Editing American Council on Germany (section)

==Founding and Early Years==
(1952–1960s) Establishment in 1952: The ACG was incorporated on April 29, 1952, in New York City as a response to the need for reconciliation between the United States and a defeated Germany after World War II. The organization aimed to foster understanding and rebuild trust in the context of the Cold War, where West Germany was becoming a key U.S. ally against Soviet influence. The ACG was founded by a group of influential American and German-American leaders, including:
[[John J. McCloy]], U.S. High Commissioner for Germany (1949–1952) at the time, a pivotal figure in post-war reconstruction and the [[Marshall Plan]], often called the “godfather of the new Germany” by former German President Richard von Weizsäcker. Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): The Atlantik-Brücke and ACG have ties to the CFR, with founders like John J. McCloy serving as CFR chairman. 

[[Eric M. Warburg]], a German-Jewish banker from the Warburg family, U.S. Army officer (1941–1945), and McCloy’s advisor, who bridged American and German interests.

[[General Lucius D. Clay]], McCloy’s predecessor as Military Governor of Germany (1947–1949), instrumental in the Berlin Airlift.

[[Ellen Z. McCloy]], John McCloy’s wife, who supported cultural and educational initiatives.

[[Christopher Emmet]], a journalist and anti-communist activist who served as the ACG’s first director.

[[Joseph Kaskell]] and [[Dr. George N. Shuster]], additional founding members who contributed to its intellectual framework.

Funding: The sources and amounts of available funds to the ACG and the Atlantik-Brücke differed considerably. Whereas the latter selected its members very carefully by way of cooptation especially among businessmen and CEOs to secure sound funding of its enterprise, the former opened membership or affiliation to basically anyone who had an interest in Germany. As a result, the ACG depended heavily, at least for its everyday business, on the fortune of the organization’s executive vice president [[Christopher Emmet]]. 

Emmet personally provided the salaries of ACG secretaries and set up the organization’s offices in his private apartment in New York’s upper Westside. In addition, the ACG relied on funds granted by the Ford Foundation especially for the biannual German-American conferences as well as for the publication of a number of studies. The Atlantik-Brücke in turn benefitted immensely from public funds for its publications and the realization of the German-American conferences. The Federal Press and Information Agency (Bundespresse- und Informationsamt, BPA) supported mainly publication efforts of the organization and the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) regularly granted funds for the conferences.

Emmet was an officer and organizer of the anti-communist organizations. He served as chairman of the [[American Friends of the Captive Nations]] and executive vice president of the American Council on Germany. In 1942 he was a moderator for the Foreign Affairs Round Table (WEVD, New York), one of the programs on the recordings. The American Friends of the Captive Nations was instrumental in the [[World Anti-Communist League]].

Mission and Early Activities: The ACG’s initial mission was to progpaandize  Americans about West Germany’s democratic progress and integration into Western institutions like NATO and the European Coal and Steel Community which were used to set up Operation Gladio paramilitaries among the NATO countries, while the European Coal and Steel Community was the being salvo in forming the European Union. It organized conferences, published reports on Germany’s political and economic developments, and invited German leaders to the U.S. for high-level discussions. In 1953, Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]] spoke under ACG auspices, marking the start of a tradition that included chancellors Kurt-Georg Kiesinger, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel, and presidents like Walter Scheel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Adenauer, of course, is the German leader that hired the [[Gehlen Organization]] to operate in conjunction with the newly formed CIA and [[Allen Dulles]]which later became the German spy organization: BND.

American-German Biennial Conferences (1959): Launched in 1959, these conferences brought together high-level policymakers, academics, business leaders, media, and military officials from both nations to discuss bilateral and international issues. Participants included U.S. figures like [[Dean Acheson]], [[Henry Kissinger]], and [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]], fostering professional and personal bonds that solidified the German-American relationship.

Political Influence: The ACG wielded significant influence within U.S. foreign policy circles, as evidenced by a 1958 dispute within the Democratic Party over Germany policy, documented by Der Spiegel. The ACG’s advocacy for West Germany’s integration into [[NATO]] and European structures aligned with U.S. goals of containing the Soviet Union, per The American Council on Germany by Encyclopedia.com.