Antisemitism in Europe: Challenges and Solutions
2022-06-17 12:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
On June 17, the American Council on Germany will hold a discussion and luncheon with Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life.
Katharina von Schnurbein (2009 Young Leader) was appointed the first European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism in December 2015. Her mandate includes liaising closely with Jewish communities, Member States, EU institutions, and international organizations as well as proposing and implementing policy to address antisemitism, foster Jewish life, and ensure Holocaust remembrance. Prior to this, she worked for five years as an advisor to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on dialogue with churches, religions, and non-confessional organizations. Ms. von Schnurbein started working for the European Commission in 2002 as a press officer for the EU Delegation in Prague. With enlargement in 2004, she moved to Brussels as the spokesperson for Employment, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities for the Czech EU Commissioner Vladimir Špidla. Before that, Ms. von Schnurbein worked for the Chairman of the European Affairs Committee at the German Bundestag in Berlin (2000-2002) as well as for an international crisis management consultancy. She received B’nai B’rith Europe’s Human Rights Prize in 2018 and the Marietta and Friedrich Torberg Medal of the Jewish Community in Vienna in 2021. Ms. von Schnurbein’s educational background includes undergraduate studies in political science and Slavic studies at Charles University in Prague and the University of Bonn, a Master of Slavic Studies from Oxford University (1997), and a Master of European Studies from the Center for European Integration Studies in Bonn (1999). She spent the academic year 2017-2018 as an EU Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence to conduct research on effective measures to combat antisemitism across Europe.

German Leadership and the Zeitenwende: Evolving Foreign Policy Priorities in Germany and Beyond
2022-07-12 12:00 - 14:00
On July 12, the ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Metin Hakverdi, Member of the Bundestag (SPD).

Germany’s Foreign and Security Policy Pivot: A View from the Opposition
2022-07-28 12:00 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Member of the Bundestag Peter Beyer (CDU).
This discussion is limited to members of the ACG.

Lessons from the Pandemic: How Cities Can Protect Public Health and Fight Climate Change
2022-09-12 18:00 - 19:30
On September 12, the ACG and the Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung will hold a discussion and reception with Silke Gebel, Member of the German Green Party and
Chair of the Green Party in the Berlin House of Representatives
Silke Gebel is Chairwoman of the state Parliamentary Group of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens) in the Berlin House of Representatives, where she was elected in 2013 to represent Berlin-Mitte. As Chairwoman, she is particularly involved in issues relating to the governance of the Social Democratic-Green-Left coalition in Berlin. The Green Party has been involved in the state government in Berlin since 2016. Trained in public administration, Ms. Gebel joined the Greens in 2003 and served as Political Director of the Green Youth in the federal government.
Ms. Gebel’s main concerns are to advance strong environmental protection, with a focus on ensuring access to clean water, improving air quality, and expanding public green spaces in the city. Her commitment to Berlin’s health sector is unique. She initiated a Green Hospital Program, which is the city’s first comprehensive policy to make hospitals more sustainable. Ms. Gebel believes that strengthening environmental protection and minimizing resource use in sectors as important as health care will make Berlin more equitable and livable for all residents, especially children and the elderly, who are most affected by pollution.
Another focus of her work is digitalization, which offers innovative ways to modernize Berlin and meet the great challenge of making the city climate-neutral. On an international level, Ms. Gebel advocates for constructive discussions on the future of European political cooperation for peace, from which the city of Berlin has greatly benefited. As a committed European, she is a member of the Young European Federalists of the European Union. She is also a member of ver.di, one of the most powerful trade unions in Germany, representing nearly 2 million people.

