Honorary Consuls - Gunter Klötzer

Honorary Consuls – Serving Germany in the United States
Im Auftrag der Presseabteilung der Deutschen Botschaft in Washington, DC fotografierte Gunter Klötzer Ende April 2006 alle 31 Honorarkonsuln, die in den USA für Deutschland tätig sind. In Zusammenarbeit mit der Berliner Grafikdesignerin Lilli Artmann entstand eine 144 Seiten umfassende Broschüre, die neben Klötzers inszenierten Portraits schriftliche Interviews der Konsuln sowie umfangreiche Informationen zu deren Zuständigkeits- bereichen beinhalten wird. Ziel war es, die public diplomacy der Bundes- regierung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika auf innovative Weise zu unterstützen.

Das Auswärtige Amt ist sehr daran interessiert, seine Mitarbeiter auf einer persönlichen Ebene darzustellen. Klötzer ist es gelungen, die traditionell konservativ dargestellten „Amtsinhaber“ als Menschen mit einer gewissen Portion Eigenhumor darzustellen. Ein bisschen Augenzwinkern ist schon gewollt, doch war bei der Produktion das Ziel immer im Auge: die Broschüre ist für den amerikanischen Markt bestimmt und wird deswegen etwas anders aussehen, als wir es uns im „Alten Europa“ wünschen. Jedes Land hat seine Sitten und Gebräuche, und gerade darin besteht die Herausforderung dieser Arbeit.

Wie Botschafter Dr. Klaus Scharioth in seiner Eröffnungsrede zur Konsulntagung in Washington, DC betonte, ist diese Broschüre als erster Schritt einer möglichen neuen Kampagne des Auswärtigen Amtes zu verstehen. Wird dieser first step ein Erfolg – und die ersten Reaktionen auf Klötzers Fotografie und Artmanns Gestaltung lassen dies erahnen – warten 323 Honorarkonsuln weltweit auf die Kreativen aus Berlin.

Grußwort

Von Klaus Scharioth, Botschafter

Es ist mir eine große Freude, Ihnen in dieser Publikation 31 beeindruckende Persönlichkeiten vorstellen zu können, die allesamt mit großem persönlichen  Einsatz ehrenamtlich für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland als Honorarkonsuln  in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika tätig sind.  Neben den traditionellen konsularischen Aufgaben, wie die Betreuung deutscher Staatsangehöriger vor Ort, pﬂegen die Honorarkonsuln in ihrem Amtsbezirk deutsch-amerikanische Beziehungen auch bei wirtschaftlichen, kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Themen. Sie tun dies jeweils in enger Abstimmung mit der Botschaft und unseren acht Generalkonsulaten. Dabei leisten sie einen bedeutenden Beitrag zur deutschen Präsenz in Amerika. Hierfür möchte ich allen unseren Honorarkonsuln außerordentlich danken.

Deutschland und die USA sind historisch, politisch, wirtschaftlich und kulturell eng miteinander verbunden. Es gilt, diese besondere Freundschaft zwischen beiden Ländern weiter zu stärken und zu vertiefen. Dafür ist das gegenseitige Verständnis beider Völker von entscheidender Bedeutung. Unsere Honorarkonsuln engagieren sich für Deutschland und sind gleichzeitig fest in ihre amerikanischen »Heimatgemeinden« integriert. Als angesehene Ansprechpartner und Mittler wirken sie unmittelbar in ihr jeweiliges region ales Umfeld hinein.

Diese Publikation, für deren künstlerische Gestaltung der deutsche Fotograf  Gunter Klötzer gewonnen werden konnte, porträtiert die Konsulinnen und Konsuln und dokumentiert ihre persönlichen Einsichten und Ansichten über ein Leben an der Schnittstelle beider Länder. Ihre Beobachtungen und Einschätzungen offenbaren Bilder einer lebendigen und dynamischen deutsch-amerikanischen Freundschaft.

Ich hoffe, Sie ﬁnden Gefallen an der Lektüre.

Klaus Scharioth

Honor to the Honoraries!

By Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig, Minister Counselor

When I ﬁrst heard about the honorary consuls in my law studies I was simply amazed. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of April 24, 1963, talks about the protection of those who are not diplomats but who work for the  sake of their home country, as well as for a sending country, for free. Who would these people be, who devote their time and intellectual capacities to such a selﬂess task? Let us pay tribute to them today— as individuals, as well as institutions in diplomacy — without whom most foreign services would be lost.

As head of the Department for Press, Information and Public Affairs at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., I am happy to introduce to you some of these outstanding people: the 31 honorary consuls who work for Germany in the United States.

I thank everybody who contributed to this publication: ﬁrst of all, my colleagues Barbara Stiem and Tanya Jones, who worked endless extra hours to get it done; then, certainly, Lilli Artmann as the creative art and graphic director; and, above all, photographic artist Gunter Klötzer, who did outstanding work on ‘Germans in America’ in 2004 and now on ‘Honorary Consuls.’ Without his drive, patience and artistic know-how we would have never prevailed.

