Media Relations & Tourism Sales Department of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Larry Meehan, Vice President of Media Relations & Tourism Sales, lmeehan@bostonusa.com, 617-867-8231; Joanna Blasi, Media Relations & Tourism Sales Coordinator, jblasi@bostonusa.com, 617-867-8226.

 

October 2007 Edition

 

Click here to view our 2007 Events Calendar: explore! Multicultural Boston

 

 

 

Boston’s German American Heritage

Month Events  

October 2007 

German American Heritage Month offers visitors opportunity to celebrate

German culture & heritage

 

These events are constantly updated; please return to this site for more events:

 

Events during German American Heritage Month in Boston:

• October 2, 2007 Breakfast meeting with Frankfurt Mayor Petra Roth
  Topic: "The Frankfurt Economic Development GmbH, in cooperation with the GABC, invites you for aa breakfast meeting with the Hornorable Mayor Petra Roth. Location: Liberty Hotel, 215 Charles St, Boston, MA from 8:30 to 10:00AM."

• Oct. 19-28: Michael Haneke - A Cinema of Provocation Retrospective Film Series The Museum of Fine Arts: 10/11-11/03, Harvard Film Archive: 10/19-28 .A complete retrospective presenting both Haneke’s film and rarely seen early television work. Exploring the Austrian director’s roots in television to his most recent masterpieces released on the big screen, this comprehensive retrospective includes eight made for television films never before screened in the US, and eight theatrical features. Michael Haneke will be present for the screenings on October 18 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and on Ocotber 19 at the Harvard Film Archive. Special event on October 19 @ HFA: sneak preview of Funny Games (USA 2007), Haneke's Hollywood remake of his 1997 original. Reception starts at 5:30 pm, the Sert Café, HFA. This program is supported by the Elysée Treaty Fund for Franco-German Cultural Events in Third Countries and made possible by The Goethe-Institut Boston, The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Boston, and Boston University. Co-presented by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), and the Harvard Film Archive (HFA). Curated by Roy Grundmann, Associate Professor of Film Studies and Film Studies Program Director at Boston University. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston and Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge tickets: $8, $6 (HFA), $9, $8 (MFA) info: +1 617262 6050 or program@boston.goethe.org

 

Key German American landmarks in Boston:

• Visiting the The Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University :the only museum in America devoted to promoting the informed enjoyment and critical understanding of the arts of Central and Northern Europe, with a special emphasis on the German-speaking countries. Founded in 1901 as the Germanic Museum through the efforts of Kuno Francke, professor of German literature at Harvard, the Museum originally contained only reproductions, notably plaster casts of major Germanic, sculptural, and architectural monuments. Under the curatorship (1930-1968) of Charles L. Kuhn, the Museum developed into one of the leading collections of modern art from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and related cultures. The Museum was renamed the Busch-Reisinger Museum in 1950 in honor of the related St. Louis families which had contributed decisively to its support. Today, the Museum has especially important holdings of Austrian Secession art, German expressionism, 1920s abstraction, and material related to the Bauhaus (including archives of Lyonel Feininger and Walter Gropius). In addition to notable collections of late Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque sculpture, 16th-century painting, and 18th-century porcelain, the Museum has recently focused on deepening its holdings of post-war and contemporary art from German-speaking Europe. The collection of unique artworks by the post-war artist Joseph Beuys is among the world's most comprehensive.

• Visiting the Walter Gropius House: Sixty-nine (69) years old,  the Gropius House,  is a National Historic Landmark, located on 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, Mass. (781) 259-8098. Walter Gropius (1883-1969). was the founder of the Bauhaus School in Dessau. He became Chair of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University 70 years ago, in 1937. Among his students was I.M. Pei* Gropius built his private residence in Lincoln, Massachusetts (about 45 minutes drive northwest of Boston). . The building, including its original interior, serves as a museum today. The interior is completely preserved. The house is open to the public  June 1 through October 15: Wednesday through Sunday & October 16 through May 31: Saturday and Sunday. Tours at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Admission: $10,   The design of the house is modest , however  the house was revolutionary in impact. It combined the traditional elements of New England architecture -- wood, brick, and fieldstone -- with innovative materials rarely used in domestic settings at that time -- glass block, acoustical plaster, and chrome banisters, along with the latest technology in fixtures. In keeping with Bauhaus philosophy, every aspect of the house and its surrounding landscape was planned for maximum efficiency and simplicity of design. The house contains an important collection of furniture designed by fellow German Marcel Breuer and made for the Gropiuses in the Bauhaus workshops. From 1938 to 1941, he worked on a series of houses with Marcel Breuer ( he worked as an associate professor at Harvard until 1946 when he operated a New York practice ) In 1945 he founded the Cambridge -based  "The Architect's Collaborative",  (TAC) a design team that embodied his belief in the value of teamwork. Gropius & TAC designed: Center, University, Boston’s John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building (now 40 years old) , the Pan Am Building (now the Metlife Building) in New York City, and Embassy of the United States,  Athens, Greece  Gropius died in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969.

 Did you know?

·       The Goethe-Institut Boston at Beacon Street in Boston  organizes workshops and seminars for multiplicators and teachers of German as a foreign language. Our language division offers a comprehensive program of courses and examinations.  The literature salon of the Goethe-Institut Boston presents every year new publications from Germany which are discussed in regular reading groups and author readings. Current newspapers, German television and a selection of new German films are available for the visitors' information.

 

 

Links

·       The Goethe-Institut Boston www.goethe.de/ins/us/bos/enindex.htm

·       Gropius House, Lincoln www.spnea.org/visit/homes/gropius.htm

·       German Studies Department at Boston College www.bc.edu/schools/cas/german

·       German-American Business Council  www.gabc-boston.org/

 

 

Boston visitor information - from updated weekend event information to special hotel offers  during October German Heritage Month visits are available www.BostonUSA.com ; toll free 1-888-SEE-BOSTON; e mail visitus@BostonUSA.com