German Federal Election 2025
2025-02-23 11:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
The Goethe-Institut, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York, and the American Council on Germany warmly invite you to join us to follow the results of the German federal election on February 23.
Program:

11:00 AM: Doors Open – Enjoy coffee, snacks, and the opportunity to network.
12:00 PM: Election Results – Live broadcast of the latest results from Germany (in German).
Following the Results: Panel Discussion – An in-depth analysis of the results and their implications for Germany, Europe, and transatlantic relations (in English).
3:00 PM: Event Ends

Panelists:
Sheri Berman is a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, specializing in European politics, democracy, and populism. Her acclaimed book Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe explores the history of political systems across the continent.
Hans Kundnani is a Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe and a leading expert on European politics and Germany’s role in the EU. He is the author of The Paradox of German Power.
Christina Morina is a historian specializing in modern European history and political ideologies. Currently a visiting professor at The New School, she is also a professor at Bielefeld University. She is the author of Tausend Aufbrüche. Die Deutschen und ihre Demokratie seit den 1980er Jahren.
Moderator: Steven E. Sokol is the President of the American Council on Germany and a prominent voice in transatlantic dialogue.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-02-24 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, February 24, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a Kaffeepause following the German federal elections with 2018 Kellen Fellow Dr. Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Editor for Die Zeit. Dr. Anna Sauerbrey is the Foreign Editor at the German largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Before assuming this position, she was Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Der Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper based in Berlin. She has written about German politics in The New York Times and comments on German and international politics on public German radio and television programs. She has also appeared on CNN and the BBC world service. She is the author of Machtwechsel. Wie eine neue Politikergeneration das Land verändert (Rowohlt Berlin, 2022) a book on the generation of German policymakers succeeding Angela Merkel.
Dr. Sauerbrey received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Mainz in 2009. She has also studied Political Science and Journalism. She was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 and has extensively written about transatlantic relations and U.S. domestic politics since. In 2018, she was awarded an Anna-Maria and Stephen M. Kellen Fellowship for Berlin-based Journalists by the American Council on Germany.

German Foreign and Security Policy After the Election
2025-02-25 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Dominik Mutter, Security Policy Director of the Federal Foreign Office.
Dominik Mutter is the Security Policy Director of the Federal Foreign Office. In 2022 and 2023, he was lead coordinator and editor of the interagency team tasked with drafting Germany’s first National Security Strategy. Prior to assuming his current position in March 2022, he served as Security Policy Director at the Ministry of Defense and as Head of Division for Security Policy and bilateral relations at the Chancellery.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Modern History, American Studies, and Political Science from Freiburg University.

Kaffeepause: Special Edition
2025-02-27 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a “Special Edition” of our regular Kaffeepause following the German federal elections with Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, former Foreign Editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Nadine Lindner, Correspondent with Deutschlandradio. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger was the Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His writings deal especially with the United States, European, transatlantic, and international politics. He holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, Economics, and American Studies from Frankfurt University. He joined the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s leading national daily, in 1986, and 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.
Nadine Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of “Deutschlandradio” since early 2016 and is responsible, among other things, for covering the AfD and transport policy. Before that, she was a Correspondent in the Free State of Saxony for two and a half years and followed the rise of Pegida there. She studied Political Science, Journalism, and African Studies in Leipzig and discovered her enthusiasm for radio there at the training station “mephisto 97.6.” After graduating from university, she worked as a freelance journalist for “MDR sputnik” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as Deutschlandradio.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-03 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, March 3, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a Kaffeepause with Paul-Anton Krüger, Editor for Der Spiegel. Paul-Anton Krüger has been an Editor at SPIEGEL’s capital city office since January 2025. He was the Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from September 2021 to December 2024. He previously reported on political affairs and served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department, focusing on the Middle East and international security for three years. Before that, he spent four years in Cairo as a correspondent covering large parts of the Arab world and Iran.
After graduating from the Alte Landesschule in Korbach, he studied journalism in Berlin and Munich. In August 2005, he joined the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a volunteer, worked as an editor from 2008, and as head of the foreign policy department from 2011. In the fall of 2007, Mr. Krüger was a guest editor at the Chicago Tribune as part of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, the German-American journalism scholarship of the International Journalism Programs e.V.

After the Elections in Germany and the United States: The Path Forward in Ukraine
2025-03-03 12:30 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Annett Meiritz, Washington Correspondent, Handelsblatt. Annett Meiritz is the Washington Correspondent for Germany’s leading business, trade, and finance daily Handelsblatt. She covers the U.S. Administration and Congress, usually from an economic angle. Previously she worked as Parliamentary Correspondent for Germany’s leading news portal Spiegel Online, based in Berlin. She holds a B.A. degree in Modern History and Media Science and was educated to be a Journalist at the Berlin Journalism School.

