo: (c) Philipp Plum, HU Berlin.

„By Ear” is another intriguing project with a Berlin and Los Angeles connection that the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation has supported. This exhibition was a collaborative project by Berlin and Los Angeles / New York artists and opened in galleries in both Berlin (“Axel Obiger – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst“) and Los Angeles (“Tiger Strikes Asteroid Los Angeles“). Although the exhibition is no longer running, you can still get an impression at https://www.axelobiger.com/by-ear-berlin…. Connecting citizens through art is an important part of being sister cities!

We are very pleased to announce that the experimental short film “The Purple Video”, funded by the Foundation, was rebroadcasted and streamed in 2022: It aired on “BronxNet Community Television” as part of “Women History Month 2022” and was additionally streamed worldwide on “BronxNet” on the same day. Both “Bronx TV” and “Bronx NET” are supported by the “New York City Department of Cultural Affairs”.

2020/2021, the short film by Berlin-based film artist Halina Kliem debuted at the “Florida Film Festival”, and was shown at the “Brooklyn Film Festival”, the “London Short Film Festival” and the “San Francisco International Festival of Short Film”.

After 2020 and in summer 2021 the annual Grossmont project had to be cancelled because of Corona but it went ahead once again in winter 2021/2022 with student Joseph Morales being awarded the scholarship, which consisted of 2 weeks of language school and 2 weeks of practical course as well as accommodation with a host family. ALSTOM in Berlin/Hennigsdorf, for its part, provided him with an excellently supervised internship, gaining insights into production, planning and development. Above all, Joseph was able to experience the importance of his field of study (mechanical engineering) in practice through the development of trains for Stockholm.

Photo: Joseph Morales with his ALSTOM supervisor Marcel Kippel

From Berlin to the world – this is the core idea of this project: The author, a citizen of Berlin for 35 years, used this concept to form the basis of his questioning. His activity has been promoted here as well as in the USA so it can be made accessible to an international, i.e. American, audience through a translation of “Seismography” outside of the German-speaking world.

Some of Jörn Jacob Rohwer’s most notable conversations here are those with centenarian composer Elliott Carter, publicist Susan Sontag, neurologist Oliver Sacks, multimedia artist Yoko Ono, director Robert Wilson, soprano Grace Bumbry, writer Edmund White, and playwright Arthur Miller.

Foundation project in cooperation with the Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association (BUSMVA)
After last year’s program unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, this year it was a special honor and pleasure for us to have welcomed such wonderful people back in Berlin. First and foremost, special thanks to our program partner BUSMVA for the excellent cooperation!
12 former American military personnel who served in Berlin between 1945 and 1994 returned to experience how Berlin has changed for a week. They visited their former places of work and held discussions with students at Berlin schools. This program has been organized since 2008.

MERYL MEISLER I NEW YORK PARADISE LOST was the title of the exhibition at Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, which fortunately could take place from October 15 – November 26, 2021, despite Corona. FOTOGALERIE Friedrichshain presented the first European solo exhibition by Meryl Meisler. The New York-based photographer and longtime art teacher in Bushwick, Brooklyn traveled to Berlin for the first time on the occasion of her 70th birthday, thanks to support from the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation. Her work from the 1970s and 1980s draws a sharp contrast between the difficult social conditions on the streets of Brooklyn and the glamorous, excessive nightlife of the disco era. The image material were selected from the artist’s three photo books “A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick”, “Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ’70s Suburbia & The City” and “New York PARADISE LOST: Bushwick Era Disco”. The supporting program included a three-day workshop for young people from the Kurt Schwitters School, followed by a presentation in the photo gallery, and a public panel discussion with Berlin art teachers and cultural professionals.

The Symposium: “Berlin and the Cold War,” initiated by the Ohio University Contemporary History Institute and supported by the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, took place as a virtual international symposium on October 1 and 2, 2021. The symposium was organized by Drs. Seth Givens and Ingo Trauschweizer, who brought together some of the leading diplomatic, military, and political historians of the Cold War.

The program for review:
International symposium will probe Berlin and Cold War, impact on history and import for the future (ohio.edu)

In 2021, for the second time, the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation sponsored the Global Youth Ambassador Program (GYAP), which is aimed specifically at high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Twenty-five high school students participated in the month-long summer program, called “Atlanta – Germany: Peer Exchange Program”. Ongoing international travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic had forced GYAP to implement the program online and virtually. Part of the program consisted of daily German lessons from a language school in Berlin. In addition to this teaching of basic German language skills in digital language classes, however, the program was equally concerned with improving cultural understanding of Germany so that American students could see the similarities and differences between American and German cultures. For this purpose, the Foundation was able to attract three special and very different speakers, each of them gave insight into the German reality from their own perspective and experience, and were available to answer the students’ questions afterwards, before they then discussed the topic among themselves.

Our Board of Trustees Chairwoman Sawsan Chebli spoke on the topic:

Civic Engagement as an Integral Part of an Integration That Works.

The Artist, activist, and founder of “Politaoke” as well as “Artists Without a Cause” Diane Acre spoke on the topic:

German’s attempted erasure of the word race & the US’s fear-mongering of critical race theory: Fighting for equity when language is weaponized.

Marc Holland-Cunz and Niloufar Shabanpour, from the project “withwingsandroots, which is also supported by the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation, spoke on the topic:

Transatlantic comparisons of racial injustice in Germany, South Africa, and the United States.

“2020 Edited“ is a collaborative photo project of Berlin’s Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie (OKS) and the International Center of Photography (ICP), based in New York City. The printing costs of the outstanding work were partly funded by the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation. Ten photographers of each institution created individual stories of 2020 that reflect their very own experiences and impressions in different parts of the world. It is the tenth year of the institutions’ collaboration under the title “New York Edited”, initiated by Nadja Masri. Due to the special circumstances amid the pandemic, this year’s project is different in that the photographers captured moments during their time at home and away from their schools. For the first time photographers from both schools are represented; The selection and editing process was handled by editors of OKS in Berlin. We would like to encourage everyone to take a look at the photos and the video uploaded to the project’s website 2020edited.com. For more on Berlin’s Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie visit their facebook page:
https://de-de.facebook.com/Ostkreuzschule.