American Council On Germany

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2021-11-15 09:00 - 10:00 (America/New_York)
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin. Join us on Monday, November 15 at 9:00 am ET, for a discussion about German politics with opinion writer for Der Tagesspiegel Malte Lehming. . Malte Lehming works as a writer for the Tagesspiegel, where he heads the opinion page. From late 2000 to 2005, he was the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the Tagesspiegel in 1991 as foreign policy editor — focusing on security policy, transatlantic relations, and the Middle East. From 1989 to 1991, he worked as a personal assistant and speechwriter for former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Mr. Lehming studied philosophy, German literature, and European history in Hamburg.

Progress or Status Quo on Climate Change? Takeaways from COP26
2021-11-18 09:00 - 10:00
Over the past two weeks, representatives from nearly 200 countries convened in Glasgow for COP26 to discuss new plans to tackle climate change. The conference was regarded as the best – and last – chance to save the earth from the catastrophic consequences of global warming. However, many attendees, analysts, and observers believe it fell short. Although the countries agreed there is a problem, few actionable solutions were hammered out.
Join us on November 18 at 9:00 am ET for a discussion with Bundestag Member Lisa Badum (The Greens), who attended COP26 as part of the German delegation. She will reflect on the climate deal which was reached and what it means for the future of climate change policy. This event is supported by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Lisa Badum has been a Member of the German Bundestag since the autumn of 2017 for the constituency of Bamberg and for the whole of Upper Franconia. She is the spokeswoman for climate policy in the green parliamentary group. She is a member of the Environment Committee and Deputy Member of the Committee on Economic and Energy Affairs. From 2012 to 2017, she worked in the civil energy department at NATURSTROM AG. She served as a research assistant and advisor to Bundestag Member Uwe Kekeritz (Alliance 90 / The Greens) from 2010-2013. She has a background in political science and received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Bamberg.

Plundered Treasure – And The Nazi Art Thief Who Stole It
2021-11-19 12:00 - 14:00
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis developed and operated an elaborate procurement system for art which they had looted from Jews and other victims of persecution during the Third Reich. Works of art were confiscated, and many art collectors were forced to sell below value. In 2000, a report to the U.S. Congress by historian and Holocaust researcher Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos revealed the full extent of the theft: Some 600,000 works of art were taken by the Nazis within the sphere of influence of the Germans – a third in Germany and Austria alone. Many still have not been recovered.
In his latest book, Göring’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World, Dr. Petropoulos tells the story of Bruno Lohse, one of the key art experts who helped the Nazis loot European Jews. Join the American Council on Germany for a conversation with Young Leader alumnus Jonathan Petropulos, which will be led by Dr. Ronald J. Granieri, Associate Professor of History in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College and Templeton Education Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who is also a Young Leader alumnus. Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos is an American historian who writes about National Socialism and the fate of art looted during World War II. Dr. Petropoulos is John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
He began working on the subject of Nazi art looting and restitution in 1983 when he started his graduate work in history and art history at Harvard as a student of the late Richard M. Hunt, Vice Chairman of the ACG. He is the author of several books on the subject. His most recent book is Göring’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World.
From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Petropoulos served as Research Director for Art and Cultural Property on the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States, where he helped draft the report, Restitution and Plunder: The U.S. and Holocaust Victims’ Assets. In this capacity, he supervised a staff of researchers who combed archives in the United States and Europe in order to understand better how representatives of the U.S. government (including the Armed Forces) handled the assets of Holocaust victims both during and after the war. As Research Director, he provided expert testimony to the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport in the U.K. House of Commons and to the Banking and Finance Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Dr. Ronald J. Granieri is Associate Professor of History in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College and Templeton Education Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).
A graduate of Harvard and the University of Chicago and a former Federal Chancellor Scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Dr. Granieri is the author of The Ambivalent Alliance: Konrad Adenauer, the CDU/CSU, and the West, 1949-1966 as well as articles on German history, European-American relations, the Cold War, and contemporary politics.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2021-11-22 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, November 22 at 9:00 am ET for a discussion on the latest developments in coalition negotiations, the fight against COVID, and more with Sumi Somoskanda, Senior News Anchor at DW News (Deutsche Welle). Sumi Somoskanda is currently a senior news anchor at DW News (Deutsche Welle), Germany’s international broadcaster. Sumi reports on Germany for various international publications, including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Global Post, Newsweek, PRI, and USA Today. She served as an editor at the Berlin Policy Journal, Germany’s premiere English-language foreign affairs magazine.
She regularly moderates panels and conferences both in Germany and the US and lectures American university students at the CIEE Global Institute in Berlin. Sumi is an alumna of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship program and part of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network. In addition to her native English, she speaks fluent German and Spanish, and conversational Tamil.