Our DCM Peter Gottwald always kept a strong special link to the honorary consuls. I thank him, Ambassador Scharioth, and my colleagues at the Embassy and at the Federal Foreign Ofﬁce in Berlin, who supported the idea from the beginning. My thanks also go to the colleagues in the Political Archive and Historical Service of the Foreign Ofﬁce, especially Günter Scheidemann, who went digging in the archives for us.

But, foremost, I would like to thank the honorary consuls themselves. If they had not cooperated (all 31 of them!), the entire booklet could not have been produced. I thank them for their input, the fun we shared creating it, and the insight into their personal experiences, work and lives. I also thank the Consuls  General in the United States, to whom the honorary consuls are responsible for their work: Dr. Wolfgang Vorwerk in Boston, Dr. Hans-Jürgen Heimsoeth in New York, Wolfgang Drautz in Chicago, Rainer Münzel in Houston, Hans-Jörg Brunner in Atlanta, Dr. Christian Stocks in Los Angeles, Eva Alexandra Countess Kendeffy in Miami, Rolf Schütte in San Francisco and Thomas Pröpstl in Washington. In the future, there will be others in their place, there will be others at the Embassy and, still others on duty as honorary consuls. But, if  you ever need their or the Embassy’s consular help or if you would like to ﬁnd contact information or simply the latest on Germany, you can ﬁnd it all on the Embassy’s website, www.germany.info.

Let me provide some of the historical, legal and political background to the work of the honorary consuls. We did some research, although we are not a historical institute, and some translations, although these too are unofﬁcial, for the sake of this little, hopefully entertaining publication. We apologize to all whose level of sophistication we may disappoint.

We found out that we do not know who the ﬁrst honorary consul for Germany in the United States was. The reason: honorary consuls existed even before the German Reich was founded in 1871. They were the diplomatic representatives of the early German states, like Prussia and Bavaria. These were then taken over by the Northern Union of German States ( Norddeutscher Bund ) and later, the German Reich, so that there was not a ﬁrst honorary consul but several.

However, our colleagues did ﬁnd some documents by a few of the very early  honorary consuls in the archives of the Foreign Ofﬁce. The ﬁles date back to as early as 1867 and 1868. An 1867 law on the professional consuls reads in Art. 11, par. 1: “the Consuls, upon approval of the Federal Chancellor, can  appoint private persons for consular affairs within their consular districts (...) .” In the certiﬁcate of appointment of Consul Ferdinand Willius, a Minnesota  business man, we read that he was entrusted with this ofﬁce because of his  knowledge and positive traits of character »Wir Wilhelm von Gottes Gnaden König von Preußen (...) ernennen ihn aufgrund seiner (...) Kenntnisse und übrigen  guten Eigenschaften.«

We had some fun reading through these old documents. What were they dealing with? With questions of equipping the ofﬁces and where to acquire furnishings, the range of competences, the insufﬁcient funding. Seems the issues haven’t changed too much over the centuries.

The Vienna Convention devotes the entire third chapter to the “honorary
consular ofﬁcers and consular posts headed by such ofﬁcers.” Art. 68 states: “Each State is free to decide whether it will appoint or receive honorary  consular ofﬁces.” The ‘receiving state’ in this sense is the country of their residence, which means the U.S. So why did Germany decide to appoint honorary consuls? Well, the United States is a huge country, and our German diplomatic and consular missions might be far away from those in need of help. The number of honorary consuls reﬂects the density of our German- American relationship.

The United States itself has no honorary consuls in Germany at this time, but has set up consular missions instead: we pride ourselves in having U.S.  Consulates General in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Munich, and an ofﬁce in Bremen. Given the much smaller geographic size of Germany, quite a ﬁne ratio!

Worldwide, Germany has appointed approximately 350 honorary consuls. They are not diplomats, but they enjoy ‘immunity from jurisdiction with respect to ofﬁcial acts performed in the exercise of their functions.’ We love our honorary consuls for their thorough knowledge of their regions, their well- established connections, and the valuable assistance they provide, especially in times of need. But they also promote cultural and economic ties, often attracting investors to the region.

Who helped us ﬁnd our missing Germans after Hurricane Katrina hit? Who helped us organize a beneﬁt concert for the victims of that natural disaster? Who dashes to the hospital or police station when we learn a German  mountaineer/engineer/tourist was injured, robbed or has lost his or her docu- ments? Who makes sure the remains of deceased German nationals get to their families? Who would also make sure to put your high school in touch with the German Information Center? Who can recommend a speaker on all things German for your organization’s event? That’s right!
Our Honorary Consul in your district!

The team at the German Embassy hopes you have fun and ﬁnd some interesting information in this brochure. The times may have changed, but the ‘institution’ of ‘honorary consul’ hardly has — and hopefully will not change too much. Over the centuries the German honorary consuls have worked hard, wisely and mostly with a smile for the sake of our two countries. Maybe our young readers will consider becoming one in the future or doing anything else to carry the traditionally close relationship between the United States and  Germany to the next generation. So, let us express our sincere gratitude, once again, and devote this publication to the honorary consuls of Germany in this wonderful country!

Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig