{"id":3552,"date":"2025-09-29T18:02:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live.debrige.org\/2017\/12\/14\/die-gesellschaft\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:13:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:13:26","slug":"the-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/2025\/09\/29\/the-society\/","title":{"rendered":"The Society"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n
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\r\n \r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/span>\r\n Membership<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
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Events<\/strong>
\nAs a member of a Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft (Network<\/a>) you will be invited to all events taking place, e.g. to high-profile lectures, English-language theatre performances, exhibitions, excursions, dinners and many more.<\/p>\n

You will have the opportunity to meet other like-minded Anglophiles. Almost all the lectures are held in English and are followed by a discussion period between the speaker and the audience. Please click here<\/a> to find an overview of past lectures.<\/p>\n

Joining a Gesellschaft<\/strong>
\nWe welcome as a member anyone who supports the aims of the Gesellschaft (both private individuals and legal entities). On the websites of the various Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaften<\/a> you will find the respective membership fees as well as applications forms.<\/p>\n

We thank all members who voluntarily pledge higher membership fees for their generosity.<\/p>\n

Corporate Membership<\/strong>
\nCompanies and institutions wishing to enjoy the benefits of membership in the Gesellschaft and support its work through Corporate Membership please contact headoffice@debrige.de<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

\r\n \r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/span>\r\n Governing Board<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Governance of the Gesellschaft lies with the Governing Board. It determines the guidelines under which the Gesellschaft operates. All board members are appointed on a honourary basis. Its members are:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anne Ruth Herkes, State Secretary ret., Ambassador ret.<\/strong>
\nChair of the German Britsh Society since 2025<\/p>\n

Following a long career in the public service, most recently as Ambassador and then State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Economics, Herkes has been a Non Executive Director on supervisory boards in in Europe and North America since 2014. She also held advisory roles in the tech startup industry and geopolitical consultancies, most recently with the Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington D.C.. Her board roles span across private banking in Europe, and the private equity industry in North America. She previously was a non executive director on the Supervisory Board of KFW IPEX Bank in Frankfurt.<\/p>\n

She is Officier of the L\u00e9gion d\u2019Honneur, a member of Atlantik-Br\u00fccke and serves on the Advisory Board of Asia House London, as well as the transatlantic non-profit organisation 1014 Inc. \u2013 Space for Ideas, founded by the Federal Republic of Germany to promote transatlantic dialogue in the arts, society and cultural industry. She was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alfred Herrhausen Society, the former International Forum of Deutsche Bank.<\/p>\n

From 2002 to 2006, Herkes was head of the Economic Department at the German Embassy in London. Prior to that she held roles at the diplomatic missions in Washington and Tokyo, and at the German OSCE mission in Vienna. From 2006 to 2009 she was a member of the management board of bp p.l.c. biofuels business in London, as Vice President Policy & Communication and Senior Strategy Advisor, jointly responsible for the development of the biofuels division. From 2002 onwards for nearly a decade she called London her home.<\/p>\n

She graduated from Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, and holds an \u201aErstes Staatsexamen\u2018 in Romanistik and Political Science, preceded by an undergraduate education at the London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris with a scholarship from Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. She completed postgraduate studies at the BSL Lausanne Business School and INSEAD\/Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John Kampfner, Journalist und Author<\/strong>
\nDeputy Chairman of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft e.V., Member of the Governing Board since 2024<\/p>\n

John Kampfner has had a long career in public life spanning global affairs, politics and culture. He is the author of seven books and is working on his eighth.<\/p>\n

He began his journalistic career with the Telegraph, first in East Berlin where he reported on the fall of the Wall and German unification, then in Moscow during the collapse of Soviet Communism. He went on to work for the FT and BBC covering UK politics. As Editor of the New Statesman from 2005 to 2008, he took the magazine to 30-year circulation highs.
\nHe writes regular columns for the Guardian, Foreign Policy, Politico and Der Spiegel. He is a regular contributor on broadcast media. He has a weekly Substack column, in which he analyses the state of Germany and the world.<\/p>\n

His most recent book, \u2018In Search of Berlin\u2019, was published in 2023. He has made many programmes for BBC TV and radio, including a two-parter called \u2018The Ugly War\u2019 on the Israel-Palestine conflict in 2002, for which he was awarded Film of the Year and Journalist of the Year.<\/p>\n

