Germany and the United States have shown ambitions to a strong political and economical relationship since the end of the Second World War. These ambitions were reinterpreted and gained new importance with the reunion of Germany and the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, the transatlantic relationship between the US and Germany is significant for any successful bilateral agreement between the US and the European Union. In retrospect, it is also to mention, that the transatlantic relationship had smaller and larger setbacks, especially during the last years as has been seen with discussions about TTIP and similar situations. Another issue that has to be integrated in describing the German-American relationship is immigration. It has led to a partially inclusion of the German culture in the US. Also the US influenced Germany with their products and media. As a consequence, this has partly caused a resistance by political parties as well as non-governmental organizations. The resistance did not have an inconsiderable impact on the societies, nourished by political, economic and cultural reservations. For the governments, this means a loss of acceptance of the transatlantic relationship within the own population, including all governmental activities for a continuation and strengthening of the relationship.
Recently it could have been observed that opposition members, such as for example Attac, use their coverage, influence and reputation to reduce the confidence in the transatlantic relationship by communicating reservations. Their behavior is caused by ideological approaches and individual motivations, e.g. boycott of an economic system or agreement like TTIP, struggle against the government or political movements.Authority and resistance determine each other and both try to dominate. Without any effective countermeasure, the resistance dominates the American and German government. Therefore, I will introduce a method to strengthen the German-American relationship in the following paragraphs.
To enable a beneficial future for the transatlantic relationship, both governments have a strong interest to gain more acceptance for their cultures and beliefs on the transatlantic relationship and activities within their respective countries and abroad. With this motivation, it is necessary to find a solution for reducing the resistance in the broad population. In the following, a possible instrument for achieving this idea will be described.
Reducing the resistance means to evade the attention of the population and simultaneously to refocus their attention to the contents of the governments. This can be achieved by providing points of contact between the local population and the government, or rather between the local population and the people living on the other side of the Atlantic. A meeting place represents such a point of contact. The meeting place should be designed to shed light on politics, economy and culture, ideally in a combined manner.
The meeting place should ideally be a modern building that enables interactions in form of conversations, consuming and working. A hybrid of a shopping and business center and a venue is a suitable building, which provides space for the fields of clarification and the needed interactions equally.Also they should be located in larger American and German Cities, e.g. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Dresden. In order to explain this concept in more detail, it will be described with the help of an example for a meeting place located in Germany, which is a point of contact for the American economy, culture and politics for the German population.
The retail and office space is reserved for small and midsized companies from the US, with a limited rental period of one year. Imaginable is that these companies want to enter the German market or test or develop their product for the German market. Additionally, a business exchange program could be affiliated to the retail and office space, to offer the space for a reduced rent or for free as an additional incentive.
In function of a venue, the meeting place provides rooms and halls for events. The companies can use these rooms for their business meeting, seminars, workshops, congresses and small trade fairs and exhibitions. Apart from the economic usage, the rooms and halls can be used for small concerts of American music groups, cultural events – e.g. 4th July Party, Halloween, Thanksgiving – and events for political education – e.g. about the political system of the US, the election system and the election accompanying events.
The mode of action of an interdisciplinary meeting place like this is divided in two directions. Primarily, the visitors get in touch with the foreign culture and develop – in the best case – a positive feeling to it. Based upon this feeling, they can develop an opinion about the culture and the meeting place, so it is highly probable that they communicate about their experience in a direct verbal communication to their families and friends and via social media to strangers as well. Secondly, the companies of the meeting place communicate about their activities abroad and experiences in their marketing communication channels to their audiences. That means, they influence audiences in the US and Germany equally.
Both directions follow the intention to soften the attitude of an opportune person by acting within this environment. Regarding the limit of the rental period, the limit is necessary to avoid a disproportionate competitive distortion and a loss of attention to the companies caused by an exceeding habituation.
