Middle East Expert Discusses Impact of Recession on Arab World
June 29, 2009. Prof. Mohamed Rabie, Ph.D., a Palestinian-American author and professor of international political economy, led a lively, intimate discussion about the impact of the current economic crisis on the Arab world.  Hosted by the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz’s Center for Resarch on the Arab World, Prof. Rabie explained that the recession has affected Arab countries differently, but on average less than the rest of the world, as their financial sectors were much less prominent than those of countries like the U.S. or Great Britain. Oil-exporting Arab countries, he said, were less affected than others which rely heavily on tourism and remittances from citizens working abroad. 

Seminar for School Newspaper Editors
June 26 and 27, 2009. The U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt joined forces with the Atlantic Academy Rhineland-Palatinate and the Fridtjof-Nansen-Academy Ingelheim in organizing, for the first time, a two-day seminar for school newspaper editors from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the Atlantic Academy in Kaiserslautern. Conducted in German and English, the seminar on “’All the News That’s Fit to Print’: The Future of Journalism in the Digital Age” attracted 20 high school students who listened to and discussed presentations by Thomas Moorstedt, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Dr. Holger Schmidt, Faz.Net and Stephanie Siek, an American journalist formerly with AP and the Boston Globe and now working for Spiegel-Online.  Exclusively writing for printed school newspapers, the 15-19 year-old editors learned about the crisis of print and the rise of online journalism in the United States and Germany. They debated with the experts the differences as well as advantages and disadvantages of old-traditional versus online journalism and implications for their own current and future work.

Frankfurt Lord Mayor Petra Roth bids farewell to Consul General Jo Ellen Powell
June 25, 2009. Frankfurt Lord Mayor Petra Roth and City Council Chairman Karlheinz Bührmann met Consul General at Frankfurt City Hall on June 25 for a last call. Lord Mayor Roth presented Consul General Powell china made in Hoechst as a farewell present. Ms. Powell who had assumed charge of the U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt in August 2006 will depart Frankfurt later in July. Prior to her assignment to Frankfurt Jo Ellen Powell, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, was Executive Director of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA), 2004-2006. She served as director of the Human Resources bureau’s Office of Employee Relations, 2001- 2004, and as the Management Counselor, U.S. Embassy Canberra, 1998-2001.

“Are You Occupied Territory?”—A Discussion about African-Americans in Post-war Germany
June 25, 2009. On June 25, Dr. Werner Sollors of Harvard University gave a lecture entitled, “Are You Occupied Territory?” about relationships and fraternization between African-American GIs and Germans after the Second World War.   Hosted by the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Dr. Sollors also discussed the paradox of US racism toward African-Americans during the de-Nazification of occupied Germany.  The lecture was attended by approximately fifty university students and faculty, and a discussion section with Professor Sollors followed.

American Author Delights German Audience
June 24, 2009. On June 24, American author Irene Dische read from her new crime novel, “Ein Job”, at the Romanfabrik.  The reading was the first in a series of readings concerning life in several cities, such as New York, Istanbul, and Berlin.  The book tells the story of a young Kurdish-German man who moves to New York City to lead a life of crime. Irene Dische, who splits her time between New York and Berlin, incorporated many Kurdish expressions, which she learned from her Kurdish friends in Berlin, into the work.  A question and answer session with the approximately fifty audience members followed the reading. 

"MEETUS" at Mainz Gymnasium
June 24, 2009. Katie Kyle and Katelyn Andell, two interns with the U.S. Consulate General's Public Affairs section, offered a workshop each on "The United States - A Country of Immigrants" to 7th and 12th graders at the Maria-Ward-School in Mainz. The workshops were part of the consulate's school program "MeetUS." The interns explained and discussed with the students the historical, cultural, social, economic and political dimension of immigration to the United States. At the end of the workshops Kyle and Andell presented the teacher with topic-related materials which were received as a welcome addition to the school’s teaching collection.

Oberursel Students Hear About High School Exchange Opportunities
June 24, 2009. More than 80 students and parents attended an evening information session in Obersursel on exchange opportunities with the United States and other countries. EducationUSA/U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt gave a presentation on "Spending a High School Year in the United States", focusing on what to consider when choosing an exchange organization and visa issues. Students also received information and had their questions answered from exchange organizations and former exchange students. A mother gave valuable tips on what an exchange means for parents.

Seminar on transatlantic security relations
June 19 and 20, 2009. The U.S.Consulate General, the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and the Deutsche Atlantische Gesellschaft jointly organized a seminar on “Time for Building New Bridges: The United States and the Western Alliance” at the Ramada Hotel Frankfurt Airport in Hofheim.  American expert Crister Garrett, Professor of American Foreign Policy and International Studies at the University of Leipzig, referred to a wide variety of specific policy statements and decisions, demonstrating that President Obama pursued a pragmatic balance between soft and hard power creating new political opportunities with allied as well as non-allied countries.  He also showed that the president subscribed to a highly nuanced view of the world and to a broader concept of security, including, for example, economic factors. 