The War in Ukraine and its Impact on Germany – and Europe
2022-09-13 08:00 - 09:30
On Septembre 13, the ACG and the Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung will hold a breakfast briefing with Omid Nouripour, Member of the Bundestag and Co-Chairman of Alliance ‘90/The Greens.
Omid Nouripour has been an active member of the German Green Party (Alliance 90/The Greens) since 1996. He first worked on an initiative for strengthening the rights of immigrants in Germany. From 1999 until 2003 he was the chairman of the Green Party’s Youth Organization in Hessen, his German home state. In December 2002, he was elected to the board of the federal Green Party and he remained on as a board member until December 2006. From 2002 until 2009 he was also the spokesperson of the Federal Working Committee on Migrants and Refugees of the Green Party.
Mr. Nouripour became a member of parliament in September 2006, taking over the seat of Joschka Fischer, the former German foreign minister. Mr. Nouripour first worked on European issues and Home affairs and was a member of the Budget Committee, the Committee of Defense, and the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. He was the ranking member of the Green Party parliamentary group in the Foreign Affairs Committee during the 19th legislative period and the Green Party’s spokesman on foreign affairs. He was re-elected to the Bundestag in the September 2021 federal election and won the seat in his constituency.
Since February 2022, Omid Nouripour has been the Co-Chairman of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen.

Investing in Germany while Restructuring Energy Supplies
2022-09-21 11:30 - 12:30
On September 21, the ACG will host a discussion with Dr. Jörg Kukies, State Secretary for Economic, Finance, and European Affairs in the German Federal Chancellery.
Dr. Jörg Kukies is the State Secretary for Economic, Finance, and European Affairs, and G7/G20 Sherpa in the German Federal Chancellery. Previously, he served as State Secretary for financial market policy and European policy at the Federal Ministry of Finance from April 2018. Before that, he was co-chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs AG and managing director of the Frankfurt branch of Goldman Sachs International from 2014 to 2018. He has previously held positions in the product development team of Goldman Sachs International in London, in the equities division for Germany and Austria in Frankfurt, and as head of equity derivatives for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Goldman Sachs International from 2011 to 2014.
Dr. Kukies studied economics at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris. He has a master’s in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

Putin’s War in Ukraine: A Shock for Germany
2022-09-30 12:00 - 14:00
On September 30, the ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Journalist and former Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (1985 ACG Legislative Aide Fellow).
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger (1985 ACG Legislative Aide Fellow) is a journalist who previously served as the Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His writing has focused on the United States, European, transatlantic, and international politics. Mr. Frankenberger holds a master’s degree in Political Science, Economics, and American Studies from Frankfurt University. In 1980, he participated in an exchange program with the University of Mississippi. From 1982 to 1985 he was a research associate at the Center for North-American Studies at Frankfurt University. Mr. Frankenberger was a Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 1986 and a Marshall Fellow at Harvard University in 1990. He has lectured at several American universities. In 2011, he was a Bosch Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, D.C. Since he joined the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s leading national daily, in 1986, he served in various capacities, as European, International, and Editorial Page Editor. Mr. Frankenberger was a Member of the Trilateral Commission and of the Scientific Council of the Institute for European Politics in Berlin. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin and is associated with several organizations that deal with the transatlantic relationship.

Germany’s Zeitenwende and the War in Ukraine: How does the Bundeswehr React?
2022-10-14 08:00 - 10:00
On October 14, the ACG and the German Consulate in New York will host a breakfast briefing with General Markus Laubenthal , Deputy Inspector General of the Bundeswehr.
Lieutenant General Markus Laubenthal has been the Deputy Inspector General of the Bundeswehr since April 2020. Prior to this, he was the Director General for Forces Policy at the Federal Ministry of Defense. And, before that Lieutenant General Laubenthal was commander of the 1st Armored Division in Oldenburg between 2017 and 2018 and chief of staff of U.S. Army Europe in Wiesbaden from 2014 to 2017. In other assignments, he served as commander of Armored Brigade 12 in Amberg (2012 to 2014) and Tank Battalion 203 in Hemer (2003 to 2005), a trainee at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom (2001 to 2002) and a youth officer in Schwerin (1991 to 1993), among others. From 1997 to 1999, he was a participant in the 40th Army General Staff Course at the German Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Hamburg.
From summer 2013 to winter 2014, Laubenthal served as Chief of Staff ISAF-International Security Assistance Force Regional Command North in Mazar-e Sharif/Afghanistan and from fall 2002 to spring 2003 as Military Assistant to the Deputy Commander Operations and Assistant Chief of Staff Operations at Headquarters Kosovo Force in Pristina.

The Three I’s: Invasion, Inflation, and Interest Rates
2022-10-18 12:00 - 14:00
On October 18, the ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with 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.

