MeetUS: Fulbright Teaching Assistant Katie Gramlich Visits School in Stuhr

January 20, 2010. American student Katie Gramlich, who spends a year as a teaching assistant for English in Hamburg, visited the school "Kooperative Gesamtschule Stuhr-Brinkum" near Bremen today. She explained the U.S. educational system from kindergarten to college to 9th and 10th graders and answered numerous questions. In the following discussion about the different perceptions Germans and Americans have of each other the students grabbed the chance to gain first-hand insights.

First Annual Martin Luther King Lecture in Hamburg

January 18, 2010. The Körber Foundation, with support from the German Marshall Fund and the U.S. Consulate General Hamburg, offered its inaugural Martin Luther King Lecture that more than 300 guests attended. The foundation established the lecture series to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor international advocates of civil rights and civic society. The first advocate they invited was Angela Glover Blackwell who spoke about the legacy of Martin Luther King in the age of the Obama administration and about her efforts to fight for an inclusive economy and an end to poverty in the U.S. She is the founder and CEO of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity. In her introductory remarks at the event, Consul General Karen E. Johnson explained the origins of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, highlighted its special character as a national day of community service and read from the President's Martin Luther King Jr. Day proclamation. The Körber Foundation published a detailed report on the event on its website, including a podcast. The Martin Luther King Lecture paid tribute to the progress the civil rights movement in the U.S. has made and focused on today's struggle in the U.S. for economic and social inclusion as the most important elements of civic engagement.

On Tour in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

January 14-15, 2010. Political/Economic Officer Karen Bel and Political/Economic Specialist Michael Budig visited Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at the invitation of the CDU caucus. Highlights of the program included outreach to the Greifen-Gymnasium in Ueckermünde, the Europaschule "Arnold Zweig" in Pasewalk and the Sportgymnasium Neubrandenburg. Meetings with politicians (state parliament members and local dignitaries) were held, and the visit also featured a company visit to the Tollense Fahrzeugwerke GmbH (FWW), an enterprise that refurbishes and supplies heavy vehicles for NATO, the U.S. military and UN peacekeeping missions. The visits to the schools and FWW were widely covered in local and regional media.

Consul General Johnson talks to students from Nordhorn

December 18, 2009. A group of about 40 students and their teachers from the high school Gymnasium Nordhorn (Lower Saxony) visited the Consulate General for a discussion with Consul General Karen E. Johnson within the Embassy's MeetUS program. After hearing about the history of relations between the U.S. and Hamburg, Consul General Johnson answered the students' questions on a variety of subjects, including German-American relations, President Obama's health care reform, and the administration's Afghanistan policy.

Ambassador Murphy Visits Lower Saxony

December 14, 2009. On his first trip to Lower Saxony Ambassador Philip Murphy visited Hannover and Wolfsburg. He met students of the IGS Linden school in Hannover in the morning and talked to them about integration issues and schools in the U.S. and Germany. A report about this meeting (in German) can be read here. He then paid an initial courtesy call on Lower Saxony's Minister President, Christian Wulff. From there, the Ambassador's trip led to Wolfsburg, where, following a meeting with First Mayor Schnellecke, he held a Town Hall meeting with more than 250 students. The highlight of the trip to Lower Saxony was the traditional Volkswagen Advent-talk at Wolfsburg Castle, which the Ambassador attended together with Consul General Karen E. Johnson and many representatives of Volkswagen's executive board and works committee. In his key note address, Ambassador Murphy talked about German-American relations and the shared responsibilities of both countries, e.g. in terms of climate protection. Ambassador Murphy also signed the golden book of the city of Wolfsburg.

For previous programs and events please click here.