American Council On Germany

Germany’s Growing Semiconductor Ecosystem and Opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation
2025-07-02 08:00 - 09:30 (America/New_York)
The American Council on Germany and the German Center for Innovation and Research New York will host a Breakfast Briefing with Frank Bösenberg, Managing Director of Silicon Saxony e.V.

Frank Bösenberg, Managing Director of Silicon Saxony e.V., was born in Cottbus and raised in Dresden, and holds a degree in civil engineering and business administration from the Technical University Dresden. After building an administrative department at the Technical University Dresden which deals with support in EU-funded R&D projects, he spun out a consultancy company in 2009. In 2014, he joined Silicon Saxony as Silicon Europe’s project coordinator and has been leading the 600+ member network organization as Managing Director since 2019, with the goal of expanding and strengthening the state of Saxony as Europe’s leading microelectronics location by connecting manufacturers, suppliers, service providers, colleges/universities, research institutes, public institutions and industry-relevant start-ups. He was appointed as an individual expert of the European Commission with regard to clusters and also supported the report on the EU Chips Act by the Committee of Regions, being appointed by the rapporteur from Saxony, Thomas Schmidt. Mr. Bösenberg recently participated in the ACG’s German-American Semiconductor Cities Network program, bringing together key stakeholders from German and American cities to address the social, economic, and structural impacts of semiconductor investments in their communities.

Transatlantic Relations after the NATO Summit
2025-07-09 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany is hosting a discussion and luncheon with Ines Pohl, Deutsche Welle’s Washington D.C. Bureau chief.

Ines Pohl is the Washington Bureau Chief for Deutsche Welle. She served as the Editor in Chief of Deutsche Welle from 2017-2020. During her three-year tenure, she focused on increasing DW’s social media presence and the exclusive content of all 30 language services. She joined DW in 2015 as a correspondent in the Washington Bureau. As a journalist, she is particularly interested in questions of democratic legitimacy and transition and is passionate about human rights and the role of democratic structures in developing countries. Ms. Pohl strongly advocates using social media to enhance the connection between audiences and journalists in the digital age.

She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2005, where she spent the year focused on immigration and the impact of religion and leadership. She currently serves on the board of trustees for Reporters without Borders and Youth Against AIDS. From 2009-2015, Ms. Pohl was the editor-in-chief of Die Tageszeitung “taz,” a national daily German newspaper, where she launched a new weekend edition and restructured www.taz.de, now one of Germany’s popular news sites.

Foreign Policy and Trade: Key Priorities for the New German Government
2025-07-17 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Peter Beyer, Member of the Bundestag (CDU/CSU).
Peter Beyer is a member of the center-right CDU/CSU parliamentary majority group in the Bundestag. He is a central voice in Germany’s foreign politics and regularly appears in media both domestically and internationally. He frequently is invited as speaker and panelist at conferences in the USA, Canada, Latin America as well as in Europe. Most recently, he was the spokesperson of the Study Committee on Afghanistan (2022-2025). Peter held the position as Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation of the Federal Government (2018-2022). He studied law in Germany and in the USA and is admitted to the bar since 2000. He began his legal career in the US-headquartered firm of Mayer, Brown. He was directly elected in his constituency in the general elections in 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2025. A committed Atlanticist for many years, Beyer stands out among Members of the German Bundestag and his party as one of the most committed advocates of a strong relationship with the United States and Canada. Beyer has been the Foreign Affairs Committee’s main rapporteur on transatlantic relations, the Western Balkans and Latin America. He is an active member of Atlantik-Brücke in addition to numerous organizations in his district.

