Young KönigswinterAlumni ConferenceHamburg 2007

ConferenceReport

The Young Königswinter Alumni Conference Hamburg 2007

was made possible through the generous support from

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Young KönigswinterAlumni Conference

Hamburg28 June—1 July 2007

Report: Leonard NovyLayout: Bernadette HellmannPhotos: Lesley Jane Black, Roland Michels. All rights reserved.

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Organising Committee’s Preface

Connected with London through centuries of trade, destroyed by the British Royal AirForce in the latter stages of the war Germany started, today considered by many to be themost “British” city on mainland Europe — few cities in Germany epitomize the existing tiesbetween Germany and the UK better than Hamburg. What better place could there be toreinforce these ties, discuss how they can be brought to fruition in tackling commonchallenges and look for further areas of exchange for the future? Looking back, Hamburgproved to be an ideal choice of location for the 2007 Young Königswinter AlumniConference.

Keeping with tradition, this year’s reunion combined insightful commentary, thought-provoking debates, festive dinners and nights of dazzling entertainment. Discussions ontopical issues such as climate change and its implications for global politics, urbanredevelopment, and modern governance illustrated how salient the exchange of opinions

and cooperation between thetwo countries is. However,judging by degree ofinnovativeness and “culinaryunderstanding” the partici-pants came up with in theunforgettable “cooking chal-l e n g e ” , d u r i n g w h i c hfrequently alternating teamshad to prepare their own 3-course dinner in the hotelroom kitchens, the odds aregood that the two countrieswill actually master theaforementioned challengeswith ease.

Maike Scheumer, Sir Nigel Broomfield, Christian Thode, Patrick Barton at the Opening Dinner! This conference report aims toconvey an impression of the 2007 Alumni Conference and make it available to a wideraudience. The warmth with which we were received in Hamburg made this conference amemorable experience. We are particularly grateful to Jürgen Grossmann, a YoungKönigswinter alumnus, and his family, who hosted a fabulous barbecue for us in theirresidence on Hamburg’s scenic Elbchaussee. Besides, we are of course indebted to allspeakers. Thanks to their commitment Hamburg left nothing to be desired – exceptperhaps for the announcement of the next reunion.

The Young Königswinter Alumni network has proven to be an important forum for cross-national dialogue and exchange. However, there is still scope for outreach and enhancedimpact. This presupposes commitment on the part of all members of the alumni network –in the preparations of the annual conferences and beyond.

PAT R ICK BART ON, FRAU KE KEGE L, P ET E R LOCH BIHLER , REN É LÜDD ECKE, L EON ARD NOVY ,

MAIK E SCHE UMER, MARE N ST UD T MAN N, C HRI ST IAN THOD E, SÖRE N TRÜM PER5

Panel The Privatisation of Politics: Are we going tobe ruled by lobbyists and NGOs?

ASHISH BHATT, Principal, Canonbury Group

NIKOLAS HILL, Hamburg Senate

CHRISTIAN HUMBORG, Transparency International

CORNELIUS WINTER, Pleon

Chaired by RENÉ LÜDDECKE

Lobbying is not a new phenomenon. Even during the time of the East India TradingCompany as well as the German Hanse, merchants tried to make sure politics was shapedaccording to their interests. However, in our current political world, lobbying andstakeholder involvement seem to have increased over the last few years, leading to livelydebates about the transparency of decision-making processes and the impartiality ofpolitical leaders.

How much exchange between politics and economics is desirable in a political system? Inthe US, it is quite common for leaders to move between political and industry positions.In Europe, such “revolving doors” are still rare and are often regarded critically by thepublic. Perceptions vary; on the one hand, there is a question of how impartial apolitician can be if he or she was closely tied to a certain industry in the past and/orhopes to gain a position therein after their political career has ended. On the other hand,Gordon Brown’s decision to include business leaders into his government was generallywelcomed as a move towards more consensual policymaking. The same ambiguityapplies to exchange programs such as the German “Seitenwechsel” (change of sides)initiative. While designed to improve the mutual understanding between administrationand business, it seems the opportunity was used a lot more by lobbyists than stateemployees and, in quite a few cases, industry representatives ended up in charge ofissues of direct concern to their home company.

Apart from the revolving doors issue: Do lobbyists have a role to play in modern policymaking? For a politician, stakeholder representatives can be very useful if treated asadvisors – no more and no less. Since politicians cannot be specialists in every field,lobbyists can provide them with valuable information and arguments on which to basetheir decisions. Listening to stakeholders early can also help avoid conflicts that wouldotherwise later be taken out in public. Accordingly, lobbyists define their role as that offacilitators for more open and productive exchange between politics and industry. Astrust and reputation are the most important assets of a lobbyist, it is in his own interestto stick to the rules and keep client’s expectations realistic. There are, however, manythat doubt the chances are distributed fairly. Industry representatives are often regardedas too influential as they have more resources at their disposition than other societalgroups. But even the role of NGOs could be questioned, as they, too, usually represent aspecific interest group without legitimization from the general public.

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How can we, therefore, ensure that political decision-making is a fair competition ofideas in which the strongest arguments will prevail? A first step seems to be equal accessto politics. In Britain, anyone can demand to see their MP and the politician will have tooblige. Another important factor is transparency. The EU has gotten quite far in thisrespect. New policies are presented to the public in so-called green or white papers,followed by public consultations in which all interested parties can express their views.All documentation is published on the web so that the public can follow the process.However, while the public has a right to hold their politicians accountable, it was alsosuggested that politics might still require a certain “private space” in which argumentscan be weighed and options considered without the pressure of constant surveillance bypublic opinion.

A last, but possibly most important, factor is the integrity of the politicians themselves.Some argue that politicians and state employees need to be paid better to render themimmune to outside influence. On the other hand, it was pointed out that politics shouldbe a vocation rather than a career chosen for money. In addition, the temptation oftendoesn’t lie in financial gains but in the close personal ties between people involved thatmake it harder for a politician to reject a lobbyist’s arguments. In the end, the perceptionof lobbying depends a lot on how much trust we have in our political leadership.

Sandra Roling

Nikolas Hill, Ashish Bhatt, René Lüddecke, Christian Humborg, Cornelius Winter

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Panel Global ecology: Have we got the messageand what should we do?

MICHAEL ANTHONY, Allianz

NICOLAUS VON DER GOLTZ, German Federal Ministry forEconomic Cooperation and Development

AUGUSTO MANGINI, University of Heidelberg

Chaired by PETER LOCHBIHLER

The impact of climate change on our society is undeniable, evident in the meltingicecaps, increasing global temperatures and the weather extremes experienced acrossboth the developed and the developing worlds in recent months. The devastatingmonsoons in Bangladesh and India in the last few months show the real human impactthis problem is having on our societies today.

The vibrant headquarters of DerSpiegel in Hamburg were the settingfor a Young Königswinter Alumnidebate focusing on our changingglobal ecology. The discussion wasas well - informed as ever,approaching the subject from anumber of different angles andallowing us to share differentperspectives. Indeed, the conceptbehind the design of the Spiegel’scanteen – the wreaking of havoc withinternal design – was certainly anappropriate setting for a livelydebate.

The excellent panel of expertsaddressed three broad subjects: thecauses and science of climatechange, its impacts globally andsolutions.

Are we wholly to blame?The fact that there have been significant climate change variations in history isincontrovertible: global temperature has increased by 0.7% since 1860 and theconcentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also considerably higher. However,there does continue to be a healthy debate on the exact causes of climate change. This isimportant insofar as it points us in new directions when considering possible mitigationefforts.

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Professor Augusto Mangini of the University of Heidelberg is one of the leading figures inthis debate and was our first speaker in this debate. He is certainly no stranger tocontroversy and his theories have been contested. He described lucidly (and with the aidof a prodigious array of data) how changes in temperature over time could both beattributed to variations in the quantity of carbon dioxide in the environment, as well asnatural variability over time, or “sensitivity.”

