Dr. Kreibich’s Visit — An Amazing Look Into Germany
What an amazing time!
A big thank you to Dr. Kreibich, who is serving as the Consul General of Germany to the New England States since the summer of 2022.
Dr. Kreibich has held many important positions in the past for the Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office) for Germany with a UN Officer position in New York, Head of the Economic section of the Bucharest Embassy, Head of Unit European Migration Policy, Head of Pan-African Issues, and now the Consul General to the New England States. With all the experience that Dr. Kreibich has, it was a terrific experience to hear about many different topics pertaining to Germany, hearing about economic discussions, Germany’s relations with different countries, and lots about Germany’s ever increasing renewable energy share, and the culture around energy.
One of the major takeaways that resonated with me was how much Germany relies on green energy to this day, and where they want to be as a country in the future. There is obviously a major culture change in Germany, where they are much more mindful of recycling, green energy, and taking care of their environment than the stark reality of the opposite here in the US. It was amazing to hear Dr. Kreibich’s inputs on energy, specifically the extreme changes after the war with Russia and Ukraine ended the purchasing of gas from Russia, where before Germany relied on for majority of their gas. However, Germany has been able to keep up with energy production and purchasing even after these changes, and has surpassed their goals for where they want to be today with renewable energy production share of their energy. It was also very interesting to hear Dr. Kreibich’s answer to one of our classmate’s questions, about why Germans disliked nuclear energy so much. All around — the conversation on energy was the main takeaway from me, was exciting, and directly tied into some of the content we are covering and will cover about Germany in our class.
Again, thank you to Dr. Kreibich for an entertaining and engaging evening and for making us even more excited to visit the country of Germany.
