Atlantik-Brücke

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Deep state recruitment network?think tank, influence network

Atlantik-Brücke  link () Lobbypedia Website
File:Atlantik-Brücke logo.png
Formation	1952
Founders	Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, Helmut Schmidt, Eric M. Warburg, Hans Karl von Borries, Gotthard von Falkenhausen, Ernst Friedlaender, Gerhard Geyer, Hans Christoph von Tucher ,Friedrich Wilhelm Ziervogel
Headquarters	Berlin, Germany
Type	think tank, influence network
Interests	Germany
Membership	Josef Ackermann, Sven Afhüppe, Peter Altmeier, Peter Ammon, Kai Andrejewski, Tamara Anthony, Tim Arnold, Ali Aslan, Stefanie Augter, Thomas Bagger, Evarist Baimu, May Bapista, Mark Barrenecha, Evan Bayh, Anna von Bayern, Christopher Becker, Kurt Becker, Karl Heinz Beckurts, Frank Behrendt, Thomas Bellut, Sabine Bendiek, Gunnar Bender, Michael F. Bennet, Chris Bentley, Arnold Bergstraesser, Christoph Bertram, Susanne Gabriele Biedenkopf-Kürten, Friedrich Bieselt, J. D. Bindenagel, Kurt Birrenbach, Nikolaus Blome, Sebastian Blum, Markus Blume, Laura Blumenfeld, Michael W. Blumenthal, Hans Constantin Boden, Peter Boehm, Joshua Bolten, Hans Karl von Borries, Philip Breedlove, Heiner Bremer, Birgit Breuel, Myron Brilliant, Elmar Brok, Marc Brost, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Edelgard Bulmahn, Christian Bunsen, Ernst Burgbacher, Jan Philipp Burgard, Nicolas Burns, Richard Burt, Nikolas Busse, Amanda Mertens Campbell, Pam Campos-Palma, Sharon Christians, Volker C. Christians, Jürgen Conzelmann, Angela Cullen, Alexia D’Arco, Marika de Feo, Karel de Gucht, Thomas de Maizière, Matthias Deiß, David Deissner, Charlie Dent, Pamela Dent, Ariane von Dewitz, Berend Diekmann, Kai Diekmann, Julia Diehl, Wolfgang Dierker, Klaus von Dohnanyi, Andreas Dombret, Andreas R. Dombret, Hans-Lothar Domröse, Juergen B. Donges, Mathias Döpfner, Patrick Döring, Xenia Dormandy, Marie-Luise Dött, Garrelt Duin, Thomas Ebeling, Ellen Ehni, Christina Eibl, Thomas Ellerbeck, Thomas Enders, Barbara Engels, John English, Tasso Enzweiler, Fritz Erler, Marcus Erhardt, Veit Etzold, Sebastian Fairhurst, Gotthard von Falkenhausen, Joachim von Falkenhausen, Peter Fessler, Jürgen Fitschen, Jan Fleischhauer, Hans-Walter Forkel, Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Chrystia Freeland, Ernst Friedländer, Michael Froman, Ralf Fücks, Wim Furthmann, Sigmar Gabriel, Norbert Gansel, Joachim Gauck, Martin Gerster, Angelika Gifford, Pat Gifford, Katja Gloger, Reiner Maria Gohlke, Robin Meloy Goldsby, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Alexander Görlach, Jürgen R. Grossmann, Jürgen R. Großmann, Alexandre Grewlich, Tim Gürtler, Peter Gushurst, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Robert Habeck, Andrea Hägebarth, Carl Hahn, Jane