Using data garnered from the isotope variations in stalagmites over time – a morereliable source than the traditional method of using tree ring archives, unreliablebecause of seasonal growth patterns and natural adaptation over time – Manginiconcludes that temperature variations in the last are not wholly due to carbon dioxideemissions, but are more related to different “troia phases”, with some periods over thelast 10,000 years being similarly warm or even warmer than today without thecontribution of human-generated carbon emissions.

However, a number of other commentators attribute a more substantial role to mankindin the climate change process. Research published by the UK Royal Society last monthshowed that the majority of climate change scientists believe that humans are nowhaving an unprecedented effect on climate change across the world. The overallconclusion of much of this research, and other research conducted by the UK’s HadleyCentre, is that manmade carbon dioxide emissions have diluted natural emissions inrecent years.

PeterLochbihler,AugustoMangini,Nicolausvon der Goltz

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Living with the consequences

Whilst recent research by MORI showed that 56% of British people believed thatscientists still questioned the evidence for climate change, and that politiciansexaggerated the problems to get money, the science does indeed point to the fact thatthere is a problem that is not going away. Whatever the causes of climate changevariations, we are living with the effects of them today and have to make moves to takeinto account the future impact these changes will have on us.

Michael Anthony of insurance giant Allianz described the role of the insurance industryas early warning system for society anticipating events that will happen in twenty tothirty years time. The insurance industry has already been badly hit and trends in thereinsurance industry show that this exposure will continue in the future. Whilst this is notall about climate change –increased building activity on flood plains has also had someeffect – a significant proportion of it has to be attributed to the impacts of climatechange. The consequences of not doing anything to address this issue was a key themeof Sir Nicholas Stern’s report for the British Treasury on the economics of climate change,with Stern predicting an increasing impact in terms of declining GDP over time.

The impacts on the developing world have been even more devastating, as described byNicolaus von der Goltz. Developing countries’ greater dependence on agriculture alsomeans that there will be a greater human cost in the long term. This raises question ofeconomic justice as people in the developing world suffer most from climate change.Problems are obvious in the news every day – desertification, food and water insecurity,increased conflict, loss of diversity.

What can be done?

Significant differences remain in the approach adopted by those countries thatacknowledge that climate change is a problem such as Britain and Germany. So what canbe done and what is being done at the moment? Adaptation measures are not enough asthese serve to allow for the problem rather than to attempt to reduce it.

Emissions trading was proposed in the debate as a part of the overall solution, andindeed the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme has already been in operationfor a number of years. Despite early teething problems, especially in terms of a glut ofallocations into the fledgling market at an early stage, system design changes willhopefully make a difference in the future. The thorny issue of the inclusion of aviation – asector currently excluded from the scheme – is currently under discussion within theEuropean institutions.

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The sky is the limit: A view of Hamburg’s Lake Alster during the cruise at the conference’sOpening Night

The financial community clearly believes climate change mitigation could generate bigmoney in the future, probably because of a combination of the real-life effects climatechange is already having and will continue to have on the sustainable development ofbusiness, and the fact that governments are already putting a lot of money into climatechange research and mitigation. Michael Anthony pointed to the growth in renewableenergy funds in recent years. In addition, the so-called “Clean Development Mechanism”projects, whereby Western countries fund carbon saving projects in the developingworld, are also increasing in scale and importance.

The overwhelming message emerging from the debate was that we have indeed got themessage and can actively take steps to mitigate at the least and counter at the most, theimpact of climate change. The events of recent months certainly demonstrate the urgentneed to do this. Whatever scientific school you sympathise with, the fact remains thatclimate change is happening and we need to so something about it. We can make animpact on climate change in at least a small way – and probably in quite a major way.

Stephen Edwards

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HafenCity Urban Regeneration: Public or PrivateProduction of Urbanity?

