Carl Heinrich Becker Lecture of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

Named after the German Orientalist and Prussian Minister of Culture and Education, Carl Heinrich Becker, this lecture shall acquaint, once a year, a broader public with central themes and questions of the research program Europe in the Middle East - the Middle East in Europe.

Carl Heinrich Becker (1876 – 1933) was an Orientalist who is remembered as one of the founders of modern Islamic Studies in Germany and for his vision of entangled Histories and Culture of Europe and the Muslim world. As Prussian Minister of Culture and Education he supported the study of foreign languages, histories and culture as a part of national education and as a means to avoid conflict.

The Carl Heinrich Becker Lectures:

2007
Maria Todorova
Historical Legacies Between Europe and the Near East
You may read her speech and the introduction by Wolf Lepenies here .

2008
Aziz Al-Azmeh
Rome, New Rome and Baghdad: Pathways of Late Antiquity
His speech and the introduction by Wolf Lepenies are available here .

2009
Abdullahi An-Na'im
Shari'a and the Secular State in the Middle East and Europe
Wolfgang Schäuble Federal Minister of Finances (former Federal Minister of the Interior)
Islam and German Religious Constitutional Law
Dieter Grimm
Comment
The print version can be seen here
The reports from the German Press can be found here .
Some pictures of the lecture can be found here .

2010
Deniz Kandiyoti
Islam and the Politics of Gender: Reflections on Afghanistan
Her speech and the introduction by Ulrike Freitag are available here .

2011
Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin
Exile and Bi-Nationalism: From Gershom Scholem to Edward Said .