The Evolving Humanitarian Crisis at Europe’s Door
2021-11-23 11:00 - 12:00
In recent months, there has been an increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the border from Belarus into Poland – and with that the European Union. As the waves of people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other countries has spiked and winter weather has become more severe, the situation is becoming more dire. European leaders have accused the government of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko of facilitating illegal border crossing into Poland – as well as Latvia and Lithuania – in retaliation for EU sanctions. Although Lukashenko denies these accusations, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding as the 3,000 to 4,000 migrants stranded at the border are creating the most dramatic challenge to the EU’s borders since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of migrants gathered in Turkey to enter Europe.
Join the American Council on Germany for a discussion about the crisis on the border with Belarus and how the EU and the transatlantic community can best respond with Dr. Jörg Forbrig, Senior Fellow and Director for Central and Eastern Europe at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, and Katsiaryna Shmatsina, Fellow at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies. Dr. Jörg Forbrig is a Senior Fellow and the Director for Central and Eastern Europe in the German Marshall Fund’s Berlin office. His work focuses on Europe’s East broadly, including the Eastern-most member countries of the European Union and NATO, the EU’s Eastern neighborhood, and Russia. In addition, he leads GMF efforts to assist civil society in Belarus, and he works closely with the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation to bolster democracy assistance to Central and Eastern Europe at large. Prior to joining GMF in 2002, Dr. Forbrig worked as a Robert Bosch Foundation fellow at the Center for International Relations in Warsaw, Poland.
He has been published widely on democracy, civil society, and Central and Eastern European affairs, including the books Reclaiming Democracy (2007), Prospects for Democracy in Belarus (2006), and Revisiting Youth Political Participation (2005). He is also a regular contributor to major international media. Dr. Forbrig studied political science, sociology, and Eastern European affairs at universities in Germany, Poland, and Hungary. He holds a Ph.D. in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence and a master’s in political science from Central European University in Budapest. He speaks English, Russian, Polish, and Slovak in addition to his native German.
Katsiaryna Shmatsina is a Fellow at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, where she focuses on foreign and security policy, international risk, Russia, Eurasia, and NATO. Previously, she worked for the American Bar Association where she was involved with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), especially in projects on good governance and rule of law in UNDP in-country offices. She also served as a pro bono local expert on Belarus for the World Bank’s Doing Business and Women, Business, and the Law reports.
In the summer of 2019, she was a research fellow at the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw. In 2018, she was awarded a fellowship at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security, Washington DC. In 2016, she received a Civil Society Leadership Award from the Open Society Foundations. Ms. Shmatsina holds a master’s degree in International Relations from Syracuse University, New York (2016) and a degree in law from Belarusian State University (2013). Apart from mother-tongue Belarusian, she commands Russian, English, German, and French

China’s Influence in Europe
2021-12-03 11:00 - 12:00
China’s rapid global rise has created new challenges for the United States, the European Union, and individual European countries. As China’s economic and political footprint has expanded, Beijing appears to provide an alternative to the West and offers opportunities for rapid economic development. But, China also takes advantage of local vulnerabilities and weaknesses to exert influence. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is just one example of how Beijing is seeking greater economic, political, and soft power in Southeastern, Central, and Eastern Europe – where more favorable regulatory and economic conditions exist than in Western Europe.
While China’s expanding footprint can bring socioeconomic opportunities, it can also exacerbate governance shortfalls, undermine political and economic stability, and complicate the EU’s ability to reach consensus on key issues. Join the American Council on Germany for a discussion about China’s growing influence in Europe with independent journalist Melissa Chan and Dr. Mareike Ohlberg, Senior Fellow in the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Melissa Chan is an Emmy-nominated journalist based between Los Angeles and Berlin. She has reported everywhere from Cuba to Canada, Mongolia to Moscow, North and South Korea. These days she focuses on transnational issues, often involving China’s influence beyond its borders. She has written for The New York Times where she was nominated for a Loeb Award — business journalism’s highest honor — and for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Time, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and more. As a contributor to the Vancouver-based Global Reporting Centre, she investigates the complexities of global trade and its costs on ordinary people.
As a television journalist, Ms. Chan takes viewers on investigative journeys through long-format news documentaries, including the award-winning Fault Lines series. She has reported from Europe as a correspondent for VICE News Tonight, and also presents European broadcaster DW’s news program on Asia. With Al Jazeera English, she served as China correspondent before her expulsion from the country for the channel’s reports. Her work there received awards, including two Human Rights Press Awards from Amnesty International and a citation from the Overseas Press Club. She was listed in Foreign Policy’s Pacific Power Index, a list of 25 people shaping the future of US-China relations.
Dr. Mareike Ohlberg is a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and leads the Stockholm China Forum. Before joining GMF, she worked as an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, where she focused on China’s media and digital policies as well as the Chinese Communist Party’s influence campaigns in Europe. Prior to that, she was an An Wang postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and a postdoctoral fellow at Shih-Hsin University in Taipei. She spent several years living and working in Greater China. She is co-author of the book Hidden Hand: How the Communist Party of China is Reshaping the World (2020). Dr. Ohlberg has a doctoral degree in Chinese studies from the University of Heidelberg and a master’s degree in East Asian regional studies from Columbia University. She is a frequent commentator in the media on the global implications of China’s rise.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2021-12-06 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, December 6 at 9:00 am ET for a discussion on the latest developments in Berlin with Tom Nuttall, Berlin Bureau Chief for The Economist. Tom Nuttall has been The Economist‘s Berlin bureau chief since November 2018. Before that, he spent four years based in Brussels writing the Charlemagne column. He has also worked as US west coast correspondent in Los Angeles, and as an editor on the Europe desk in London. Before joining The Economist he worked as an editor at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank, and spent several years as a senior editor at Prospect magazine.

