Germany’s ‘Zeitenwende’ and a New Chapter for Transatlantic Relations - Canceled
2022-06-10 08:00 - 09:30 (America/New_York)
June 10, the ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Michael Georg Link, Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office and Member of the Bundestag (FDP).
Michael Georg Link is a member of the German Bundestag, where he represents the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and his home electoral district, Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg. He is the Spokesperson on Europe of the FDP Parliamentary Group, and since March 2022, he has been the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office. In addition, Mr. Link is a member of the party council of the European Liberals (ALDE) and a member of the FDP national executive board in his capacity as party Treasurer. He is a member of Heilbronn City Council and also Chairperson of the FDP association in that city. From January 2012 to December 2013, he was Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office and Federal Government Commissioner for Franco-German Cooperation. In particular, he was responsible for relations with the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and NATO, as well as bilateral relations with the United States and Canada. After his military service, Mr. Link studied Russian and French at the universities of Augsburg, Lausanne, and Heidelberg.

Holding Together in Times of Crisis: A New Era for Transatlantic Relations
2022-06-13 08:00 - 2022-06-14 17:00
The American Council on Germany and Atlantik-Brücke will hold their joint annual German-American Conference in Berlin.
Monday, June 13, 2022
8:15 am Registration Opens
9:00 am Welcome by
Sigmar Gabriel, Chairman, Atlantik-Brücke; former Federal Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor
Ambassador John Emerson, Chairman, American Council on Germany; former U.S. Ambassador to Germany
9:15 am Setting the Stage Oliver Bäte, CEO, Allianz SE
9:35 am Oliver Bäte in conversation with Ambassador John Emerson
10:00 am Opening Keynote: “Transatlantic Relations During Uncertain Times”
Federal Minister Annalena Baerbock, Federal Foreign Minister, Federal Foreign Office
10:20 am Q&A with Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock
11:00 am Coffee Break
11:30 am “How Reliable is the Transatlantic Partnership?”
Molly Montgomery, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Dr. Norbert Röttgen, Member of the Bundestag (CDU/CSU) and Member of Committee on Foreign Affairs
Wolfgang Schmidt, Head of the Federal Chancellery (invited)
Moderator: Dr. Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Politics Coordinator, Die Zeit
12:30 pm Lunch Break
1:30 pm “Finding a Common Security and Defense Policy in Times of Crisis”
Dr. Stefanie Babst, Principal and Global Policy Advisor, Brooch Associates, London; former Chief Strategic Policy Analyst, NATO
Dr. Seth A. Johnston, Military Officer in Europe, U.S. Department of Defense; U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel; former NATO Task Force Commander
Dr. Markus Kaim, Senior Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
Moderator: Tina Hassel, Berlin Bureau Chief, ARD German Television (invited)
2:30 pm “Food Security and the Economic Implications of the War in Ukraine”
Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, CEO and Managing Director, Food Systems for the Future; former Executive Director, United Nations World Food Program
Alexander Müller, Managing Director, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability
Moderator: Anja Wehler-Schöck, Journalist (invited)
3:30 pm Coffee Break
4:00 pm “Two Views on Russia and the War in Ukraine”
Dr. Christoph von Marschall, Diplomatic Correspondent of the Editorial Board, Der Tagesspiegel
Dr. John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science Department, University of Chicago
Moderator: Katja Gloger, Author and Journalist
5:30 pm Keynote: Federal Minister Christine Lambrecht, Federal Minister, Federal Ministry of Defense
5:45 pm Q&A with Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht
6:15 pm Closing Remarks
Sigmar Gabriel, Chairman, Atlantik-Brücke; former Federal Foreign Minister and Vice- Chancellor
Ambassador John Emerson, Chairman, American Council on Germany; former U.S. Ambassador to Germany
6:30 pm Reception