Harman, Manuel Hartung, Helge Hassold, Tina Hassel, Dunja Hayali, Jana Hecker, Margret Heckel, Nicolaus Heinen, Ingrid Hengster, Konrad Henkel, Anne Ruth Herkes, Helmut Herles, Heinrich Hiesinger, Lars Hinrichs, Christiane Hoffman, Christiane Hoffmann, Reiner Hoffmann, Dieter Holzer, Bodo Hombach, Günther Horetzky, Max Horkheimer, Rudolph Houck, Stefan A. Hubler, Marc Hujer, John C. Hulsman, Michael Hüther, Jeffrey R. Immelt, Michael J. Innacker, Dirk Ippen, Fred Irwin, Wolfgang Ischinger, Martin Jäger, Frank Jahn, Tom Jenkins, Cherno Jobatey, Josef Joffe, Mari-Vaughn Johnson, Herman Georg Kaiser, Jan Friedrich Kallmorgen, Jan Kallmorgen, Paul-Bernhard Kallen, Udo van Kampen, Steffi Kammerer, Joel Kaplan, Matthew Karnitschnig, Frederick Kempe, Craig Kennedy, Markus Kerber, Katja Kessler, Walther Leisler Kiep, Richard Kiessler, Robert M. Kimmitt, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Henry Kissinger, Rita Kissing, Ulrich Kissing, Dietrich von Klaeden, Eckart von Klaeden, Claus Kleber, Lars Klingbeil, Martin Klingst, Julia Klöckner, Hans-Ulrich Klose, Reymer Klüver, Georg Knoth, David Knower, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Walter Köhler, Helmut Kohl, Martin Kohlhaussen, Theo Koll, Michael Kolz, Hilmar Kopper, John Christian Kornblum, Stefan Kornelius, Jochen Körner, Michael Kotz, Thorsten Wilhelm Krauel, Andreas Krautscheid, Karen Krömer, Tanja Kufner, Jörg Kukies, Ludger Kühnhardt, Alexander Lambsdorff, Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Ricarda Lang, Christian Lange, Gerrit Lange, Florian Langenscheidt, Adam Lashinsky, Robert Leicht, Malte Lehming, Rüdiger Lentz, Beate Lindemann, Christian Lindner, Elizabeth Linder, John Lipsky, David Lipton, David Livingston, Rüdiger Löwe, Siegfried Luther, Henneke Lütgerath, Kevin G. Lynch, Heiko Maas, Heike MacKerron, Roy Maclaren, Anna Mahron, Paul von Maltzahn, Anna Marohn, Christoph von Marschall, Georg Mascolo, John J. McCloy, Catriona McLaughlin, Kathy McMillan, Christoph Meinel, James D. Melville, Alexander Menne, Angela Merkel, Friedrich Merz, Eveline Metzen, Eveline Y. Metzen, Friedbert Meurer, Sonja Seymour Mikich, Kevin Milas, Philip Mißfelder, Liz Mohn, James von Moltke, Brian Moran, Connie Morella, Peter Mueller, Hildegard Müller, Philip D. Murphy, Tammy Murphy, Andreas Muschter, Özcan Mutlu, Matthias Naß, Klaus Naumann, Christoph Nedopil, Jens Neumann, Martin Ney, Robin Niblett, Omid Nouripour, Sybille Obernitz, Arend Oetker, Torsten Oltmanns, Leyle Ones, Friedrich Carl Freiherr von Oppenheim, Jeane von Oppenheim, Thomas Oppermann, Stephan Ortolf, Michael Otto, Karl-Heinz Paqué, Jörg Paura, Volker Perthes, Dominik Pförringer, Joachim Pfeiffer, Friedbert Pflüger, Lena Pietsch, Boris Pistorius, Christopher Pleister, Frederik Pleitgen, Reinhard Ploss, Ruprecht Polenz, Hans-Gert