Measuring the Pulse: German-American Relations on the Mend?
2021-12-09 10:00 - 11:00
In late November, a new survey on the German-American relationship conducted by the Pew Research Center and the Körber Stiftung was released. After elections in both countries and a transfer of power in the U.S. earlier this year, the bilateral relationship appears to be on the mend. Large majorities in the U.S. and Germany believe that the relationship between their two countries is good. In a marked change from 2020, Germans are now much more likely to name the U.S. as an important partner on a number of key issues – including the environment and trade. However, despite an improvement in opinions about the relationship, few Americans name Germany as their most important foreign policy partner.
In addition to focusing on the bilateral relationship, the survey looks at German and American attitudes on how to best address the challenges posed by China, Russia, and Afghanistan; the impact of digitalization; and, the use of military force.
Join the American Council on Germany for a discussion of the survey results with Julia Ganter, the Editor of the Körber-Stiftung’s The Berlin Pulse, and the Associate Director of Global Attitudes Research at the Pew Research Center Jacob Poushter – which will be moderated by ACG Board member Dr. Charles Kupchan, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University. Julia Ganter is Program Manager for International Affairs at the Körber-Stiftung, and the Editor of The Berlin Pulse, the foundation’s annual foreign policy publication.
Prior to joining the Körber-Stiftung, she coordinated the Task Force for Protecting Europe from Economic Coercion at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She gained previous work experience in the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, the GIZ in Brasília, the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), from NGO-work in Brazil and as editor of the monthly magazine Lateinamerika Nachrichten.
Ms. Ganter holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, and the University of Potsdam.
Jacob Poushter is an associate director at Pew Research Center. He is an expert in international survey research and writes about international public opinion on a variety of topics, including the international image of the United States and perceptions of global threats. He is also responsible for designing survey questionnaires, managing survey projects, analyzing data, and developing topics for the annual Global Attitudes Survey.
Mr. Poushter received a master’s degree in international affairs from American University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Williams College. He is also an author of studies on global attitudes of cultural change, views of the American-German relationship, and contrasting opinions among elites and the American public. He regularly talks about the Center’s findings in print and broadcast media and has been featured on Bloomberg TV and CTV, as well as in other international media outlets. He has also traveled to Canada, Europe, and Asia to explain the Center’s work and has participated in numerous presentations and panels in Washington, DC.
Moderator: ACG Board Member Dr. Charles Kupchan is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government. From 2014 to 2017, he served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) in the Barack Obama administration. He was also the director for European affairs on the NSC during the first Bill Clinton administration. Before joining the Clinton NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff. Previously, he was an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.
Dr. Kupchan is the author of Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself From the World (2020), No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (2012), How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (2010), The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century (2002), Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (2001), Civic Engagement in the Atlantic Community (1999), Atlantic Security: Contending Visions (1998), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (1995), The Vulnerability of Empire (1994), The Persian Gulf and the West (1987), and numerous articles on international and strategic affairs.

Beyond Biden’s ‘Democracy Summit’: Internal and External Challenges to Democracy at Home and Abroad
2021-12-10 11:00 - 12:00
Later this week, President Joe Biden will convene more than 100 world leaders as well as representatives from civil society and the private sector for the highly anticipated virtual “Summit for Democracy.” This online event is the first of two proposed gatherings and focuses on “renewing democracy in the United States and around the world.” Holding the summit is a major step in meeting one of Biden’s main campaign promises, but it is not free of controversy. How much can such a meeting actually achieve?
Join the American Council on Germany on Friday, December 10 at 11 am ET (5 pm CET), for a discussion about the internal and external challenges to democracy in Europe, the United States, and around the world with Dr. Frances Brown, Co-Director and Senior Fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Ralf Fücks, Managing Director of the Center for Liberal Modernity in Berlin. We’ll also hear what they hope comes out of the “Democracy Summit.”
This event is supported by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. Dr. Frances Z. Brown is a senior fellow and co-director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. She previously worked at the White House, USAID, and in non-governmental organizations, and writes extensively on conflict, governance, and U.S. foreign policy.
In her last role before leaving government, Dr. Brown served as director for democracy and fragile states on the White House National Security Council (NSC) staff, where she helped manage policy processes on democracy support, key political transitions, and post-conflict stabilization efforts. Serving in both the Obama and Trump administrations, she also convened a fragile states interagency committee, aimed at elevating comparative insights on conflict into policy deliberations.
Prior to the NSC, Dr. Brown served at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives, managing stabilization and political transition programs in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa from the field and Washington. Previous research roles include fellowships with the Council on Foreign Relations, Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the U.S. Institute of Peace, as well as her doctoral work at Oxford, which examined donors’ bottom-up state-building and stabilization programs in conflict-affected states. Other experience outside of government includes two years in Beirut, Lebanon; a year at the Kabul-based Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit; consulting for the Quadrennial Defense Review; shorter project-management roles in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and Pakistan; and political risk forecasting.
She has published field research projects on Afghanistan stabilization and subnational governance with the U.S. Institute of Peace, on Syria stabilization with Carnegie, and shorter analyses in the American Interest, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the International Herald Tribune, and elsewhere. On television, Brown has commented on U.S. foreign policy for BBC World News, ABC News (Australia), Al-Jazeera, and elsewhere. She is a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project and a prior term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ralf Fücks is Managing Director of the Center for Liberal Modernity, following 21 years as President of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the political foundation associated with the Greens. At the center of his work were green economics and ecological innovation, migration, the future of Europe, and international politics. Before that, he was co-chair of the German Green Party (1989/​​90) and Senator of Environment and City Development in Bremen.
Mr. Fücks is considered to be an innovative thinker, seeking cross-party discourse. He is an advocate for liberal ecology politics, focusing on innovation rather than prohibition. He is a regular contributor to national and international media and co-author to numerous books. In 1991, he was editor of the book “Sind die Grünen noch zu retten?” (Is There a Future for the Green Party?). In 2013 his book “Intelligent Wachsen – Die grüne Revolution” (Smart Growth – The Green Revolution) was published in German, followed by English, Polish and Russian editions. His second book, “Freiheit verteidigen – wie wir den Kampf um die offene Gesellschaft gewinnen” (Defending Freedom – How We Can Win the Fight For An Open Society) is dealing with the challenge liberal democracy is facing at home and globally. In September 2019, the anthology “Soziale Marktwirtschaft ökologisch erneuern” (“Greening the Social Market Economy”) was published by Fücks together with Thomas Köhler at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2021-12-13 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, December 13 at 9:00 am ET for a discussion on the latest developments in Berlin with Matthew Karnitschnig, Chief European Correspondent for Politico. Matthew Karnitschnig is POLITICO’s Chief Europe Correspondent, based in Berlin. He joined the publication in 2015 from the Wall Street Journal, where he spent 15 years in a variety of positions as a reporter and editor in the U.S. and Europe.
In a career spanning two decades, Mr. Karnitschnig has been on the front lines of some of the defining political and economic stories of our time. In 2008, he covered the fall of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis that ensued. He was part of a team of Journal reporters that won a Gerald Loeb Award and was named a Pulitzer finalist for National Reporting in 2009.
He subsequently spearheaded the WSJ’s coverage of the eurozone debt crisis as the paper’s Germany bureau chief and European economics editor. He led the team that was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting in 2011 and won an Overseas Press Club award in 2012.
Mr. Karnitschnig previously worked as a journalist for Business Week, Reuters, and Bloomberg.
The son of an Austrian father and American mother, he grew up in Arizona, where he got his start reporting as a stringer for the Phoenix Gazette during high school.