Tuesday, June 14, 2022
8:00 am Registration Opens
8:45 am Welcome Back
Julia Friedlander, CEO, Atlantik-Brücke
Dr. Steven E. Sokol, President, American Council on Germany
9:00 “The Economic and Social Impact of the Current Crises”
Prof. Dr. h.c. Jutta Allmendinger, President, WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Professor of Educational Sociology and Labor Market Research, Humboldt University in Berlin
Dr. Adam Tooze, Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History and Director of the European Institute, Columbia University
Moderator: Birte Meier, Investigative Journalist, ZDF German Television
10:00 “Energy Dependence vs. Independence: Conflict or a False Choice?”
Ulf Heitmüller, Chairman of the Board, VNG AG Leipzig
Tracy McKibben, Founder and CEO, MAC Energy Advisors LLC
Yuriy Vitrenko, CEO, Naftogaz (invited)
Moderator: America Hernandez, Energy Policy Correspondent, POLITICO Europe (invited)
11:00 Coffee Break
11:15 “Defending Against Cyber Attacks: Trust and Technology”
Christopher Painter, President, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, Director of Digital Society Institute, European School of Management and Technology in Berlin
Moderator: Johannes Steger, Director of “Background Cybersecurity”, Der Tagesspiegel
12:15 pm “Revitalizing Transatlantic Trade”
Prof. Dr. Michael Hüther, Director and Member of the Executive Committee, German Economic Institute
Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University SAIS; former First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Moderator: Dr. Laura von Daniels, Head of Research Division “The Americas”, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
1:15 pm Wrap up
Julia Friedlander, CEO, Atlantik-Brücke
Dr. Steven E. Sokol, President, American Council on Germany

agenda subject to change.

Disruption: The Economic Impact of the Pandemic and the War in Ukraine
2022-06-14 13:30 - 14:30
The ACG and the Freunde des ACG will host a discussion and luncheon in Berlin with Dr. Adam Tooze, Director of the European Institute and Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History at Columbia University; Author of Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (2018) and Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy (2021). Dr. Adam Tooze has held the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History at Columbia University since 2015 and also serves as Director of the European Institute. Having received his BA in Economics from King’s College Cambridge in 1989, he had the good fortune to witness the end of the Cold War in Berlin, where he began his postgraduate studies. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. From 1996 to 2009, Dr. Tooze taught at the University of Cambridge, where he was Reader in Modern History and Gurnee Hart fellow in History at Jesus College. After Cambridge, Dr. Tooze was appointed to the Barton M. Biggs Professorship at Yale University, where he succeeded Paul Kennedy as the Director of International Security Studies. In February 2011, he served as Thomas Hawkins Johnson Visiting Professor in Military History at West Point. Dr. Tooze’s first book, Statistics and the German State: The Making of Modern Economic Knowledge, appeared in 2001; Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy was published in 2006; Deluge: The Great War and the Remaking of the Global Order 1916-1931 in 2014; Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World in 2018; and Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy in 2021. He has written and reviewed for the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, the New Left Review, the New Statesman, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Dissent, Die Zeit, Spiegel, Tageszeitung, and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

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

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-06-20 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, June 20 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Stephan Detjen, Chief Correspondent for Deutschlandradio. Stephan Detjen is Chief Correspondent for Deutschlandradio and heads the station’s capital city studio in Berlin. Previously, he worked as Deutschlandfunk’s Editor-in-Chief in Cologne and as a legal policy correspondent in Karlsruhe, among other positions. Mr. Detjen is a member of the board of the Bundespressekonferenz and was a member of the foundation board for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade from 2013 to 2018. He studied Law and History in Munich, Aix-en-Provence, and Speyer.

Energy Security and the War in Ukraine
2022-06-21 11:00 - 12:00
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have seen an energy crisis unfold in Europe – and particularly in Germany given its heavy reliance on energy from Russia. The looming threat of Russia suspending gas deliveries to Germany or Germany ending the procurement as part of a sanctions package, respectively, could lead to a drastic increase in energy prices and shortage in gas supply. What are the challenges of being energy independent in an interconnected global economy? What does the war in Ukraine mean for energy security in Europe? What are the short-, mid-, and long-term consequences? And, how are governments and citizens reacting?
Join ACG and 1014 for another discussion as part of their virtual series Democracies und Pressure: Challenges for the Global Liberal Order. We will be joined by Samantha Gross, Director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and Dr. Rainer Quitzow from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS). Samantha Gross is a Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she also directs the Energy Security and Climate Initiative. Her work is focused on the intersection of energy, environment, and policy, including climate policy and international cooperation, energy efficiency, unconventional oil and gas development, regional and global natural gas trade, and the energy-water nexus.
Ms. Gross has more than 20 years of experience in energy and environmental affairs. She has been a visiting fellow at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, where she authored work on clean energy cooperation and on post-Paris climate policy. She was director of the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. In that role, she directed U.S. activities under the Clean Energy Ministerial, including the secretariat and initiatives focusing on clean energy implementation and access and energy efficiency. Prior to her time at the Department of Energy, Gross was director of integrated research at IHS CERA. She managed the IHS CERA Climate Change and Clean Energy forum and the IHS relationship with the World Economic Forum. She also authored numerous papers on energy and environment topics and was a frequent speaker on these topics. She has also worked at the Government Accountability Office on the Natural Resources and Environment team and as an engineer directing environmental assessment and remediation projects.
Ms. Gross holds a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, a Master of Science in environmental engineering from Stanford, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Rainer Quitzow joined the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in December 2014. His research focuses on sustainable innovation, industrial policy, and governance of the energy transition in Germany and beyond. In particular, he has focused on the internationalization of emerging renewable energy industries and the changing role of emerging economies in this context. He regularly engages in policy-oriented advisory work for both German and international clients.
Before his career as a researcher, Rainer Quitzow worked in the field of international development with a focus on governance and environmental and trade policy. At the World Bank in Washington, D.C., he conducted governance and policy impact analyses for development programs in Latin America and Africa.