Germany, Russia, and the War in Ukraine
2022-10-25 12:00 - 14:00
On October 25, the ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Senior Advisor at Human Rights First and Retired Commanding General of the United States Army Europe.
Lieutenant General Ben Hodges served as Commanding General of United States Army Europe from 2014 to 2017 before his retirement from the Army in early 2018. Based in Frankfurt, he is currently a Senior Advisor to Human Rights First. General Hodges has also served in a variety of Joint and Army Staff positions, including Tactics Instructor; Chief of Plans, 2nd Infantry Division, in Korea; Aide-de-Camp to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe; Chief of Staff, XVIII Airborne Corps; Director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff; Chief of Legislative Liaison for the United States Army; and Commander of NATO Allied Land Command (İzmir, Turkey). After his first assignment as an Infantry Lieutenant in Garlstedt, Germany, he commanded Infantry units at the Company, Battalion, and Brigade levels in the 101st Airborne Division, including Command of the First Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne” of the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2004). His other operational assignments include Chief of Operations for Multi-National Corps – Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2005-2006) and Director of Operations, Regional Command South, in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2009-2010).

Can Europe Remain a Strong Ally for the United States?
2022-10-26 18:00 - 20:00
On October 26, the ACG and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung will host a discussion and dinner with Hermann Gröhe, Member of the German Bundestag (CDU) and former German Federal Minister of Health.
Hermann Gröhe is the Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group and the Deputy Chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. From 2013 to 2018, he was the Federal Minister of Health of Germany. Before this, between 2009 and 2013, he served as the Secretary-General of the CDU. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Gröhe was the spokesperson of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the First Committee of Inquiry, and from 2005 to 2008, he also acted as legal counsel to the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group. As Federal Minister of Health, he put antimicrobial resistance on the G7 and G20 agenda and advanced Germany’s global health commitments. He gained international recognition for his efforts to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.

Germany’s Zeitenwende: How It’s Being Viewed in Different Regions of the U.S.”
2022-10-31 12:00 - 14:00
On October 31, the ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Ambassador (ret.) Stefan Schlueter, Program Director at the Diplomatic Academy of the German Foreign Office in Berlin.
Stefan Schlüter just completed a speaking tour to North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Washington, and Minnesota with the ACG. He met with a range of people, and will reflect on his trip. Mr. Schlüter served in the German Foreign Office until the summer of 2017 and is now a Program Director at the Diplomatic Academy in Berlin. After studying political science at the University of Hamburg, Mr. Schlüter joined the German Foreign Office in 1979. His first foreign assignments brought him to Buenos Aires and Algiers. From 1986 to 1990 he served as the spokesman of the German Embassy in Tel Aviv before returning to the Foreign Office in Bonn as desk officer for the Maghreb countries. From 1992 to 1995 he served as Deputy Consul General in Los Angeles before returning to Bonn as Deputy Director for the southern part of Latin America. From 2000 to 2004, he was posted to the United States a second time and served as Deputy Consul General in New York City before moving to Buenos Aires as Deputy Chief of Mission. In 2007 he returned to the Foreign Office in Berlin to assume the position of Director for Conflict Prevention, Peace-Building, Democracy Promotion and State-Building, promoting German projects in this field world-wide. In 2010 he was appointed Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean Region, residing in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago before moving on to his last assignment as Consul General in San Francisco in 2014.

Fake News, Cybersecurity, and Election Manipulation
2022-11-02 08:00 - 09:30
On November 2, the ACG and the Hasso Plattner Insitute will host a breakfast briefing with Professor Dr. Christoph Meinel, Managing and Scientific Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute and Dean of the Digital Engineering Faculty at Potsdam University.
Professor Dr. Christoph Meinel is Managing and Scientific Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering (HPI) as well as the Founding Dean of the Digital Engineering Faculty at the University of Potsdam. He is the Chair of Internet Technologies and Systems and teaches courses on IT Systems Engineering on HPI’s MOOC platform openHPI, and at the HPI School of Design Thinking. His research currently focuses on security engineering, knowledge engineering, and Web 3.0–Semantic, Social, Service Web. He is also scientifically active in Design Thinking research. Dr. Meinel is the author or coauthor of more than 25 books, anthologies, and numerous conference proceedings. He has had more than 550 (peer-reviewed) papers published in scientific journals and at international conferences and holds a number of international patents. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), Director of the HPI-Stanford Design Thinking Research Program, Honorary Professor at the TU Beijing and Dalian University of Technology, Visiting Professor at Shanghai University, Concurrent Professor at the University of Nanjing, and a member of numerous scientific committees and Supervisory Boards.