JÜRGEN BRUNS-BERENTELG

Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg is the CEO of HafenCity Hamburg and provided us withinteresting insights into the scale and “making of” Hafen City. Although the actual areaconcerned is rather small (about 1.5 square kilometres), it is a major regeneration projectof high importance to the city and the region. It is also rather ambitious:

! It will expand the inner city area by 40% as well as extending the waterfront byabout 10 kilometres.

! Embedded in parks and surrounded by squares and promenades, over 1,8 millionsquare metres gross floor area (GFA) will be built:

! 5,000 new flats for about 12,000 people and! shopping, eating and entertainment facilities as well as offices which will sum up

to 40,000 jobs.Thus, HafenCity is both an inner city and a waterfront project on a unique scale forEuropean inner city re-development.

Residential housing and offices at HafenCity. On the left: Kaispeicher A which will beconverted into the “Elbphilharmonie” concert hall by architects Herzog & de Meuron

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HafenCity, or “HarbourCity”, carefully balances urbanity with residential variability andcomprises large mixed-use developments. To reach a new level of integration of publicand private spaces, a mixture of innovative development approaches and residentialconcepts has been used to

! raise the sustainability of the overall development and! lower the risk of “falling out of the market” in the next decade.

Furthermore, HafenCity did not allow for any speculative developments: a 50% pre-leasewas required before final planning permissions were granted.

In general, the buildings are not to be too dominant themselves but to provide a suitablebackground for the new public and waterfront spaces for a variety of uses. Another aim ofthe regeneration is to transform “dead waters” into “lively” ones again.

Windswept alumni during the guided tour of HafenCity

To ensure that those basic objectives were considered throughout the development ofHafenCity, the planning of the overall layout was kept in public hands. One reason wasthat key tasks of public administration like integrating public transport (by linkingHafenCity with the rest of Hamburg with a new underground line) and issues of floodprotection needed to be taken into account right from the start. Furthermore, there wereconcerns that the private sector might not consider the project in an overall sense butfocus instead on individual developments as products to be marketed. Therefore, thepublic planning optimised the development mix within HafenCity as a whole and, for

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example, allocated some prominent locations of very high visibility to new culturalplaces rather than office buildings.

In the realisation phase, however, HafenCity has aimed to match and balance public andprivate interests to achieve the best possible results especially in architectural quality.While public investment has now reached about 1,4 billion Euro, private investment hasalready added up to nearly 5 billion Euro.

During the explanation of HafenCity’s organisational structure and the developmentprocesses, it was astonishing to hear about the flexibility of Hamburg’s cityadministration: When the private planning went ahead much faster then expected, thepublic administration adapted and speeded up!

The community centre, where we listened to Mr. Bruns-Berentelg, was established topromote HafenCity to the people. Nowadays, it is visited by over 200,000 visitors everyyear. It also organises events like cruise ship visits which attracted 1 million visitors in2006.

After hearing lots of details about individual developments like the Science Center, theAquarium or the “Elbphilharmonie” concert hall, we enjoyed an extensive guided tourthrough the building sites of HafenCity to see what has already been accomplished.

HafenCity is a fascinating place and a great project worth watching being completed. Sokeep yourself updated on the rapid progress in building HafenCity atwww.HafenCity.com.

Silke Ziegler-Pierce

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Food for Thought The only way forward is backwards:The joy of LatinHARRY MOUNT

In his after-breakfast speech, Harry Mount enlightened us about the joy that one canexperience through the study of Latin. Mount, who is a fellow YKW alumnus (2001) and aleader writer for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, recently sold more than 120,000copies of his book on this subject, the cheekily entitled “Amo, Amas, Amat and All That –How to Become a Latin Lover”.

Mount reported that for a long time, the teaching of Latin has been in decline in theBritish educational system, a fate that the ancient language seems to share with manyother “serious” subjects. As the education system has shifted to teaching moreimmediately usable skills, the classic canon of humanist knowledge has fallen by thewayside. More recently, however, Latin seems to be in the midst of a comeback.According to Mount, people are increasingly yearning for “classic” knowledge in “stuffy”subjects, a trend he sees manifested in the boom of pub quizzes all over Britain.