What German Leadership Means for Europe
2025-03-04 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Lt. General Ben Hodges, former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe.
This event is only open to ACG members.
Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges is the former Commanding General of US Army Europe (2014-2017). He is a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC and consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union. He is co-author of the book, Future War and the Defence of Europe. Lt. Gen. Hodges has a regular presence in US and international media where he offers insight and analysis on NATO, US and European security, the Russian War against Ukraine, the greater Black Sea and Baltic Sea Regions, the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. Election and its implications for Transatlantic Security, human rights, and other related geostrategic topics.
He most recently served as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. Prior to that, he was an Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Before to joining Human Rights First, Lt. Gen. Hodges held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
A native of Quincy, Florida, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry. He lives in Frankfurt, Germany.

Analyzing the German Elections: What Comes Next?
2025-03-05 12:00 - 13:00
Join the ACG and the Pacific Council for a virtual event analyzing the implications of Germany’s federal election on February 23, 2025. This election, prompted by the collapse of Chancellor Scholz’s coalition government, is poised to reshape German politics. Our expert speakers, Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Director of the Center on the United States at Brookings, and Peter S. Rashish, Vice President and Director of the Geoeconomics Program at the American-German Institute will examine what the election means for Germany, the United States, and the global community. ACG President Dr. Steven E. Sokol will moderate the discussion. Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller is an expert on German, European, and transatlantic foreign and security policy and strategy. She is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and the inaugural holder of the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Transatlantic Relations at Brookings. She held the Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress from October 2019 to March 2020, and served as the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at Brookings from 2014 to 2019.
Dr. Stelzenmüller is the former director of GMF’s Berlin office. From 1994 to 2005, she was defense and international security editor in the political section of the German weekly DIE ZEIT; previously, she had covered human rights issues, war crimes tribunals, and humanitarian crises. From 1988 to 1989, she was a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. She has also been a GMF campus fellow at Grinnell College in Iowa, a Woodrow Wilson Center public policy scholar in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Remarque Forum — a conference series of the Remarque Institute at New York University.
She has worked in Germany and the United States, and speaks English, French, German, and Spanish. Dr. Stelzenmüller holds a doctorate in law from the University of Bonn (1992), a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1988), and a law degree from the University of Bonn (1985).
Peter S. Rashish is Vice President and Director of the Geoeconomics Program at AGI. He also is the author of The Wider Atlantic blog. Before joining AGI, Mr. Rashish has served as Vice President for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he spearheaded the Chamber’s advocacy ahead of the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Previously, Mr. Rashish was a Senior Advisor for Europe at McLarty Associates, Executive Vice President of the European Institute, and a staff member and consultant at the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Atlantic Council, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund.
Mr. Rashish has testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia and has advised three U.S. presidential campaigns. He has been a featured speaker at the Munich Security Conference, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and the Salzburg Global Seminar and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jean Monnet Institute in Paris and a Senior Advisor to the European Policy Centre in Brussels. His commentaries have been published in The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest, and he has appeared on PBS, CNBC, CNN, and NPR.
He earned a BA from Harvard College and an MPhil in international relations from Oxford University. He speaks French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Dr. Steven E. Sokol (moderator) has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski.
He holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

The Road Ahead: Implications of Germany's Federal Election
2025-03-06 11:30 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany and the Atlanta Council on International Relations will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Steven E. Sokol, President & CEO of the American Council on Germany.
The cost to attend this event is $40 for ACG/ACIR members, and $55 for non-members of either organization.
Please REGISTER HERE by March 3 Dr. Steven E. Sokol has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmBH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski.
Dr. Sokol holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Free Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-17 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, March 17, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a Kaffeepause with Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief in Germany for the Neue Züricher Zeitung. Marc Felix Serrao has been the Head of the Berlin office since July 2017 and Editor-in-Chief of the Neue Züricher Zeitung in Germany since 2021. After military service, he studied political science in Berlin. In 2004/05, he was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York. He graduated in 2006. Mr. Serrao worked for the Süddeutsche Zeitung from 2007 to 2016 – first as a trainee, then as deputy head of the society and style department. In 2015, he began a part-time Executive MBA at the Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung (WHU) and the Kellogg School of Management. From 2016 to 2017, he served as the Business editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Innovators and Investors Stammtisch
2025-03-17 18:00 - 20:00
The NYC “Innovators and Investors Stammtisch” series is a new initiative bringing together German and U.S. professionals for informal, engaging conversations over dinner. Inspired by the German tradition of the Stammtisch, this regular gathering fosters networking, knowledge sharing, and transatlantic exchange in a relaxed setting. Each event will feature rotating guest speakers offering unique insights, creating a space for meaningful connections between leaders and innovators from both countries. The Launch Event will be a larger gathering to kick-off to the series.

Rising Global Trade Tensions: China and the German-American Relationship
2025-03-19 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion with Thomas König, Director China at the German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DIHK) and 2024 ACG McCloy Fellow on Global Trends.

