American Council on Germany

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American Council on Germany
logo
legal form network
founding 1952
founder John Jay McCloy , Eric M. Warburg
Seat New York City
people Henry Kissinger , Paul Volcker , John Kornblum
sales $ 3,457,359 (2016)
Members about 800
Website www.acgusa.org

The American Council on Germany (ACG) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations . The American Council for Germany was founded in 1952 at the same time as its German sister organization, Atlantik-Brücke eV, as a private non-profit organization to promote German-American understanding after the Second World War . As with the Atlantik-Brücke, the founding fathers were the chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations John J. McCloy and Eric M. Warburg , McCloys' friend and advisor, officer in the US Army from 1941 to 1945 and offspring of the German-Jewish Warburg family from Hamburg . Other founding members were McCloy's wife, Ellen Z. McCloy, and McCloy's predecessor as High Commissioner in post-war Germany, General Lucius D. Clay .

Members

Today the American Council on Germany comprises 800 members from business, politics and media as well as legal and academic fields from both sides of the Atlantic. The President in 2012 was the Council on Foreign Relations - member William Drodzniak.

Founding father John J. McCloy

In 2010 the Board of Directors included the US diplomats Richard Holbrooke , Henry A. Kissinger , John Kornblum and the former Siemens CEO and current CEO of Alcoa , Klaus Kleinfeld . German members are u. a. the editor of the time Josef Joffe , Christopher Freiherr von Oppenheim, Sal. Oppenheim , from the banking dynasty Oppenheim and the manager of Hypo Real Estate Holding AG , Kurt F. Viermetz . Early members included the historians Hajo Holborn and Norbert Mühlen . Angela Merkel was welcomed as CDU chairwoman in 2003 by the ACG directors Hugh Hamilton Jr. and Kurt F. Viermetz in the United States.

Young Leaders

In cooperation with Atlantik-Brücke, the ACG's Young Leader Program was launched in 1973 on the initiative of the American businessman John Diebold . It is a program for German and American executives between the ages of 28 and 38 years. The program alumni propose the participants for the following year, who are invited to apply. Finally, almost 50 people are selected from the applicants. At the heart of the program is the week-long Young Leaders Conference . The first conference took place in 1973 in Hamburg and since then every two years until 1988. Finally, the conference took place annually until 2004, alternately in the USA and Germany. Atlantik-Brücke and the American Council on Germany have each held a separate conference since 2004.

Among the prominent graduates are the former Federal President Christian Wulff (YL 1992), the Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann (YL 2004), the federal chairman of the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party , Cem Özdemir (YL 2001), the German Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière (YL 1989), the former German ambassador to the USA, Wolfgang Ischinger (YL 1978), as well as a number of influential American politicians, advisors and business people.

task

Chairman Henry Kissinger

The main task and goal of US foreign policy and the American Council on Germany was revealed by the US diplomat and board member of the ACG , John C. Kornblum in an interview with Atlantik-Brücke in 2010: “The core of our European policy since 1910 has been to put Germany in its place embed the European environment. That problem was resolved for the United States in 1990. "

The political power of the American Council on Germany in the early years was shown in a dispute within the Democratic Party regarding Germany policy in 1958, documented in a report by the news magazine Der Spiegel . Further evidence of the still strong influence is the fact that in 2006 both the Chief of Staff of US President George Bush, Joshua Bolten , and his German counterpart, Chancellery Thomas de Maizière , alumni of the American Council's Young Leader program on Germany .

Since Konrad Adenauer 's visit to America in 1953, German heads of state and government have been invited to address the ACG again and again. Federal Presidents Walter Scheel , Karl Carstens , Richard von Weizsäcker , Roman Herzog and Johannes Rau accepted these invitations, as did Federal Chancellors Kurt Georg Kiesinger , Willy Brandt , Helmut Schmidt , Helmut Kohl , Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel .

There has always been a lively exchange of information and personnel between Atlantik-Brücke and the ACG. The “American Council on Germany has always been a strong actor in our relations with the United States” , as the State Minister of the Foreign Office and Atlantik-Brücke member Werner Hoyer stated in December 2011. The American-German Young Leaders Conference set up in 1973 is one of the hallmarks of the ACG's activities . Around 50 German and American executives from various areas of activity between the ages of 28 and 38 are to forge connections at these annual events (every two years until 1988) by discussing global and German-American topics. Analogous to the German Young Leaders program, the coming actors in politics and business are also involved here. Since 1976, McCloy Fellowships have been awarded to young representatives from various fields as grants to visit the other country. These and other scholarships have so far been awarded to over 700 people, most of them scientists and journalists.

The ACG is still very active today and has branch offices, the so-called Warburg Chapters, in the US cities of Atlanta, Boca Raton, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis / St. Paul, Nashville, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, St. Louis, San Diego and San Francisco.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ official member list of the CFR 2011 (PDF; 574 kB)
  2. ↑ American Council on Germany News 2003, picture with Angela Merkel, Friedbert Pflüger, Hugh Hamilton, Klaus F. Viermetz, p. 3. ( Memento from August 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Requirements and the Selection Process. In: American Council on Germany. Accessed June 17, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Young Leaders Program. In: Atlantic Bridge. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Annual report June 2006 to June 2007. In: Atlantik-Brücke. Retrieved June 17, 2020 (page 136).
  6. ↑ American Council on Germany News 2003, Christian Wulff (YL 1992) been elected Minister-President of Lower Saxony , page 2 ( Memento from August 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Young Leaders Conference 2011
  8. ^ Annual report 2010/2011 ( Memento of October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Siemens Academy of Life, portrait of John Christian Kornblum
  10. ^ Der SPIEGEL, January 29, 1958, USA / Germany Policy: Secret Plan B
  11. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel, April 21, 2006, "... Young Leader" program of the ACG in the Federal Republic. "
  12. ↑ ... the chiefs of staff of both President Bush and Chancellor Merkel are alumni of the American Council on Germany (ACG). ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / atlanticreview.org
  13. ↑ Chancellor Angela Merkel in conversation with Henry Kissinger, former Foreign Minister of the USA, on the sidelines of lunch with the American Council on Germany
  14. ↑ Speech Minister of State Werner Hoyers at the dinner of the American Council on Germany, Berlin (English)
  15. ↑ American Council on Germany News 2003, Selection of US Young Leader ( Memento from August 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )