HAInews 2023/01New Events of the Berlin Regional Group

The Berlin regional group has existed since 2013 and is now starting up again with new activities after the Corona break: On 10 March, a group of alumni met for a guided tour of the Federal Archives organised by alumna Bettina Moegelin. The broad response to the initiative shows that there is great interest in new alumni events in Berlin.

As the "memory of the nation", the Federal Archives safeguard and collect the archival records of the Confederation as well as its predecessors – which is why the period of origin and use of these holdings, which include maps, images, files, posters, films and sound recordings in both analogue and digital form, extends back to the Holy Roman Empire (1495-1806). In addition, the archive also collects the written estates of important persons, documents of parties, associations and societies with supra-regional significance as well as journalistic sources. The alumni met for a guided tour of the archive and then visited an exhibition in the building before getting to know each other better in a nearby restaurant.

Bettina Moegelin was inspired to organise this event by previous activities of the group, especially a visit to the “Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik” (German Institute for International and Security Affairs) organised by alumna Dr Claudia Zilla, who is a Senior Fellow in the America Research Group there.

The visit to the Federal Archives now formed the starting signal for new group events after the Corona break. As a result of this initiative, another event is also already being planned: alumnus Dr Enrico Brissa, who is in charge of protocol at the German Bundestag, wants to organise a guided tour of parliament. “Our life in a 'society of singularities', as sociologist Andreas Reckwitz calls it, is much less integrated into social structures than it used to be,” says Enrico Brissa, explaining his commitment as an alumnus. “Strengthening those forces that have a positive impact on the common and on social cohesion seems to me to be the order of the day, as clear as it is difficult to fulfil. This may begin on an abstract level with a reassessment of the classic reference points of nation-state and patriotism and end concretely in the cultivation of social networks. For me, alumni work is such a private network, the cultivation of which is also political at its core. After all, it is precisely the private sphere that is known to be political.”

We welcome further initiatives from our alumni in Berlin as well as from other regions. If you are professionally or privately involved with interesting institutions or organisations that you would like to introduce to others, or otherwise have ideas for events, please feel free to contact us: service@alumni.uni-heidelberg.de