Thomas König is Director China at the German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DIHK), Europe’s largest trade association. He is co-author of the book “How to make it in China / “So Schafft Man China” (now in its third edition” and “China – Mastering business and everyday life / China – Business & Alltag meistern.” He has years of hands-on experience in China, including work at the European Chamber of Commerce in China and the world’s largest German Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, which serves over 1,600 member companies. Previously, Mr. König served as Asia Program Coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in London and Paris and developed training programs for Chinese UN diplomats-in-waiting at the United Nations Institute of Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva.
Mr. König is currently a Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a McCloy Fellow on Global Trends from the American Council on Germany and is researching the nexus of US relations with China and Germany in Washington D.C. in Spring 2025. He holds degrees from Yale University and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and completed a bilingual semester at Peking University. Mr. König is currently teaching as a guest lecturer at the Center for Cultural Studies on Science and Technology in China at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin).

The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Technology
2025-03-20 11:00 - 12:00
Join the ACG and the Aspen Institute for an insightful virtual discussion on March 20 between German and U.S. state legislators to highlight the role of states, cities, and local governments in fostering innovation, addressing AI-related challenges, and promoting cross-border cooperation. The conversation will include Senator Lashrecse Aird (D), Senate of Virginia, Nina Eisenhardt (Alliance 90/The Greens), State Parliament of Hesse, and Franziska Müller-Rech (FDP), State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Senator Lashrecse D. Aird (D) was sworn into the Virginia State Senate in 2024. She previously served three terms (2016-2022) in the Virginia House of Delegates where she held the distinction as the youngest woman ever elected to that body. Senator Aird helped Virginia make history with the passage of Breonna’s Law, prohibiting the use of no-knock search warrants. Her legislation also led Virginia to become the first southern state to declare racism a public health crisis, to declare access to water a human right, and to make Virginia a leading state in combating maternal and infant mortality. She currently serves on the Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee, the Joint Commission on Technology and Science, the Behavioral Health Commission, the Fentanyl and Heroin Enforcement Task Force, and the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Virginia State University and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Political Leadership Program, and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Minority Political Leadership Institute. As a result of her policy efforts, in 2020 Senator Aird was invited to serve as a Congressional European Parliament Initiative (CEPI) Fellow with the Bertelsmann Foundation.

A tireless and trusted community leader, Lashrecse Aird is actively engaged in numerous civic boards and organizations. She is the Virginia State Social Action Coordinator for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She serves on the Global Advisory Board for the Presidential Precinct. She also serves on the boards for Chippenham Johnston-Willis Hospital, the Sorensen Political Leadership Institute, Sports Backers, and the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood. She is also a member of the Responsible Leaders Network for the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. Professionally, Lashrecse works in higher education administration at Virginia State University.
Nina Eisenhardt (Alliance 90/The Greens) is a member of the Hessian State Parliament and the spokesperson for universities, science, and artificial intelligence for the BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN parliamentary group. She studied political science at the Technical University of Darmstadt and later earned a master’s degree in International Studies: Peace and Conflict Research at Goethe University Frankfurt. She also worked at KfW Development Bank, focusing on international cooperation.
Her political journey started early—she was elected to the city council of her home town Renningen at the age of 19. A member of BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN since 2012, she has been active in various committees pushing for fairer education and science policies. She had various leading positions in her party, including serving her party’s board as state treasurer for BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN in Hesse.
On January 18, 2019, she was elected to the Hessian State Parliament, representing Groß-Gerau County and Main-Taunus County. She is member of the parliamentarian committees for science and art as well as digitalization and data protection. She focuses on future-oriented policies in science, digitalization, and higher education.
Franziska Müller-Rech (FDP) has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament since 2017. She joined the Free Democrats in 2006 during her studies. In 2015, she became deputy district chairwoman of the FDP. Since March 2018, she has succeeded Joachim Stamp as district chairwoman of the FDP in Bonn. In March 2018, she was elected to the Cologne district executive committee at the district party conference in Leverkusen.
In Bonn, Ms. Müller-Rech is a member of the school committee of the city of Bonn as an expert citizen and has been the spokesperson for school policy there since 2014. She was also a spokesperson for school policy in the FDP state parliamentary group. In the 2017 state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ms. Müller-Rech won a seat on her party’s state list. On January 27, 2023, she replaced Joachim Stamp in the State Parliament after leaving it in 2022 due to loss of FDP seats.
After graduating from the Erzbischöfliche Liebfrauenschule in Bonn in 2003, she studied at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (specializing in insurance). She successfully completed an apprenticeship as an insurance saleswoman and a degree in business administration (FH). Before she entered the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament, she worked as a team manager in customer service for company pension schemes at Talanx. Ms. Müller-Rech studied “Communication & Leadership” at Quadriga University Berlin and graduated with a Master of Arts in summer 2024.

