 Dubbed in 2008 “the world's most important center for American intellectual life outside the US” by the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, the American Academy in Berlin is funded entirely by private donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations on both sides of the Atlantic—most prominently, the Arnhold-Kellen family, the keystone of the Academy's history and funding.The Wannsee villa that houses the American Academy in Berlin, designed in 1886 by architect Johannes Otzen, was once the home of chemist Franz Oppenheim and, later, banker Hans Arnhold and his wife, Ludmilla, and their two daughters, Ellen Maria and Anna-Maria.After the Arnholds were forced to immigrate, in 1937, the house was appropriated and occupied by Walther Funk, the Minister of Economics of the Third Reich and later president of the Reichsbank.