German Community Events in Bay Shore, NY

What role did Germans play in the American Revolutionary War? Author and historian Dr. Friederike Baer shares her groundbreaking insights. What role did Germans play in the American Revolutionary War? Author and historian Dr. Friederike Baer shares her groundbreaking insights into Britain's war against American independence, told from the perspective of the thousands of German soldiers that were hired by Britain in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians, the men and accompanying civilians, including hundreds of women and children, spent extended periods of time in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada in the north and West Florida in the south. In this presentation, Friederike Baer highlights key experiences of these individuals drawn into a war on a distant continent against a people who had done them no harm, and she examines how their presence and actions left a lasting imprint on the story of America, an influence still felt 250 years later. This event is presented by the German Consulate General New York together with the Goethe-Institut New York. Please note that seating for the event is on a first come, first served basis. About the Speaker: Friederike Baer is an award-winning author and Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. Originally from Germany, she holds a Ph.D. in early American history from Brown University. She is the author of The Trial of Frederick Eberle: Language, Patriotism and Citizenship in Philadelphia’s German Community, 1790-1830, which was awarded the St. Paul, Biglerville Prize in American Lutheran History, and Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, which was honored with the American Roundtable of Philadelphia Annual Book Award, Inaugural American Battlefield Trust Prize for History Honorable Mention, and Society of the Cincinnati Prize. Dr. Baer served as a historical advisor and interviewee for The American Revolution, a documentary film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt.

Free screening at Goethe-Institut New York, with director Moritz Riesewieck in attendance! The German Film Office is pleased to present a free screening of Eternal You, Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck’s moving documentary on a troubling new use of AI: reanimating the dead. Q&A with Riesewieck to follow. As the 2020s become defined by the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into our personal and working lives, some startups are using it to create avatars of the deceased. Eternal You explores this strange technological frontier and the complex emotions, motivations, and hopes of those pioneering it. From the users of services like Project December and HereAfter AI—like Joshua, who spends day and night chatting with a simulation of his partner, or Ji-sung, who joins a reality TV show to meet an avatar of her 7-year-old daughter—to the developers who deny responsibility for the psychological consequences of their products, Eternal You probes the relationship between the living, the dead, and the uncanny in-between. “Rigorous and informative... [Eternal You] muses on the abiding question of how we cope with loss.” —David Katz, Cineuropa, 04/25/2024. Eternal You world premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, before screening at DOC NYC, Hot Docs, and the San Francisco International Film Festival.