Kaffeepause: What’s Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-24 12:00 - 13:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, March 24, at 12:00 p.m. ET for a Kaffeepause with Vladimir Balzer, an award-winning journalist and moderator at Deutschlandfunk.

Vladimir Balzer grew up in Leipzig and studied in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily program “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany. In 2023 he started as a correspondent at the Capital Studios of Deutschlandfunk in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German Television, such as ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the U.S.

Rising Above or Lagging Behind? Inequality in Higher Education
2025-03-26 12:00 - 13:00
As part of the Transatlantic Tandem Talks, join the ACG, University of Cologne NY Office, DAAD North America, DWIH NY, & partners for a discussion with experts from both sides of the Atlantic as they compare the higher education systems in the U.S. and Germany, analyze the current state of inequality in higher education, and explore its causes, consequences, and potential pathways toward greater equity. Speakers include Prof. Dr. Claudia Buchmann, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in Sociology at The Ohio State University and Prof. Dr. Marita Jacob, Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo) at the University of Cologne; and moderated by Peter R. Kerrigan, Deputy Director of the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) Regional Office in New York office Prof. Dr. Claudia Buchmann is a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor in Sociology at The Ohio State University. She is internationally known for her research on gender inequalities in education, with a focus on how women have come to attain more education than men in much of the world today. Her award-winning book The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What it Means for American Schools (2013, Russell Sage Foundation). Her prior research includes cross-national and comparative studies of the impact of economic policies and educational systems on educational outcomes and social well-being as well as case studies of stratification and mobility in Africa. A theme uniting her varied research projects is a concern for the intersection of institutional factors with family- and individual-level processes in determining social inequalities. Dr. Buchmann’s influential scholarship has been published in many top journals and has received widespread attention from the academic community and the news media, including The New York Times, Washington Post, National Public Radio, and the BBC. She is a recipient of the Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellowship, and her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Spencer Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She has served as deputy editor of the American Sociological Review and on the editorial boards of Sociology of Education and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. More recently, she served on the Wissenschaft Zentrum Berlin (WZB) advisory board in Germany and on the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Social Stratification (RC28). Dr. Buchmann is an advisory board member of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), Germany. Buchmann received her BA in German from the University of Wisconsin and her PhD in Sociology and African Studies from Indiana University.
Prof. Dr. Marita Jacob is a Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Management, Economics, and Social Sciences (WiSo) at the University of Cologne and is actively involved in the WiSo-Key Research Initiative Demography and Social Inequality. Additionally, she serves as the Faculty’s Vice Dean for Academic Careers. After her studies in social sciences, mathematics, and economics, she worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and received her PhD at the Free University of Berlin. She then continued as a Postdoc at the Institute for Employment Research in Nuremberg. Before joining the University of Cologne, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Mannheim. Her research focuses on social inequalities in education, employment, and family dynamics. She is particularly interested in how factors such as family background, gender, and ethnic origin influence educational decisions, with a recent emphasis on strategies to mitigate social inequalities in higher education. Her work also explores the relationship between gender equality in the labor market and family dynamics. In her latest research on enrollment disparities, she examined how intensive counseling can help reduce social inequalities in enrollment, specifically among native and immigrant students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. She also investigated the role of gendered risk and return preferences and gender differences in the choice of academic majors in higher education.
Peter R. Kerrigan (moderator) is the Deputy Director of the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) Regional Office in the New York office and is the Director of Marketing and Outreach for DAAD in North America. He is responsible for all areas of marketing German higher education and research and DAAD’s scholarship programs in the U.S. and Canada. Peter served as Vice President of Membership Development and Services at The Forum on Education Abroad; Assistant Director of the Higher Education Resource Group at the Institute of International Education (IIE); and Senior Program Coordinator in the Work Abroad Division of the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). Peter is an active speaker in the field of international education and has presented at conferences and workshops around the world. He has served in various volunteer governance positions for the European Association for International Education (EAIE), NAFSA: Association of International Educators, and The Forum on Education Abroad. He is helping EAIE restructure its mentorship program and serves as the Chair of EAIE’s Social Responsibility Thematic Committee. Peter helped found and grow the Rainbow Scholarship at the Fund for Education Abroad (FEA). This scholarship enables financially disadvantaged LGBTQI students to study abroad. In September 2016, Peter received EAIE’s Transatlantic Leadership Award. Peter was awarded an M.A. in Political Science by the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, and a B.A. in Political Science and German by Bates College, Maine, USA.