Navigating Troubled Water: The Transatlantic Partnership in the Face of Multiple Crises
2022-11-04 07:30 - 09:00
On November 4, the ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Sigmar Gabriel, former Foreign Minister, former Vice Chancellor, and Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke.
Sigmar Gabriel has been Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke e.V. since June 2019. He was the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 2009 to 2017, which made him the party’s longest-serving leader since Willy Brandt. Before leaving politics in 2018, he held three respective positions at the level of Federal Minister: In addition to serving as Vice-Chancellor of Germany (2013-2018), Sigmar Gabriel was Minister for Foreign Affairs (2017-2018), Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy (2013-2017), and Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (2005-2009).
In 2005, he was first elected to the Bundestag representing Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony – and remained a member of Parliament until 2018. Earlier in his career, he served as Minister-President of Lower Saxony from 1999 to 2003. In the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Environmental Committee in Lower Saxony’s Parliament and a member of the SPD Executive Committee. In the 1980s, Sigmar Gabriel, who is certified as a high school teacher, assumed various responsibilities in adult education and was elected to Lower Saxony’s Parliament. He has been active in politics since 1976, when he joined a socialist youth organization.

Germany’s Zeitenwende: A New Chapter for Transatlantic Relations”
2022-11-14 12:00 - 14:00
On November 14, the ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Michael Georg Link, Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office and Member of the Bundestag (FDP).
Michael Georg Link is a member of the German Bundestag, now in his fourth legislative term. He represents the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and his home electoral district, Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg. Mr. Link is the Spokesperson on Europe of the FDP Parliamentary Group, and since March 2022 he has been the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office.
Mr. Link is a member of the party council of the European Liberals (ALDE) and a member of the FDP national executive board in his capacity as party Treasurer. He is also a Vice-Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, where he collaborates closely with the U.S. Helsinki Commission. As a member of Heilbronn’s city council, he has remained politically active at the local level. In 2020, he was the Head OSCE observer at the U.S. general elections. From 2012 to 2013, he was Minister of State at the Federal Foreign responsible for relations with the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and NATO, as well as bilateral relations with the United States and Canada. After his military service, Mr. Link studied Russian and French at the universities of Augsburg, Lausanne, and Heidelberg.

Germany’s G7 Presidency in a Period of Crisis
2022-11-15 08:30 - 10:30
On November 15, the ACG and the German Consulate General will host a breakfast briefing with Dr. Florian Toncar, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance and Member of the German Bundestag (FDP).

Dr. Florian Toncar has been Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance since December 2021. Since 2017, he has also been Parliamentary Secretary of the FDP Parliamentary Group in the Bundestag. In 2009, he became a member of the National Executive Committee of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Chair of the FDP’s Expert Committee for Home Affairs and Law in Baden-Württemberg, positions he continues to hold. From 2009 to 2013, he was Chair of the Financial Markets Advisory Committee, and he served as Deputy Leader of the FDP Parliamentary Group in the Bundestag from 2011 to 2013.
Dr. Toncar studied law in Regensburg, Cambridge, and Heidelberg.

Recalibrating German Foreign Policy After the Zeitenwende
2022-11-16 12:00 - 14:00
On November 16, the ACG and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung will host a discussion and luncheon with Lars Klingbeil, Party Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Lars Klingbeil is a German politician and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany since 2021. Mr. Klingbeil first joined the SPD in 1996, and in 2009, he was elected to represent the Rotenburg I – Heidekreis district in the German Bundestag. Since 2017, he has been a directly elected representative. From 2017 to 2021, Mr. Klingbeil was Secretary General of the SPD, and from 2009 to 2017, he was digital policy spokesman for the SPD Parliamentary Group and a member of the Defense Committee. He is a founding member of D64 – Center for Digital Progress and a member of AWO, a national workers’ welfare association, and IG BCE, a trade union for the mining, chemistry, and energy industries. Mr. Klingbeil was born in Soltau in 1978 and grew up in Munster in the Lüneburg Heath.