AI and the Law: A View from the Free State of Bavaria
2025-08-05 18:00 - 19:30
The ACG will host a discussion and reception with H.E. Georg Eisenreich, Minister of Justice of the Free State of Bavaria.
Minister Georg Eisenreich is a German politician (CSU) and lawyer. He has been a member of the Bavarian State Parliament since 2003. From October 2013 to March 2018, he was State Secretary in the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture, Science, and the Arts, and from March 2018 to November 2018, he was Bavarian State Minister for Digital, Media, and Europe.
In November 2018, he was appointed Bavarian State Minister of Justice. Minister Eisenreich is one of his state’s representatives at the Bundesrat, where he serves on the Committee on European Affairs. Before entering politics, Mr. Eisenreich worked as a lawyer in Munich.
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Strengthening European Strategic Autonomy in Challenging Times
2025-08-14 08:30 - 10:00
The ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Burkhard Balz, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank.
Burkhard Balz has been a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank since September 2018. He is responsible for the Directorates General Payments and Settlement Systems, Cash Management, Digital Euro and International Central Bank Dialogue. Since January 2024, he is an alternate member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements. Prior to this, he was a member of the European Parliament (CDU) and served as the EPP Group’s Coordinator on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs starting in 2014. Before his time in the European Parliament, Mr. Balz was the Head of the Department for Institutional Clients at Commerzbank AG from 2004 to 2009. He has also held the positions of Corporate Customer Advisor at Commerzbank AG (2002-2004) and Desk Officer at the Commerzbank AG Liaison Office to the European Union in Brussels (2001-2002).
Mr. Balz studied Law and Political Science at the University of Göttingen.

Transformation through AI: Challenges and Opportunities for Germany
2025-08-27 18:00 - 19:30
The ACG will host a discussion and reception with Stephan Albani, Member of the German Bundestag (CDU/CSU) and Deputy Chair of the Research, Space, and Technology Assessment Committee in the German Federal Parliament.
Stephan Albani has been a Member of the German Bundestag representing the Oldenburg-Ammerland constituency in Lower Saxony since 2013. He currently serves as the Deputy Chair of the Research, Space, and Technology Assessment Committee in the Bundestag, as well as a Member of the Committee for Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. He has previously chaired Parliamentary Friendship Groups for Relations with South-Eastern Europe, Ireland, and Egypt. Since 2018, he also served as a board member at the federal level of the Small Business and Economic Union (MIT – Mittelstands und Wirtschaftsunion) associated with the CDU/CSU. Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Albani served as the Managing Director of several organizations related to hearing research.
Mr. Albani studied Physics at the University of Göttingen.

The Political Economy of Geoeconomic Power: Observations from Germany
2025-09-12 12:00 - 13:30 | American Council on Germany, Germany
The American Council on Germany will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Berend Diekmann, Head of Division for the United States, Canada, and Mexico in the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).
Dr. Berend Diekmann is the Head of Division for the United States, Canada, and Mexico, in the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE). In this capacity, he is responsible for transatlantic trade issues, CETA, TTC, trade negotiations with Mexico, and all current topics related to transatlantic economic relations. Until late 2014, he was also responsible for external economic policy and OECD.
Dr. Diekmann has published extensively on issues such as public finance and fiscal federalism, EU financing, the policy of international organizations such as IMF, WTO, World Bank and UNCTAD, international trade issues, and current challenges facing the U.S. economy. He holds a Master of Economics from Kiel University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Mainz University.

A New Era for the German-American Partnership
2025-09-23 18:00 - 19:30
The ACG will host a discussion and reception with Metin Hakverdi, Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation for the German Federal Foreign Ministry and Member of the Bundestag (SPD).
Metin Hakverdi serves as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation for the German Government. He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013 and currently serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs. He is the Deputy Chairman of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group, Chairman of the USA Discussion Group of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and a member of the Board of Atlantik-Brücke. Mr. Hakverdi was a John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow at Harvard University and a Distinguished Visitor at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Hakverdi was a member of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 2008 to 2013. He attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel and Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law.