Pöttering, Ernst Primosch, Bára Procházková, Cornelia Quennet-Thielen, Hanspeter Quodt, Lutz Raettig, Ana Ramic, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, Klaus Regling, Felix Reinshagen, Bernd Reuther, Katja Ridderbusch, Robert von Rimscha, Jörg Rocholl, Cecilie Rohwedder, Hergard Rohwedder, Carola Rolofs, Oliver Rolofs, Kasper Rorstedt, Lawrence A. Rosen, Philipp Rösler, Claudia Roth, Thomas Roth, Sebastian Rudolph, Volker Rühe, Kirsten Rulf, Casimir Johannes Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Antonin Scalia, Rudolf Scharping, Georg Schaeffler, Albert Schäfer, Klaus Schäfer, Klaus Scherer, Karl Schiller, Stefan Schirm, Karl-Heinz Schlaiss, Volker Schlegel, Ulrich Schlie, Thomas Schließke, Carlo Schmid, Helmut Schmidt, Michael Schmidt, Wolfgang Schmidt, Wulf Schmiese, Hubertus Schmoldt, Olaf Scholz, Jörg Schönenborn, Olivia Schoeller, Dieter Schröder, Christoph Schröder, Karenina Schröder, Benedikt von Schröder, Karlheinz Schreiber, Felix von Schubert, Jens Schulte-Bockum, Gerd Schulte-Hillen, Oliver Schulte-Ladebeck, Martin Schulz, Charles Schumer, Burkhard Schwenker, Carsten Seeliger, Dov Seidman, Rafael Seligmann, Neil Senkowski, Cenk Sidar, Klaus-Peter Siegloch, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Julianne Smith, Rudi Sölch, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Theo Sommer, Jens Spahn, Henning Speck, Bernd-Georg Spies, Axel Springer, Friede Springer, Rupert Stadler, Hanno Stegmann, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Gabor Steingart, Janice Stein, Constanze Stelzenmüller, Rainer Stinner, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Max Strauß, Michael Stürmer, Eckhard Stuff, Sara Sumi-Yang, Cass Sunstein, Katharina Tafel, Julie Linn Teigland, Sylke Tempel, Elmar Theveßen, Anahita Thoms, Stephan Thomae, Karl Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis, Friederike von Tiesenhausen, Hans Tietmeyer, Clemens Trautmann, Jürgen Trittin, Karsten Uhlmann, Sabine Ulbrich, Franziska von Ungarn-Sternberg, Michael Vassiliadis, Simon Vaut, Günte Verheugen, Andera Verpoorten, Alexander Vershbow, Christopher Vollmer, Marco Vollmar, Karsten Voigt, Bernhard Wabnitz, Lars Wagner, Eric Walsh, Leslie von Wangenheim, Marie Warburg, Max Warburg, Max Warburg Jr., Nagila Warburg, Nagila Warburg, Julia Wayand, Beatrice Weder di Mauro, Ute Elisabeth Weiland, Bernhard Welschke, Christian Wernicke, Roland Werner, Michael Werz, Guido Westerwelle, Martin C. Wilhelm, Thorsten Wilhelm, Ulrich Wilhelm, Hans-Dietrich Winkhaus, Martin Winterkorn, Helen Winter, Andreas Winiarski, Werner Wnendt, Stefan Wölfle, Roland Wöller, Ute Wolf, Christian Wulff, Alex Yergin, Janet Yellen, Ingo Zamperoni, Joachim Zahn, Cornelia von Wrangel, Cem Özdemir
A long established and relatively public organ of the US to control German politics.

