At a time of fake news and conspiracy theories, it is more important than ever to interact with people outside one’s own filter bubble – and that also goes for Germans and Americans. When new negative stereotypes are being developed, we need to prevent misunderstandings, especially between friends. German‑US friendship does not depend on who holds office in the White House or Federal Chancellery, but rather on the trust between the people in our two countries.
That is why we decided last year to invest in this relationship on a grand scale by holding the Deutschlandjahr USA. Since then, we have helped to bring about hundreds of thousands of German‑US contacts. When the Climate Kids from a school in Berlin and a high school in New Orleans work together on local climate action plans or a Texan community makes paper lanterns with its German members for St. Martin’s Day, these may first sound like small steps. However, if we take a lot of these small steps, we expand the foundation of our relations, regardless of all the differences between us in day‑to‑day politics. With a total of 1.6 million visitors at the wide range of Deutschlandjahr events, we certainly took plenty of steps. We want people on both sides of the Atlantic to realise that the United States remains Europe’s most important ally.