European Security and Transatlantic Relations in the Age of Trump
2025-09-25 12:00 - 14:00
NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, the American Council on Germany, and Deutsches Haus at NYU present a moderated discussion among Sophia Besch (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Hans Kundnani (UC Berkeley / London School of Economics), Tara Varma (Brookings), and Steven E. Sokol (American Council on Germany).
The election of Donald Trump to a second term in office has thrown the transatlantic relationship between the United States and the European Union (EU) into disarray. NATO seems at risk. American foreign policy has become transactional, based overtly on power rather than cooperation. And new areas of policy—everything from trade to digital technology—have been brought into the sphere of geopolitics. What are the implications for European security, given that Russia is still waging an aggressive war on Europe’s doorstep? How is the EU responding to the prospect of losing America’s security umbrella? Can it create strategic autonomy, and delink its military from that of the United States? And how are rifts within Europe hindering or helping the EU as it charts a new path through an ever-changing security landscape? Sophia Besch is a senior fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her area of expertise is European defense policy. Dr. Besch also teaches as an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins SAIS.
Before joining Carnegie, Sophia was a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) in London and Berlin, where she led research on European armament policy, the EU’s role in European defense, transatlantic relations, German defense policy, and the security implications of Brexit.
Sophia has also worked with the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and the Atlantic Council’s Europe Centre, where she served as co-chair of the US-Germany Renewal Initiative. Earlier in her career, Sophia was a Carlo Schmid fellow in NATO’s Policy Planning Unit and a researcher for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. She is a member of the Atlantik Brücke Young Leaders program.
Sophia regularly comments on political and defense issues in print and broadcast media and has published opinion pieces in the Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Internationale Politik, Politico, Project Syndicate, War on the Rocks, and others. She has served as an expert witness for the UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee, the German Bundestag EU Committee, and the European Parliament Subcommittee for Security and Defence.
She holds a doctorate in European Studies from King’s College London, and degrees in international relations and international security from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics.
Hans Kundnani is a Visiting Professor in Practice at London School of Economics Europe Institute and a Lecturer at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Europe. He was formerly an Adjunct Professor at CEMS, a visiting fellow at the Remarque Institute at New York University and an Open Society Foundations Ideas Workshop fellow. He was previously the director of the Europe programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, a senior Transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Bosch Public Policy Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, D.C., and research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is also an associate fellow at the Institute for German Studies at Birmingham University and teaches at the Collège d’Europe in Natolin, Poland.
Hans is the author of three books: Eurowhiteness. Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project (London: Hurst, 2023); The Paradox of German Power (London/New York: Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2014), which has been translated into German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish; and Utopia or Auschwitz. Germany’s 1968 Generation and the Holocaust (London/New York: Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2009). He studied German and philosophy at Oxford University and journalism at Columbia University in New York, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Tara Varma is a visiting fellow in the Center of the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Her research focus includes French and European foreign policy priorities. In particular, she works on European strategic autonomy, European defense and security priorities, transatlantic relations, and domestic developments in Europe.
Until December 2022, she was a senior policy fellow and the head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, where she followed French foreign policy and European and Asian security developments. In 2022, she was part of the working group on the French European Council presidency, set up by the French Foreign Ministry, which led to the publication of a report entitled “A Europe for Today and Tomorrow: Sovereignty, Solidarity, Shared Identity.” The report included a number of recommendations on how to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy and how to bridge the gap between France’s ambitions for Europe and a form of “soft Euroskepticism” borne by a growing part of the French population. In November 2023, Varma was awarded the honor of Knight of the National Order of Merit of France.
Varma’s recent publications include “Beyond the NATO summit, key questions remain for European security,” “Alliance of Revisionists: A New Era for the Transatlantic Relationship” with Sophia Besch, and “The China-Russia relationship and threats to vital US interests” with Patricia Kim, Asli Aydintasbas, and Angela Stent. She has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Le Monde, and more, appears regularly on France24, and is a frequent guest on the Center for a New American Security’s “Brussels Sprouts” podcast. Varma has previously worked and lived in Shanghai, London, New Delhi, and Paris. She has a master’s degree in international relations from Sciences Po Lille (2011) and a Master of Science in international politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (2011), with a focus on Asian politics and Indian and Chinese foreign policies.

Memory, Heimat, and the Legacy of Reunification: A Conversation about Restitution
2025-10-02 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG, the Robert Bosch Fellowship Alumni Association, and 1014 will host a breakfast briefing with Tamar Shapiro, Author and Urban Development Expert (2009 ACG McCloy Fellow and 1999 Bosch Fellow).