Germany’s New Government is in Place: What will it do now?
2021-12-17 11:00 - 12:00
The Merkel era is over. Last week a new government led by the center-left Social Democrats – together with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats – took office. How much of a break will this be from the conservative-led governments over the past 16 years under the leadership of Angela Merkel?
The new government made up of three parties exemplifies continuity and change. As the coalition agreement shows, we can expect consensus and stability – but this government also wants to go in new directions and address important challenges facing the country. This government is likely to be more progressive and future-oriented than its predecessor.
Join us on December 17 at 11:00 am ET for an online discussion about the new German government with the Political Editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Kornelius. Stefan Kornelius is the Political Editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Previously he served as Foreign Editor of the paper for nearly 20 years. In his reporting career, he has covered Germany’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl, and defense issues in Europe. He served as Berlin Bureau Chief, and from 1996 to 1999 he was the paper’s Washington correspondent. Prior to that he was a correspondent in Bonn.
His biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, entitled Angela Merkel, the Chancellor and her World, has been translated into 13 languages. Mr. Kornelius is a graduate of the Henri-Nannen-Journalistenschule and studied in Bonn and at the London School of Economics.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2021-12-20 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, December 20 at 9:00 am ET for the last kaffeepause of the year with ACG Young Leader alumnus Matthias Deiß, Deputy Director of ARD’s television studio in Berlin. Matthias Deiß is the Deputy Director of ARD’s Hauptstadtstudio in Berlin and deputy editor-in-chief of television. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the editorial director for ARD’s political magazine Kontraste. Prior to this, he worked from 2012 to 2017 as a TV correspondent with ARD. He studied communications and political science at the University of Munich and at the German School of Journalism in Munich.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-01-10 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, January 10 at 9:00 am ET for the first Kaffeepause of the year with Bloomberg Opinion columnist Andreas Kluth. In addition to talking about what is going on in Berlin, he’ll also share his outlook for 2022. Andreas Kluth is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Between March of 2017 and February of 2019, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global, the English-language edition of Germany’s leading business newspaper. For the two decades before that, he wrote for The Economist — in London, Hong Kong, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and Berlin.

Negotiating with Russia: What if the Talks Fail?
2022-01-14 11:00 - 12:00
Earlier this week, senior U.S. and Russian officials held talks in Geneva. Representatives from the two countries are slated to participate in a NATO-Russian Council meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and will come together again at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Vienna on Thursday.
These meetings come at a time when relations between Russia and the United States are fraught. Tensions stem largely from the situation on the border with Ukraine, where Russia has positioned thousands of troops. U.S. intelligence sources believe that Moscow is planning a military offensive, but Russia denies any intent to invade Ukraine. The situation is further complicated because Russia sent troops into neighboring Kazakhstan last week after the oil-producing former Soviet republic was hit by a wave of unrest.
In two conversations over the past five weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Putin that Russia would face unprecedented economic sanctions in the event of further aggression against Ukraine. The Group of Seven nations and the European Union have also threatened “massive consequences.” Join the ACG for a discussion with Russia experts Dr. Stefan Meister and Dr. Angela Stent about this week’s talks with Russia. Dr. Stefan Meister has been the head of the German Council on Foreign Relations’ Program on International Order and Democracy since August 2021. From 2019 until then, he worked as director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s South Caucasus Office.
From 2017 to 2019, Dr. Meister was head of the Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia at DGAP, where he had previously headed its program for Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Before that, he was a senior policy fellow in the Wider Europe Team at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin and London. In the 2015/16 term, Dr. Meister was a visiting fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC, where he wrote on Russian disinformation and propaganda. He has served as an election observer for the OSCE in post-Soviet countries several times and worked on conflict transformation and institution building in post-Soviet countries.
Dr. Meister is co-author of Geopolitics and Security: A New Strategy for the South Caucasus (KAS/DGAP/GIP, 2018), The Russia File (Brookings, 2018), Eastern Voices (Center for Transatlantic Relations/DGAP, 2017), and The Eastern Question (Brookings, 2016).
He studied international relations and East European history in Jena, Leipzig, and Nizhni Novgorod and holds a Ph.D. from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena with a thesis on the transformation of Russian higher education and research system.
Dr. Angela Stent (1982 ACG Young Leader) is Senior Adviser to the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies at Georgetown University where she is also Professor Emerita of Government and Foreign Service. She is also a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. From 2004-06 she served as the national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. From 1999 to 2001, she served in the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State.
Dr. Stent’s publications include: From Embargo to Ostpolitik: The Political Economy of West German-Soviet Relations, 1955-1980 (Cambridge University Press, 1981); Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, The Soviet Collapse and The New Europe (Princeton University Press, 1999); The Limits of Partnership: US-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2014), for which she won the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Douglas Dillon prize for the best book on the practice of American Diplomacy. Her most recent book is Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest (Twelve Books, 2019) for which she won the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy’s prize for the best book on U.S-Russian Relations.
She was a member of the senior advisory panel for NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe for Admiral James Stavridis and General Philip Breedlove. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a contributing editor to Survival and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cold War Studies, World Policy Journal, Internationale Politik, and Mirovaia Ekonomika i Mezhdunarodnie Otnosheniie. She has served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Russia and Central Asia. She was a trustee of the Eurasia Foundation. Dr. Stent received her bachelor’s from Cambridge University, her Master’s of Science with distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and her master’s and doctorate from Harvard University.

