Aspen Institute Germany
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The Aspen Institute Germany is one of the leading U.S. influence networks in Germany, making sure the central political and economic decisions are made in an elite setting behind closed doors, and in the interest of U.S. corporations.
Aspen tries to promote an "idea-based" leadership, within the frames of transatlanticism and pro-business policies, and politicians are allowed to belong to any party as long as they adhere to these pillars.
History
Aspen Institute Germany was founded in 1974 by the American citizen Shepard Stone. Stone was the officer who gave licenses to compatible press outlets in the American Occupation Zone in Germany in the decade after WW2, and later manager of the CIA-close Ford Foundation (1952 to 1967) and the even closer Congress for Cultural Freedom.
When Stone retired in 1988, under the leadership of Stone's successors David Anderson and Catherine McArdle Kelleher, the institute dedicated itself to creating a supportive war mood among opinion leaders and the public for the Balkan wars in the 1990s, where Germany under NATO-command participated in its first war of aggression since WW2, in 1998 against Yugoslavia.
In 2001 Jeffrey Gedmin took over the management of the Aspen Institute Germany. Gedmin was more known to the German public for his support for US-Iraq policy and his criticism of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's foreign policy, which was perceived as too friendly to Russia, including the gas pipeline Nord Stream 1.
In August 2007, deep state functionary Charles King Mallory IV, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs for five years during the War on Terror, took over the management of the institute.
Rüdiger Lentz has been the director since September 2013 and is the first German to hold this position. He declared his goal to be to maintain the bridge to the USA, even in times of foreign policy uncertainty.[1]
Program
Aspen Germany is focused on cooperation with the US and a "free and open society". Like its sister Aspen Institutes in other countries, "free and open society" means a society run by big business. But not all big business is equal. Members of Aspen Germany have lobbied heavily against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, competing with (much more expensive) liquid natural gas from the US.[2]
Aspen also concentrates on picking and promoting compatible political leaders, within a narrow range of opinions. At Aspen events, ranging from conferences to evening events in an exclusive atmosphere to off-the-record conversations, the chosen can participate in expert conversions on the world’s most pressing issues and, at the same time, "enjoy unique networking opportunities."[3]
Funding
In addition to more than 130 individual "friends of the Aspen", the following big corporation as corporate supporters[4]:
- Axel Springer SE
- Daimler AG
- Deutsche Bank AG
- Egon Zehnder International GmbH
- Ernst & Young GmbH
- GÖRG
- Rockspire GmbH
- Robert Bosch GmbH
Public institutions that supported the institute during the period according to the 2015/2016 annual report were a. the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the United States Embassy in Berlin.
Known members
16 of the 54 of the members already have pages here:
| Member | Description |
|---|---|
| Axel Springer Publishing House | The largest publishing house in Europe. |
| Reinhard Bütikofer | German politician, regular at the Brussels Forum, also attends WEF AGMs |
| Vint Cerf | A father of the internet as part of military research. Later evangelist for Google. |
| Deutsche Bank | German bank |
| Mathias Döpfner | CEO of mightiest media group in Germany and Europe, Axel Springer SE, member of the Bilderberg Steering Committee and other transatlantic networks, most notably Atlantik-Brücke. Became billionaire after receiving gift from elderly widow. |
| Jeffrey Gedmin | US spooky/hawkish neoconservative academic |
| Guido Goldman | |
| Josef Joffe | Publisher-editor of Die Zeit |
| Eckart von Klaeden | Triple Bilderberg German politician |
| Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff | Vice President and Executive Director of the Berlin office at the German Marshall Fund, attender of a lot of deep staste events. The Alphen Group |
| Friedrich Merz | German transatlantic lobbyist and politician. Blackrock. Former chairman of the influential Atlantik-Brücke. |
| Phil Murphy | Suspected deep state functionary who "wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights" when he announced "COVID Lockdown" as Governor of New Jersey. |
| Wolfgang Schäuble | German Bilderberger, MSC, WEF AGM, lawyer and politician |
| Shepard Stone | New York Times propagandist and Bilderberg Steering committee member who was Director of International Affairs of the Ford Foundation for 15 years. |
| Karsten Voigt | German (SPD) politician. |
| Peter Wittig | German diplomat who has been UN rep, US and then UK ambassadors |
Sponsor
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Open Society Foundations | A NGO operating in more countries than McDonald's. It has the tendency to support politicians (at times through astroturfing) and activists that get branded as "extreme left" as its founder is billionaire and bane of the pound George Soros. This polarizing perspective causes the abnormal influence of the OSF to go somewhat unanswered. |
