Globalization and new power configurations in the world have greatly changed the meaning of peace and security. Poverty, climate- and resource-related conflicts, instable governments, regional and international terrorist groups, and criminal organizations all pose a threat to security and stability everywhere. Is there a gender perspective to all this? For quite some time women’s organizations and feminist networks have been increasingly involved, putting the gender perspective back on the agenda.

Since October 2000, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 has been paving the way to greater gender sensitivity in peace and security policy. It could be a milestone for gender-equitable security policy. But up to now this resolution has not developed its own institutional strength within the UN system and the international community. This volume contributes to filling the gap in knowledge about approaches both to gender-sensitive peace and security policy.

Roadmap to 1325: Resolution for Gender-Sensitive Peace and Security Policies

The lifestyle magazine die neue linie (the new line), published by Beyer Press between 1929 and 1943, provided more than luxurious entertainment. It had a progressive and forward-looking concept: leading graphic designers from the Bauhaus school had a decisive effect on the look of the magazine; no other German publication of its time was so consistent in bringing avant-garde typographic ideas to a mass audience. Despite media conformity during the Third Reich, the modern Bauhaus signature – a style hated by the Nazi regime up to and during the Second World War – was largely spared the sanctions of the dictatorship.
The author Patrick Rössler provides historical context and analyzes these unique developments; the bilingual volume makes a substantial contribution to “Bauhaus Year 2009.”

The Bauhaus at the Newsstand / Das Bauhaus am Kiosk: die neue linie 1929–1943,
Kerber Verlag, 160 pp., June 2009

By Patrick Rössler; translated from German into English by Isabel Cole; copyediting by Ginger A. Diekmann

With the title ICH NICHT (“Not Me”), the artist Imi Knoebel gives a decisive answer to the question posed by Barnett Newman’s work: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue? This publication accompanying the Deutsche Guggenheim exhibits presents the multifaceted oeuvre of Imi Knoebel, whose groundbreaking work with fundamental issues of form and color seems more current than ever. In chronological order, the book examines Knoebel’s time at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and his relationship to American art, as well as his exploration of photography, printmaking, serial works, and color; selected recent works are also included.

The 212-page catalog in English and German includes essays by Hubertus Butin, Martin Schulz, and Johannes Stüttgen, among others.
Translation from German into English: Burke Barrett; Copyediting (English): Ginger A. Diekmann; published in June 2009 by Hatje Cantz  

Exhibition schedule: ICH NICHT Neue Werke, 23.05.–26.06.2009, ENDUROS Sammlung Deutsche Bank, 04.07.–02.08.2009, both at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin 

Petra Karin Kelly (1947–1992) was one of the best known personalities in public life during the 1980s; an icon of the global ban-the-bomb and peace movements and a protagonist for ecology and human rights. She was willful and full of energy, fascinating and provocative. Her political passion, which was grounded in a deep compassion, swept many people away and unsettled many others. She could combine the commonplace with the universal and gave a language and new symbols to the ideas and initiatives that forced their way from the non-parliamentary into the political sphere and ultimately led to the founding of the Green Party. But all this is not just history; much of it lives on in the here and now: in the array of commitments to climate policy, gender justice, European unification, Tibet... It is worth reflecting on what has remained valuable and vital from that time until the present day, and remembering how it all started.

The many photographs in the book – some previously unpublished – trace the most important stations in the life of Petra Kelly, shedding light on what formed her and giving an insight into the origins of the Greens. Extracts from original texts by Petra Kelly elucidate not only the personal motives for her political commitment, but also the hopes, anxieties and struggles of her time. Contemporaries as well as the “future generation” express their views on Petra Kelly. Six essays illuminate her life and work.

Petra Kelly. A Remembrance
Published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation Berlin
Translated by Allison Brown

Since the mid-1960s, American artist Dan Graham has questioned the autonomy of art and explored the role of various media in the creation or definition of art, the viewer, the medium itself, and its use. His Minimalist and conceptual works have had a lasting influence on later generations of artists. Graham’s media of choice include magazine pages, advertisements, photography, performance, video installations, and sculpture pavilions, to name a few.

In Volume 8 of the Flick Collection’s “Collector’s Choice” series, art historian Gregor Stemmrich provides an insightful history and analysis of Graham’s “media dis-positions” – the artist’s attempts to open the context of art to broader social and political questions such as urbanism, housing, language, and the intersection between perception of self and perception of others.

By Gregor Stemmrich; DuMont, November 2008. Translation from the German by Steven Lindberg; copyediting by Ginger A. Diekmann.

Since the 1950s, a unique form of modern architecture has been developing in Australia—a “progressive modernism,” which involves the dynamic combination of tradition and transformation. This exhibition catalogue analyzes this culture- and environment-specific architecture, using its residential constructions as a basis for examination. The scope of the book extends from detached family houses to high-rise buildings. 240 pages.

Edited by Claudia Perren and Kristien Ring.
Proof editing: Ginger A. Diekmann. Published September 2007, English.

Exhibition schedule: Deutsches Architektur Zentrum, Berlin 12.9.–11.11.2007 

From July 19, 2007, to January 10, 2008, in the German Resistance Memorial Center, Stauffenbergstr. 13-14, 2nd floor. Mon, Wed, Fri 9 am - 6 pm, Th 9 am - 8 pm, Sat, Sun/Holidays 10 am - 6 pm.

The American Mildred Harnack-Fish was a translator and taught English literature in Berlin. A member of the Red Orchestra resistance group started by her husband Arvid Harnack, Mildred was beheaded on February 16, 1943, in Berlin Plötzensee, the only American to receive the death penalty on express orders of Hitler.

Accompanying the exhibition is an extensive biographical documentation on Mildred Harnack, with numerous photos and personal documents, most of which are available to the public for the first time. They offer an in-depth portrait in German and English on the life and fate of this resistance fighter who has been little known up to now.

Translated by: Allison Brown, Karen Margolis, Andres Simonoviescz, Kate Derbyshire, Sylvie Malich.

Translated by Allison Brown (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007)

This book is an updated and expanded edition of Shi'a Islam. The author, Heinz Halm, discusses events in the Middle East during the last ten years, including the situation in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and in the Gulf States, the results of the American invasion in Iraq, and what is called the new Shia' revival and Shia Crescent. (taken from the Markus Wiener Publishers website).

Translated by Allison Brown and Tom Lampert (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007)

In this volume, Heinz Halm offers a compact and comprehensible overview of the history and culture of the Arabs from the first references in the inscriptions of Assyrian kings to the most recent developments of contemporary Arab nations.  (taken from the Markus Wiener Publishers website).