One Year Later: Russia’s War in Ukraine, Germany’s Policy Pivot, and Implications for Transatlantic Relations
2023-02-23 18:00 - 19:30
The American Council on Germany, Deutsches Haus at NYU, and NYU’s The Center for European and Mediterranean will host a discussion and reception with Metin Hakverdi, Member of the Bundestag (SPD). Metin Hakverdi joined the Social Democratic Party in 2002 and has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013. He serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs and the Budget Committee. He is the Chairman of the USA/North America Working Group within the SPD Parliamentary Group and a German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group member in the German Bundestag. 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, where he was on the Budget Committee and the Committee of Public Companies and Assets.
Mr. Hakverdi attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel and Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. He was a distinguished visitor at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in 2019 and a 2020 John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow at Harvard’s Center for European Studies (CES). He is a member of Atlantik-Brücke e.V.

China is more than Xi Jinping: Perspectives on Chinese Society and Implications for the Transatlantic Relationship
2023-03-15 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Kristin Shi-Kupfer, Professor of Sinology at the University of Trier and 2022 McCloy Fellow on Global Trends.
Dr. Kristin Shi-Kupfer is a Professor of Sinology at the University of Trier and a Senior Associate Fellow at MERICS. She is an expert on China’s digital politics, media policy, civil society, and human rights.
From 2013 until September 2020, Kristin headed MERICS’ Public Policy and Society research area. She previously worked as a research associate at the University of Freiburg’s Institute for Sinology. She earned her Ph.D. from Ruhr University Bochum with a thesis on spiritual and religious groups in China after 1978. From 2007 to 2011, she was based in Beijing, covering China for various German-speaking media like the Austrian magazine Profil, the German Protestant Press Agency epd, and Deutsche Welle.
Since 2019, she has been a member of the Sino-German Working Group on Digital Business Models initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In 2022, she was awarded a McCloy Fellow on Global Trends from the American Council on Germany to conduct research on Chinese influence on the transatlantic relationship.

Heimat Is a Space in Time
2023-03-28 17:30 - 21:30
In Heimat Is a Space in Time (Germany, 2019), German filmmaker Thomas Heise shares the stories of three generations of his family, in their own words.
Heise sets the tone early, reading an anti-war essay written in 1912 by his grandfather Wilhelm, when he was a schoolboy. The director uses the same matter-of-fact, uninflected tone throughout the film – as he reads letters and notes from relatives who lived through the horrors of the First World War, Nazi Germany, and then life in Communist East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Heimat is a Space in Time defies easy description. Heise offers no context, no talking heads, no analysis. Yet this unadorned approach, coupled with the potent imagery accompanying the words, is one of the documentary’s greatest strengths. One particularly memorable sequence involves Heise’s grandparents, a “mixed” Jewish-Gentile couple living in Vienna during the Nazi era. Their letters capture the increasing measures taken against Jews: banned from buses, losing access to coal ration cards, and lastly being forced to a concentration camp in Poland. All the while, as Heise reads, lists with the names of Jews slated for deportation scroll by on the screen for nearly half an hour.
Clearly influenced by his own previous work (much of it banned in the former East Germany, where he lived until the fall of the Berlin Wall), Heimat is the culmination of Heise’s career. It is an understated epic that brilliantly marries the written word, image, and sound design. The unspoken message is that the past, even as those who remember it slip away, remains with us.

A New Global Policy for the Transatlantic Community
2023-04-04 12:30 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
Ambassador Christoph Heusgen (ACG Board member) has been the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference since 2022. Before taking on that role, Ambassador Heusgen was the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations from 2017 to 2021 and Germany’s representative on the Security Council in 2019 and 2020. Before coming to New York, Ambassador Heusgen served for 12 years as Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel. His career in the Foreign Service also included terms as Deputy Head in charge of European affairs in the private office of Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel from 1993 to 1997 and Director of the Policy Unit of High Representative Javier Solana in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels from 1999 to 2005.
With special