In addition to the meeting places, the stores get the opportunity to open-up popup-stores in rural areas. These areas often have a high vacancy rate of retail space and a popup-store can be a contribution to a revitalization of these areas. The majority of the people in this area have been working and living in these areas the most of their lifetime, so they only travel to larger cities for special occasions, e.g. concerts, shopping, visits to the doctor.
It will be assumed, that the popup-stores get a high attention of the local people. Based upon this, the intention is to promote the products and possibilities of the meeting place equally. Each popup-store is a pointer to cultural exchange. Furthermore, some meeting place events can take place in the rural areas – e.g. a BBQ competition – to reduce reservations against city dweller and their initiatives.
In summary, the mission is to make the meeting places substantial in the American and German population, to influence the people for a Pro-Germany and Pro-America attitude.Influencing people on a place where they can consume, work and interact is a chance for both nations to establish a sustainable acceptance for the transatlantic relationship. Therefore both nations should invest in this subtle method of influence.
Hi Philipp,
I enjoyed reading your article. I had directly a place in my hometown in mind that would perfectly suit your description. I think it is important to provide a physical space for the transatlantic relationship. Your idea of a spacious building in the bigger metropoles certainly has a visual impact on how people perceive the importance of the transatlantic relationship.
To build up on your concept, the hybrid complex should not be restricted to American actors in Germany and vice-versa. In my opinion, local companies and organisations should also be able to participate. American and German actors must use transatlantic places together and develop synergic networks. Do you agree ?
Best,
Leon
Hey Leon,
thank you for your answer. In answer to your recommendation and question, my agreement depends on how the participation – for example of German actors – is arranged. Based upon my example in the article (American actors using a meeting place in Germany), I see three options.
(1) NO PARTICIPATION
The American actors have the meeting places for their own. They interact with customers and visitors. The people’s perception is totally focused on American culture.
(2) PARTICIPATION AS ADDED VALUE
German actors cooperate with actors in the meeting places in a way we already know from typical companies and their cooperations, e.g. cross-promotions, selling bundles of products, hosting events. It is imaginable that German actors could be sponsor / mentor for the American actors, which means that they help them to handle the bureaucracy in Germany and cultural differences. Also they could support the businesses in the meeting places with naming them within their own advertisement.
The perception would be mainly on the American actors. The American culture would be in foreground.
(3) USAGE IN EQUAL PARTS
German and American actors can use the meeting places in equal parts. They can cooperate with each other and have all the advantages of option 2, but the people’s perception is a mix of German and American culture. It therefore refers to the risk, that the American culture feels like a German version of “The way of life” – it would drift off from the intended target.
I prefer option 2 more than option 1. Option 3 is in my opinion the wrong way. When I could realize my idea, I would it appreciate that German actors would support the American ones in the rural areas, to break the ice.
I hope my further explanations are comprehensible.
Thank you Leon!
Philipp
Hi Philipp,
Thanks for your article. Your concept of a brick-and-mortar meeting place is very similar to what I focused on in my article, as well (http://atlantic-expedition.org/revitalizing-the-u-s-german-relationship-through-cultural-diplomacy/). Spaces like the one you and I envision are ideal in putting Germans and Americans in direct contact with each other, shedding light on topics like politics, economics, and culture, and reinvigorating the transatlantic relationship through personal and meaningful interactions.
Hello Johanna,
I agree to you. Our articles point to the same model of information and influence. The “Amerika Häuser” you mentioned were unknown for me, so I am glad to have a concept for the reinvigoration of them.
I hope one of us can promote this idea to the decision-makers in Octobre.
Thank you for your friendly words!
Cheers!
Philipp
Hi Philipp! Wonderful approach. A lot of the debate here focuses on online solution, therefore I enjoy reading ideas about an “offline approach”, especially if it includes hands-on and inclusive propositions like the BBQ competition 🙂
Besides that, I especially like the pop-up stores in rural areas since I think it can help to even-out the city-countryside differences in transatlantic perceptions. Only a short question: What would be the organizational set-up of the initiative? For example, would the pop-up stores be centrally administered? If so, by whom, a new institution?
