German consul general for New England to speak at Bates

Rolf-Dieter F. Schnelle, consul general to New England for the Federal Republic of Germany, speaks on the topic The New Europe — Old and New United: A Challenge to the Europeans and the United States at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Avenue. The public is invited to attend the lecture, sponsored by the Bates Department of German, Russian and East Asian Languages and Literatures, free of charge.

“This talk will be of interest given the economic and political reconfiguration of Europe. A united Europe may well be the only real political power that could challenge the present U.S. imperium,” says Craig Decker, professor of German at Bates. “It’s not easy for the Europeans to integrate, but as they do, they can pose some real challenges to U.S. policy.”

Since joining the German Foreign Service in 1975, Schnelle has served his government with assignments in Madrid, New York, Oslo, Bonn and Berlin. He assumed his current Boston-based post in September 2002. A graduate of the Free University of Berlin, he studied at the London School of Economics and Stanford University, where he received a master’s degree in history. Schnelle has lectured at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, and the Polytechnic of Central London.

Schnelle’s Bates visit is part of a three-part speaking engagement in Maine hosted by the World Affairs Council of Maine. The German consul general to New England discusses German American Trade and Investment Relations: Common Interests and Concerns at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14, the University of Maine, Orono, in Buchanan Alumni House. He gives a third talk titled Germany and the United States: A Troubled Partnership at 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Portland Country Club, Falmouth. For more information, call the World Affairs Council of Maine at 207-780-5383.