Wulff: Grußwort - Atlantik

Remarks at the XIII Vernon A. Walters Award Ceremony
By Christian Wulff, Minister President of the German State of Niedersachsen
The Metropolitan Club, New York, June 5, 2007
As Prepared For Delivery
Welcome
Jürgen Großmann,
Tom Enders,
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder,
Walther Leisler Kiep,
Beate Lindemann,
Members of Parliament,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to congratulate you, Jürgen Großmann, with all my heart. You are an exceptional
entrepreneur and an exceptional person. I would also like to thank Beate Lindemann, Executive ViceChairman of Atlantik-Brücke, for her tremendous work in organizing this wonderful evening.
As Minister President of Niedersachsen, a Federal State with companies such as Volkswagen,
Continental, and Jägermeister, I cannot imagine a better transatlantic ambassador for our country than
you, Jürgen Großmann. I say this in light of your business successes, your great commitment to the wellbeing of the State of Niedersachsen, and also in regard to your esteemed character.
Almost everything you have touched has become a success. You have given new life to companies that
seemed to have no future. Successful businesses became even more successful with you. You started, or
gave full support to, social and political projects that you deemed to be important.
What I appreciate most, however, is that despite all your success and cosmopolitanism, you stayed true
to yourself and to your origins. Today, most of the people who work for you in one of your companies
will still say: He is one of us! I am sure that I speak on behalf of all people from Niedersachsen when I
congratulate you for receiving Atlantik-Brücke’s Vernon A. Walters Award. This award is in the best of
hands when it is with you.
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Through study and business trips, for example to Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana and as a Young
Leader of Atlantik-Brücke (I know what I am talking about because I myself am a Young Leader Alumnus
of Atlantik-Brücke), Jürgen Großmann, you knew early on about the special significance of the GermanAmerican relationship.
The relationship between the United States and Niedersachsen can look back on a centuries-long
tradition. Even twenty years before Columbus, Didrik Pining from Hildesheim in Niedersachsen sailed the
routes of the Vikings in the direction of North America. It is assumed that he made it to Greenland,
maybe also to Newfoundland and Labrador and thus, to the North American mainland continent. There
is no evidence of it, but it is possible that someone from Niedersachsen discovered America!
It is clear that since 1820, almost 600,000 people from Niedersachsen have immigrated to the United
States and left their traces there. There are multiple German heritage associations and many German
street names in the United States, and the many people visiting their old home towns show that the
“new” Americans have not forgotten their old home country. It is hardly a coincidence that the
ancestors of the current American Ambassador to Germany, William Timken, came from Niedersachsen.
The relationships between the United States and Niedersachsen are friendly, lively, and of a diverse
nature. They are nurtured by a dialogue of partnership. We are proud of the 134 schools in
Niedersachsen that have partnerships with schools in the United States. And it is only logical that each
and every university in Niedersachsen cooperates with an American university.
We are indebted to the United States for freeing us from National Socialism and for giving us the
prospects of a life in peace, freedom, and prosperity, and since 1990, also in unity!
For Niedersachsen, the United States is the third most important foreign trade partner. But the good
economic relationship with the United States is not just based on foreign trade. More than one hundred
American companies have subsidiaries in Niedersachsen, among them Dow Chemical, Masterfoods, and
Honeywell. Thus, American companies make up the largest foreign contingent in Niedersachsen’s
industry.
Jürgen Großmann, you have a share in the good economic relations between the United States and
Niedersachsen. Thanks to the initiative of the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and thanks to
you, the German International Graduate School of Management and Administration (GISMA) was founded
as a business school with a global reputation. GISMA is the first university in Germany that gives students
a German-American dual qualification. According to a current ranking from the Financial Times
Deutschland, GISMA, together with its partner Purdue University, is one of the leading programs for
Executive MBAs. Thus, in Germany it is the Number One!
Jürgen Großmann, you have contributed a lot to this great success with your consistent support to
building up this German-American cooperation.
You are also very active in your cultural and social commitment to Germany.
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Soon you will take over new responsibilities as the CEO of RWE, the third-largest energy supplier in
Europe. That you were given this top job in the German business world is again proof of the great
esteem people have for you.
I am so happy for you today, and I congratulate Atlantik-Brücke for giving the prize to Jürgen Großmann,
a pioneering entrepreneur and the right person to be honored with this award!
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