The spread of COVID-19 and the ensuing global lock-down as governments try to slow the spread of the corona virus has tested individuals and institutions around the world. Since March of 2020, the ACG has stepped up its digital programming by hosting webinars and video discussions which bring together policy makers and thought leaders from both sides of the Atlantic to discuss some of the key issues shaping transatlantic relations in an unprecedented time. In addition to organizing events on its own, the ACG has also partnered with other organizations such as 1014 and Atlantik-Brücke to launch new series designed to reach beyond the ACG community.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect lives around the world, it is becoming clear that the pandemic and its economic fallout are having a regressive effect on gender equality. Sociologist Jutta Allmendinger recently claimed the pandemic will set Germany back 30 years in terms of the equality achieved between men and women. Mothers, in particular, are disadvantaged by existing containment strategies. On March 23, the Thomas Mann House, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and the American Council on Germany hosted a discussion with Jutta Allmendinger, President of WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Richard V. Reeves, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and moderated by Birte Meier, Journalist, ZDF, whose residency at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles to work on “Equal Pay in California and what Germany can learn from it” was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has forced companies around the globe to adapt their business models. Due to public health concerns and lockdowns, many companies had to lay off or furlough workers. In Germany, Kurzarbeit policies softened the economic blow.
On March 16 the American Council on Germany and 1014 hosted a discussion about how trade unions are coping with the impact of Covid-19 with Reiner Hoffmann, the Chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or DGB), and John E. Shinn, International Secretary and Treasurer of the United Steelworkers.
On Sunday, 14 March 2021, Germany held state elections in the western Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Although the states are relatively small – with roughly 7.7 million and 3.1 eligible voters, respectively – these elections mark the beginning of Germany’s Superwahljahr, which will culminate with federal elections in late September and the formation of a new government with a new Chancellor for the first time in 16 years.
The day after the state elections, March 15, the ACG hosted a discussion on the results and Germany’s party landscape in an election year from Politics Editor for ZEIT ONLINE Katharina Schuler, and Florian Naumann, Team Leader and Editor in the Politics Department of Merkur.de.
On March 11, the American Council on Germany and the Denver Council on Foreign Relations hosted an evening discussion with Ricklef Beutin, the Deputy Chief of Mission for the German Embassy in Washington, DC.
The American Council on Germany and the Aspen Institute Germany have launched a virtual event series to provide a platform for subnational exchange and in-depth discussions amongst German and American state legislators on common transatlantic challenges. On March 10, Assemblymember Marc Berman (D), California State Assembly; Daniel Karrais, MdL (FDP), State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg; and Katharina Schulze, MdL (Alliance 90/The Greens), State Parliament of Bavaria discussed both opportunities and challenges that come with an increasingly digitized democracy and shared their own experiences and visions for a digital future.