XIIIth INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS on PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY Berlin, July 26th to 31st, 1999

THE PERSON IN SOCIETY: CHALLENGES TO A CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY

The congress will be held in a Conference Centre (Bildungs- und Begegnungszentrum) maintained by the German public service union ÖTV. It is located in the outskirts of Berlin near the Wannsee (pronounced "Vunn-Say", "See" meaning Lake) - in a beautiful suburban, almost rural surrounding, yet close enough to the city to enable touristic sidesteps. It is a 15 minutes´ walk away from the next S-Bahn (Suburban Railway, City Rail) station where trains can be boarded that reach the centre of Berlin in less than half an hour. The study centre was re-opened after renovation in 1997, and offers all the necessary facilities including meals and accommodation for the majority of the participants. There will be opportunities provided to meet informally after the days´ conference sessions. Since end of July is the hottest time of the year in Germany, expect day-time temperatures of 20 - 30 degrees (and above) which will make you want to spend the evenings in the beer gardens a few minutes walk from the Conference site or even swimming in the Wannsee. Runners will find delight in the forests (bush to the Australians) on Lake Wannsee just behind the Conference venue.

10 kms or 3 S-Bahn stops (12 min.) away, in former East Germany, lies Potsdam, now the capital of the state of Brandenburg, the heartland of former Prussia, with its Dutch style townhouses and its castles and palaces, notably Frederick the Great´s palace Sanssouci. At Schloß (Palace) Cecilienhof, Truman, Attlee and Stalin signed the Potsdam Treaty about the future of Central Europe in 1945. It has only recently been opened to the public - having been the Soviet Secret Service Headquarters in East Germany since the end of the war. On our "free afternoon" (on Wednesday) there will be an opportunity to go on a boat trip to Potsdam and Sanssouci.

Berlin was the capital of Germany also during the most horrifying time in German history. Therefore it is not surprising that traces of this can be found even in a seemingly peaceful suburb like Wannsee: Some of you may remember that the organisation of the Nazi holocaust was planned in 1942 during the so-called Wannsee-Konferenz, in a mansion only a few minutes´ walk from our congress venue. It is now a memorial site, and it is certainly worth visiting. You can access more information if you follow this link to the website of the Wannsee Conference Memorial Centre.