Russia’s Threat to Ukraine: The West Responds
2022-01-17 11:00 - 12:00
Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed crosshairs on Ukraine, a country he sees as linked to Russia and the people of Ukraine as “one people” with Russians. To back up this fixation with repairing a “historic injustice” Moscow has amassed a force of over 100,000 troops and supporting armor and aircraft along the border with Ukraine. Leading the West’s response, President Biden has threatened “massive consequences” if Russia invades Ukraine.
American and Russian diplomats are meeting this week. However, the lines are drawn: Putin is demanding an end to NATO’s eastward expansion, include Ukraine, and Biden and the West say there will be a very high economic price to pay as well as increased deployments on NATO’s eastern flank.
What is the context for this provocation and what are the U.S. and Allies prepared to do? Join the American Council on Germany and the Tennessee World Affairs Council for a discussion with former ACG Board member Ambassador John Kornblum about the crisis. Joining us from Berlin, he will also discuss how we got to where we are and what the possible courses of action for the U.S. and Europe might be. The conversation will be led by ACG Young Leader alumnus Dr. Thomas Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. This event is held in cooperation with the Belmont University Center for International Business and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. Ambassador John C. Kornblum has a long record of service in the United States and Europe both as a diplomat and as a businessman. He is recognized as an eminent expert on U.S.-European political and economic relations, in particular in central and eastern Europe. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001. Before that, he occupied a number of high-level diplomatic posts, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, special envoy for the Dayton Peace Process, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Process), Deputy U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and U.S. Minister and Deputy Commandant of Forces in divided Berlin. From 2001 to 2009, he was Chairman of Lazard Freres Germany. He currently serves as Senior Counsellor to the international law firm Noerr LLP and as a senior advisor to the worldwide consultancy Accenture. Ambassador Kornblum has also served on a number of Supervisory and Advisory Boards, including those of ThyssenKrupp Technologies AG, Bayer AG, Russell Reynolds, and Motorola Europe. He is a member of the Boards of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany, the American Academy in Berlin, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and of numerous nonprofit organizations on both sides of the Atlantic, and he is a former ACG Board member. He received a B.A. from Michigan State University in 1964, and he has been the recipient of many awards, including a Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit from Germany and an Order of Merit from Austria.
Dr. Thomas Schwartz (1989 ACG Young Leader) is a historian of the foreign relations of the United States, with related interests in American politics, the history of international relations, Modern European history, and biography. His most recent book is Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography (Hill and Wang, 2020). Earlier in his career, Schwartz was the author of America’s Germany: John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany (Harvard, 1991), which was translated into German. This book received the Stuart Bernath Book Prize of the Society of American Foreign Relations, and the Harry S. Truman Book Award, given by the Truman Presidential Library. He is also the author of Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam (Harvard, 2003), which examined the Johnson Administration’s policy toward Europe and assessed the impact of the war in Vietnam on its other foreign policy objectives. He is the co-editor with Matthias Schulz of The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter, (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Professor Schwartz has held fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the German Historical Society, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Center for the Study of European Integration. He has served as President of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations. He served on the United States Department of State’s Historical Advisory Committee as the representative of the Organization of American Historians from 2005-2008. Professor Schwartz received The Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching on April 3, 2013, at the Spring Faculty Assembly, Vanderbilt University. In 2008 Professor Schwartz received the Annual Alumni Education Award from the Vanderbilt Alumni Association. Schwartz is the recipient of the 2008 Book Award by Chi Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order. This award is given to a faculty member who has been particularly influential in the lives and education of members of KAO. Professor Schwartz presented, “The Arab Spring: Revolution in the Middle East,” on April 19, 2011, as part of the Samuel L. Shannon Distinguished Lecture Series at Tennessee State University. Professor Schwartz has also presented lectures for the OAH Distinguished Lecturers Program.
Professor Schwartz taught for five years at Harvard University and has been teaching at Vanderbilt since 1990.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-01-18 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin. Join us on Tuesday, January 18 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with journalist Miriam Hollstein, Chief Political Reporter for FUNKE Zentralredaktion. Miriam Hollstein serves as the Chief Reporter for FUNKE Zentralredaktion. She wrote for the Berliner Zeitung while still a student and worked as an editor for Internationale Politik. She worked as a foreign reporter for the Welt am Sonntag, and from 2006-2014 was a WELT-Gruppe’s domestic policy editor and reporter. From 2015-2020 she worked for the Bild am Sonntag, first as domestic policy and then from 2018 as chief reporter politics. Her reporting brought her into regular contact with the office of the German Chancellor. Since March 2020 she works as a freelance writer and moderator.
In 2009 she published the first graphic biography of Angela Merkel, entitled “Miss Tschörmanie,” together with illustrator Heiko Sakurai. She appears regularly on the German news program „Phoenix“, where she speaks on political and societal issues. She regularly travels internationally for reporting assignments. In addition, she was a 2005 Marshall Memorial Fellow, a 2008 ACG McCloy Fellow, and was recognized in 2015 by the DEFA Stiftung (German Film Corporation Foundation) for her contribution to the preservation of German film heritage.

Berlin Keynote from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
2022-01-20 09:30 - 10:00
Atlantik-Brücke and its partners, the American Council on Germany, Aspen Institute Germany, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States are honored to host U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken for a keynote on the transatlantic partnership. We cordially invite you to join our live stream for this exceptional occasion.
Thursday, January 20, 2022
3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. (CET)
9:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. (ET)
Livestream

Germany's New Government: A View from the Opposition
2022-01-21 10:00 - 11:00
With a new government coming up to speed in Berlin, there is no shortage of domestic policy issues on the agenda. From energy and the environment to public health and Covid response and from infrastructure and digitalization to fiscal policy, there is a lot to do. But, what is the view from the opposition?
Join the American Council on Germany and the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung for a virtual discussion with Markus Blume, Secretary General of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union. Markus Blume has been a Member of the Bavarian State Parliament since 2008 and the Secretary General of the Christian Social Union (CSU) since 2018. He has also served as the Chairman of the CSU Economic Commission since 2011 and was the editor-in-chief of the new CSU party platform which was presented in 2016. Mr. Blume first studied physics at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, and then political science at the Bavaria School of Public Policy Munich.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-01-24 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, January 24 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Sonja Gillert, Head of Audio for Die Welt, joined the ACG for a discussion on the meetings between officials from Germany and Russia.

Is America Back? Biden and the Transatlantic Partnership: Views from Berlin
2022-01-24 12:00 - 13:00
“America is back!”
President Joe Biden entered office in January 2021 with a commitment to revive and revitalize relations with allies and partners. This has given hope to the transatlantic community. Over the past year, there have been positive developments – such as rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, the resolution of bilateral trade disputes, the launch of a new technology and trade initiative as well as a “Futures Forum”, and an international summit to address the challenges to democracy. But, there have also been some irritants to the transatlantic relationship – such as the mishandling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the AUKUS submarine deal, and some divisions over how to handle relations with China.
From the pandemic to climate change to concerns over Russia and China, the United States and Europe face a host of common challenges that are best addressed together. However, some Europeans worry that the United States might not be a reliable partner.
One year into the Biden administration, join the ACG for a discussion about how the United States is perceived from Berlin with Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, the Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, DGAP), and Dr. Stefan Mair, the Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP) Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. Previously she served as Executive Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School for ten years. The project, which she co-founded, addresses 21st-century foreign policy challenges through research by international leaders in academia and diplomacy as well as teaching conflict research and prevention. Since 2018, Ms. Clüver Ashbrook has also directed a research program on Europe and transatlantic relations. Previously, she served on the management board of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels and worked as both a consultant and senior journalist at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in France and China, among other countries. She began her career as a television journalist at CNN International in Atlanta and London.
Ms. Clüver Ashbrook contributes to international publications, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, as well as leading German media on transatlantic relations – especially trade and security policy – and German foreign and digital policy. She also advises foreign ministries in Europe and South America on their digital strategy.
Dr. Stefan Mair has served as Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Executive Chairman of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) since October 1, 2020. He began his career at SWP in 1992, and worked at SWP for 18 years, first as a researcher on Sub-Saharan Africa and later as a member of the Executive Board. From 2002 to 2010, he was a member of the management of the SWP, and from 2007 to 2009, he was the Director of Research. In 2010 Dr. Mair moved from the SWP to the Federation of German Industries (BDI) to serve on the Executive Board, with particular responsibility for international issues.
He studied Political Sciences, Economics, and Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. From 1989 to 1991 he held a scholarship from the ifo-Institute for Economic Research. He was subsequently awarded his doctorate in Political Sciences by the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.

Assessing the Domestic and Foreign Policy Priorities of Germany’s New Government
2022-01-28 12:00 - 13:00
After weeks of negotiations following Germany’s federal election in September, a new government was sworn in on December 8. Following 16 years of conservative leadership under Angela Merkel, Olaf Scholz became Chancellor. Promising a new start, his center-left Social Democrats will govern in a coalition together with the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats. The new government has ambitious plans to fight climate change by phasing out coal early and focusing on renewable energy, but its initial priority will be tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 50 days into the new government, we are already seeing tensions within the governing coalition over how to address challenges – ranging from pandemic response to tensions with Russia. Join the American Council on Germany, Atlantik-Brücke, and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall for a discussion with former U.S. Ambassador to Berlin John B. Emerson and former Federal Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. The discussion will be moderated by Juliane Schäuble, U.S. Correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel. Together they will discuss how the new government will address Germany’s domestic and foreign policy priorities. Ambassador John B. Emerson was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany at the Council’s Annual Meeting of the Members on January 17, 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he was 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.
Before going to Berlin, he was the President of Capital Group Private Client Services from 1997 to July 2013. Previously, he served on President Clinton’s senior staff, from 1993 to 1997, as Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel, and subsequently as Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Ambassador Emerson also coordinated the Economic Conference of the Clinton-Gore transition team and led the Administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement in 1994, and the extension of China’s Most-Favored-Nation trading status in 1996. In 2010, President Obama appointed Ambassador Emerson to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Earlier in his career, Ambassador Emerson served as the Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney (1987-1993).
In 1988, he traveled to Germany on an ACG Political Exchange Fellowship, carried out in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Before that, he was a Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, specializing in business and entertainment litigation and administrative law.
Sigmar Gabriel was Federal Minister for the Economy and Energy from 2013 to 2017 as well as Vice-Chancellor from 2013 to 2018 and served as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018. On June 26, 2019, Mr. Gabriel was elected Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke by its members.
Mr. Gabriel has been politically active since 1976. Born in Goslar, he began his political career in a socialist youth organization and joined the SPD in 1977. Two years later, Gabriel joined the ÖTV union, and membership in IG Metall and Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), a social welfare organization, followed. Trained as a high school educator, he assumed various responsibilities in adult education and became a member of
Lower Saxony’s parliament over the course of the 1980s. During the subsequent decade, among other positions, he held the post of chair of the environmental committee of Lower Saxony’s parliament and was a member of the SPD executive committee. He served as prime minister of Lower Saxony from 1999 to 2003, and he has been a directly elected member of Germany’s Lower House of Parliament since 2005, taking over the post of the Environmental Minister that same year. Gabriel, who represents the Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel district, occupied the position of SPD chairman from 2009 until 2017.
Juliane Schäuble (Moderator) is the U.S. Correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin’s biggest newspaper. Before she moved to Washington, DC, in June 2018 she was the head of the political department of the paper where she was responsible for the front page and the political section. She has more than twelve years of experience in the business and the political department of Der Tagesspiegel.
Ms. Schäuble earned her Master’s in Political Science at the University in Potsdam, Germany. Her studies included one semester at American University in Washington, DC, where she took classes in American foreign policy and worked part-time for the “American Council of Young Political Leaders” (“Washington Semester Program”).