Tamar Shapiro’s debut novel Restitution tells the story of two American siblings who return to their mother’s East German hometown, from which their mother and grandparents fled in the 1950s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, only to uncover long-buried family secrets and reckon with the meaning of home, memory, and loss. As we mark the 35th anniversary of German reunification in 2025, the novel offers a timely reflection on how the legacies of division and exile continue to shape both nations and families. The discussion will reflect on the book, her experiences living and working in eastern Germany, and the continued divisions between western and eastern Germany today.
Tamar Shapiro was raised in the United States and Germany and now lives in Washington, DC. Her first novel, Restitution, is being released in September 2025. Other writing has appeared in Poets & Writers (online), as well as Electric Literature and LitHub (both forthcoming). A former attorney and non-profit leader at Mpact, the Center for Community Progress, and the German Marshall Fund, Ms. Shapiro spent decades working on housing and community development policy in the U.S. She was a recipient of a McCloy Fellowship from the American Council on Germany to study vacant property policies in former East Germany and spent a year working on urban policy in Berlin as a Robert Bosch Foundation fellow. Ms. Shapiro attended Harvard Law School and is currently a 2026 MFA candidate in Fiction at Randolph College in Virginia.

Germany 35 Years After Unification
2025-10-06 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany will host a discussion and luncheon with Vladimir Balzer, Award Winning Journalist and Moderator, Deutschlandradio.
Vladimir Balzer is an award-winning radio journalist and moderator at Deutschlandradio. He grew up in Leipzig and studied in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily program “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany. In 2023, he started as a correspondent at Deutschlandradio’s main studio in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German Television, such as ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the United States.

A Strategic Outlook: The Transatlantic Relationship in a New Era
2025-10-08 17:00 - 18:30
The ACG will host a discussion and reception with State Secretary Dr. Géza Andreas von Geyr of the Federal Foreign Office.

Dr. Géza Andreas von Geyr has been a State Secretary in the Federal Foreign Office since May 2025. He is a German career foreign service officer who most recently served as Germany’s Permanent Representative to NATO and, before that, as Germany’s Ambassador to Russia. He has held key positions in other government agencies, including serving as Political Director in the Federal Ministry of Defense from 2014 to 2019; Vice President of the Federal Intelligence Service from 2010 to 2014; and Head of Division of the Foreign and Security Policy Directorate-General in the Federal Chancellery from 2006 to 2010. From 2001 to 2006, he was a staff member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and advised Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble on foreign and security policy.
Dr. von Geyr joined the foreign service in 1991 after studying Modern History, Ancient History, and Communication in Munich, Budapest, and Vienna, as well as Political Science in Munich and Washington, DC.

What’s New Since the Federal Election? Germany’s Evolving Role in Europe
2025-10-09 09:00 - 10:30
The American Council on Germany will host a breakfast briefing with Dr. Andreas Dombret, Former Executive Board Member of the Deutsche Bundesbank.
Dr. Andreas Dombret is a German-American banker who served as a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2010 until 2018. In that capacity, he held responsibility for Banking and Financial Supervision, Risk Controlling, and the Bundesbank’s Representative Offices abroad. He was also a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism of the European Central Bank as well as the German Financial Stability Committee. Earlier in his career, Dr. Dombret was the Vice-chairman of Bank of America Global Investment Banking in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa as well as head of the German, Austrian, and Swiss branches. After retiring from the Board of the Bundesbank, Dr. Dombret continued to serve on the Board of the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements until the end of 2018 and subsequently assumed a portfolio of advisory mandates. Among them are consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and the London-headquartered equity research firm Autonomous. He is also an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Dr. Dombret completed his MBA at Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster and earned his doctorate at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. He holds dual German and American citizenship.

What Should the Transatlantic Partnership Look Like in Five Years?
2025-10-14 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Co-Author of “Rebalancing Transatlantic Relations: A Roadmap for 2030”.
Dr. Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer is the President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). With over 20 years of experience at the intersection of international relations, policy research, and public engagement, she is a leading authority on geopolitics, transatlantic relations, and global security. Her expertise has shaped how governments and businesses approach defense, diplomacy, and geo-economics on both sides of the Atlantic. Dr. de Hoop Scheffer is an independent board director and a frequent speaker and published commentator on international affairs. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris.

