Purpose/Aktivities

This coordinator office, directly answerable to the German Foreign Minister, was established in 1981 by the federal government to intensify Germany's transatlantic relations and to extend them by new initiatives of German-American cooperation.

The coordinator is commissioned to monitor developments and to coordinate activities of German-American cooperation in particular in the areas of intersocietal and cul-tural relations as well as information policy. The coordinator is expected to initiate further cooperative undertakings and keep in close touch with the German and American institutions involved, in particular at government and parliamentary levels and among mediator organisations, scientific institu-tions, NGOs and the public. All this is designed to strengthen and extend German-US and other transatlantic networks.

In addition, the coor-dinator commissions the -now virtual- address book of German-American cooperative ventures. It contains numerous entries of institutions active in the fields of school and professional education, cultural, scientific, professional and other partnerships across the Atlantic.

When Mr. Voigt assumed office in February 1999, the mandate of the coordinator was extended to include Canada.