On the Ground in Kyiv: A Report from Ukraine
2022-01-28 13:30 - 14:30
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are spiraling as Russian forces gather along the border and Russia is targeting Ukrainian government agencies with cyberattacks. Meanwhile, Europe and the United States are trying to develop a collective response to Russia’s aggression and to deter a further invasion of Ukraine.
Last week a group of German parliamentarians visited Kyiv (and Warsaw) to have a look at the situation on the ground. Bundestag member Metin Hakverdi (SPD) was part of the delegation. Join the American Council on Germany and the New York Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for a discussion with Mr. Hakverdi about the trip and about Germany’s position on the Ukraine crisis.

Metin Hakverdi joined the SPD 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 on the Finance Committee. He is the Chairman of the USA/North America Working Group within the SPD Parliamentary Group and a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group 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. He attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel and at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. Mr. Hakverdi 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 the Atlantik-Brücke e.V.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-01-31 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, January 31 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Melissa Eddy, Berlin Correspondent for the New York Times. Among other topics, she will discuss Germany’s response to growing tensions with Russia. Melissa Eddy is a correspondent based in Berlin who covers German politics, social issues, and culture for The New York Times. Her most recent work has delved into the challenges of integrating 1 million refugees, the spate of Islamist terror attacks, and the legacy of a trove of Nazi-looted art.
She has covered Germany’s green energy transformation and Chancellor Angela Merkel since she entered office in 2005. A Minnesota native fluent in German and French, she came to Germany as a Fulbright scholar in 1996. Before joining The International Herald Tribune, now the international edition of The New York Times, in 2015, she was a correspondent for The Associated Press in Frankfurt, Vienna, and the Balkans.

Germany’s Response to the Ukraine Crisis
2022-02-01 11:00 - 12:00
Although the United States and its European allies still hope diplomacy can avert a conflict with Russia over Ukraine, it is not clear how united the west is in its response to the unfolding crisis.
It was widely reported that the United Kingdom sent aircraft carrying weapons bound for Ukraine “around” Germany and that Germany stopped the transfer of artillery from Estonia to Ukraine sparking questions about Berlin’s support for Kyiv. Over the weekend Germany’s chief naval officer resigned over controversial remarks he made about Russia and the threat to Ukraine. Some analysts and observers have described Germany’s position on the crisis as “schizophrenic.” Writing for the Center for European Policy Analysis, Oxana Schmies spoke of “Germany’s paralyzing fear of war,” and warned that for the new government it is “worryingly clear that forging a united Russia policy is difficult and marred by underlying disagreement. [Link]
As the prospects of Russian provocation and action against Ukraine reach the boiling point, it is fair to ask how reliable a partner Germany is (and will be) as the United States and other allies lean forward in deterrence and preparation for response.
Join the American Council on Germany and the Tennessee World Affairs Council for a discussion with Ambassador John Kornblum, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and Dr. Liana Fix, Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Ambassador John C. Kornblum has a long record of service in the United States and Europe both as a diplomat and as a businessman. He is recognized as an eminent expert on U.S.-European political and economic relations, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001. Before that, he occupied a number of high-level diplomatic posts, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European affairs, Special Envoy for the Dayton Peace Process, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Process), Deputy U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and U.S. minister and deputy commandant of forces in divided Berlin.
Dr. Liana Fix is a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Washington office, while on sabbatical from the International Affairs Department of the Körber Foundation in Berlin. She is a political scientist and historian, and her work focuses on Russia and Eastern Europe, European security, arms control, and German foreign policy. She will be focusing on transatlantic policy toward Russia while at GMF. Dr. Fix has published widely in academia, thinktanks, and national and international media. She holds a doctorate degree from the Justus Liebig University Giessen and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-02-07 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, February 7 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with opinion writer for Der Tagesspiegel Malte Lehming, who will discuss what to expect from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s trip to Washington and other breaking news from Berlin.
Malte Lehming works as a writer for the Tagesspiegel, where he heads the opinion page. From late 2000 to 2005, he was the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the Tagesspiegel in 1991 as foreign policy editor — focusing on security policy, transatlantic relations, and the Middle East. From 1989 to 1991, he worked as a personal assistant and speechwriter for former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Mr. Lehming studied philosophy, German literature, and European history in Hamburg.

Mr. Scholz’s Comes to Washington: What Did We Learn?
2022-02-09 11:00 - 12:00
Early next week, Olaf Scholz will make his first trip to Washington DC as Chancellor. Foreign policy will be high on the agenda in his meetings at the White House, on Capitol Hill, and elsewhere. Scholz’s trip comes as tensions are flaring between Russia and the West over Ukraine and the Olympics in China get underway. This will be an opportunity to see where there is alignment in U.S. and German foreign policy priorities but also where there are chances for greater cooperation between Washington and Berlin.
Join the American Council on Germany for a discussion with Ines Pohl, the Washington Bureau Chief for Deutsche Welle, about the main takeaways from the visit. Ines Pohl is the Washington Bureau Chief for Deutsche Welle (DW). She served as the Editor-in-Chief of DW from 2017 to 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. 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.
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.” Ms. Pohl is a frequent guest on national TV news shows in Germany and has also appeared on CNN and MSNBC.

