The European Union (EU) and its Member states, especially Germany, are often cited as world leaders in alternative energy efforts. However, up close, here inside Europe, the story looks more complex. While a broad social and political consensus has long favored Germany's national Energiewende (Energy Transition program), new political- and ecological-based opposition to the plan has arisen; especially with costs running very high for citizens and business. Will Germany - and the EU - make course corrections to learn from experience? This lecture will look at how the EU deals with differing regional political, ecological, and economic interests and whether it is able to provide answers and solutions that could be useful for other global players like the USA.

For a recording of this session, please click here.

In the 21st century, as the internet is open to political commentary from everybody, new kinds of information providers influence “traditional” journalism and politics in non-democratic and democratic societies alike. What is the impact of news leaks, blogs and cyber activism on the relationship of mass media, journalism, and politics? Where is the limit between privacy and the right to freedom of information? How do political groups use this medium of “mass communication” with little control over hate speech or “fake news”? This lecture will try to provide some answers to these questions as well as insights about digital protest and empowerment, and which potential and challenges they bring to ethical and inclusive journalism and politics of the future.

For a recording of this session, please click here. 

The relationship between business and environmental issues in Germany and Europe has changed drastically over the years, with continuous impact by the interaction between the German and European Union political levels. Nowadays, positive environmental impacts envisioned by sustainable entrepreneurship and core business activities, are increasingly being acknowledged by customers, politics, and society as a whole. This lecture will shed some light on the motivating forces behind entrepreneurs’ and businesses’ decision to make a strategic commitment to sustainability. We will also “visit” some best practice examples from Berlin’s thriving “green business” start-up scene and ask how they have creatively overcome market and regulatory barriers to make an environmental and social difference.

For a recording of this session, please click here. 

After having analyzed influences of the past on Europe’s, Germany’s, and Berlin’s present, and having discussed concurrent present-day identities in these spaces as well as their solutions to urgent questions for our societies of the future, this final subject course lecture brings together all other topics and asks: With our historical baggage, multiple identities in society, and problems facing the future – how can we live together? What is the glue that may keep modern communities intact? Turning to philosophy as the key discipline to answer questions of this magnitude, we will introduce some answers that German philosophers have come up with since Immanuel Kant. They have shaped the development of modern German culture – and perhaps some or some combinations still hold great value today.

For a recording of this session, please click here.