About MatchPoints Seminar 2020

Since 2007, Aarhus University has hosted the international annual MatchPoints Seminar, which brings together researchers, politicians as well as private and public partners to discuss current societal issues. In recent years, Trust, the Arctic and the Welfare State have headlined the seminar, with keynote speakers including Robert Putnam, Francis Fukuyama, James Heckman and Margrethe Vestager.

It is within this tradition that Aarhus University has decided to make Denmark and Germany in Europe – Cooperation, Conflict and Future Challenges the topic of the 2020 MatchPoints Seminar on 23-25 April 2020 at Aarhus University.

Partners
The 2020-seminar is financed by Aarhus University and the City of Aarhus with additional generous contributions from Salling Fondene, the Goethe-Institute Dänemark, the German Embassy in Denmark, the Carlsberg Foundation and Jyllands-Postens Foundation. Folkeuniversitet in Aarhus and DIIS are part of the organizing team.

The year 2020
2020 is an important year in Danish-German relations. Proclaimed official Danish-German cultural friendship-year, the year 2020 also marks the centenary of today’s Danish-German border, the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the 65th anniversary of the Copenhagen-Bonn Agreements on national minorities in the Danish-German Borderland, and the 30th anniversary of German reunification. The 2020 MatchPoints Seminar wishes to explore and discuss important developments and patterns of interaction in the Danish-German relationship since the 19th century and situate current and former Danish-German cultural, political and economic relations in their broader European contexts. In doing so, the seminar emphasises the vital importance for both countries of collaboration with other European countries in shaping a common European future. Click here for more information on the Danish-German relationship

What to expect
MatchPoints will be organised with a mixture of keynotes speeches, panels and sessions. We have invited four keynote speakers of the highest prominence, among them columnist, historian and Professor Anne Applebaum, Professor Astrid Erll and Professor Ole Wæver. Leading government officials and/or politicians from the two countries are also invited to address the seminar. However, the main part of the programme will be organised within a framework of parallel tracks and sessions. The tracks will reflect different aspects of Danish-German relations, official as well as unofficial, or wider European experiences of a political, economic and cultural nature of relevance for the topic.
Read more about the four tracks and the wide range of sessions and read more about what's in it for me

And more
A Musical Odyssey at Concert Hall Aarhus and a conference dinner at Smedien will constitute the evening programme on April 23 and 24. On 25 April an outreach event addressing the general public interest in the seminar theme, Denmark and Germany in Europe, will be organized (for Danish-speaking participants) - read more about the event on Saturday.