He is a Board member of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. In 2021, he set up the UK in the World programme at Chatham House, becoming its first director. He ran the free expression organisation, Index on Censorship, between 2008 and 2011; he subsequently advised Google on these issues. He was on the Council of King\u2019s College London between 2012 and 2015 and Chair of the Clore Social Leadership programme from 2015 to 2018.<\/p>\n

For eight years, from 2008 to 2016, he was founder Chair of Turner Contemporary, establishing one of the UK\u2019s most successful art galleries. He was the founder of the Creative Industries Federation. He is now Chair of the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in London.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sven Janssen, BSc MA PhD FRSA, Founding partner and CEO of Tradition Meets Future (TMF Growth)<\/strong>
\nTreasurer, Member of the Governing Board since 2023<\/p>\n

Dr Sven Janssen studied economics and political science at universities in France, Germany, the UK and the USA and completed his PhD in finance and banking at the School of Management of the University of Bath (UK) on the topic of \"British and German Banking Strategies\", also published as a book by Palgrave Macmillan.
\nHe has been a supervisory and advisory board member in several companies and is passionate about building bridges between established family businesses and innovative start-ups \u2013 and, of course, between countries. Sven also holds a professorship and regularly teaches at various universities.
\nSven is a founding partner and CEO of Tradition Meets Future (TMF Growth), a Berlin-based investment platform that focuses on private debt solutions and corporate finance for tech-enabled European growth companies.
\nHe began his banking career in 1999, focusing first on mergers and acquisitions and subsequently on capital markets financing. Among others, Sven worked for the family-owned banks Metzler, Sal. Oppenheim and Oddo and was a board member of an ESMA-regulated credit rating agency, for which he also established the ESG business.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mari Mittelhaus, Executive Director of the Deutsch-Britischen Gesellschaft<\/strong>
\nMember of the Governing Board since 2024<\/p>\n

Mari Mittelhaus is the Executive Director and a board member of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft e.V. (DBG), where she has worked since 2018.<\/p>\n

Mari is responsible for organising the DBG\u2019s four K\u00f6nigswinter Conferences, as well as a public lecture programme, administering the membership base and the network of German-British Associations in Germany. As a graduate of Humboldt University\u2019s Master in British Studies, fostering German-British relations has been important for her for a long time. Having lived in the UK and the US, building bridges between societies through exchange and culture is both a professional and a personal passion of hers. Mari has an interdisciplinary background in business, event management and English politics, law, literature and culture.<\/p>\n

She is also Deputy Chair of the Young K\u00f6nigswinter Alumni Organisation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Ruprecht Brandis, Director, Clean Energy Forum (Berlin)<\/strong>
\nSince 2021 in his capacity as Chairman of the K\u00f6nigswinter Stiftung ex officio Member of the Governing Board<\/p>\n

After military service, banking apprenticeship, law school, PhD and a short-term employment as lawyer Ruprecht Brandis worked as an official in the Federal Economics Ministry, the German embassy in Washington D.C. and in the Federal Chancellery. In parallel he obtained a MBA degree in the period between 1997 and 1999. From 2001 \u2013 2003 he practiced law again. In 2004 Ruprecht Brandis joined bp, first as deputy head of its Berlin office and from 2010 until September 2021 as office head and Director External Affairs Germany. From October 2021 until February 2024 he worked as Senior Adviser Europe in Communications & Advocacy of bp. Since March 2024 Ruprecht Brandis is Director of the Berlin based climate think tank Clean Energy Forum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Birgit Bujard, Gesch\u00e4ftsf\u00fchrerin beim Institut f\u00fcr Politische Wissenschaft und Europ\u00e4ische Fragen, Universit\u00e4t zu K\u00f6ln<\/strong>
\nChair of the Young K\u00f6nigswinter Alumni, Member of the Governing Board since 2024<\/p>\n

Dr Birgit Bujard is a political scientist and Executive Manager of the Institute for Political Science and European Affairs at the University of Cologne. Her research focuses on British politics and EU-UK relations.<\/p>\n

She is also Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Turkey and European Union studies (CETEUS) and member of the Team Europe Direct, the speakers pool of the European Commission.<\/p>\n

Since 2018 she is on the board of the Young K\u00f6nigswinter Alumni Association (YKWA e.V.), first as Deputy Chair and now as Chair. She attended the Young K\u00f6nigswinter Conference in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Annette Dittert, Senior Correspondent and Head of the ARD Studio Lonon<\/strong>
\nMember of the Governing Board since 2025<\/p>\n