Mount thinks that this resurgence is positive. However, he admitted that Latin is oftenused for the wrong reasons. The pompous educated use their knowledge of Latin to makeinteresting show-off points that fail to add useful and lasting knowledge. Others, amongthem the soccer star David Beckham, use Latin in tattoos to invoke the language’s grandconnotations. In both cases, Latin is being used in the service of effect rather thansubstance.

This is too bad, because according to Mount (and, of course, many others) Latin isinherently beautiful and interesting. Moreover, there are many highly “value-adding”ways of using Latin. The language can be an important tool to promote knowledge andintellectual qualities that are increasingly being lost in societies. Mount gave a fewexamples, stressing in particular Latin’s importance for understanding Great Britain’sculture and language. Underscoring his point, he mentioned that at a Brighton school,English grammar is now taught by a Latin teacher. Furthermore, Latin – by virtue of beinga “dead” language that leaves no “wiggle room” for interpretation – promotes precisionin thought.

Finally and most crucially, the study of Latin inclines students to recognise the legacy ofthe past in the present. The “old” continues to hang over us today, often in interestingand far from obvious ways. Its impact is wide and far-ranging, deeply shaping how welive today. However, there is no “easy” road to acquiring Latin, and Mount remainsdeeply sceptical of the teaching of “watered-down” versions of the language in Britishstate schools today. Latin is a “serious” subject that can be studied with a “joking” tone(as Mount treats it in his book), but it has to be embraced in its full complexity.

Tobias Schulze-Cleven

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Visit of the Airbus plant

Just at the beginning of the meetings on June 28th Airbus Industries provided us with thefascinating opportunity to visit the biggest Airbus plant in Germany.!After a nice bus trip through the Hamburger Freihafen and passing the well knownlandmark of Köhlbrand bridge, we arrived at Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder.First there was an interesting introduction by Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Pohl!from the!researchand technology department. With more than 11!000 employees in research, production,customer service and administration Hamburg is - besides Toulouse and Seattle - one ofthe biggest locations of!the aircraft industry worldwide.

Hamburg is Airbus’s“Centre of ExcellenceCabin and Cargo”,covering this field forall the different Air-bus types. Hamburgis also responsiblefor the production ofthe forward and aftfuselage of the entireAirbus fleet. And hereis where!the world’sbiggest moveablecabin simulator canbe found.

Inside the Finkenwerder Airbus plant (Photo: Airbus)

We did not get a chance to experience that, but still we were given the opportunity to visitthe construction halls to get a deeper insight into the construction process of the AirbusA320 family. The planes are equipped with all necessary systems on a "Moving Line"which moves with a speed of one meter per hour.!Everybody!in the group was of course keen to get a glimpse of the new big bird – Airbus’sA380. But that construction hall!is a high security area. No photos were allowed. But wecould see the construction lines from a viewing platform – and just the tail of the hugefinished plane which was due for delivery to Singapore Airlines a few weeks later. Andthis was not owing to Airbus’s liberality: The hangars were just too small to get whole theplane inside.

Ulrich Timm

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Conference Programme

Thursday 28 June 2007

13:00-17:00 Visit to Airbus

18:30-19:30 Welcome reception

On behalf of the organisers: MAIKE SCHEUMER

Anglo-German Club

19:45-20:00 Boat trip on Lake Alster to Jungfernstieg

20:30-24:00 Opening Dinner

SIR NIGEL BROOMFIELD:“The Shape Of Things To Come”

Introduced by CHRISTIAN THODE

Friday 29 June 2007

9:30-10:30 Welcome to Hamburg!

ROLAND SALCHOW, Hamburg SenateFollowed by a tour of the Town Hall

11:00-11:15 Some things you need to know to survive this conference

FRAUKE KEGEL, SÖREN TRÜMPER

Gruner+Jahr Auditorium

11:15-11:45 Opening Speech

GEBHARDT VON MOLTKE:“German-British Dialogue: Is it still required?”

