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ASAE in Berlin: last day

We have arrived to the last day of our ASAE Study Mission to Brussels and Berlin!

For the grand finale we did a tour of Berlin, first by foot and then by boat, and learnt the following:

• there were landmines in Berlin till the mid 80's
• the no-man's line, which crossed Potsdamer Platz, was a band of land up to 500 m that delineated the separation of the east and west
• the wall was up to 3 m high
• the name Berlin derives from a Slavic word that means swamp ... this city used to be a swamp!
• the new part of the city was rebuilt in the last 20 years
• the wall was 106 km long, with the fence 155 km
• the land encompassing West Berlin was traded in by the Soviet Union in exchange for parts of southeast Germany, so that the Soviet Union could expand its empire
• the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, symbolizes the isolation from the group that the Jews went through during the Nazi regime.  What is less known is that across the street, there is also a monument for all the homosexuals that were killed by the Nazis.
• Hitler never used the Reichstag - big misconception
• Brandenburg gate, which was finished in 1791 and for many represents Berlin, is also a symbol of peace, victory, defeat, a divided city and reunification

 

ASAE in Berlin: Reichstag

ASAE in Berlin: International Congress Centre

ASAE in Berlin: ICC Radio Tower

ASAE in Berlin: Berlin City Mission

• Combining church services with social work
• Founded in 1877
• Focuses on mission, social work (homelessness, troubled teens, senior citizen centers, prisoners) and hotels/guest houses (where profits are used to support their projects)
• Germany has state churches where church taxes are being drawn by the government

ASAE In Berlin: Kanada

Canada ... We're more than what you're looking for!

ASAE in Berlin: smiles

ASAE IN Berlin: German Bar Association

Dr. Cord Brugmann, Executive Director

DAV - German Bar Association

 

Trust is good.  A lawyer is better.

 

• approx 50-60% are solo practitioners
• approx 30% in law firms of 2-5 lawyers
• approx 4% of lawyers in major international law firms
• approx 15% in-house lawyers
• market for legal services has not grown as fast as number of lawyers
• German Bar Association: 67,000 voluntary members, 254 local associations, do not regulate, membership fee is EUR 127, represent more than 160,000 lawyers
• is an umbrella organization
• 294 local bars in Germany, 5 foreign German bars (GB, France, Italy, Brazil, Turkey)
• more than 30 committees with volunteer members
• 30 specialist sections
• they have a staff of 70 in Berlin and Brussels
• representation: most important demand for members
• continuing professional development: important for members
• information: quite important
• services: nice, but not as important
• for a national DAV advertising campaign, members can decide to charge an extra 30 EUR/month to finance it
• DAV provides media training to local chapters
• it is quite common that people with experience in legal professions become executives of legal associations
• professionals leading the associations used to be the norm, which is now slowly changing

ASAE in Berlin: Marriott ceiling

ASAE in Berlin: Berlin Convention Office

Heike Mahmoud

BCO - Berlin Convention Office

• 3.4million inhabitants
• 180 different nationals live here - multicultural
• 9 times bigger than Paris
• epicenter of artistic creations

 

Berlin clusters:

• automotive and mobility (400manufacturing and 100 research companies)
• life sciences (Europe's highest concentration of research institutes and universities, 278 medical technology companies, 77 hospitals, 22 pharma manufacturers)
• universities
• IT (5,700 IT companies)
• creative industry (10 renowned orchestras, large music companies have HQ in Berlin, 3,700 fashion companies) 

 

BCO:

• has 10 employees
• Berlin is top 5 city worldwide for medical congresses
• will be joining BestCities Global Alliance shortly
• large congresses - up to 26,500 delegates
• over 350 hotels in Berlin supporting BCO
• BCO has close network with airlines (Lufthansa and Air Berlin) which are dedicated to congress business
• average room rate in Berlin is 76 EUR ... great value for money