America House (Munich)

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Amerikahaus, Munich

The Amerikahaus is a Bavarian cultural institution on Karolinenplatz in the Munich art area , which was opened in 1948 as America House .

description

The Amerikahaus offers information on current issues in Canada and the United States of America in the form of lectures, discussions, seminars, exhibitions, concerts, literature readings, films and theater performances in English. Over 200 events are organized each year, attracting around 50,000 visitors.

The library has an extensive collection of English-language books, magazines, videos, DVDs and online databases. It organizes teacher training courses and seminars for students.

The exchange and study advice service helps everyone who is looking for information about exchange programs with the USA or Canada.

In addition, the Bayerische Amerika-Akademie, an organization for American scientists at Bavarian universities and research institutes, and the Amerikahaus Verein e. V. has its seat in the Amerikahaus as a sponsoring association.

The commercial agencies of the US states of Florida, Georgia and West Virginia, the American Chamber of Commerce Bavarian Chapter, the American Drama Group and the Society for Foreign Policy also have offices in the America House.

Glass dome in the interior

history

After the US army liberated Munich on 30 April 1945, was under the Reeducation opened in October 1945, the American Reading Room as the world's first American library of its kind in the Medical Lesehalle at Munich Beethovenplatz. From January 1946 the institution was opened to the general public by its director Stefan P. Munsing . The aim was to bring democracy closer to the people of Munich through the example of America. On July 12, 1948, the Amerika-Haus opened in the former Führerbau on Arcisstrasse. The lectures by TS Eliot in 1948, Thornton Wilder (1953 and 1954) and William Faulkner (1955) were enthusiastically received. Wilder recalled: "I have seldom felt a more friendly atmosphere than on the two occasions when I enjoyed the privilege of speaking to the audience at the Munich America House." (Festschrift 10 Jahre Amerika-Haus Munich, Munich 1956, p . 1)

Pioneering art exhibitions took place early on: "Non-Objective Painting in America" ​​in collaboration with Hilla von Rebay (1948), "Contemporary Graphics from the USA" (1949), "Art Creation in Germany" (1949), "Modern International Graphics" (1953) , “International Women's Biennale 1953.” In
1951 the show “American Painting in the America House Gallery in Munich” presented 55 paintings and 65 graphic sheets by 25 contemporaries - including Edward Hopper , Georgia O'Keeffe , Robert Motherwell , Jackson Pollock , Mark Rothko , Ben Shahn and Charles Sheeler .

On January 26, 1950, Die Zeit wrote about the house: “But in Munich it is the children who have every reason to love the Americans: in the 'America House' they have a library, film screenings, fairy tale hours and singing and play groups set up for the children who nobody wants to miss anymore. "

In 1957, the current building, built according to plans by the architects Karl Fischer and Franz Simm, was moved to the site of the Lotzbeck-Palais on Karolinenplatz, which was destroyed in the war . The listed building is characterized by generous open spaces, an atrium with circular openings over all floors and an adjoining theater building with 500 seats.

After the fall of the Eastern Bloc , the United States Information Agency , the owner of the house, was dissolved. The US government then closed many of the America Houses, including the one in Munich in 1997. On the initiative of the former program director Christoph Peters and with the support of the Bavarian state government, the newly founded Bavarian-American Center in Amerika Haus eV (abbreviated: BAZ) took over as the sponsoring association in 1998.

The BAZ was financed by grants from the Free State of Bavaria, donations from private individuals, associations, companies and the City of Munich as well as grants from the US government. It generated additional income by allocating rooms for events.

Redevelopment

At the meeting on August 3, 2011, the Bavarian cabinet decided to renovate the Amerikahaus. In the course of this project, the Bayerisches Amerikahaus gGmbH - Bavarian Center for Transatlantic Relations Foundation was founded in November 2013, and Meike Zwingenberger took over as managing director. The Amerikahaus building at Karolinenplatz 3 has been undergoing general renovation since the beginning of 2016. During the renovation work, the facility has moved to Barer Straße 19a, where events continue to take place.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The time of January 26, 1950 www.zeit.de

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 39.8 ″  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 5.4 ″  E