Germany’s Zeitenwende: The War in Ukraine and the New German Defense Posture
2023-04-14 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Lieutenant General Kai Rohrschneider, Director General for Forces Policy at the Federal Ministry of Defense.
Lieutenant General Kai Ronald Rohrschneider (1998 Young Leader) joined the Federal Armed Forces in 1983 as an officer candidate in the Armor Branch. He completed his basic military education in Armor Battalion 63 in Arolsen and joined the University of the Federal Armed Forces in 1984. He finished his academic education in 1988 with a degree in economics, organization and business administration. After assignments as a platoon leader and company commander in Munster and Cuxhaven, he was selected for the national General/Admiral Staff Officer Course at the Command and Staff College in Hamburg which he completed in 1998. After being assigned as the G3 Planning and Operations Officer at the Army Forces Command in Koblenz, General Rohrschneider joined the Advanced Command and Staff Course at the Joint Service Command and Staff College in Shrivenham in the United Kingdom in 2000. After assignments in the Germany Ministry of Defense and as Chief of Staff of the 37th Light Infantry Brigade in Frankenberg, General Rohrschneider assumed command over Armor Battalion 393 in Bad Salzungen in 2005. Following this command position, he was appointed as senior personnel officer at the Bundeswehr Personnel Office. General Rohrschneider was appointed Chief of G3 Division of the 13th Mechanized Infantry Division in Leipzig in 2008. Having attended the National Security Program at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto in 2011 and being appointed as the Branch-Chief for Security Policy Aspects of Bundeswehr Participation in Operations and Missions at the German Ministry of Defense in 2012, General Rohschneider assumed command over the 21st Armor Brigade “Lipperland” in Augustdorf in 2014. Leaving this position in 2016, he was assigned as the Chief of Staff of the US Army Europe in Wiesbaden, followed by an assignment as the Chief of Staff of the Multinational Joint Headquarters in Ulm in 2018, and in 2019, additionally, as Deputy Commander NATO Joint Support and Enabling Command. Lieutenant General Rohrschneider was appointed Director General for Forces Policy at the Federal Ministry of Defense in 2020.

Postwar Reconstruction in Ukraine: A New Marshall Plan?
2023-04-18 12:30 - 14:00
In recent months there has been much discussion about post-war reconstruction in Ukraine after the conflict there comes to an end. Some politicians, analysts, and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic have called for a “Marshall Plan for Ukraine.” Following the Second World War, the Marshall Plan was an ambitious and innovative strategy to rebuild Europe. It provided more than $15 billion in aid to 17 war-ravaged European countries – and was successful in rebuilding cities, infrastructure, and industry across the continent, including Germany. But, is the Marshall Plan the right model for rebuilding Ukraine? What lessons can be drawn from the implementation of the Marshall Plan 75 years ago?
Join 1014 and the American Council on Germany for a discussion with Dr. Benn Steil, Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Bruce Stokes, non-resident Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, about the Marshall Plan, the current situation in Ukraine, and whether or not a Marshall Plan for Ukraine makes sense.

Dr. Benn Steil is senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is the lead writer of the Council’s Geo-Graphics economics blog, and the creator of eight web-based interactives tracking Global Monetary Policy, Global Imbalances, Global Trade, Global Growth, Global Energy, Sovereign Risk, China’s Belt and Road, and Central Bank Currency Swaps. Prior to joining the Council in 1999, he was director of the International Economics Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He came to the Institute in 1992 from a Lloyd’s of London Tercentenary Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he received his MPhil and DPhil (PhD) in economics. He also holds a BSc in economics summa cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Steil has written and spoken widely on international finance, monetary policy, financial markets, and economic and diplomatic history. He has testified before the U.S. House, Senate, and CFTC, and is a regular op-ed writer and commentator on CNBC. His most recent book, The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War, won the New-York Historical Society’s 2019 Barbara and David Zalaznick Prize for best work on American history, won the American Academy of Diplomacy’s 2018 Douglas Dillon Prize, won the Honorable Mention (runner-up) for the 2019 ASEEES Marshall D. Shulman Prize, was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize, and is ranked number 3 among BookAuthority’s Best Diplomacy Books of All Time. Paul Kennedy in the Wall Street Journal called the book “brilliant,” the New York Times called it “trenchant and timely,” the Financial Times called it “elegant in style and impressive in insights,” and the Christian Science Monitor called it a “gripping, complex, and critically important story that is told with clarity and precision.”
Bruce Stokes is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and has served as the Executive Director of the GMFs “Transatlantic Task Force: Together or Alone? Choices and Strategies for Transatlantic Relations for 2021 and Beyond.” He is also a co-author of “Designing Ukraine’s Recovery in the Spirit of the Marshall Plan.” Previously, he was the Director of Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, and is a former international economics columnist for the National Journal, a Washington-based public policy magazine.
From 2010-2012, Mr. Stokes was a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He was the author of the 2009 Transatlantic Trends survey, and two task force reports: The Case for Renewing Transatlantic Capitalism, and A New Era for Transatlantic Trade Leadership. In 1987 and again in 1989, he was a Japan Society Fellow, living in and reporting from Japan. In 1997, he was a member of President Clinton’s Commission on United States-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy and he wrote its final report, “Building American Prosperity in the 21st Century.”
He is co-author of the book America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked (Times Books, 2006), and co-author of numerous Pew Global Attitudes Surveys. Mr. Stokes is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