Annette Dittert is an author, documentary filmmaker and has been working as a foreign correspondent for ARD for more than 25 years. She lived and worked in Moscow, Warsaw and New York. However, she spent most of her professional career in the United Kingdom. From 2008 to 2014, she was the Bureau Chief and Senior Correspondent at ARD Studio London, a role she returned to in 2019.
\nShe also writes regularly for \u201cBl\u00e4tter f\u00fcr deutsche und internationale Politik\u201d and various British political magazines such as the \u201cNew Statesman\u201d and \u201cProspect\u201d. In addition, she is the author of several books on Poland and the United Kingdom.
\nIn 2004, Annette Dittert was awarded the Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs Prize for her work in Poland. She received the Adolf Grimme Prize for her documentary films, as well as the Marler Group Audience Award and a nomination for the International Emmy Award. In 2019, she was voted Political Journalist of the Year by the German \u2018Medium Magazine\u2019 for her Brexit coverage.<\/p>\n

\"\"Andreas Krautscheid, Former Minister of State <\/strong>
\nMember of the Governing Board since 2018<\/p>\n

Andreas Krautscheid has been Chief Executive of the Association of German Banks, the voice of over 200 private German and foreign banks, since the beginning of 2018. From 2011, he was a member of the Senior Management Board, in charge of Political Affairs, Legal Affairs, Fiscal Affairs, Retail Banking and Digitalisation. During the past two years, he has been driving forward the association\u2019s cooperation with fintechs, over 20 of which are already active within the association.
\nMr Krautscheid brings with him a wealth of experience in both the business sector and high political offices. He was first State Secretary and then, from 2006, Minister for Federal and European Affairs and for the Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the 1990s,
\nMr Krautscheid, a lawyer, was a Member of the German Bundestag, dealing particularly with international issues. His career in the business sector included spells as Head of Group Communications at the German subsidiary of a British company and Head of Regulatory and Competition Policy on the Board of Deutsche Telekom AG.<\/p>\n

\"Siegmar Siegmar Mosdorf, former Parliamentary State Secretary, Partner and Chairman Kekst CNC AG Berlin<\/strong>
\nMember of the Governing Board since 2005<\/p>\n

Siegmar Mosdorf is Partner and Chairman of Kekst CNC AG in Berlin. From 1999 to 2003 he was the Chairman of the Board of the Deutsche Ausgleichsbank and currently carries out various duties. He also is a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen. From 1998 to 2002, he was Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology, and worked as aerospace co-ordinator for the Federal Government. Between 1990 and 2002, Mr Mosdorf was Member of the German Bundestag and Member of the Committees for Economics, Transportation, Research, Technology, Foreign Affairs and Sport. Until 1990, he was the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) whip for the State of Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg. Between 1995 and 1998, he was Chairman of the Enquiry Commission for \"The Future of the Media\". Mr Mosdorf was a consultant in trade union affairs to the Works Council and Supervisory Boards of Daimler-Benz, Bosch, IBM, HP and Porsche from 1978 to 1982. He studied Economics, Law and Social Sciences at the University of Constance.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Rupert Graf Strachwitz, Executive Director of the Maecenata Foundation, Director of the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society <\/strong>
\nDeputy Chairman of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft e.V., Member of the Governing Board since 2009<\/p>\n

Ph. D., born in 1947, has been involved with not-for-profit organizations for well over 30 years \u2013 as a volunteer, staff member, board member, consultant, and researcher, and lecturer. Since 1989, he has been managing director of Maecenata Management<\/a>, a consultancy that specializes in foundations and associations, corporate citizenship and philanthropy, and since 1997, he has also been the director of the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society, Berlin. Furthermore, he is Executive Director of the Maecenata Foundation, Munich, Deputy Chairman of the German-British Society, Berlin, Chairman of the Board of the Wilhelm Kempff Cultural Foundation, Munich\/Positano. He studied Political Science, History, and History of Art at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, USA, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Munich, Germany. He graduated as an M.A. in 1974 with a thesis on The Levellers, a 17th century English citizens\u2019 action group. After serving at World Headquarters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (an international catholic disaster relief and medical aid organization) in Rome for two years, he became regional director for the Order of Malta Relief Service in Bavaria. Subsequently, he held a position in public life while serving on the board of a number of foundations as well as other NGOs, including German Caritas, where he was Vice-President in 1984\/85. After becoming an independent consultant in 1989, he became increasingly involved with Third Sector research and chaired the German advisory committee of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project from 1995-2000. Today, while still acting as a consultant, his main focus is on research and public policy to do with civil society and philanthropy. From 1999 to 2002, he served as member of the German Federal Parliament Commission on Civic Action. He chaired the European Policy Working Group of Europa Nostra (from 2004-2010), and sat on the board of the Fondazione Cariplo, Milan\/Italy (from 2000-07), and a number of other nongovernmental organizations at home and abroad. His approx. 400 publications, in German as well as in English, Italian, French, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, and Polish, include books and articles on foundation issues as well as cultural policy, the third sector, and civil society.<\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

