Germany’s Zeitenwende: Setting New Priorities in Foreign, Security, and Energy Policy

Join the World Affairs Council of Charlotte in partnership with the American Council of Germany (ACG) for a conversation with German Ambassador (ret.) Stefan Schlüter, Program Director at the Diplomatic Academy of the German Foreign Office in Berlin on Friday, October 14 (Luncheon) as part of the Council’s Ambassadors Circle Series program.

On Feb. 27, shocked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine several days prior, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stood before an emergency session of the German Bundestag in Berlin. He gave his now-famous Zeitenwende speech, outlining a dramatic shift in German defense policy. In response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression, Scholz promised to increase Germany’s military defense, supply heavy weapons to Ukraine to completely reverse its long-standing arms export policy, and transform its foreign affairs engagement and strategies. Taken together, these measures mark critical changes in Germany’s foreign policy since World War II which focused on change through trade and political and military restraint.

What does this mean for Germany’s standing in Europe and what is the impact to the rest of the region? As a long standing career diplomat and international relations expert, Ambassador Schlüter will offer his insight into Germany’s role in the world as it resets and reprioritizes its long-term goals for foreign, security, and energy policy.

Program Partner

Program Information: 

Date:
Friday, October 14, 2022
Lunch & Presentation: 
12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Location:
Parker Poe Directions and Parking
Cost:
$25 (WACC Member Rate)
$40 (Non-Member Rate)

  • Please call 704-687-7762 for credit card payments over the phone.
  • Checks can be mailed to “World Affairs Council of Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., CHHS 227, Charlotte, NC 28223.

 

 

 

Biography: 

Stefan Schlüter served in the German Foreign Office until the summer of 2017 and is now a Program Director at the
Diplomatic Academy in Berlin. After studying political science at the University of Hamburg, Mr. Schlüter joined the
German Foreign Office in 1979. His first foreign assignments brought him to Buenos Aires and Algiers. From 1986 to
1990 he served as the spokesman of the German Embassy in Tel Aviv before returning to the Foreign Office in Bonn
as desk officer for the Maghreb countries. From 1992 to 1995 he served as Deputy Consul General in Los Angeles
before returning to Bonn as Deputy Director for the southern part of Latin America. From 2000 to 2004, he was
posted to the United States a second time and served as Deputy Consul General in New York City before moving to
Buenos Aires as Deputy Chief of Mission. In 2007 he returned to the Foreign Office in Berlin to assume the position of
Director for Conflict Prevention, Peace-Building, Democracy Promotion and State-Building, promoting German
projects in this field world-wide. In 2010 he was appointed Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean Region, residing in

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago before moving on to his last assignment as Consul General in San Francisco in
2014.