Selected Events 2006

From Left: Minister-President Wolfgang Böhmer; Consul General Mark Scheland; State Parliament President Dieter Steinecke; State Justice Minister Angela Kolb and Actor Peter Sodann

July 13, 2006
Leipzig Consul General Mark Scheland participated in a reading from the "Diary of Anne Frank" in a school in Schönebeck, Saxony-Anhalt. Minister-President Wolfgang Böhmer had invited the Consul General, State Parliament President Dieter Steinecke, State Justice Minister Angela Kolb and actor Peter Sodann to join him in the event, which included a discussion forum with students and teachers at the county vocational high school. The school’s director said he had welcomed Böhmer’s proposal that the school community join him in demonstrating common abhorrence of the late-June public burning of a copy of the Diary and a U.S. flag in the nearby village of Pretzien. Two hundred students and teachers attended the event. In the press conference following the reading, Consul General Scheland called flag and book burnings “a sad and disappointing form of expression and the very opposite of dialogue.” About two dozen national and regional media representatives covered the event. The Consulate used the event for school outreach, offering copies of the Mission’s “About the USA” CD-ROM and a book donation to the school.