Introduced by LEONARD NOVY

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11:45-12:15 Königswinter Conference Potsdam 2007: A sneak review

MARCUS VON ESSEN

12:30-15:30 Harbour cruise or

Visit to Hamburger Kunsthalle or

Visit to ARD Aktuell TV newsroom and studios or

Visit to Steinway & Sons

16:30-18:00 The Privatisation Of Politics:Are we going to be ruled by lobbyists and NGOs?

ASHISH BHATT, Canonbury GroupNIKOLAS HILL, Hamburg SenateCHRISTIAN HUMBORG, Transparency InternationalCORNELIUS WINTER, PleonChaired by RENÉ LÜDDECKE

19:00 Young Königswinter Alumni BarbecueHosted by JÜRGEN GROSSMANN and Georgsmarienhütte Holding

Saturday 30 June 2007

10:00-11:30 The Global Ecology:Have we got the message and what should we do?

MICHAEL ANTHONY, AllianzNICOLAUS VON DER GOLTZ,German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentAUGUSTO MANGINI, University of HeidelbergChaired by PETER LOCHBIHLER

Canteen of Der Spiegel

12:45-14:00 JÜRGEN BRUNS-BERENTELG, HafenCity:”Urban regeneration: Public or private production of urbanity?“

Introduced by MAREN STUDTMANN

14:00-15:30 Guided tour of HafenCity

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15:45-17:00 YKWA Workshops

Fundraising / Local events

17:00-20:00 Walking tour of the city on foot

20:00 Beat Tim & Jamie Cooking Challenge

23:00 Late-night drinks by the harbour

Sunday 1 July 2007

11:00-12:30 Have breakfast in style like Hamburgers do every Sunday atLiteraturhaus

With food for thought fromHARRY MOUNT:The only way forward is backwards: The joy of Latin

Introduced by BEN HUTCHINSON

12:30-13:00 Close of conference

On behalf of the organisers: PATRICK BARTON

14:00 Discussion of the future set-up of the alumni network

Chaired by JOHN SPARKS

Chile-Haus

Conference venue

Madison Hotel

Schaarsteinweg 4, 20459 Hamburg

ph +49 (0) 40-37666-0http://www.madisonhotel.de

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Participants

MICHAEL ANTHONY, Spokesperson, AllianzALEX ASHBOURNE, Director, Ashbourne Strategic ConsultingPATRICK BARTON, Lawyer, journalistHENDRIK BEDNARZ, SPD Baden-WürttembergASHISH BHATT, Principal, Canonbury GroupLESLEY BLACK, Disability Co-ordinator, University of WinchesterTHOMAS BOHNÉ, Doctoral Researcher, University of CambridgeANDREW CAVE, Senior Adviser, Federation of Small BusinessesPETA CUBBERLEY, Regional Children's Coordinator, ShelterMARCEL DIETSCH, Graduate Student, Harvard UniversityBERNHARD DIETZ, PhD student, German Historical Institute LondonSTEPHEN EDWARDS, Senior Consultant, Politics InternationalDIRK EFFENBERGER, Senior Analyst, UBSMARCUS VON ESSEN, German Embassy IslamabadNICOLAUS VON DER GOLTZ, Private Secretary to the Minister,German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentHELOISE GORNALL-THODE, Capital Markets Officer, European Investment BankANN-KATHRIN GRÜTZMACHER, Assistant, Hamburg Department of JusticeSAMY HARRAZ, Assistant Vice President, Deutsche BankMANUELA HEINZEL, Language Consultant, Pirelli/VoxcomBERNADETTE HELLMANN, Programme Director Community Foundations,Aktive BürgerschaftMALTE HERWIG, Journalist, Der SpiegelFRANK HILDEBRANDT, Partner, SalansULRIKE HILLEMANN-DELANEY, International Officer, Imperial College LondonALEXANDRA HUDSON, Correspondent, ReutersBEN HUTCHINSON, Literary scholar, Oxford UniversitySTEFFI KAMMERER, Reporter at Large, Park Avenue MagazinISABEL KAMMERER, Head of Retail, H.Stern