\r\n \r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/span>\r\n Headoffice<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

The office of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft Berlin is responsible for the organisation of the lecture programme for Berlin and Brandenburg and the organisation of the K\u00f6nigswinter Conferences. It is also the point of contact for updates and additions to this website.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in receiving regular information on events organised by the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft, please send an e-mail to headoffice@debrige.de<\/a><\/p>\n

The office staff is reachable in person on a full time basis. By telephone the office can be contacted around the clock (answering machine) as well as via post and e-mail.<\/p>\n

Head of Office<\/strong>
\nMari Mittelhaus<\/p>\n

Address <\/strong>
\nDeutsch-Britische Gesellschaft e.V.
\nPariser Platz 6
\n10117 Berlin
\nTel + 49 (0) 30 \u2013 203 985 - 0
\nMob + 49 (0) 176 \u2013 442 648 65
\nFax + 49 (0) 30 \u2013 203 985 - 16
\nheadoffice@debrige.de<\/a>
\nwww.debrige.de<\/a>
\n<\/i> debrige_berlin<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

\r\n \r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/span>\r\n Honourary Presidents<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

The Honourary Presidents are outstanding figures of public life selected for their exceptional engagement in the field of German-British relations and their long-standing support of the K\u00f6nigswinter Conference:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Prof. Dr. Kurt Biedenkopf \u2020<\/li>\n
  2. The Lord Dahrendorf \u2020<\/li>\n
  3. Dr. Katharina Focke \u2020<\/li>\n
  4. Dr. J\u00fcrgen Gro\u00dfmann<\/li>\n
  5. Dr. h.c. Karl G\u00fcnther von Hase \u2020<\/li>\n
  6. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Johannes Rau \u2020<\/li>\n
  7. Dr. J\u00fcrgen Ruhfus \u2020<\/li>\n
  8. Dr. h.c. Walter Scheel \u2020<\/li>\n
  9. Dr. h.c. Helmut Schmidt \u2020<\/li>\n
  10. Dr. Richard Frhr. von Weizs\u00e4cker \u2020<\/li>\n
  11. Thomas Matussek, Ambassador ret.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n
    \r\n \r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/i><\/span>\r\n <\/span>\r\n K\u00f6nigswinter Foundation<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
    \r\n

    The K\u00f6nigswinter Stiftung was founded in 1995 by Professor Marcus Bierich, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Robert-Bosch GmbH. The Foundation aims to deepen the partnership between Britain and Germany within the framework of a united Europe as well as to promote the work of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft. The Foundation's returns on the capital invested are allocated to finance projects of the Gesellschaft.<\/p>\n

    Chairman of the Board<\/strong>
    \nDr. Ruprecht Brandis
    \nExecutive Director, Clean Energy Forum<\/p>\n

    Marcus-Bierich-Lecture<\/strong>
    \nNamed in honour of its initiator, the Marcus-Bierich-Lecture series was established in October 2002. Since then high-profile speakers have presented their positions on current issues of German-British relations:<\/p>\n

    2002 - Lord Dahrendorf held a talk on European models for order.<\/p>\n

    2003 - Dr. Wulf Bernotat, Chairman of the Board, E.ON AG spoke about the challenges faced by the European energy industry and energy policy.<\/p>\n

    2005 - Prof. Dr. Berthold Leibinger, Managing Partner of the TRUMPF-Gruppe in Stuttgart, held a lecture about \"The Responsibility of the Entrepreneur in Our Society\".<\/p>\n

    2007 - Dr. Klaus von Dohnanyi, former First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, lectured on \"Global Success and Regional Responsibility. Entrepreneurial Action in an Open World.\u201c<\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-us"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9sXiX-Vi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5980,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/5980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}