As we wait for the final votes in Tuesday’s election to be tallied, the world is watching. Some would say that the German-American relationship hangs in the balance. Regardless of who ultimately wins the White House, the transatlantic partnership faces many challenges – and there is some anxiety about how relations across the Atlantic will develop in the months and years to come.
Join us on November 10 at 11:00 am ET for a discussion with Bundestag Members Christoph Bernstiel (CDU), Metin Hakverdi (SPD), and Katja Keul (Greens). We’ll hear their reactions to the U.S. election – and what the results mean for the future of German-American relations.
This event is part of a series of [virtual] Transatlantic Town Halls: German Bundestag Member Dialogues, which is being organized by the American Council on Germany under the auspices of WunderbarTogether USA 2020, a comprehensive and collaborative initiative funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and implemented by the Goethe-Institut.
Christoph Bernstiel is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and was directly elected to the German Bundestag by the 72nd district of Halle (Saale) in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2017. He is a member of the committee for Homeland Security, where he focuses on cybercrime, and the select committee on artificial intelligence. Mr. Bernstiel is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the federal foundation for the evaluation of the SED dictatorship, deputy chairman of the CDU State Group Saxony-Anhalt in the Bundestag, a member of the parliamentary group for small and medium businesses, and a member of the Future Forum Public Security. In addition to his duties at the federal level, Mr. Bernstiel has been a member of the Halle (Saale) city council since 2014 where he focuses on the topics of urban development, infrastructure, order, and security.
Metin Hakverdi joined the SPD in 2002, and has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013. He serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs and on the Finance Committee. He is the Chairman of the USA/North America Working Group within the SPD Parliamentary Group and a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group in the German Bundestag.
Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Hakverdi was a member of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 2008 to 2013, where he was on the Budget Committee and the Committee of Public Companies and Assets. He attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel and at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. He became licensed to practice law in 2000.
Katja Keul is a member of the German Bundestag and was elected in 2009 on the Greens/ Alliance 90/The Greens, representing Nienburg/Schaumburg in Lower Saxony. She is a member of the Parliamentary Defense Committee and a delegate of the federal working group on peace and international affairs. Prior to joining the Bundestag, 1997 to 2000 attorney at the Stolzenau District Court; since 2000 self-employed in her own law firm in Marklohe. She is a member of BUND, German Women Lawyers’ Association, German Bar Association, among others.