Germany’s G7 Presidency and the War in Ukraine
2022-06-22 11:00 - 12:00
At the beginning of the year, Germany set out to make “progress towards an equitable world” with a focus on sustainability, economic stability, public health, and investment in a better future as part of its G7 Presidency. However, in late February Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine put the global economic and security order at risk – and security concerns began to play a much bigger role in the G7 agenda. How is Germany supporting Ukraine through its G7 presidency? How has Germany adapted its G7 priorities in light of the war in Ukraine? How will Germany take the lead in developing global solutions to a host of issues in the face of open conflict in Europe?
Join the American Council on Germany and the German Embassy in Washington, DC for a discussion about the security dimension of Germany’s G7 Presidency. On Wednesday, June 22 (just days before the G7 Summit in Bavaria), Dr. Emily Haber, German Ambassador to the United States, will join Ambassador John Emerson, Chairman of the American Council on Germany and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, to discuss these questions. Ambassador Emily M. Haber has been German Ambassador to the United States since June 2018. Immediately prior to this, Ambassador Haber, a career Foreign Service Officer, was deployed to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, serving as State Secretary overseeing security and migration at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe. In this capacity, she worked closely with the U.S. administration on topics ranging from the fight against international terrorism to global cyberattacks and cybersecurity. In 2009, she was appointed Political Director and, in 2011, State Secretary at the Foreign Office, the first woman to hold either post. Earlier in her career, she served at the German Embassy in Ankara; in Berlin, she has served as Deputy Head of the Cabinet and Parliamentary Liaison Division, as Director of the OSCE Division, and as Deputy Director-General for the Western Balkans. She has extensive knowledge of the Soviet Union and Russia, having worked both in the Soviet Union Division at the German Foreign Office and on various occasions at the German Embassy in Moscow, where she served as Head of the Economic Affairs Section and Head of the Political Affairs Department.
Ambassador Haber attended schools in New Delhi, Bonn, Paris, Brussels, Washington, and Athens. From 1975 to 1980, she studied history and ethnology in Cologne, earning her Ph.D. with a dissertation on German foreign policy during the Morocco crisis on the eve of World War I. During her time as State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Ambassador Haber spoke at the ACG’s American-German Young Leaders Conference.
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.

Kissinger at 99: Historical Reflections on 20th-Century America’s Most Famous Diplomat
2022-06-23 19:00 - 21:00
On June 23, the Nashville Warburg Chapter will host a discussion and cocktail hour with Dr. Thomas A. Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, on “Kissinger at 99: Historical Reflections on 20th-Century America’s Most Famous Diplomat” Thomas A. Schwartz, who was an ACG Young Leader in 1989, is a Distinguished Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He is a historian of the foreign relations of the United States, modern European history, and biography. Dr. Schwartz’s most recent book, Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography (Hill and Wang, 2020), has received considerable notice and acclaim. He is also the author of America’s Germany: John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany (Harvard, 1991) – which 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 – and 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. Dr. Schwartz is also the co-editor, together with Matthias Schulz, of The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-06-27 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, June 27 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with journalist Miriam Hollstein, Chief Reporter for T-Online in Berlin. Miriam Hollstein serves as the Chief Reporter for T-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 2015-2020 she worked for the Bild am Sonntag, first as 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 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.

The G7 and NATO Summits: An Assessment
2022-07-01 10:00 - 11:00
Following the EU Summits this week, over the weekend and next week we will see world leaders gather for the G7 Summit in Elmau (Germany) and the NATO Summit in Madrid (Spain). Russia’s war in Ukraine is likely to overshadow the agenda. In the context of these meetings, allies are likely to show solidarity and unity in the face of Russia’s invasion – and to take measures to defend and protect the rules-based international order against acts of aggression by autocratic states.
For a readout on the G7 and NATO Summits, join us for a conversation with two journalists who will be covering the summits: Fabian Reinbold is a political journalist in Berlin and a former White House correspondent in Washington and Andrea Shalal is a Senior Correspondent for Reuters. Fabian Reinbold is a political journalist in Berlin and a former White House correspondent in Washington. He has been with t-online since 2017 – first reporting from the United States and since January 2022 in Berlin. He is the Founder of the newsletter “Post aus Washington” – for which he received the Arthur F. Burns Award. Previously, he spent nearly seven years with Der Spiegel. In 2016, he was an Arthur Burns Fellow at The Denver Post.
Andrea Shalal is a Senior Correspondent for Reuters. Now based in Washington, DC, she has reported on German foreign policy, security, and European defense. reports on German foreign policy, security, and European defense for Reuters. Over the span of 30 years with Reuters, she has covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, U.S. elections, energy and the environment, global arms sales, as well as politics, the arts, and civil rights. She helped found a diversity initiative at Reuters in the United States in the late 1990s, has taught college and graduate courses on diversity and media ethics, and lectures occasionally about Arab-American literature.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-07-05 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, July 5 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause following the G7 Summit in Germany and the NATO Summit in Spain with Jens Wiegmann, Foreign Editor for WELT / WELT AM SONNTAG. Jens Wiegmann has served as Foreign Editor of Die Welt / Welt am Sonntag since 2005. Prior to this, he was the Editor of Finances for Die Welt from 2002 to 2005. From 1997 to 2002, he served as Editor of the business section of the Berliner Morgenpost. From 1993 to 1996, he was the Foreign Correspondent for Springer in New York City. He studied Political Science and American Literature at the University of Hamburg and Tulane University in New Orleans. From 1991 to 1993, he attended the Axel Springer School of Journalism. In 2002, he undertook an American Council on Germany McCloy Fellowship in Journalism during which he researched trade relations between the United States and Germany.

Russia’s War in Ukraine: Is this the New Normal?
2022-07-07 13:00 - 14:00
The West has shown unity and commitment to Ukraine that would not have been forecast a year ago. The post-Cold War institutions are proving resilient and Putin’s desire to divide the democratic Allies has paradoxically bolstered the unity and resolve within NATO, the European Union, and the international community writ large. Increasingly severe rounds of sanctions have surpassed anything seen by any other country as the global economy severs ties to the country. The Russian economy is in a nose-dive and its military seems to be running out of munitions.
What’s at stake in Ukraine? How will things continue to unfold? How does this end? These are a few of the many questions being asked since this phase of the war started in February. Building on an ad hoc series of virtual events since mid-February, the Tennessee World Affairs Council and the American Council on Germany are launching In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine to provide continued updates on and insights into the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine that has rocked the world order. Featuring conversations with U.S. and European experts, this series explores the unfolding conflict on the ground, the geostrategic implications, and the perspectives from the United States, Europe, Russia, and Ukraine.
Join us on July 7 at 1:00 pm ET/12:00 pm CT for a virtual conversation on the war in Ukraine with Ambassador John Kornblum, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs. 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 adviser to the worldwide consultancy Accenture. Mr. Kornblum has also served on a number of supervisory and advisory boards including those of Thyssen-Krupp, 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. He received a B.A. from Michigan State University in 1964, and he has been the recipient of many awards, including a Knights Cross of the Order of Merit from Germany and an Order of Merit from Austria.

Young Leaders Conference
2022-07-09 08:00 - 2022-07-14 17:00

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Germany?
2022-07-11 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. Join us on Monday, July 11 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Josh Gallu, Editor, Global Business Europe, at Bloomberg in Munich Josh Gallu has served as Editor, Global Business Europe, at Bloomberg in Munich since January 2022 and has worked for Bloomberg for over 15 years. He has held previous positions at Bloomberg including White House Editor, Money and Influence Editor, and Financial Crimes Editor. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he worked as a producer with Eurovision Americas and as a junior associate with the World Bank Group. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow working as a journalist with Der Spiegel. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Haverford College.