Hot Topics, Cold Realities: The Green Energy Transition – Dead in its Tracks?
2025-03-27 11:00 - 12:00
The shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources has been unfolding over decades. While the idea of sustainable energy emerged in the 20th century, it accelerated in the new millennium, driven by rising environmental concerns, growing awareness of climate change, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under President Biden and his signature climate legislation and the European Green Deal aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, the global momentum for a green transition gained significant momentum.
However, the war in Ukraine and new governments in the United States and Germany have ushered in a political shift from clean energy to more secure and affordable energy sources. President Trump’s push to “Drill Baby, Drill” and the priorities of Germany’s incoming Chancellor Merz on defense capabilities over climate concerns in a new geopolitical era, raise questions about the future of the green energy transition.
Join 1014 and the ACG on March 27 to discuss this development with Cameron Abadi, Deputy Editor at Foreign Policy and Co-Host of FP’s Ones and Tooze podcast, and Dr. Kira Vinke, Head of Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations. Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy and co-host of FP’s Ones and Tooze podcast. He previously worked at the New Republic and Foreign Affairs and as a correspondent in Germany and Iran. His writing has appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, the New Yorker, the New Republic, and Der Spiegel.
Dr. Kira Vinke is head of the Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She is also a member of the Advisory Board to the Federal Government for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding, which she co-chaired from 2018 to January 2025. From 2014-2022, she worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Before joining DGAP, she headed the East Africa Peru India Climate Capacities (EPICC) project there.
She completed her doctoral dissertation (summa cum laude) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on the subject of climate change and migration; her studies were funded by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

Germany’s Investment in Defense and Infrastructure
2025-03-27 12:15 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion with Heiko Thoms, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance Heiko Thoms is State Secretary in the German Ministry of Finance. He oversees European policy, international financial policy, financial market policy as well as government holdings and privatization. His responsibilities include serving as the Deputy of the German Minister of Finance at the G7, the G20 and the IMF. He is Alternate Governor of the World Bank Group and the EBRD, as well as Vice President of the Economic and Financial Committee of the European Union (EFC) and Member of the Board of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Furthermore, he is Chairman of the Board of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics (BIG).
At the national level, State Secretary Thoms is Chairman of the Board of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), Chair of the Financial Stability Committee (Ausschuss für Finanzstabilität), and Member of the Supervisory Board of KfW IPEX Bank. During his tenure, State Secretary Thoms negotiated the new EU fiscal rules, contributing significantly to the establishment of policies aimed at fostering fiscal stability across the European Union. He played a pivotal role in securing the establishment of the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) in Frankfurt, strengthening Germany’s position as a financial hub. He also spearheaded the Growth and Innovation Capital Initiative for Germany (WIN Initiative), introducing a comprehensive package of measures designed to improve the framework conditions for growth and venture capital in the country.
State Secretary Thoms is a trained lawyer and diplomat. He started his public service career in 1999 in the Federal Foreign Office and previously served as German Ambassador to Brazil and to the United Nations in New York and as Deputy Ambassador to NATO.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-31 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, March 31, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a Kaffeepause with ACG Fellowship alumna Miriam Hollstein, Chief Political Reporter for Stern Miriam Hollstein serves as the Chief Political Reporter for Stern. Before this, she was the Chief Report from January 2022 to Septepmber 23 atT-Online in Berlin. Prior to this position, she served as the Chief Political Reporter for FUNKE Zentralredaktion from November 2020 to December 2021. 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 to 2020, she worked for the Bild am Sonntag, first as a domestic policy and then from 2018 as chief reporter of politics. Her reporting brought her into regular contact with the office of the German Chancellor. Since March 2020, she has worked 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 preserving German film heritage.

Istanbul’s Political Crisis: Implications of Ekrem İmamoğlu’s Arrest
2025-04-02 11:00 - 12:00
On March 23, 2025, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul and the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was jailed. İmamoğlu had been awaiting trial on corruption charges, which sparked the largest protests in Turkey in over a decade. Many view these charges as politically motivated. In response, İmamoğlu’s party – the Republican People’s Party (CHP) – voted to nominate him as their candidate for the 2028 presidential election. Meanwhile, Germany, home to an estimated three million people of Turkish heritage, condemned İmamoğlu’s arrest as “totally unacceptable.”
Given Turkey’s crucial role in European security, migration, and regional stability, İmamoğlu’s arrest sent shockwaves through Europe and beyond. What does this mean for Turkey’s relations with Germany and the broader European Union? How might this affect Europe’s foreign policy moving forward?
Join us on April 2 for a virtual discussion with Turkey expert Dr. Sinem Adar from the Center for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). We will delve into these questions, explore the circumstances surrounding İmamoğlu’s detention and arrest, and examine the broader implications for Turkish democracy. Dr. Sinem Adar is with the Center for Applied Turkey Studies of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). She focuses on Turkish domestic politics and foreign policy, and EU-Turkey relations. Before joining SWP, Dr. Adar was an Einstein Fellow at Humboldt University. She holds a Doctorate degree in Sociology from Brown University and a Master of Science in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

The New German Government and the Global Order
2025-04-03 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon 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 on the Budget 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.
Mr. Hakverdi 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. 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 the Atlantik-Brücke e.V.

