Celebrating Cultural Exchange: The Fulbright Program at 80 and the United States at 250 – The 1970s

“Tour of East Berlin. Please bring your passports.”

The instruction appears in the program for Fulbright Germany’s 1976 American Program Berlin Week. Today, it immediately evokes a world that no longer exists. In 1976, it was simply practical advice for participants arriving in a city shaped by the realities of the Cold War.

Held from 1–9 April 1976, Berlin Week brought together Fulbright grantees from across the United States for a program of lectures, discussions, cultural events, and excursions throughout the city. Looking back nearly fifty years later, the photographs, programs, maps, speeches, and memorabilia preserved from the week provide more than a record of a seminar. Together, they offer a window into the role of international exchange during one of the defining decades of the twentieth century.

The 1970s were marked by both division and dialogue. Europe remained shaped by the Cold War, yet the decade also witnessed growing efforts to strengthen communication across political and ideological boundaries. The themes explored during Berlin Week reflected the temper of the decade. Participants attended sessions on German politics, European integration, German literature, and U.S.–European relations, engaging with questions that were central to contemporary debates on both sides of the Atlantic.

Few places embodied these tensions more visibly than Berlin itself. Divided physically, politically, and ideologically, the city occupied a unique position within postwar Europe. Yet Berlin was also a place of encounter. The scrapbook assembled during the seminar presents a city that was far more than a symbol of geopolitical conflict. Among the materials is a tourist map of East Berlin produced in the German Democratic Republic, highlighting landmarks and attractions in the socialist capital. Preserved alongside photographs and program documents, it offers a reminder that participants encountered Berlin through multiple perspectives, each shaped by the political realities of the time.

The program encouraged participants to engage with Berlin not only as a political symbol but also as a cultural and intellectual center. Lectures and discussions were held at institutions including Amerika-Haus and Harnack Haus, while receptions and social events created opportunities for exchange beyond the seminar room. A reception at Rathaus Schöneberg and a concert by Fulbright music students formed part of the official program, reflecting a broad understanding of educational exchange that extended beyond academic study alone.

The scrapbook documents these experiences from the participants’ perspective. Photographs show arrivals in Berlin, registration activities, informal gatherings, and excursions across the city. Images from airports and British Airways flights capture the beginning of the journey, while later pages record museums, theaters, flea markets, cafés, concerts, and city streets. Together, they reveal a Berlin that was vibrant, internationally connected, and deeply engaged with cultural life, whatever its political geography imposed.

Several pages highlight the city’s cultural landscape. Museum brochures, theater programs, nightlife advertisements, and local guides document the places participants visited throughout the week. One caption identifies Café Kranzler as a favorite meeting place for grantees. Such details illustrate how the seminar unfolded not only through scheduled events but also through the informal conversations and shared experiences that have long been central to the Fulbright mission.

At the same time, the political realities of the era remained ever present. The visit to East Berlin offered participants a direct encounter with a divided Europe. Rather than learning about the Cold War solely through lectures and discussion, they experienced its geography firsthand—crossing borders, navigating checkpoints, and observing a city whose divisions had hardened into everyday life.

This connection between exchange and lived experience was echoed in the welcome address delivered by Berlin’s Governing Mayor Hermann Oxfort at Rathaus Schöneberg. Addressing the Fulbright participants, Oxfort described Berlin as “a city open to the world” and emphasized the importance of international cooperation in addressing the challenges of the future. His remarks reflected the spirit of détente that shaped much of the decade: the belief that dialogue and engagement could help bridge political divides without ignoring their realities. For Oxfort, the significance of international exchange extended beyond diplomacy. He argued that the major challenges facing modern societies could only be addressed through cooperation, understanding, and sustained contact between people from different countries. His message resonated strongly with the purpose of programs such as Fulbright, which sought to create opportunities for precisely these kinds of encounters.

A final detail preserved in the archive offers an unexpectedly fitting reflection on the era. In the closing lines of Mayor Oxfort’s welcome address, the German text speaks of a shared goal: „den Frieden sicherer zu machen“—“to make peace more secure.” Yet in the English version distributed to participants, Frieden appears as freedom rather than peace. Whether this was a simple translation slip or a deliberate adaptation of the message remains unclear. Either way, discrepancy has become a revealing historical trace. In a Berlin still shaped by Cold War divisions, peace and freedom were among the defining concerns of public and political life. Seen from today’s perspective, the coexistence of both words in the archive captures something essential about the world in 1976 that produced this specific seminar.