Dear members and friends of the Harvard Community in Berlin,

Germany’s future prosperity and stability can no longer be taken for granted. Economic pressure, demographic change, and global competition are raising urgent questions about how we stay innovative, resilient, and socially cohesive.

In this moment of strategic reorientation, we invite you to a Leadership Dinner and Lecture with Professor Jörg Rocholl, president of ESMT Berlin and a leading voice on Germany’s economic future. As a finance expert and chair of the advisory board of the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Rocholl is deeply engaged in some of the country’s most urgent debates. He is currently contributing to the German pension commission, where the challenge of financing social security in an aging society is no longer theoretical. It is immediate.

Germany’s demographic reality is reshaping everything, from pensions and public finances to skilled labor and long-term growth. To answer this Germany must become a country of brain gain that attracts, retains, and empowers international talent while strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship. At a time when many highly qualified people from the U.S. and around the world are reconsidering where they can best live, work, and build their future, Germany has a real opportunity to position itself as a destination of choice. Brain gain is also about building a society where talent can succeed, education and lifelong learning are prioritized, and transformation is embraced. At ESMT Berlin, where Jörg Rocholl serves as president, this mission is central to developing the leaders the country requires.

What does Germany need to thrive economically, socially, and globally? And what decisions must be made now to secure long-term prosperity for the next generation?

Join us for this timely and forward-looking conversation on February 19. The discussion will be held in English.

We look forward to welcoming you.

When?: Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 6:30 pm

Where?: Restaurant Il Punto, Lasagneria

Neustädtische Kirchstraße 6, 10117 Berlin

Dresscode: Smart Casual

Tickets:

Members & partners: 45 € p.p.

Non-Members: 55 € p.p.

Welcome drinks and two course menu are included.

Drinks with the meal will be charged separately.

30 tickets are available for this event.

Please register via the following link: Registration Link until February 12, 2026.

Payment options:

Bank transfer: Please transfer the ticket to our bank account:

Harvard University Alumni Club of Berlin e.V.

IBAN: DE33 1007 0848 0036 7532 00

BIC: DEUTDEDB110

Reference: your name & HLD Rocholl

Paypal: frohn@pwwl.de  family and friends

Reference: your name & HLD Rocholl

Harvard University Alumni Club of Berlin e.V.
c/o Pusch Wahlig Workplace Law
Berliner Freiheit 2
10785 Berlin

Tel.: +49 (0)30 20629530
Fax: +49 (0)30 206295399

by Carl Kruse

The Ivy Circle Berlin invites you to an exclusive preview of the art exhibit Face Off at the Vorona Galerie, Friedbergstraße 12, 14057 Berlin on Thursday, February 19, 2026 starting at 6pm.

This is a private tour by gallery owner Julia Vorozhtsova and art curator Jenia Yanes on the day before the exhibit opens to the public. 

Champagne expert Fanny Thiel — who is from Champagne, France — will be on hand to serve champagne from her curated selection, while it lasts.

Event Description

Face Off is a group exhibition bringing together artists from diverse cultural contexts: Anastasia Tory (Ukraine–United Kingdom), Rolf Abendroth (Germany), Andreas Geissel (Germany), Cristine Balarine (Brazil-Italy), Sergio Gomez (Mexico-USA), and Jens Joneleit (Germany).

For centuries, the portrait has remained one of the central genres of art. Kings and aristocrats commissioned formal portraits to affirm status and power; artists depicted themselves and their loved ones in an attempt to preserve a gaze, a gesture, a presence in time. The portrait was not merely an image of a person, but a tool of memory, authority, and identity.

A fundamental shift occurred in the early nineteenth century, when photography assumed the role of preserving the human face for posterity. In the twenty-first century, this function has been fully transferred to the cameras of mobile phones: the realistic portrait is created instantly and loses its sense of exclusivity.

It is at this point that art enters a new field of inquiry. If outward appearance no longer requires artistic mediation, what constitutes a portrait today?

Where is the boundary between face and image, between recognizability and inner state?

How can a person (or the self) be described through means removed from the conventions of realistic portraiture?

The exhibition Face Off unfolds as an artistic investigation of these questions.

The works on view reveal a broad range of approaches: from distortion and fragmentation to symbolic and emotional languages. Here, the face ceases to function as a mirror of physical likeness and instead becomes a site of projection, confrontation, and play. It may appear as a mask, a trace, a sign, a state, or an unresolved question.

The title Face Off refers to a moment of direct confrontation: between viewer and image, artist and the tradition of portraiture, the real and the imagined. It evokes the act of “removing the mask,” when the face loses its social function and transforms into a carrier of inner, often vulnerable and unsettling content.

The event is free but has limited space and an RSVP to Carl Kruse at info@carlkruse.net is mandatory. Please do not show up without having reserved a spot.

Following the exhibit, those who wish can head over to the Galander Bar for a nightcap – a 5 min walk from the gallery at Stuttgarter Pl. 15 10627 Berlin.  The Galander is one of the top bars in Charlottenburg and a throwback to another era.  Perfect for after-gallery gatherings.