The AICGS 20th Anniversary Report | Requires Free Adobe Acrobat |

In 2003, AICGS celebrated its twentieth year with the publication of an anniversary report that reminisced about its beginnings, reflected on its achievements over the last two decades, and outlined its mission and vision for the future. In the early 1980s, amidst changes in the international environment, strains in the German-American relationship, and concerns that a generation of German scholars and practitioners was retiring and leaving a gap in knowledge about U.S.-German relations, a small group of Americans gathered to establish an independent, non-governmental research center that could educate a new generation of Americans about contemporary Germany. Their belief that a comprehensive understanding of the modern Federal Republic required focused research on both East and West Germany-a controversial stance in 1983-meant that AICGS was primed to serve as an interpreter of events as the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, and the push to unification began. Through its research activities, fellowship programs, and public lectures and events, AICGS has helped German and American stakeholders make sense of the political, economic, and cultural factors shaping the German-American relationship. Today, we again face a global environment in flux, full of tension and fundamental questions about the future and purpose of German-American and transatlantic relationships. As it has throughout its twenty-year history, AICGS remains committed to strengthening German-American relations to encourage mutual understanding, forge common agendas, and develop cooperative solutions to shared problems.

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