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JÖRG KARENFORT, Partner, SalansFRAUKE KEGEL, Project Manager, British Council BerlinTOM KIEHL, House of Lords Senior Researcher, Liberal DemocratsMICHAEL KOHL, Associate, Weil GotshalHELMUT KRANZMAIER, Senior Consultant, CNC - Communications & Network ConsultingNILS KRAUSE, Rechtsanwalt / Solicitor, White & CaseKIRSTEN KUNZ, Trade Finance, Deutsche BankKATRIN LANG, Full-time Student, University of FrankfurtVERENA LAUFFS, Consultant, Plato CommunicationMARC LAUTERFELD, Lawyer/Executive Assistant, Union Asset ManagementKLAUS VON LEPEL, Political Adviser, Hamburg Senate, Ministry of Higher Education andResearchDAN LEWIS, Research Director, Economic Research CouncilMICHAEL LITTGER, Associate, Mayer Brown Rowe & MawPETER LOCHBIHLER, Business Director, PleonRENÉ LÜDDECKE, Analyst and Advisor on Foreign and European Policy, Policy PlanningUnit, CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Party in the German BundestagANNA MENGE, Prize Fellow, Magdalen College, OxfordFRIEDBERT MEURER, Senior Editor, Deutschlandfunk German National RadioTHOMAS MOTAK, Attaché, German Ministry of Foreign AffairsHARRY MOUNT, Writer, Daily TelegraphCLAUS MÜLLER, Assistant European Correspondent, European CommissionLEONARD NOVY, Project Manager, Bertelsmann FoundationJOEY-DAVID OVEY, Senior Project Manager, PrognosANNETTE PRANDZIOCH, Barrister, Lamb ChambersNICO RAABE, PhD Student, Deutsche TelekomJULIA RAWLINS, Msc student, Oxford University's Centre for the EnvironmentCHRISTOPH ROESCHER, International Sales, Bosch Power ToolsSANDRA ROLING, Consultant, Plato CommunicationANDREAS VON ROSEN, Director ESS Production Services Risk IT, UBSTIBOR SCHARF, Member of Legal Service, European Commission Legal Service

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MAIKE SCHEUMER, Deputy Head of Division, German Federal Ministry of FinanceDAGMAR SCHITTLY, Press Officer, Spokesperson,German Federal Body for Accident InsuranceDORIS SCHMITZ-MEINERS, Associate Economic Affairs Officer,United Nations, Secretariat, New YorkTOBIAS SCHULZE-CLEVEN, Research Associate,Berkeley Roundtable on the International EconomyRALPH SEEMANN, Consultant, CNC - Communications & Network ConsultingANNE SLIWKA, Professor of Education, University of TrierSAMUEL SMITH, Assistant General Manager, NHS Trust, East and North HertfordshireNICOLA SOMMER, Personal Assistant to the Parliamentary State Secretary,German Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and YouthJOHN SPARKS, General Reporter, Channel Four NewsMAREN STUDTMANN, Finance Delivery Manager, BP FinanceCHRISTIAN THODE, Lecturer Political Science and British Studies,Carl von Ossietzky University OldenburgSIMON THOMSON, Reporter, BBCSILKE THOMSON-POTTEBOHM, Press Officer, European Parliamentary Labour PartyULRICH TIMM, Head of Planning, ARD Eins ExtraELEANOR TOAL, Translator, British Embassy BerlinSÖREN TRÜMPER, Project Manager, Planet - Engineering and ConsultingJOHANNA VORHOLZ, Economist, writerTIM WESENER, LNG Portfolio Management, E.ON RuhrgasSTEFAN WESTHUES, Research Associate, University of BayreuthSILKE ZIEGLER-PIERCE, Public Relations, IHK Bildungszentrum Halle-Dessau

ANNETTE BECKER, Geschäftsführerin, Deutsch-Britische GesellschaftSUSANNE SCHNEIDER, Assistentin, Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft

The pictures on the preceding pages are snapshots of the Opening Night. They weretaken at the Welcome Reception at the Anglo-German Club, during the cruise on LakeAlster and before the Opening Dinner which took place in historic Neanderstraße closeto Großneumarkt.