Hey Felicitas,
I thank you for your feedback. I needed to reflect upon your questions for a little while.
There may be more than one solution for the organizational set-up. I prefer the solution of a federal system, which I want to outline.
In Washington and Berlin should be the headquarters, which represent the connection between the federal politics and the Open Spaces Initiative. Below this level are the regional focused Open Spaces. The headquarters are responsible for agenda setting, collecting donations, sponsorships and funds and the execution of the application procedure of the business exchange program as well. Not to mention the coordination with the counterpart nation. The regional Open Spaces are responsible for the administration within their region. So they have to administrate the program on site, which includes the administration of the pop-up stores. Each regional Open Space is the connection to local businesses, local and state politics and cultural initiatives.
This way could be realized by an existing institution, e.g. as an expansion of the activities of embassies and consulates or as a program of the ministries of economics. Otherwise you could found a new organization which gets funded from both nations, f.e. with the legal form of a foundation.
The structure and procedures of such a organization is for a full evening’s programme. So I hope my outline answers your questions.
Cheers!
Philipp
Hi Philipp,
Thank you for sharing your perspective and ideas! Regarding your comment about educating Germans about the US political system – as the aim is to promote positive relations between the US and Germany, how could organizers help steer the dialogue to remain positive and avoid inflammatory debate (esp. with today’s political tensions)?
I really like the idea of using this proposal to experience shared national holidays!
Best,
Brandy
Hey Brandy,
I want to thank you for your comment and I appreciate your foresight regarding inflammatory debates.
The problem that you described is real, but solvable. What you need is the following in separate instances: moderation, political / scientific / economical expertise and security.
The moderation has to set the necessary framework, steers the debate and interrupts undesired cheap propaganda. The expert provides the background information as bedrock of the debate and replies to factual issues. If a participant starts a violent escalation, the security interrupts him and isolates him from the event.
Humor, rhetoric and inner calm are necessary for the moderator and expert equally.
I want to give you some personal insights. As chairman of my FDP group (German liberal party), I moderated a couple of political events each year. You can imagine that there weren’t only sympathisants of liberal politics. Questions of them were taken seriously, but provocative questions got answered with humor and a vivid language.
In the last years I was guest on the events of the American Space Leipzig, which is mainly moderated by Prof. Crister S. Garrett (Director American Studies Leipzig). At these events were sometimes people who tried to implement propaganda and tried to provocate. Crister Garrett was able to interrupts this with humor, rhetoric skills in a unique combination with his political and cultural expertise about America.
Both formats are mainly peaceful. Often you get support by people from the audience, which empower your position and statement – and sometimes they build the bridge between the front lines.
Thank you Brandy for mentioning this very good point!
Cheers!
Philipp
Hi Philipp,
thanks for your exciting article! I like your idea of a common meeting place. In my opinion the first step should come from the German Federal Government. I think the government should establish a Consul General in the heart of the Midwest of the US to intensify the dialogue, common meetings and the gathering of information in this region. The presidential elections have shown that the US are more than the east and west coast regions. In the heartland region of the Midwest the political, economic and cultural reservations against Germany have been more accentuated. What do you think?
Greetings
Tim
Hello Tim,
thank you for your comment. If I understood you right, you suggest to open a consulate general for the midwest states by the German Federal government, to build up the Open Spaces program together with political, economical and cultural leaders from this region? Please correct me, if I am wrong.
Currently there is a consulate general for the midwest states in Chicago. So it isn’t necessary to establish a second one only for this program. In addition to that, the Open Spaces program should be a program which is morely interdisciplinary and not just a platform for consuls and ambassadors. Normal citizens should explore and feel the German way of life – ideally with all five senses.
My two cents to your comment.
Cheers!
Philipp