Transatlantic Relations in Times of Geopolitical Challenges
2025-10-24 08:00 - 09:30
The American Council on Germany and the Hanns Seidel Stiftung will host a breakfast briefing with Christian Schmidt, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, President of the German Atlantic Society, and Deputy Chairman of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, on “Transatlantic Relations in Times of Geopolitical Challenges”.
Christian Schmidt has served as the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2021. Before his appointment, he was a Member of the Bundestag since 1990, representing the electoral district of Fürth. During that time, Mr. Schmidt served as Minister of Food and Agriculture from 2014 to 2018. He was also the Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Federal Ministry of Defense from 2005 to 2013, as well as Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development from December 2013 until February 2014. Mr. Schmidt is also the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, and President of the German Atlantic Association.
Mr. Schmidt studied Law at the University of Erlangen and University of Lausanne.

Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S.: Opportunities, Challenges, and The Role of the Banking Sector
2025-10-30 12:00 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Bernd Spalt, Chief Risk Officer, Commerzbank AG.

Bernd Spalt has been the Chief Risk Officer at Commerzbank AG since January 1, 2024. He is responsible for Group Model Risk Management, Group Compliance, Group Credit Risk Management, Group Cyber Risk & Information Security, and Group Risk Control. As a former member of the Management Board of Erste Group and Erste Bank Austria, he has many years of experience in all areas of risk management.
Prior to joining Commerzbank, Mr. Spalt spent 20 years working for Erste Bank Group — where he was Chief Risk Officer from 2020 to 2022. He started his career at Erste Bank in 2002 when he became Head of Group Risk Management responsible for the implementation of Basel II, Group Risk Control, ICAAP, and Group Risk Reporting. From 2006 to 2019, he was Chief Risk Officer, overseeing comprehensive risk management across Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Romania.
Mr. Spalt holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Vienna, with a focus on European Law.

Bridging the Gap: Fostering a Transatlantic Partnership in a New Era
2025-11-03 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Tobias Lindner, former Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. Dr. Tobias Lindner was Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office from December 2021 until May 2025. He served as a Member of the German Bundestag from June 2011 until March 2025. His regional competence covered transatlantic relations, relations with Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, the Asia Pacific region, the Near and Middle East and Latin America. Dr. Lindner focuses on security policy issues and is committed to the further development of the rules-based international order, to the strengthening of the United Nations and to a feminist foreign policy. He advocates for a strong role for Germany in civilian crisis prevention, humanitarian assistance and peace mediation. Dr. Lindner also works on structural issues such as the digital transformation, gender equality, diversity, and budget issues. He has been a member of the Green Party since 1998.

Still Two Germanys? The East’s Economic and Political Divide
2025-11-06 08:00 - 09:30
The American Council on Germany will host a breakfast briefing with Prof. Dr. Johannes Beermann, Former Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank and Former Minister of State for Federal and European Affairs of the Free State of Saxony on “Still Two Germanys? The East’s Economic and Political Divide”.
Prof. Dr. Johannes Beermann studied Law at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and, after passing his second state exam in 1988, joined the staff of the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family Affairs, Women and Health. After completing his PhD in law at the University of Münster in 1990, he worked at the Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs and at the Saxon State Chancellery until 1992 and served as Head of Office for the CDU Secretary General Peter Hintze for the next three years. In 1995, Prof. Dr. Beermann became State Councilor to the Senator of Finance of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. He was then Secretary of State for Federal and European Affairs at the Hessian State Chancellery and Commissioner (Bevollmächtigter) of the State of Hessen to the Federation from 1999 to 2003 and subsequently worked in a law firm as a lawyer. Prof. Dr. Beermann was appointed Chief of the State Chancellery and Minister of State for Federal and European Affairs of the Free State of Saxony in 2008, and reappointed to these positions a year later, until 2014. From 2015 until 2022, he was a Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, responsible for the Directorates Banknotes, Controlling, Administration, Construction, and the Procurement Centre.
Prof. Dr. Beerman joined the business law firm Luther as Of Counsel in 2023. He also holds a lecturing post at the University of Applied Sciences of Mittweida after being awarded an honorary professorship in public finance and public affairs in 2020.

32nd Annual John J. McCloy Awards Dinner
2025-11-14 18:00 - 22:00

NYC Event "Chancellor Merz’s First 180 Days: Policy, Politics, and Public Perception"
2025-11-24 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany will host luncheon and discussion with Anja Wehler-Schöck, International Editor at Der Tagesspiegel on “Chancellor Merz’s First 180 Days: Policy, Politics, and Public Perception”.
Anja Wehler-Schöck joined the Editorial Board of Der Tagesspiegel as the International Editor in January 2025. She has been Head of International Politics at Der Tagesspiegel since August 2022. Prior to that, she worked as editor-in-chief of the IPG Journal, a debate platform for issues of international and European politics. She previously worked as a social affairs officer at the German Embassy in Washington and headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s office for Jordan and Iraq in Amman from 2012 to 2017.

Virtual Event - What's Next for Ukraine?
2025-12-05 11:00 - 12:00
Efforts to end the war in Ukraine have gained new momentum in recent days, spurred by several newly developed peace proposals circulating among key international stakeholders. As battlefield dynamics evolve and diplomatic channels cautiously reopen, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic are reassessing what a viable settlement might look like – and what risks or opportunities these emerging plans present.
Join us for a timely virtual discussion with ACG Board member Lieutenant General Ben Hodges (ret.) to assess the unfolding events, examine the substance and strategic implications of the latest peace initiatives, and explore the prospects for a durable and just peace in Ukraine. This conversation will provide essential context on the shifting geopolitical landscape, the interests driving each actor, and what the coming months may hold for Ukrainian sovereignty, European security, and U.S. policy. Lieutenant General (ret.) Ben Hodges is the former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe (2014-2017). He is a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC and consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union. He is co-author of the book Future War and the Defense of Europe. Lt. Gen. Hodges has a regular presence in U.S. and international media, where he offers insight and analysis on NATO, U.S. and European security, the Russian war against Ukraine, the greater Black Sea and Baltic Sea Regions, the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. Election and its implications for transatlantic security, human rights, and other related geostrategic topics.
He most recently served as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. Prior to that, he was an Advisor to Human Rights First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Before joining Human Rights First, Lt. Gen. Hodges held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Lt. Gen. Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry.

NYC Event: Fireside Chat with Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller
2025-12-08 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Director and Senior Fellow of Foreign Policy at the Center on the United States and Europe and Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Transatlantic Relations at The Brookings Institution (1993 ACG Young Leader). Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller (1993 ACG Young Leader) is an expert on German, European, and transatlantic foreign and security policy and strategy. She is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and the inaugural holder of the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and trans-Atlantic Relations at Brookings. She held the Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress from October 2019 to March 2020, and served as the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at Brookings from 2014 to 2019.
Prior to working at Brookings, Dr. Stelzenmüller was a senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), where she directed the influential Transatlantic Trends survey program. She also managed the “New Power, New Responsibility” project. Her areas of expertise include: transatlantic relations; German foreign policy; NATO; the European Union’s foreign, security, and defense policy; international law; and human rights.
Dr. Stelzenmüller is the former director of GMF’s Berlin office. From 1994 to 2005, she was defense and international security editor in the political section of the German weekly DIE ZEIT; previously, she had covered human rights issues, war crimes tribunals, and humanitarian crises. She has worked in Germany and the United States, and speaks English, French, German, and Spanish. Dr. Stelzenmüller holds a doctorate in law from the University of Bonn (1992), a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1988), and a law degree from the University of Bonn (1985).

NYC Event: “The China Challenge: A German Perspective”
2025-12-11 18:00 - 19:30
The ACG will host a discussion and reception with Metin Hakverdi, Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation in the Federal Foreign Office and Member of the German Bundestag (SPD) on “The China Challenge: A German Perspective”.
Metin Hakverdi serves as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation for the German Government. He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013, and currently serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs as well as the Budget Committee. He is the Deputy Chairman of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group, Chairman of the USA Discussion Group of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and a member of the Board of Atlantik-Brücke. Mr. Hakverdi was a John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow at Harvard University.
Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Hakverdi was a member of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 2008 to 2013. He attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied Law at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel and Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law.

