The demise of Amerika Haus Berlin: who needs cultural centers and libraries anyway?

By PHK

Shortly after I returned from a three week trip to Greece and Turkey a couple of days ago, I learned that the U.S. government had closed its next to last Amerika Haus in Germany – the flagship Amerika Haus Berlin. The fate and location of a smaller one in the west that still remains is, I'm told, up in the air.

I guess this is par for the course: I mean why should this administration want to support such a relic from the past? Why should it keep a dinosaur open in which free discussion, exchanges of ideas, performances, concerts, student advising, a library of books and periodicals about the U.S. formed the institution’s core values and primary services accessible by everyone throughout the Cold War and beyond? After all, U.S. security concerns, police and an iron fence had kept most people out of the building at least since 9/11 – just as the Berlin Wall had kept East Germans from tasting the freedom and opulence of the capitalist West until a decade earlier. Who needs foreign cultural centers and libraries anyway particularly if they are turned into user unfriendly white elephants.

Keeping the lid on the free exchange of ideas

It then occurred to me that the last thing the Bush administration wants is an honest exchange of ideas whether between Germans and Americans or among Americans themselves. It’s far safer to keep the lid on political debate – to anesthetize Americans through the steady diet of cheerful pronouncements about the future of democracy in Iraq and cheap partisan scare tactics about the wrath of Al Qaeda all brought to us courtesy of Fox, CNN and other U.S. media outlets that foremost regurgitate the “war on terror” party-line in order to retain access to the White House’s daily spin.

What far too many Americans don’t understand is the degree to which the administration has been able to insulate us from the rest of the world. Conversely, they also don’t realize the degree to which the American media machine plays little - if any role in shaping international opinion. You might not see this as important, but without seeing the world through the eyes of W's daily spin that reverberates through Fox and CNN echo chambers, the rest of the world perceives a very different America and U.S. foreign policies. Foreign journalists from a variety of political stripes look at international events differently from what we are subjected to 24/7 in the good old US of A.

Uncle Sam's voice gone missing?

I was on vacation in Greece and Turkey for the past three weeks – and yes, I did take lots of photos – I will post a few as appropriate in the future. But what else did I come away with? First, cell phones and satellite television are ubiquitous in both countries. Although I was out of television reach for good parts of the trip, I discovered that the strong television signals along Turkey’s south coast came from Russia, France, Iran, Israel and the Arab world - especially Al Jazeera - as well as a new fast-paced English language channel from Beijing.

Near the southern Turkish port city of Antalya, Uncle Sam’s signal was not just weak, it had gone missing, although perhaps a couple more satellite dishes aimed in other directions might have brought it in loud and clear. At our hotel in Istanbul in the Sultanamet district close to Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, CNN International was far more - well international - than its weak sister here in the U.S. BBC Europe, however, didn’t appear to differ substantially from the BBC news we get in Albuquerque through our local PBS affiliate.

I’m not at all sure, however, that even if the US media or the W administration had chosen to broadcast via television to the peoples of either of these two countries in which anti-American sentiment worsened last year, Greek and Turkish public attitudes towards the US would have turned more positive. Why? Because 1) US policies and their execution do not reflect Greek or Turkish national interests or their views of their near neighbors in the Middle East; and 2) television broadcasts – particularly in Turkey, but it wouldn't hurt in Greece either - should be carried in the national language to reach the largest number of people and go beyond the well educated, multilingual elite. The administration tried to cancel VOA radio broadcasts in Greek and Turkish this summer, but Congress came to their rescue. But from what I saw, even southern Turkey's poor have satellite television dishes in their yards, on their roofs or protruding from balcony railings - a phenomenon that suggests to me that radio is no longer enough.

What I learned – or actually had substantiated once again – was that anti-Americanism abroad directly relates to dislike for our president and his controversial policies particularly those tied to Iraq and Israel. Even Karen Hughes would be unlikely to dispute this observation – although she would add sex and violence in American movies and television and, of course, refrain from placing the blame on W - where it squarely belongs - for implimenting some of America's stupidist foreign policies ever.

I think such negative reactions to U.S. policies cut so deep that no amount of public explanation or the best public diplomacy programs in the world will change the attitudes in these two countries much. I suspect the America eagle's bedraggled tail feathers will not get a cleaning abroad until sometime after this administration and its fearless non-leader leave office and a new administration sweeps the personnel and policy closets clean. Even then a public diplomacy metamorphosis will be needed to help set new tones and signals.