Aspiring Diplomats Engage with Jo Ellen Powell in Stuttgart
June 19, 2009. On June 19, Consul General Jo Ellen Powell traveled to the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart as a guest diplomat to speak with Model United Nations students from Baden-Württemberg about her experiences in the US Foreign Service. The Model United Nations is an academic representation of the intergovernmental organization, in which students take on the roles of diplomats from different countries and participate in debates, negotiations, and problem-solving activities. The students asked Mrs. Powell questions about her career, ranging from her daily schedule and wake-up time to experiences of making a difference in her host communities.  Mrs. Powell explained that the most important role of a diplomat is to promote mutual understanding through interaction and dialogue between the United States and other nations.

USA Info in great demand at "away-Auslandsmesse" in Frankfurt
June 19, 2009. Information on exchange opportunities with the U.S. was in great demand at the “Away  Aulsandsmesse” in Frankfurt. Hundreds of students visited the EducationUSA/U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt booth, and more than 100 visitors received individual advice. The majority was interested in a high school year in the U.S. and in studying in the United States. A quiz with questions on the U.S. was popular and quiz-takers received the CD-ROM "About the USA" and information on the U.S. for the correct answer.

It’s the final countdown… Students of Pestalozzischule in Ludwigshafen get ready for Windows on America program
June 17, 2009. On June 17th, 2009, Consul General Jo Ellen Powell and Ludwigshafen’s Lord Mayor Dr. Eva Lohse greeted the students of the Pestalozzihauptschule who have been selected to participate in the U.S. Embassy’s next Windows on America (WoA) exchange program in August.  Addressing the students, their parents and siblings, Consul General Powell praised the essays by the students on their personal “Window on America”.  She also conveyed the best wishes from the sponsors of this trip, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Fresenius and The English Theatre Frankfurt. Lord Mayor Lohse thanked the U.S. Mission to Germany for giving kids from Ludwigshafen the opportunity to experience America first hand and emphasized that the Pestalozzischule with its diverse student body and active engagement in the field of intercultural understanding was the best choice for this program.  Maja Lutterbei from the exchange organization Experiment e.V. that organizes the trip in cooperation with World Learning in America briefed the students about the detailed program while Vice Consul Ryan Russell from the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt explained the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) and the visa procedure. More | Photo Gallery

Back Bay Guitar Trio in Frankfurt
June 17, 2009. In cooperation with the Frankfurter Künstlerclub e.V. and composer Theodor Köhler, the U.S. Consulate General organized a concert with the Back Bay Guitar Trio from Boston/Massachussetts on June 17 at Nebbiensches Gartenhaus. The trio was founded in 2002 by David Newsam, Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, Steve Marchena and John Mason. For an audience of about 40 the group performed pieces from their new CD "The Journey" showcasing their wide stylistic range. The trio brought energy, excitement and humor to their live performance, which not only included classical works but also Latin American compositions from Paulo Bellinati and Astor Piazzolla as well as transcriptions of George Gershwin and Dave Brubeck. A special highlight of the evening was the European premiere of a guitar trio written by Frankfurt composer and co-organizer Theodor Köhler.

Trade Policy Under the New U.S. Administration
June 16, 2009. Prof. Susan Aaronson of The Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University gave a lecture on “The Impact of the World Economic and Financial Crisis on International Trade” at a dinner hosted jointly by the American-German Business Club Karlsruhe and the U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt in Ettlingen. Addressing representatives of the business community in the Karlsruhe region, Aaronson emphasized the importance of international trade for an economic recovery and called on her interlocutors to support a transatlantic free-trade policy, particularly during the current global economic crisis.

300th Anniversary of First Mass Emigration from the Palatinate
June 12-13, 2009. The U.S. Consulate General, the Atlantic Academy and the Institute for Palatinate History jointly organized a two-day expert conference at the Atlantic Academy in Kaiserslautern on the 300th anniversary of the beginning of mass emigration from the Palatinate to America. American historians Prof. Philip Otterness, Warren Wilson College, Ashville, N.C., Prof. William Woys Weaver, Drexel University, Philadelphia, and Prof. Robert Reynolds, Kutztown University, shared their research on Palatine settlements in the Hudson Valley, the survival of Palatine cooking and eating traditions as a well as on the Palatines’ material culture, as expressed particularly in architecture and travelling and household items. The conference gave the experts, academics as well as local historians, a unique opportunity for sharing and gaining insights into little known aspects of emigration from the Palatinate to America, one of the major chapters of German-American history. 

Discussion of American Labor Market
June 8, 2009. Professor Phil Martin from the University of California, Davis, delivered a lecture on "The Economic Crisis, Immigration and the U.S. Labor Market" at the University of Koblenz-Laudau, Landau campus. Professor Martin discussed his views on the Obama administration’s immigration and labor market policy, as well as the impact of the current recession on the American labor market. An active question and answer session following the lecture compared German and American immigration and labor market issues.

An Outlook on the Environment in Germany, America and the World
June 5, 2009. On June 5, Dr. Miranda Schreurs, an American political science and environmental policy professor at the Freie Universität in Berlin, traveled to  ZDF headquarters in Mainz to discuss the changing state of environmental policy in the United States, Europe and beyond. Dr. Schreurs answered questions from members of Abenteuer Wissen, a scientific programming division aimed to provide cutting-edge science in a user-friendly fashion.