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Detroit The Annual Unity Day Reception hosted this year by Honorary
German Consul Frederick W. Hoffman in cooperation with the Michigan Chapter
of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest took place at the
newly remodeled Detroit Historical Museum on the Streets of Old Detroit" in
downtown Detroit this year. The Detroit Historical Museum had been closed
since July and the Unity Day Reception followed on the heels of the Grand
Reopening on September 29. Everyone agreed it was a wonderful venue for this
year's event.
The guest speaker was Jürgen Zirnstein, President and Chief Financial
Officer of ThyssenKrupp Steel North American. Mr. Zirnstein joined
ThyssenKrupp as an apprentice in 1979 and has advanced through several
management positions including head of IT for TK Stahl Service GmbH. He
joined ThyssenKrupp Steel NA as CFO in 2000 and moved to his present
position in 2003. Mr. Zirnstein shared his childhood memories of a divided
Germany and what the reunification of East and West Germany on October 3,
1990 meant to him as a German with family in both parts of Germany. He
reminded everyone of the positive aspects of the reunification in spite of
the many difficulties that Germany has encountered since then.
Following Mr. Zirnstein's remarks, Mr. Hoffman took some time to honor Dr.
Siegfried Buschmann, retiring Chairman of ThyssenKrupp USA and longtime
Michigan Chapter board member. Mr. Hoffman presented him with the Honorary
Consul's special Golden Angel" award and also the German-American Friendship
Award on behalf of the German Embassy in Washington DC. Dr. Buschmann had a
long and distinguished career with ThyssenKrupp spanning 42 years. He
originally came to the United States in 1982 with Thyssen's subsidiary The
Budd Company and recently became of US citizen. Dr. Buschmann has also been
very involved in community service and has served on the boards of the
German-American Chamber of Commerce in New York and Michigan, the Detroit
Renaissance, Citizen's Research Council, the American Institute for
Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins, the Economic Club of Detroit
just to mention a few.
Mr. Hoffman also took the time to honor Sophia Ellis a recently retired
German teacher from the Detroit Public Schools. Mrs. Ellis had been with the
Detroit Public Schools since 1950 originally teaching science. In 1985 she
began to teach German at Martin Luther King High School. Mrs. Ellis, a
graduate of the University of Michigan in German literature and the sciences
was involved in many German-American partnership programs over the years.
She spent ten summers in work-study programs for students in Germany. She
produced teaching material for German instruction for diversity students and
has been widely honored for her work in this field.
Mr. Hoffman presented a $1000 check to the Scholarship Fund for the Wayne
State University Junior Year in Munich program with the intention that it be
awarded to an African-American student in her honor.
The Michigan Chapter holds five networking receptions and dinners throughout
the season from October through June, which attract over 1600 members and
guests each year. The next event will be the Annual Fall Dinner at the
Townsend Hotel, Birmingham, MI on November 20, 2006. Frank Witter, CEO and
CFO of VWOA, Inc. will be the special guest.
I.J. |