The closing of the Amerika Haus in Berlin is, of course, just symptomatic of what has happened to U.S. cultural centers elsewhere. The binational Hellenic American Union (HAU) in Athens – which I directed in the early 1980s – has become a test center controlled by a Greek-American entrepreneur. True, it just received a much needed face-lift, but it was hard to tell how many English language classes or even cultural programs are still being offered there or how much of the once robust library collection - now renamed “American Corner” - remains. The Turkish American Association (TAA), the HAU’s Ankara equivalent, was – at least a couple of years ago – starved of U.S. government funds. Has anything changed? I didn't visit Ankara to see. Please understand, despite Internet cafes, not every Turk or every Greek has easy and affordable Internet access.

Yet instead of bolstering the tried and true, this administration has chosen to put its own stamp on public diplomacy by re-introducing such programs as one on performing arts management to bring a little technical training to a few theaters in Pakistan. Then, of course, there was the ridiculous made-for-immigration TV documentary about Muslim life in the US which most television stations in Muslim countries refused to air a couple of years ago. The new project, the WaPo tells is the development of an Internet website so that American kids can learn more about Pakistani culture - all from a paltry annual sum of 4.5 million US dollars. This amount, of course, is, a drop in the bucket for the backing of serious worldwide performing arts programs and when you subtract programs aimed at American too the whole project becomes just one more W administration public relations sleight of hand which made section C, page 2 in the WaPo a couple of days ago - no questions asked.

But programs and language classes available to ordinary Greeks and Turks - among others - have gone by the boards and into history’s dust bin. Security concerns and the paucity of funds see to that. Stage managers and internet sites for Americans have taken their place.

Wait a minute

I’m reading Jessica Stern’s book Terrorism in the Name of God (HarperCollins, 2003) in which she describes in chilling detail the roots and organizational characteristics of religious terrorism. Through extensive interviews with such terrorists at home and abroad (Christian, Jewish and Muslim), Stern confirms what I’ve thought all along: to eliminate or neutralize anti-American terrorist threats does not mean just talking to political elites and arming ourselves to look like Black Beard the pirate's fleet. It also means gaining access to and trust of a wide variety of people through a number of ways – including as PLS says – taking the time to drink sweet tea and to get to know people personally. It means helping and encouraging countries such as Pakistan to provide free education and access to jobs to even the poorest of the poor to eliminate militant Islam’s malarial swamp. And it means reducing - not erecting - ever higher physical barriers particularly in countries where there is little to no terrorist threat.

The good news is that there’s a group of German NGOs trying to save the Berlin Amerika Haus from becoming a McDonald’s, a financial house or perhaps a grocery store. But will they be able to put together enough money to accomplish their goal through the last-minute grant writing they plan? Can they round up sufficient funds without substantial German Government backing? It’s clear the US will offer nothing. Sad, isn’t it that the US government is so blind it can’t see what it has thrown away. Meanwhile the German blog, TransatlanTicker reports that “other countries such as the UK and Spain have recently invested huge sums of money to expand their prestigious cultural institutions at Hackescher Markt in the middle of Berlin.”

The Pen Remains Mightier than the Sword

It’s time to remind W and public diplomacy Czarina Karen Hughes yet again that the pen remains mightier than the sword. Stern’s book came out three years ago. It made the New York Times notable book list too so you’d think someone in the administration would have – like – read it by now.

I don’t object to a robust performing arts program but this latest proposal isn’t. The best of what America has to offer in the arts is certainly far more effective than the money we’re throwing away on guns and other war toys to keep happy Halliburton and cronies in the military-industrial complex.

I hope that the USG is also considering a number of other ways to influence foreign perceptions about America. First off, the government should focus on communicating with others – not eyeing them from behind a Crusader's castle wall through the site of a gun just before pulling the trigger. Yes, in certain countries personal risks need to be taken. But frankly, a certain amount comes with the job. It’s not exactly as if past American diplomats only served in cushy assignments where they regularly downed gin and tonics and pushed cookies while dressed in black tie and tails and seated under an umbrella aside an Ambassadorial swimming pool.

Comments

[Daniel Gerroll]

I came upon you article about the Berlin Amerika Haus in my continuing search for Heinrich Mendelssohn who built it in 1930. Do you know anything about this man? Or how I can find out more about him.
I enjoyed your article and agreed with it wholeheartedly
Daniel Gerroll

[PHK]

Fascinating - and thanks for the comment. I don't know but I'll ask a few people who might know and get back to you.

[Daniel Gerroll]

If I do hear back from you I will be delighted. Are you able to see my email address here? It is dgerroll@yahoo.com

[PHK]

Daniel: I have not forgotten your question and have received one tentative answer - but before I pass it on to you I need to check with someone else - who I've been told - is likely to know more. Will e-mail it to you. Thanks for your patience - and reminder.