Selected Events 2006

Mrs. Timken Presents American Books to Students at the High School in Jena

June 19, 2006
Ambassador Timken and his wife Sue paid their first visit to Jena, an economic flagship and island of relative success, amid large areas of high unemployment in eastern Germany. At Jenoptik, a leader in the optics industry since 1846, CEO Alexander von Witzleben explained to the Ambassador how the company had successfully rationalized and remade itself after the fall of the Wall. During the Ambassador's company visit, Mrs. Timken engaged children at the Angergymnasium High School, in a dialogue on U.S. cultural, social, and political issues. Following talks with the president and department heads of the Friedrich Schiller University, Ambassador Timken made a presentation to university students on U.S. - German relations, and took their questions on political and security policy. As an afternoon cultural highlight, the Timkens and Leipzig Consul General Mark Scheland toured the garden house of Friedrich Schiller, one of Germany’s most prominent poets and authors.