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

Implications for Ukraine: The War and Post-War Recovery
2022-07-21 13:00 - 14:00
This coming weekend, the war in Ukraine will hit the fifth-month mark. With no end in sight, questions begin to arise about the future of Ukraine. More than just security concerns, the future of civil society is in danger.
On July 21 at 1:00 pm ET, the American Council on Germany and the Tennessee World Affairs Council will host a virtual discussion on the post-war recovery with Anna Novosad, former Ukrainian Minister of Education and Member of the Ukrainian Parliament.
This is discussion is part of the series In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine, which provides continued updates on and insights into the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine that has rocked the world order. Anna Novosad is a Ukrainian educational activist. She served many years in various positions at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, including being Minister of Education from 2019 to 2020. She contributed to and led the comprehensive school reform in Ukraine, as well as was a leader of the higher education funding reform. Currently, she leads various projects that aim at education access renewal in Ukraine amidst the war.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Germany?
2022-07-25 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. Join us on Monday, July 25 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with journalist Johannes Leithäuser, Berlin Correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Johannes Leithäuser is Berlin Correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, where he covers politics. After graduating from high school, he wanted to become a captain in the navy, but he left after his mandatory service. A newspaper internship turned him on to journalism. He studied History, Economics, and Political Science in Heidelberg and Hamburg. Mr. Leithäuser joined the political section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 1988 and moved to Berlin in the summer of 1990. He reported on the end of the GDR, the transition in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and the move of the federal government to Berlin. Later he covered German domestic and foreign policy – except when he was a correspondent in London from 2007 to 2012.

Iran–Russian Relations and the War in Ukraine
2022-07-26 11:00 - 12:00
Russia, Iran, and Turkey have a complex relationship that has been shaped by shared interests and by conflict. Earlier this week, the leaders of the three regional powers met in Tehran in an effort to bolster relations between their countries. The summit took place a few weeks after a series of western summits (including NATO and the G7), shortly after Russian gas giant Gazprom announced a new cooperation agreement with Iran, and just days after U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to the region.
Join the ACG on July 26 at 11:00 am ET, for an assessment of the meeting in Tehran and the impact of the war in Ukraine on Russia’s relations with Iran and Turkey. We’ll be joined by 2022 ACG McCloy Fellow Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad, who is an expert on the region. Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad is a German–Iranian political scientist focusing on Iran, the Middle East, and the post-unipolar world order. He is a Fellow at the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (AUB-IFI), where he publishes a brief entitled “Iran in Focus” (previously published as “Iran 1400 Brief“). He is the author of the much-acclaimed book Iran in an Emerging New World Order: From Ahmadinejad to Rouhani (2021).
Dr. Fathollah-Nejad also served as an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution in Doha (2017–20) and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) (2015–18). He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London (SOAS) and was the winner of the 2016/17 post-doctoral fellowship of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Iran Project. As an ACG McCloy Fellow in Global Trends, he will conduct research on a transatlantic foreign policy towards authoritarian states.

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

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Germany?
2022-08-08 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, August 8 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Henrike Roßbach, Parliamentary Correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Henrike Roßbach has been a correspondent in the parliamentary bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung since the beginning of 2018. She reports on the FDP and the federal government’s financial and tax policies, and (together with her colleagues) observes and describes the political landscape. Prior to this, she was an economics correspondent in the parliamentary editorial department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for eight years, as well as, the economics editor of the FAZ in Frankfurt. She studied economics at the University of Cologne, and she is also a graduate of the Cologne School of Journalism. During her studies, she spent a year in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO.

Russia’s War in Ukraine and Cold Wars
2022-08-18 13:00 - 14:00
The Cold War was a period of intense competition and the geo-strategic struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies in the Western and Eastern blocs following World War II. At times it threatened to turn hot — potential battles between combatants armed with thousands of nuclear weapons — but always featured political, economic, ideological, and military confrontation. The post-Cold War era saw the Russian Federation and the United States work together on bilateral and global issues, a spirit of cooperation. That has evolved into the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, the extensive support of Kyiv by the United States and its allies, the expansion of NATO in reaction to Russian aggression, and a disruption in global stability and international norms.
Is the war in Ukraine a new “Cold War” or is it something else? Join Vanderbilt Distinguished Historian Professor Thomas Schwartz (1989 ACG Young Leader) for a discussion about the Cold War, the conflict in Ukraine, and the ongoing tensions between Washington and Moscow and their allies.
This is discussion is part of the series In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine, organized by the ACG and the Tennessee World Affairs Council, which provides continued updates on and insights into the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine that has rocked the world order. Professor Thomas Alan Schwartz 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). The book has received considerable notice and acclaim. Harvard University’s Charles Maier has written: “Thomas Schwartz’s superbly researched political biography reveals the brilliance, self-serving ego, and vulnerability of America’s most remarkable diplomat in the twentieth century, even as it provides a history of U.S. engagement in global politics as it moved beyond bipolarity.” 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, Die Atlantik Brücke (Ullstein, 1992). 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.

