German Atlantic Society

German Atlantic Society
Interests	NATO, Atlantic Treaty Association
Membership	•  Christian Schmidt •  Johannes Lay •  Karl A. Lamers •  Werner Dornisch •  Stefan Kornelius •  Klaus Naumann •  Karl Müllner •  Reinhold Robbe •  Jörg van Essen •  Birgitta Wolff •  Michael Simon •  Elisabet Tsirkinidou •  Kamala Jakubeit •  Fritz Felgentreu •  Stefan Fröhlich •  Hans Joachim Giessmann •  Barbara Hendricks •  Katja Leikert •  Siemtje Möller •  Omid Nouripour •  Egon Ramms •  Klaus Scharioth •  Svenja Sinjen •  Werner Sonne •  Marie-A. Strack-Zimmermann •  Veronika Fucela •  Andreas Krautscheid •  Ulrich Adam •  Ralf Brauksiepe •  Bernhard Brinkmann •  Manfred Dietrich •  Sabine Freifrau von Schorlemer •  Stefan Fröhlich •  Petra Heß •  Christian Lindner •  Dietmar Nietan •  Marcel Räcker •  Burkhard Theile •  Peter J. von Geyso •  Wolfgang-Christian Fuchs •  Ruprecht Polenz
transatlantic power network

Not to be confused with Atlantik-Brücke ('Atlantic Bridge') or the British Atlantic Bridge.

The German Atlantic Society (German:Deutsche Atlantische Gesellschaft) is one of dozen main transatlantic (i.e. US/NATO) lobbying networks in Germany, together with networks like the Atlantik-Brücke, the German Marshall Fund and the Aspen Institute Germany. It is the sister organization of the influential Atlantic Council.

Organization

The German Atlantic Society is a registered lobby association based in Berlin. It is the German branch of the Atlantic Treaty Association and sees its task as informing about German security policy and the integration of Germany into NATO. Lobbypedia also names the tasks as advertising for NATO.[1] It has 4000 members, mostly people of influence.

Mission

According to its own mission statement , the goals of the association include:

• to support NATO's efforts in its understanding of security, stability and international cooperation based on freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights
• to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting peace order in accordance with the objectives of NATO
• to seek European Union cooperation in support of NATO under the Joint European Foreign Policy
• to support the integration of the Central and Eastern European member states into NATO
• to cooperate with other national Atlantic societies affiliated to the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA)

History

The society was founded on 20. March 1956 in the premises of the German Parliamentary Society in Bonn by some members of the Bundestag. Leading the way was the former head of the Federal Chancellery, Otto Lenz, who was also elected the first president of the German Atlantic Society. After the sudden death of Otto Lenz, he was succeeded by Richard Jaeger. Christian Schmidt has been president since 2006.

The association's work includes information events, lectures, seminars and symposia on NATO and security issues. These tasks are carried out by 29 regional councils, forums and four committees.

As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the association, the youth organization YATA Germany (Youth Atlantic Treaty Association) was founded as a subgroup on October 25, 2006 in Berlin. As a junior forum, YATA Germany is to include younger members in the transatlantic network. It serves the exchange of views at national and international level and organizes its own events.

The society is financed by the German government.

Other

Leadership of the mother organization, the Atlantic Treaty Organization, is Fabrizio Luciolli (Integrity Initiative). The current partners are [2] The European Union through its Erasmus+ Initiative and The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)