Cancelled - German Defense Policy and the Zeitenwende: Perspectives on European and Transatlantic Security
2023-04-26 13:00 - 15:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with H.E. Boris Pistorius, German Federal Minister of Defense.
This event is by invitation only.

H.E. Boris Pistorius is the German Federal Minister of Defense, a position he has held since January 2023. In this capacity, he serves as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces in peacetime and heads the Bundeswehr administration, where he is responsible for the entire civilian staff of the Bundeswehr and the Defense Ministry. In the decade before his appointment, he was Minister for Domestic Policy and Sports in Lower Saxony. From 2006 to 2013, he was Mayor of the City of Osnabrück. He completed his military service before studying law at the University of Osnabrück and Münster.

Annual Meeting of the Members
2023-05-04 17:30 - 20:00
The ACG will hold the Annual Meeting of its Members on May 4, followed by a discussion and reception in connection with the ACG’s Annual Meeting with special guest speaker Ambassador Emily Haber, German Ambassador to the United States

Geopolitics and the Future of Transatlantic Relations: A View from the Free State of Saxony
2023-05-09 12:00 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with H.E. Michael Kretschmer, Minister-President (CDU) of the Free State of Saxony
Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has been the Minister-President of the Free State of Saxony since 2017. Mr. Kretschmer began his political career as a City Councilor in his hometown of Görlitz from 1994 to 1999. From 1993 to 2002, he was on the Regional Executive Committee of the Young Union (Junge Union) of Saxony and Lower Silesia. In 2005, Mr. Kretschmer was elected Secretary General of Saxony’s CDU Party and was re-elected several times thereafter. He has been the leader of Saxony’s CDU Regional Association since December 2017. He was first elected to Germany’s Bundestag in 2002 as a direct candidate to represent the Görlitz district and remained a member until 2017. From 2005 to 2009, he was the Deputy Chair of the CDU/CSU Education and Research Working Group in the Bundestag. Mr. Kretschmer was Deputy Party Leader, with portfolios in education and research, art, culture, and media from 2009 to 2017. From 2013 to September 2017, Mr. Kretschmer was also the leader of the Saxony Regional Group within the CDU/CSU Party in the Bundestag. In August 2017, he was elected President of the Sächsischer Volkshochschulverband e.V. He is also involved with the Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau development association.

The Transatlantic Economy 2023: U.S.-EU Trade and Investments Are Number One
2023-05-23 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG and the American Business Forum on Europe will host a breakfast briefing with Joseph P. Quinlan, Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Joseph Quinlan is Managing Director and Head of Market & Thematic Strategy for the Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) division of Bank of America, which includes Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. He serves as Chief Market Strategist providing economic and market insights and guiding overall investment strategy, both domestically and globally. In this role, Mr. Quinlan leads a team responsible for global market analysis and thematic research in support of asset allocation and portfolio construction among portfolio managers and other investment associates.
Mr. Quinlan began his career with Merrill Lynch and served as a Senior Global Economist/Strategist for Morgan Stanley. He lectures on finance and global economics at Fordham University and regularly lectures at various universities around the world, including Wuhan University in China, where he is a Visiting Professor. In 1998, he was nominated as an Eisenhower Fellow. He is a Senior Fellow at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, and a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, Belgium. In 2006, the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union awarded Mr. Quinlan the 2006 Transatlantic Business Award for his research on U.S.-Europe economic ties. In 2007, he was a recipient of the European-American Business Council Leadership Award for his research on the transatlantic partnership and global economy.
Mr. Quinlan regularly debriefs policymakers and legislators on Capitol Hill on global trade and economic issues. He has testified before the European Parliament. He is the author, co-author, or contributor to over 20 books. He has published over 125 articles on economics, trade, and finance that have appeared in such venues as Foreign Affairs, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s. He regularly appears on CNBC, as well as Bloomberg television, PBS, and other media venues. He earned his B.A. in Political Science/International Affairs from Niagara University and his M.A. in International Political Economics and Development from Fordham University.