In Focus: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
2022-08-18 13:00 - 14:00
August 25 at 1:00 pm ET – “In Focus: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine” a virtual discussion with Ambassador John Kornblum, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, and Professor Marieta Velikova, Director of the Belmont University Center for International Business.
This discussion is part of the series In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine, organized by the ACG and the Tennessee World Affairs Council, which provides continued updates on and insights into the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine that has rocked the world order.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-08-22 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse.
Join us on Monday, August 22 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Vladimir Balzer, Journalist and Moderator at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Vladimir Balzer is a journalist and moderator at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. He grew up in Leipzig and studied German, art history, and journalism in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He spent study periods in Italy and the USA. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among others, the daily programs “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” and “Studio 9” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World - Cancelled
2022-08-23 11:30 - 13:00
The Covid-10 pandemic and now the war in Ukraine have upset global supply chains, Companies around the world have had to make significant adjustments in the configuration and operations of their supply chains to be more agile, flexible, and resilient. Join us to hear from company representatives and the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest regarding how German companies are addressing the vulnerabilities facing global supply chains.
Speakers:

Daniel Schmidt, Vice President – Data, Operational Excellence and Customer Experience, Würth Industry North America
Stephan Hulfeld , Route Development Manager, clusters DE/CH & AT/SEE at DB Schenker, Inc.
Mark Tomkins, President & CEO, German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, Inc.

Study Tour on Social Cohesion
2022-09-04 - 2022-09-10
The ACG will hold the first Study Tour on Social Cohesion in Dresden and Nuremberg.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-09-06 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Tuesday, September 6, at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Melanie Amann, Co-Editor-in-Chief for Der Spiegel.
Melanie Amann is a German journalist and lawyer. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the leading German weekly newspaper, Der Spiegel, and heads the publication’s Berlin office. She was born in Bonn and raised in Siegburg. She studied law at the University of Trier, Aix-Marseille III, and at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Germany?
2022-09-12 11:00 - 12:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, September 12, at 11:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Paul-Anton Krüger, Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Paul-Anton Krüger has been Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung since the 2021 federal election. Previously he reported on political affairs and served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department with a focus on the Middle East and international security for three years. Prior to that, he spent four years based in Cairo and was 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.

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

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

Winter of Discontent? Europe's Energy Challenge
2022-09-15 10:00 - 11:00
As temperatures fall and heating prices rise, political leaders across Europe are bracing themselves for a fall and winter of discontent. But, heating is just one of many aspects impacting Europe’s energy market. More broadly, EU member states are struggling to rein in soaring gas prices – which are wreaking havoc across the Continent. Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a European intervention to control gas prices in the run-up to a meeting of Europe’s energy ministers in Brussels on Friday, September 9. They discussed a collection of proposals by the European Commission to tackle rising energy prices – including the possibility of setting a new reference gas price that reflects the cost of LNG on the global market to avoid price spikes caused by disruptions in supply from Russia. This coming Wednesday the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will give her annual State of the European Union address and is expected to simultaneously unveil draft legislation on how to deal with high energy prices.
Join us on September 15 for a virtual discussion with POLITICO’s Energy Policy Correspondent America Hernandez about the meeting of Europe’s energy ministers and what the future holds for Europe’s energy market. America Hernandez covers European energy issues in Europe for POLITICO. She is a third-generation newspaperman born and raised among the Mexican merchants of Olvera Street in El Pueblo de Los Angeles, California. She got her start in local news, covering crime, business, and color stories in six cities of Los Angeles County, before becoming the arts and theater reporter of the Orange County Register. Ms. Hernandez then joined the staff of the Daily Journal, California’s legal newspaper of record, covering state and federal civil courts. Her stories ranged from entertainment industry disputes to white collar crime, environmental toxic tort cases to litigation surrounding President Donald J. Trump’s immigration-related executive orders.
Ms. Hernandez studied political science at the University of Southern California, and she is fluent in English, Spanish, and French, with intermediate Italian.
