Davidson College and The N.C. Zeitgeist Foundation organized an election day watch event on Sunday, Sep. 24; complete with brats, potato salad and red cabbage.
 
Klaus Becker, Honorary Consul of Germany, described the pre-election background, introduced the main political parties and analyzed possible coalition scenarios while Dr. Besir Ceka, Assistant Professor with the Political Science Department at Davidson College, commented on the results.
 
Although the new right-populist party AfD was expected to enter the German parliament,  its dramatic gains of 13%, making it the 3rd strongest party, came as a surprise, even as a shock. The relatively poor results of Germany’s two big parties, the Volksparteien or people’s parties, which have long been the pillars of a stable political system, are largely considered the political price for Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the borders to refugees from Syria and Iraq. The arrival of a million refugees over the last two years opened deep rifts in the population and weakened its support.  Although Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance won the highest share of vote, it has not won enough that it can govern alone, meaning it will have to find coalition partners from smaller parties.  

On Saturday, Sep. 9, the exhibition Gotha and the Thuringian Forest was opened at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia. Gastonia and Gotha in Thuringia (one of the five formerly East German states, have been sister cities for a while. With a lot of efforts, patience and dedication, they have erected this wonderful exhibition which is really worthwhile to visit.
 
Klaus Becker, the German Honorary Consul, was invited to address the audience of about hundred people on the old-fashioned farm next door to the museum. He pointed out that in times of unpredictable U.S. foreign policies, the changing of the relations among the countries, it is even more important that grass root organizations of the United States and Germany are working closely together. People have to talk to each other, continue the dialogue, work on projects together like this marvelous exhibition to contribute to a sustainable and peaceful relationship.
 
Klaus Becker reminded that he had opened the doors to a closer relationship with Thuringia: its President of the State Parliament Christian Carius visited Charlotte several times and recently Wolfgang Tiefensee was in town, formerly mayor of Leipzig, today Secretary of Commerce in the Thuringian government cabinet.

 

H.E. Peter Wittig, Ambassador of Germany to the United States and his wife, journalist and writer Huberta von Voss-Wittig, traveled to Charlotte on the invitation of the Honorary Consul and CEO of Nirosteel, Klaus Becker. The Ambassador and his wife toured one of Siemens USA’s biggest manufacturing plants, the local training facility at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC). After the tours Ambassador Wittig was the keynote speaker at a luncheon hosted by the World Affairs Council of Charlotte, where he spoke to the bilateral relationship between Germany and the U.S., joint initiatives, current affairs and Germany's presence within the Charlotte region. Later that evening, he and Huberta attended The German Opera Gala, an event celebrating Germany’s long opera tradition. Read more about his visit here.

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.