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A Word of Thanks

The organisers are very grateful to our sponsors for their support without which thisconference would not have been possible.

In addition we would like to express our thanks to those who have contributed in otherways: DIRK EFFENBERGER for leading the way at the Anglo-German Club, ISABEL!KAMMERERand VERENA LAUFFS for organising the fabulous “Beat Tim & Jamie Cooking Challenge“,MALTE!HERWIG for showing us the heart of ”Der Spiegel”, HOLGER!KOLB for his patience andpersistence to secure one of the best speakers for the conference, MARC!LAUTERFELD forgetting us into the Chile-Haus, ULRICH TIMM for putting us on air at ARD television,CLEMENS!FINKBEINER-DEGE for flying us to Airbus at the last minute – and, last not least,BERNADETTE HELLMANN and the contributors to this report for their great help.

Many thanks are owed to everybody at the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft for their kindsupport. We are particularly indebted to its Hamburg chapter, namely toGOTTFRIED!VON!BISMARCK for pulling a lot of strings and to JO DAWES for her advice on how totackle the Hamburg media.

Hamburgers preparing hamburgers at the barbecue hosted by alumnus Jürgen Grossmann

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The Young Königswinter Alumni are former participants of the Young Königswinter Conference, anannual meeting for up-and-coming British and German decision-makers.The Young Königswinter Conference has its roots in the post-war British-German talks which tookplace in the German town of Königswinter. By bringing together leading figures from politics,economics and civil society in a frank and relaxed atmosphere, they sought to facilitate theprocess of reconciliation by promoting a climate of understanding between the two countries.Today the talks have evolved into a mutually beneficial dialogue between Germany and Britainand, following German reunification, now take place principally in Berlin and Oxford. They arestill referred to as the Königswinter Conference.In 1961, building on the success of the Königswinter Conference, the Deutsch-EnglischeGesellschaft (now the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft) extended the concept by inviting aheterogeneous group of young British and German opinion-formers to meet and exchange views.This conference now takes place annually and is known as the Young Königswinter Conference.The conference participants, typically aged between 25 and 30, are nominated by formerattendees of the Königswinter Conferences, as well as by other prominent stakeholders ingovernment, the legal profession, business, interest groups, academia and the media.Conducted in both English and German, the week-long Young Königswinter Conference has acentral political, economic or socio-cultural theme. Alongside the discussions there is asupporting programme of events, including lectures, receptions and visits to places of interest.Seeking to build on this one-off experience and the many lasting friendships forged by it, formerYoung Königswinter participants founded the Young Königswinter Alumni organisation. The firstconference of the Young Königswinter Alumni was held in March 1995 with participants attendingkey sessions of the Königswinter Conference in parallel with their own programme of discussionsand events. Further meetings of this kind took place in tandem with the Königswinter Conferencein Cambridge, Berlin, Edinburgh, Königswinter, Oxford, and Potsdam. In 2003, the YoungKönigswinter Alumni met in Brussels to take advantage of the increasing number of alumni whoare involved in the European policymaking process. In 2006, the annual conference was staged inIstanbul. With around 80 alumni, the Young Königswinter Alumni Conference in Hamburg in 2007drew the largest number of any conference so far.In addition to the annual conferences, smaller events are conducted in Berlin, Brussels,Frankfurt, London and other cities. On occasion, the Young Königswinter Alumni co-host eventswith similar networks such as the Young Leaders Alumni of the Atlantik-Brücke, an organisationwhich has a long tradition of fostering German-American relations.The activities of the Young Königswinter Alumni are generously supported by a number oforganisations which recognise the value that an ongoing, institutionalised dialogue betweendecision-makers and opinion-formers brings to European and international understanding.

For more information: www.debrige.de/alumni — Email: alumni@debrige.de