Multilateral Responses to the Growing Crisis over Ukraine: A View from Berlin
2022-02-10 09:30 - 10:30
Concerns continue to mount regarding the build-up of Russian forces along the border with Ukraine. After Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s trip to Washington and before the Munich Security Conference, join the ACG and the New York Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung for a discussion with Bundestag Member Nils Schmid (SPD) about German and European leadership in the face of the unfolding crisis.
What role can Germany, Europe, and multilateral organizations play in meeting common challenges from the financial crisis to migration to aggressive posturing on Europe’s doorstep? Nils Schmid has been a Member of the German Bundestag since September 2017. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and has been the foreign policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary caucus since 2018. He is also a deputy member of the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure. In addition, he is a member of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly.
In 1997, Mr. Schmid became a member of the state assembly of Baden-Württemberg. After his reelection in 2001, he became fiscal policy spokesperson for the SPD’s state assembly caucus. In 2006, his caucus elected him as deputy chairman. In 2009, the state party elected him chairman of the Baden-Württemberg SPD. He held that office until 2016. From 2011 to 2016, he was Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of the state of Baden-Württemberg as well as Deputy Minister-President.

Europe 30 Years after the Maastricht Treaty
2022-02-11 11:00 - 12:00
Thirty years ago, the Maastricht Treaty was signed by the then twelve members of the European Community. The Treaty created the framework for today’s “European Union” – and was the most important document on European integration since the Treaty of Rome, which was signed in 1958. The Maastricht Treaty provided the contours for a single currency, a common foreign and security policy, closer cooperation on justice and home affairs, and institutional reforms.
Since then, one country has left the Union and 14 new member states have joined. What lessons can be drawn from the Maastricht Treaty 30 years later? What went right? What went wrong? To answer these questions, join the American Council on Germany for a discussion with Dr. Ulrike Guérot, Faculty Chair of European Politics at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn and founder of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin. Dr. Ulrike Guérot is the Faculty Chair of European Politics at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn and the founder of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin, a think-tank generating innovative ideas for Europe. Previously she was a professor at the Danube University in Krems, Austria, and served as Head of the Department for European Policy and the Study of Democracy.
In addition to working and teaching at universities in Europe and the United States, Dr. Guérot has worked at and directed several European research institutes and think tanks. Her books, “Why Europe Must Become a Republic” in 2016 and “The New Civil War – the Open Europe and its Enemies” in 2017, hit best-selling marks in Germany and beyond. Her work has been widely translated and published throughout Europe.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-02-14 09:00 - 10:00
Each week, the ACG hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse in Berlin.
Join us on Monday, February 14 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Clemens Wergin, Chief Correspondent for Die Welt. Clemens Wergin has been the Chief Correspondent for Die Welt since 2020. He began his career at Der Tagesspiegel in 2000 and moved to Die Welt in 2007. Mr. Wergin served as Head of Foreign Affairs from 2007 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2020. He was Washington, DC Bureau Chief from 2014 to 2018. In 2003, he was awarded an Arthur F. Burns Fellowship and worked at the Chicago Tribune.

MdB Roundtable: Priorities And Challenges For The New German Government And The Parliament
2022-02-14 12:00 - 13:00
Germany’s federal election last September led to a new three-party governing coalition led by the Social Democrats together with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, as well as the formation of the 20th German Bundestag. Not even 100 days into office, the executive and legislative branches of government face a host of domestic and foreign policy challenges – ranging from the pandemic response and economic recovery to tensions with Russia over Ukraine.
Join the American Council on Germany for a discussion with three Bundestag members about how the government and the parliament work together and their priorities for the coming years. We will be joined by Dorothee Martin (SPD), Frank Müller-Rosentritt (FDP), and Dr. Konstantin von Notz (Greens). Dorothee Martin has been a member of the Bundestag since 2020, representing the Hamburg Nord electoral district. Since the 2021 election, she has served as the Social Democratic Party’s Spokesperson on Transportation. She joined the SPD in 1998 and was a member of the Hamburg Parliament from 2011 until 2020. Originally from Kaiserslautern, Ms. Martin studied Political Science and Law at the University of Hamburg.
Frank Müller-Rosentritt has been a member of the Bundestag from the State of Saxony since 2017. He serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Sub-Committee on Cultural Relations and Education Policy. In this capacity, he serves as the Free Democrats rapporteur on relations with Asia. From 2019 to 2021, Mr. Müller-Rosentritt served as chairman of the FDP in Saxony. Before entering parliament, he worked for Deutsche Bank in New York, Baden-Baden, and Dresden. He studied Business Administration at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart.
Dr. Konstantin von Notz is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens in the German Bundestag, where he has served since 2009. Since the 19th term of the Bundestag, he has been the Deputy Chairman of the Alliance 90/the Greens Parliamentary Group. He is a member of the Committee of Inquiry on the 2016 Christmas Market Attack (“Breitscheidplatz”) and Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Control Panel. During his time in the Bundestag, Dr. von Notz has held a number of committee assignments with central importance for issues involving technology, the internet, and privacy. He has been his party’s spokesman for the Committee on Political Strategy for the Internet, and during the 18 terms of the Bundestag, he was the spokesman for the Committee of Inquiry on NSA Surveillance. During the 17th term of the Bundestag, Dr. von Notz served as spokesman of the Study Commission on the Internet and Digital Society. Prior to entering the German Parliament, he studied law, earning his Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg. He then practiced law as an attorney in Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein.