Not to be confused with The Atlantic Bridge, a similar British association

Atlantik-Brücke (English: Atlantic Bridge) is the most influential US-German socio-political influence network, an association that include leading personalities from business, politics, the armed forces, science, the media and culture. It was designed from the start to tie Germany to the US leadership, especially by strenghtening support for NATO, and to further the interests of big corporations.Members have dominated the leadership in every German party since its foundation, and all the chief editors and leading journalist in the German commercially-controlled media are members. In addition to decision-makers from these areas, who find a framework for confidential discussions at Atlantik-Brücke, the association also includes young exec autives who forge networks at the "Young Leaders" conferences. The association is closely connected to the deep state Warburg family. The chairman as of 2024, Sigmar Gabriel, is a former SPD leader that is well connected to the business lobby.

Origins

Atlantik-Brücke was founded in Hamburg in 1952. Eric M. Warburg (founder of the firm currently known as Warburg Pincus) was one of the founders of Atlantik-Brücke, together with editor Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, Chancellor of Germany Helmut Schmidt and other Hamburg citizens. In those Cold War times, the U.S. was looking for influence on Germany. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) may have given the idea for founding the Atlantik-Brücke; Eric M. Warburg was a friend and consultant for John J. McCloy, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and President of the World Bank. The Atlantik-Brücke is the German counterpart for the U.S. based American Council on Germany.Template:Cn

The group had its headquarters in the old capital Bonn between 1983 and 1999, and is now located in Berlin. The association organizes invitation-only conferences, seminars and colloquia. Through various programs for "Young Leaders", military officers, leading journalists, central politicians and promising students, Atlantik-Brücke fosters strong social networks among current and future pro-US German leaders in business, media and politics.

The Atlantic Bridge cooperates with CIA-close think-tanks like the Aspen Institute and German Marshall Fund, and the membership list has a significant overlap with Bilderberg-participants.

Members

The powerful network, in no way democratically legitimized, consist of people who only see the world from one perspective, from above; and who only know one type of appreciation, that of money and power. If someone wants to be part of the ruling establishment, they have to share this view. If the want to personally benefit from this network, be it an aspiring politician, journalist, civil servant or academic, they must be at the service of those to whom the world belongs.

The number of members is limited in order to preserve the exclusivity of the association, and is only partially public The list of members (see above) is members or associates collected from their own publications.

The Media

A large percentage of the members are journalists. This is not a coincidence. The AB is about who gets to control money an power, and it is important to sell this policy to the outside world.

It is particularly noticeable that a large number of correspondents who have been sent to the USA by their broadcasters and newspapers are on the list of members. Pretty much all of the correspondents are invited to join the Atlantic Bridge before starting their job in the United States. This networking effort makes sense; the AB's connections, especially to conservative politicians and think tanks in the states, are excellent.

String pullers such as Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, Zbigniew Brzeziński and John Kornblum can open many doors in Washington. The reporting is influenced accordingly, and shows a picture of the United States as these elite politicians want European audiences to see it. Figuratively (and probably often literally), the CIA is at the table every time these journalists meet with American politicians, scientists or the military.

Politics

File:Atlantik scholz.png

The photograph was taken on January 28, 2013 and is shown on page 55 of the Atlantik-Brücke's annual Report 2012/2013. It shows private banker and host Max Warburg; the then Mayor of Hamburg and guest speaker (later Chancellor), Olaf Scholz; as well as the then lobbyist and chairman of Atlantik-Brücke, Friedrich Merz. In 2016, the Hamburg-based Warburg Bank turned out to be a central player in the multibillion-dollar Cum–ex scandal – the largest tax fraud in German history - but after a confidential meeting between the Warburg bosses and Mayor Scholz, the Hamburg tax authority suddenly wanted to waive tax recoveries. Olaf Scholz could not remember the delicate conversations in front of an investigative committee later.(SPR)

The largest group of members is politicians, While the number of representatives of the individual parties roughly corresponds to the representation in the German parliament, the Left party (Die Linke) is noticeably absent. The representatives that are members belong exclusively to the economic liberal wings of their parties, with strong pro-NATO views.

On the American side, the membership is a pleasant experience in empire mangagement.

Business

Whose interests are to be furthered, is clearly illustrated by another big group of members: managers, many of them from the financial industry, consultants from predatory consultancy companies that often operate worldwide, bankers, PR-companies and lobbyists; they all have only one interest, to defend and expand their privileges and their already huge possessions.

Activities

Atlantik-Brücke's activities include conferences, lectures and discussions, study trips, award ceremonies and the Young Leaders program.

• With its sister organization American Council on Germany (ACG), Atlantik-Brücke holds German-American conferences every year. Since 2005, the two organizations have each held their own Young Leaders conference.

• There are strategic partnerships with institutions such as the Munich Security Conference or the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany.