What German Leadership Means for Europe
2025-04-04 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, Former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges is the former Commanding General of US Army Europe (2014-2017). He is a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC and consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union. He is co-author of the book, Future War and the Defence of Europe. Lt. Gen. Hodges has a regular presence in US and international media where he offers insight and analysis on NATO, US and European security, the Russian War against Ukraine, the greater Black Sea and Baltic Sea Regions, the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. Election and its implications for Transatlantic Security, human rights, and other related geostrategic topics.
He most recently served as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. Prior to that, he was an Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Before to joining Human Rights First, Lt. Gen. Hodges held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
A native of Quincy, Florida, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry. He lives in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Path Forward for Germany’s Defense
2025-04-07 11:45 - 13:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Jasper Wieck, Political Director in the German Federal Ministry of Defense Dr. Jasper Wieck is a seasoned German diplomat currently serving as the Political Director at the German Federal Ministry of Defense, a role he assumed in 2022. In this capacity, he advises on foreign and security policy matters and represents Germany in high-level international defense dialogues.
Previously, Dr. Wieck was the Special Representative of the Federal Government for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2021–2022). From 2012 to 2017, he led the Security and Defense Policy/NATO Division at the Federal Foreign Office, following his tenure as Head of the Political Section at the German NATO Representation in Brussels (2009–2012). As a trained historian, he played a key role in drafting the 2016 White Paper on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr as Head of the Task Force.
Dr. Wieck studied History, Philosophy, and Theology in Bonn and Political Science in Paris. In 1995, he earned his doctorate with a dissertation on France and the Manchurian Crisis of 1931–1933.

Hot Topics/ Cold Realities: Politics, Constitutions, and the Law
2025-04-10 11:00 - 12:00
“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” President Donald Trump posted last month on social media. Since the new administration in the United States took office on January 20, many legal scholars have raised concerns over an extensive use of executive power, disregard of judicial orders, and erosion of checks and balances. This has led to questions about the role of the executive branch in shaping national policy – and whether such actions undermine the Constitution’s principles of separation of powers.
In Germany, the outgoing parliament passed amendments to the constitution which allow for deficit spending and the loosening of the so-called constitutional debt-brake, a move that is now under scrutiny in the courts. In other European countries, various policies have been introduced that challenge the rule of law, undermining judicial independence and consolidating political power.
Join 1014 and the American Council on Germany to discuss the current trends of executive power, judicial oversight, and constitutional integrity in both the United States and Europe with experts on constitutional law and comparative law Prof. Franz Mayer from the University of Bielefeld, and Prof. Russel Miller from Washington and Lee University, Virginia. The conversation will explore the implications of recent legal and political developments and their impact on democratic governance across the Atlantic. Prof. Franz Mayer holds the Chair in Public Law, European Law, Public International Law, Comparative Law and Law and Politics at the University of Bielefeld (Law Faculty). He studied Law, Political Science and History at the Universities of Bonn and Munich, at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) and at Yale Law School. Visiting researcher Harvard Law School 2000; annual Visiting lecturer University of Warsaw since 2000; Visiting professor at Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne) 2007 and at Paris 2 (Panthéon-Assas) 2010; General Course Academy of European Law, European University Institute, Florence, 2011; Senior Emile Noël Fellow, NYU School of Law 2011; Visiting professor of Law at Columbia Law School Winter term 2012/2013; Short Term International Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School Fall term 2024 (non-resident).
Professor Mayer was Counsel in proceedings at the German Constitutional Court to the German Parliament in the Treaty of Lisbon-trial in 2008-2009 and in the first case related to the Euro-crisis, the case on the Euro stabilization mechanism 2010-2012, his most recent case for the German Parliament was the Next Generation EU-case on the €800 billion temporary recovery instrument (2021-2022). He was Counsel at the German Constitutional Court to the German government in the CETA case (2016-2022) and in the case on the Unified European Patent Court (2017-2020). His most recent case for the German government concerns the constitutionality of the new EP election law (2023-2024). In 2023, he was part of a Franco-German Group of 12 experts invited by the German and the French minister for Europe to write a report on institutional reform of the EU.
His teaching and research interests focus on European constitutional and administrative law, on comparative law, on the relationship between European law and politics, on parliaments in times of globalization, on internet law, sports law (European soccer law) and more generally on international law and public law. Since 2016, he has been a member of the German Football Association’s Federal Court (DFB Bundesgericht), ethics chamber. He has dual French and German citizenship and lives in Berlin with his family.
Professor Russell Miller joined the Washington and Lee law faculty in 2008. His teaching and scholarly research focuses on public law subjects (Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, International Law), Comparative Law Theory and Methods, and German Law and Legal Culture. Previously, he taught at the University of Idaho College of Law. He often has been a guest professor in Germany. Alongside his work at the School of Law, Professor Miller has a joint-appointment as Lecturer in Literature in Washington and Lee University’s undergraduate College. In that position he works extensively with colleagues and students in W&L’s German and Russian Department. Professor Miller, a recognized expert in German Law and Legal Culture, is the author/editor of a number of books in the fields of comparative law and international law.
Professor Miller is the co-founder and Co-Editor in Chief of the German Law Journal, an on-line, English-language journal reporting on developments in German, European and International jurisprudence. Now in its second decade, the German Law Journal is one of the most successful and innovative fora for legal scholarship from a transnational perspective.
Professor Miller has been recognized for his work on German law and transatlantic affairs. In 2013, Professor Miller was named a KoRSE Fellow at the University of Freiburg. Professor Miller was a 2009/2010 Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in residence at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and Public International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1999/2000, Professor Miller was a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow and, during that program, he participated in internship and clerkship experiences at the German Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. In appreciation for his work on behalf of the Bosch Fellowship and German-American relations, Professor Miller was recognized as the Bosch Alumni of the Year in 2012.
Professor Miller served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Robert H. Whaley of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. For four years prior to becoming a professor, Miller served as appellate and post-conviction counsel for indigent, death-sentenced inmates in the state and federal courts of Arizona and Tennessee. Professor Miller is admitted to the Arizona State Bar.

The Promise and Peril of America First
2025-04-10 12:15 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Charles Kupchan, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University.
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 director for European affairs on the NSC during the first Bill Clinton administration. Before joining the Clinton NSC, Dr. Kupchan 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 has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, Columbia University’s Institute for War and Peace Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Centre d’Étude et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo. From 2006 to 2007, he was the Henry A. Kissinger scholar at the Library of Congress and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 2013 to 2014, he was a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy. Dr. Kupchan received his BA from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-04-14 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on April 14 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, former Foreign Editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Nadine Lindner, Correspondent with Deutschlandradio. They will discuss the German government coalition agreement and provide insights into the new cabinet selections. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger was the Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His writings deal especially with the United States, European, transatlantic, and international politics. He holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, Economics, and American Studies from Frankfurt University. He joined the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s leading national daily, in 1986, and 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.
Nadine Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of “Deutschlandradio” since early 2016 and is responsible, among other things, for covering the AfD and transport policy. Before that, she was a Correspondent in the Free State of Saxony for two and a half years and followed the rise of Pegida there. She studied Political Science, Journalism, and African Studies in Leipzig and discovered her enthusiasm for radio there at the training station “mephisto 97.6.” After graduating from university, she worked as a freelance journalist for “MDR sputnik” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as Deutschlandradio.

Germany’s Higher Education Landscape: Innovations, Challenges, and Opportunities
2025-04-15 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG and the Heidelberg University Association will host a breakfast roundtable with Professor Dr. Frauke Melchior, Rector of the University of Heidelberg. Frauke Melchior has been Rector of Heidelberg University since October 2023. As Rector, she is responsible for the university’s overall development and strategic orientation, the governance of the Excellence Strategy, as well as appointments to professorships. She is also head of the University Senate and all of its committees. Frauke Melchior studied chemistry at the University of Marburg and the University of Bristol (UK) and in 1990 earned her doctorate in Marburg on a biochemical topic. As a postdoctoral researcher in the field of molecular cell biology, she first worked at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and from 1992 at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (USA).
In 1998 Frauke Melchior started the first research group of her own at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich. Six years later she accepted a professorship for biochemistry in the field of human medicine at the University of Göttingen. In 2008 Frauke Melchior was appointed Professor of Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University. From 2021 to 2023 she was a member of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of the research centers in the Helmholtz Association, where she was responsible for Scientific Division III – Life Sciences.

Words Matter: The Future of Free Speech
2025-04-16 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany and 1014 will host a discussion and luncheon with Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz, Director of the Leibniz Institute of Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI). Gypsy Guillén Kaiser joined the Committee to Protect Journalists as advocacy and communications director in 2021. A specialist in advancing structural change to ensure freedom of the press, defend human rights, and secure social and economic justice, Guillén Kaiser has worked nearly two decades with international non-governmental organizations and as a journalist. She has participated in missions to more than a dozen countries, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Peru, Singapore and South Africa. Most recently, she led strategic outreach to promote progressive family policies and to propel the Women, Peace and Security agenda at UN Women.
Previously, she served as director of communications at the International Women’s Health Coalition and at Eisenhower Fellowships, after fighting corruption as the media and public relations manager at Transparency International’s secretariat in Berlin. She served on the boards of the Human Impacts Institute and Friends of Transparency International. Guillén Kaiser returned to CPJ after heading the organization’s advocacy and communications department from 2010 to 2013.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University and a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A native of the Dominican Republic who grew up in New York City, Guillén Kaiser is fluent in Spanish and German.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz is the Director of the Leibniz Institute of Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI). He is also a professor for “Media Law and Public Law including Theoretical Foundations” at the Faculty of Law at Universität Hamburg. In 2012, he was also appointed director at Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Schulz works on questions of communications constitutional law, media law and internet governance (with a focus on intermediaries), legal problems of algorithmic decision-making, and the ethics of digitalization. He often works at the interface between law and other disciplines such as communication science and computer science and with a focus on the dimension of knowledge. He uses the functional comparison of different national approaches to solve problems. The transfer to politics at all levels (state, federal, EU, Council of Europe, UNESCO) plays an essential role in his work.
He was a member of the German Bundestag’s Enquete Commission “Internet and Digital Society” (2010 to 2013), Chairman of the Committee of Experts on Internet Intermediaries (MSI-NET) of the Council of Europe (2016-2017) and is Chairman of the Expert Committee “Communication and Information” of the German Commission for UNESCO (DUK) and thus also a member of the DUK Board. He also coordinates the Content Contact Group of the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network (INJ). Wolfgang Schulz is a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC). He is also head of the Board of Directors of the Hamburg-based citizens’ and educational channel TIDE and a member of the Board of Trustees of the #UseTheNews initiative.

Germany Prepares for a Post-America Deterrence Future
2025-04-17 11:00 - 12:00
After weeks of negotiations, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats have presented a coalition agreement to form a new government. In the 144-page document, the parties have pledged to ramp up defense spending and enhance national security readiness. This renewed focus on defense comes at a time of mounting geopolitical tension and increasing uncertainty surrounding the transatlantic alliance – especially as the prospect of a diminished U.S. nuclear presence in Europe raises urgent questions about the future of the continent’s security architecture.
For decades, Germany has operated under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. But, with growing doubts over the reliability of Washington’s extended deterrence commitments, Germany now faces a pivotal strategic crossroads. While France and the United Kingdom remain nuclear allies, the absence of U.S. leadership in Europe’s nuclear deterrence posture would mark a profound shift. The incoming German government appears increasingly concerned – and is preparing for a strategic recalibration of its nuclear defense policy.
Join the American Council on Germany for a discussion with security expert Dr. Karl-Heinz Kamp, Associate Fellow in the German Council on Foreign Relations’ (DGAP) Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, to explore this critical moment, the future of nuclear deterrence in Europe, and Germany’s evolving role in a changing security landscape. Dr. Karl-Heinz Kamp has been an Associate Fellow in DGAP’s Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia since October 2023. He holds a lectureship at the University Roma Tre in Rome and was the political director’s representative at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defense until 2023. Prior to that, he was president of the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin.
From 2007 to 2013, Kamp was director of research at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Previously, he held various positions at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Bonn and Berlin as well as in the planning staff of Germany’s Federal Foreign Office.

Zeitenwende 2.0? Priorities and Challenges for Germany’s New Government
2025-04-21 17:30 - 19:00
The American Council on Germany Charlotte Warburg Chapter invites you to a discussion and reception with Dr. Christoph von Marschall, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Der Tagesspiegel (1999 ACG Kellen Fellow) . Dr. Christoph von Marschall is currently the Global Europe Fellow at The Wilson Center in Washington, DC. He is the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel, the leading daily in Berlin, and a frequent guest on television shows as an expert on central eastern Europe, the United States, transatlantic relations, and Great Power Competition. Since 1991, he has been working for Der Tagesspiegel, where his prior positions have included Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent (2005‐2013) as well as Editorial Page Editor (1995‐2005). In 1989, he joined the Süddeutsche Zeitung and covered the regime changes in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
From 2017 to 2018, Dr. von Marschall was the inaugural Helmut Schmidt Fellow of the Zeit Foundation and the German Marshall Fund of the United States, based in Washington, DC. Informed through his access to the White House as a member of the Press Corps during Donald Trump’s first term, he wrote a book about the future of Germany’s foreign policy: Wir Verstehen die Welt Nicht Mehr. Deutschlands Entfremdung von Seinen Freunden (“We Don’t Understand the World Anymore. Germany’s Estrangement from Its Friends”). Dr. von Marschall was awarded an ACG Kellen Fellowship in 1999. He studied East European History and Political Science in Freiburg, Mainz, and Krakow, Poland, culminating in a Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg.

The Future of the Transatlantic Trade Relationship
2025-04-30 11:30 - 13:30
The Charlotte Warburg Chapter and the N.C. Zeitgeist Foundation will host a discussion and luncheon with Julian Heißler, U.S. Correspondent for WirtschaftsWoche. Julian Heißler has been working as the U.S. correspondent for WirtschaftsWoche in Washington, D.C., since 2018. Before that, he spent several years in Berlin writing about German federal politics for various media outlets. He studied communication studies, political science, and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin and completed the master’s program in journalism at the Hamburg Media School.
His first book Traum und Albtraum: Amerika und die vielen Gesichter derFreiheit (Dream and Nightmare: America and the Many Faces of Freedom) was published in October 2023. This October his second book on America’s “oligarchs” will be published at Piper Verlag.
