The Big Ponder

In 1925, the African-American philosopher Alain Locke (1886-1954) launched a revolutionary black arts movement now known as the Harlem Renaissance. In this episode of The Big Pond, producer Bilal Qureshi traces Alain Locke’s ideas back to one city in particular – Berlin.

Chris Strachwitz is a man possessed. A “songcatcher,” capturing and recording the traditional, regional, down-home music of the US, his adopted home after his family left Germany following the end of World War II. His archive is jam-packed with 78s, LPs, 45s, reel-to-reels, cassettes, videos – a collection of all manner of recordings. For The Big Pond, The Kitchen Sisters present the story of Chris Strachwitz.

Historically, New Orleans is a cultural, spiritual and ethnic melting pot. In the streets, you immediately come across signs of French, Caribbean, Native American and Spanish influence. Hard to imagine that there were German immigrants here at one time! But once you know how to read the clues, the picture changes – producer Martina Groß explores Germans’ long history in New Orleans.

It seems like there are more people nowadays with tattoos than there used to be – of the body art is hidden, but most are quite visible. Men and women alike have black, gray and colorful designs covering their arms, legs, or even their entire bodies. Our producer Anne-Rose Heck tries to find out more bout how this phenomenon is spreading across both sides of the Atlantic.

Since 2016, the German scientists Sonja Schrepfer and her husband Tobias Deuse have led the Transplant and Stem Cell Immunobiology Lab at the University of California in San Francisco and the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf. It is funded by NASA, the National Institutes of Health and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space. Our producer Iris Völlnagel reports on their contribution to space travel.

In these times of increased awareness of environmental protection, the bicycle is on the rise again. In Germany, especially medium-sized cities such as Freiburg are aiming to create an infrastructure that encourages bicycling among their citizens. Our producer Anne-Rose Heck investigates the current developments for this episode of The Big Pond.

During the Nazi regime, many German artists, scientists, and other intellectuals found refuge in Southern California. The authors Lion Feuchtwanger and Thomas Mann were two of the most prominent "exiles in paradise." Producer Kerstin Zilm takes us on a trip to their former homes in Los Angeles – the Villa Aurora and the Thomas House – both of which have been rededicated to transatlantic dialogue.

In this radio travelogue, culture writer and journalist Bilal Qureshi explores Germany’s capital Berlin to find out about local origins, regulations and daily rituals of silence. To his ears, German Stille sounds and feels more present than the pulsating noise of US-American cities – and this episode of The Big Pond is a personal quest to understand why.

In this episode, producer Katie Davis profiles German-American photographer Volkmar Wentzel who was born in Dresden, Germany in 1915 before moving to the US with his family in 1926. He grew up in Upstate New York, shortly after relocating to Washington, DC. In DC, he was hired by National Geographic and became one of their legendary field men who traveled and photographed the world.

The Bauhaus school of art, architecture and design was founded in 1919 and lasted for only 14 years before the Nazis forced it to close in 1933. And yet, the Bauhaus and its founding members continue to have a profound impact on the design-, construction- and building-world that it is fair to call it one of the most influential schools to date.