The Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic, Klaus Becker, and Central Piedmont Community College's Center for Sustainability host Ralf Fücks. President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Mr. Fuecks is a prominent political figure in Germany. He has been a member of the Green Party of Germany since the early 80s and was Deputy Mayor of Bremen and Senator for Urban Development and Environmental Protection at the Bremen state parliament. After speaking on smart growth and the Green Revolution, Mr. Fücks joined guests in the Greenway Restaurant of the Philip L. Van Every Culinary Arts Center for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. More information about Mr. Fücks and his foundation.

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.

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. 

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.