Peter Schneider was born in Lübeck, Germany, and has lived in Berlin on and off since the 1960s. He has taught at many American universities—including Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard—and is the author of more than twenty books, including The Wall Jumper and Eduard’s Homecoming (FSG, 2001). He has also written for newspapers, including Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Le Monde, and La Repubblica. 

Today TEASE took place at Hendrick Motors of Charlotte (Mercedes) with the ideal pairing of German Engineering and German Art.
More than 150 people viewed paintings perfectly accentuated in the main showroom alongside the new C-class models. Ed Kennedy, General Manager and generous sponsor of the event, opened the vernissage, and Klaus Becker took over introducing the artists.

Earlier this year, the NC Zeitgeist Foundation and Klaus Becker, Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Charlotte, NC, invited five established and promising artists from Germany and Austria to exhibit their works in this part of the United States, making their paintings and sculptures available and publicly accessible to a culturally interested audience in the Southeast.

Learn more about each pop-up gallery during the event, the artists and our sponsors and partners that made this tour possible.

Ambassador Thomas Matussek is managing director of Deutsche Bank's Herrhausen Foundation. He is the former head of public affairs at Deutsche Bank, where he coordinated the bank's relations with national and international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and authorities, as well as governments. 

Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Ambassador Matussek had a long and distinguished career in the German Foreign Service, most recently serving as German Ambassador to India from 2009 to 2011. From 2006 to 2009, he was the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, and from 2002 to 2006, he was German Ambassador to the United Kingdom. From 1999 to 2002, he was the director-general of the political department in the Foreign Office in Berlin, and he was deputy chief of mission in the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1994 to 1999. 

Prior to his career in the German Foreign Service, Ambassador Matussek was a judge's assistant, as well as an assistant lecturer at the University of Bonn. Ambassador Matussek studied law and history at the Universities of Paris and Bonn from 1969 to 1972, and received his Juris Doctor degree in 1973.

Ambassador Matussek focuses on current challenges for U.S.-German cooperation in a globalized world: some relevant points of cooperation and conflict include Ukraine, Iraq, civil society in post-Soviet states and the developing world, statebuilding in post-conflict areas of Africa.