Common Challenges: What Is Necessary to Protect and Defend Democracy?
2023-05-30 17:30 - 19:30
The ACG, 1014, and the Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung will host a discussion and reception with Ricarda Lang Co-Chair of Alliance 90/The Green Party and Member of the Bundestag.
Ricarda Lang became Co-Chair of the German Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) in February 2022. In September 2021, she was elected as a Member of the German Bundestag, where she sits on the Committee for Family Policy and is Vice-Chair of the Committee for Labor and Social Policy.
Ms. Lang joined the youth wing of the Green Party at 18. From 2015 to 2017, she served as Member of the Board and from 2017 to 2019 as Speaker of the Board of the Green Youth. She co-led the successful campaign for the European Parliamentary elections for the German Green Party in 2019 and went on to serve as Vice-Chair and Speaker for Women’s Policy of the Party.
At 29, Ms. Lang is the youngest chair in the German Green Party’s history.

Germany’s Role in Europe in Times of Crisis
2023-06-01 08:00 - 10:00
The American Council on Germany and the Hann-Seidel-Stiftung will host a Breakfast Briefing with Florian Hahn, Member of the Bundestag (CSU) and Defense Policy Spokesperson for the CDU/CSU.
Florian Hahn was elected as a member of the Bundestag in the 2009 German federal election. He serves as the Defense Policy Spokesperson for the CDU/CSU and sits on the Bundestag’s Defense Committee and the Committee on European Union Affairs.
Since 2019, Mr. Hahn has served as the Deputy Secretary General of the CSU under the leadership of chairman Markus Söder. That year, he co-chaired the CSU’s party convention in Munich alongside Markus Blume and Thomas Silberhorn. In addition to his roles in the Bundestag and within the CDU/CSU faction, Mr. Hahn is the Vice Chair of the International Democrat Union – a global alliance of center-right political parties under the leadership of former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper – and represents the CSU in external affairs as its International Secretary.

AI: Transatlantic Business and Policy Implications
2023-06-08 18:00 - 20:00
The ACG will host a discussion and reception with Harry Rubin, Partner and Chair, Technology and IP Transactions, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP; and Oliver Süme, Partner at Fieldfisher and Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry.
Harry Rubin is a globally recognized authority in his field and former Chair of the Technology Committee of the International Bar Association. He represents leading companies and private equity funds in Technology and IP-centric transactions, global IP protection and commercialization. Mr. Rubin’s experience includes software, fintech, trading platforms, e-commerce analytics, big data, and artificial intelligence. He has published and lectured extensively on international business transactions, technology and intellectual property. From 1978 to 1980, Mr. Rubin served as Staff Sergeant, Assistant Chief of Operations, in the External Relations Department of the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence. Mr. Rubin is fluent in German, French, and Hebrew and is routinely involved in cross-border matters with Europe, Asia, and the Middles East. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia law School.
Oliver Süme is a Partner and Technology Lawyer at Fieldfisher, and advises his clients on all legal issues in the areas of IT and digitalization, especially IT contract law, data protection law, and legal issues relating to IT security and e-commerce. In addition, he advises companies from a wide range of industries in connection with digitalization processes and the use of new technologies such as blockchain, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the establishment of data spaces. He most recently spent more than 18 months advising the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) on the establishment of Gaia-X, working with a international team of more than 17 lawyers on legal issues relating to corporate law, antitrust law, data protection law, and IP law. Mr. Süme is also Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry and heads the data protection working group of EuroISPA, the European umbrella organization of internet service providers.