NYC Event - TikTok Voting: An Institutional and Behavioral Look at Germany’s Young Electorate
2026-01-15 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and The German Center for Research and Innovation New York (DWIH) will host a discussion and luncheon on “TikTok Voting: An Institutional and Behavioral Look at Germany’s Young Electorate” with Prof. Dr. Thorsten Faas, Hannah Arendt Visiting Chair for German and European Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
Professor Dr. Thorsten Faas is one of Germany’s most renowned election researchers. He is currently a visiting professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. He holds the Hannah Arendt Visiting Chair for German and European Studies, which is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His research focuses on electoral politics and campaign communications, particularly as they relate to young people and German elections. Faas is one of the principal investigators of the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) and a member of the Planning Committee for Module 7 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES).
After studying political science in Bamberg and at the London School of Economics, he received his doctorate from the University of Duisburg-Essen in 2008. After working in Bamberg, Duisburg-Essen and Mannheim, he joined Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 2012. Since 2017, he has been teaching and researching as a professor and head of the Centre for Political Sociology of the Federal Republic of Germany at the Free University of Berlin. His academic articles have been published in the American Political Science Review, West European Politics, the European Journal of Political Research, the Journal of European Public Policy, Electoral Studies, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and German Politics. In addition, Prof. Dr. Faas also works as a consultant for political institutions and the media.

NYC Event - The Global Challenge to Democracy and Lessons for Renewal
2026-01-22 18:00 - 20:00
The ACG and 1014 will host a discussion and reception with Dr. John K. Glenn, George Washington University and Ksenia Iliuk, Co-Founder and COO of Let’s Data. Dr. John K. Glenn is a Lecturer at the Elliott School for International Affairs at George Washington University, and has over 20 years of experience on democracy and transatlantic relations in the nonprofit, foundation, and academic sectors. He served until recently as the Senior Director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). For his work at NED, he was sanctioned by the Russian Foreign Ministry and banned from travel to the country.
Dr. Glenn previously served as Policy Director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Director of Foreign Policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and Executive Director of the Council for European Studies. He has testified before Congress on America’s image in the world and is the author of Framing Democracy: Civil society and civic movements in Eastern Europe, published by Stanford University Press.
Ksenia Iliuk is the Co-Founder and COO of Let’s Data, a company she co-founded in wartime Ukraine where she leads research and product development on detecting information operations, working closely with governmental and enterprise clients. She has over ten years of experience analyzing information operations in Europe, previously heading research at Detector Media in Ukraine. Ms. Iliuk also worked with multiple European governments on countering online threats. She was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list for her work.

NYC Event: Fireside Chat and Luncheon with ACG's Chairman Ambassador John B. Emerson
2026-01-30 12:00 - 14:00
The American Council on Germany will host a Fireside Chat and Luncheon with Ambassador John B. Emerson, Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Vice Chairman at Capital Group International, and Chairman of the American Council on Germany. Space is limited.
Ambassador John B. Emerson was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany in January 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, Ambassador Emerson received the State Department’s Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, an award given annually to one non-career Ambassador. In 2017, the Secretary of the Navy and the Director of the CIA awarded him their highest civilian honors for his service.
Prior to accepting the ambassadorial posting, Amb. Emerson was President of Private Client Services for the Capital Group Companies. Before joining Capital, he was Deputy Assistant to President Clinton where he coordinated his economic conferences, served as the president’s liaison to the nation’s governors, and led the administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement and the extension of China s MFN trading status. Additionally, he was appointed by President Obama to serve on his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Before working in the Clinton White House, he served as Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney and was a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg, and Phillips.
In addition to his role as Chairman of the American Council on Germany, he serves on the boards of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the German Marshall Fund of the United States and is a long serving member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an honorary doctorate from Hamilton College, a juris doctorate degree from the University of Chicago, and a BA in Philosophy from Hamilton College.

NYC Event: "Digital Sovereignty and the EU’s Digital Omnibus Package: A New Era for Digital Politics?"
2026-02-03 08:00 - 09:30
The American Council on Germany and the American Business Forum on Europe will host a Breakfast Briefing with Oliver Süme
Partner at Fieldfisher and Chair of the Board of the Internet Industry Association (eco) on “Digital Sovereignty and the EU’s Digital Omnibus Package: A New Era for Digital Politics?”
On November 19, the European Commission unveiled its Digital Omnibus Package – a sweeping initiative to reorganize and modernize Europe’s digital regulatory landscape. At the same time and in the light of the recent geopolitical developments, the European Commission is pushing for increased digital sovereignty, aiming to strengthen Europe’s capacity in cloud infrastructure and AI. What does this mean for U.S. companies operating in or with Europe? Is this a move toward digital deregulation and a rejection of the dominance of U.S. tech companies?
Join us to learn about the proposed changes that come with the Digital Omnibus and how digital sovereignty might translate into a new era of European digital politics.
Oliver Süme is a Partner at the European law firm Fieldfisher and Chair of the Board of the Internet Industry Association. He advises his international clients on all legal challenges in Technology Law, in particular IT contract law, data protection and legal issues relating to IT security. Mr. Süme is also Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry and heads the data economy committee of EuroISPA, the European umbrella organization of internet service providers.
Please email events@acgusa.org for RSVP information.

CANCELLED- NYC Events: Discussion in German with Staatsminister Florian Hahn
2026-02-24 12:00 - 13:30
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO THE WEATHER.

The American Council on Germany will host a discussion and luncheon on “War, Resilience, and Europe’s Security Future” with Staatsminister Florian Hahn, Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office.

This event will be held in German.
Florian Hahn is a German politician serving as Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt). A long-standing member of the German Bundestag, he represents the Christian Social Union (CSU) and has built his career around European security and defense policy.
Before joining the Foreign Office leadership, Mr. Hahn was the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s defense policy spokesperson and previously its European policy spokesperson, roles that made him a prominent voice on NATO, transatlantic relations, and Germany’s security posture. In his current post, he supports Germany’s foreign minister on political, foreign, and security policy priorities, with a particular focus on Europe and the transatlantic partnership.

NYC Event “A New Role for Germany in an Evolving Security Environment?”
2026-03-02 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany, The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and The German Center for Research and Innovation New York (DWIH) will host a discussion and luncheon on “A New Role for Germany in an Evolving Security Environment?” with Prof. Dr. Ulrich SchlieDirector of the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic, and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and Henry Kissinger Professor for Strategic Studies at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Bonn.
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie is a historian and political scientist. He currently holds a Joint Research Professorship at the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. His most recent book Politikberatung was published last month.
After studying Medieval and Modern History, Political Science and Romance Studies at the University of Bonn, Ulrich Schlie worked at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) from 1991 to 1993. He then worked in the German Foreign Service for over 27 years and held positions of Head, Policy Planning at the Federal Ministry of Defense from 2005 to 2012 and Director, General International Security and Defense Policy from 2012 to 2014. In February 2020, he completed his habilitation at Andrássy University in Budapest with the thesis “The Strategic Shift in German Foreign and Security Policy Since the Founding of the Federal Republic”. In 1992, he was awarded a doctorate at the University of Bonn with a thesis titled “Secret Talks with the Opponent: The Western Powers and the Peace Issue in World War II.”

NYC Event: "Can Germany Pull Europe Out of the Mire?"
2026-03-05 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany will host a discussion and luncheon on “Can Germany Pull Europe out of the Mire?” with David Marsh, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) and Author of Can Europe Survive? The Story of a Continent in a Fractured World.
David Marsh is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of OMFIF. Before starting at OMFIF in late 2009, he worked for City merchant bank Robert Fleming, corporate finance boutique Hawkpoint, German management consultancy Droege and London investment firm London & Oxford. Mr. Marsh took over the chairmanship from John Plender in January 2018 having been Managing Director since 2014. He reverted to an executive role after John Orchard stepped down in October 2024 following five years as Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Marsh is a visiting Professor at Sheffield University and King’s College London. He is former co-founder, chairman and deputy chairman of the German-British Forum. He was made Commander of the British Empire in 2000 and was awarded the German Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in 2003.
He started his career at Reuters in 1973 having graduated with a BA in chemistry from The Queen’s College Oxford. Between 1978 and 1995 he worked for the Financial Times in France and Germany, latterly as European Editor in London. Mr. Marsh has written seven books on politics and economics, mainly on Germany and Europe. His latest book, Can Europe Survive? The Story of a Continent in a Fractured World, was published by Yale University Press in October 2025.