• An annual expert meeting has been held in Berlin since 1990 with the US Army High Command in Europe, the US European Command.

Award named after CIA-director

Showing it close intelligence ties, from 1993 to 2008, the AB named its highest price in honor of CIA-officer Vernon A. Walters, responsible for such regime changes as the 1973 coup in Chile..

From 2015 onward, their highest price is named after former CIA-director George HW Bush.

Young Leaders

The two Atlantik-Brücke Young Leaders conferences receive more than 500 applications per year, from which 120 Young Leaders are chosen by the steering commitee. Sixty young leaders are chosen for the German-American Conference (30 Americans and 30 Germans) and sixty are chosen for the European Conference. As of 2011, the German-American Young Leaders Conference has been running for 33 years.

The Young Leaders Program initiated by Atlantik-Brücke represents the oldest and largest program dedicated to identifying and nurturing relationships among the future custodians of the transatlantic partnership. Since the first Young Leaders Conference was held in 1973, over 1,500 Europeans and Americans have attended one of thirty-two German-American Young Leaders Conferences or ten European Young Leaders Conferences, a 10-day international young leader exchange.

Alumni of these prestigious gatherings remain in contact with each other both informally and through regional discussion groups and biennial alumni conferences that had been held under the auspices of Atlantik-Brücke. On January 1, 2011 Atlantik-Brücke established the independent organization "Atlantik Forum e.V. – the Young Leaders Alumni of Atlantik-Brücke" to more effectively facilitate and manage all these activities.

Prominent Young Leaders alumni

Full article: American Council on Germany/Young Leaders

Its Young Leader program is selected in cooperation with the American Council on Germany, which is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations. Examples include Christian Wulff, Former Federal President of Germany

Thomas de Maizière, Former Federal Minister of Interior

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Former Federal Minister of Defense

Michael Otto, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Otto Group

Jürgen Großmann, Chairman of the Managing Board of RWE

Thomas Enders, President and CEO of Airbus Industries

Paul-Bernhard Kallen, Chairman of the Board of Hubert Burda Media Holding

Hans-Gert Pöttering, Former President of the European Parliament

Charles Schumer, Senior U.S. Senator from New York

Cem Özdemir, Chairman of Alliance 90/The Greens

Edelgard Bulmahn Member of Parliament; Former Federal Minister of Education and Research

Michael Vassiliadis, Chairman of the Board of IG BCE – Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union

Wolfgang Ischinger, Former German Ambassador to the United States

Richard Burt, Former United States Ambassador to Germany

Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Vice President of the European Parliament

Craig Kennedy, President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States

Kai Diekmann, Editor-in-Chief of BILD Zeitung

Katja Gloger, Editor-at-large, STERN Magazin

Joshua Bolten, Former White House Chief of Staff, President George W. Bush

History

Eric M. Warburg (founder of the firm currently known as Warburg Pincus) was one of the founders of Atlantik-Brücke, together with legendary editor Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, Chancellor of Germany Helmut Schmidt and other citizens of Hamburg. In those Cold War times, the U.S. was looking for influence on Germany. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) probably gave the idea for founding the Atlantik-Brücke; Eric M. Warburg was a friend and consultant for John J. McCloy, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and President of the World Bank. The Atlantik-Brücke is the German counterpart for the U.S. based American Council on Germany (members include US diplomats Richard Holbrooke and Henry Kissinger).

Extract of member list

Below is a selection from the member list of the Atlantik Brücke. People listed on the right of the page are either members or have participated in meetings of the group.

Philip D. Murphy, former US/Ambassador to Germany

Henry Kissinger, former US/Secretary of State

Josef Ackermann, former CEO of Deutsche Bank, Germany

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, former Secretary of Defence of Germany

Helmut Kohl, former Chancellor of Germany

Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of Germany

Rupert Stadler, former chairman of Audi AG

Torsten Oltmanns, Global Marketing Director at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

Joachim Gauck, former President of Germany

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany[1]