Below are the chapters of my story here in Germany that best explain my work:
Graduate Studies — Berlin, 1988–1992
Graduate studies is work. Especially in a foreign language. And at a German university. I studied Modern History. My focus was on Germany post-World War II. I chose the Freie Universität in what was West Berlin.
My Master’s thesis was on the “Dissonances between the Kennedy and the Adenauer administrations during the Second Berlin Crisis.” Dissonance is a subtle word for differences.
The differences were profound. About how to respond to the pressure Moscow was putting on the three allied powers in West Berlin: France, Great Britain, United States. The Soviet Union wanted them out.
I researched, analyzed and described how Washington and Bonn struggled to develop a joint response to that pressure. I could not know then – in 1992 – that I would spend another 25 years researching, analyzing and explaining where and why Americans and Germans struggle to work together.
CBS News — Berlin, 1989–1990
On November 9, 1989 the East German regime opened up the Berlin Wall. It was the beginning of the end of East Germany, the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact, and of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe.
On November 10, at the Brandenburg Gate, I offered my services to CBS News. Around the clock, until Christmas, I helped CBS cover those historical events: Briefed producers and journalists on the political-historical context. Arranged high-level interviews. Interpreted and translated.
CBS asked me to continue supporting their news coverage: First free elections in East Germany in March 1990. Two-Plus-Four-Negotiations in June-July 1990. German Unification in October 1990. In December the first all-German federal elections since 1933.
I was in the right place. At the right time. Studying the right subject. I learned how modern news organizations cover fast-breaking, historical events. And I helped CBS News explain to Americans what was happening in Berlin, in Germany.
Intercultural Training — Bonn, 1993–1996
I had been in Germany for five years when I met Andreas Bittner, co-founder of the Institut für Interkulturelles Management. Andreas opened my eyes. I began to understand the influence of national culture. On my life and work as an American in Germany with the Germans.
Andreas and I created and ran the USA-Seminar at IFIM. Five full days. For German management and subject area experts. From major global companies.We prepared them for long-term delegations to the United States.
The seminar addressed core topics. Andreas and I worked them hard. Boot camp. We discussed and debated. We went as deep as possible. I learned as much, if not more, than the participants. About how the Germans think.
The Bundestag — Bonn, 1995–1999
I wanted to understand the Germans at a deeper level. I set my eyes on politics. After a year of intense networking, and a second year of political analysis performed gratis, I was introduced to the leadership of the Christian Democrats (CDU) in the Bundestag. Wolfgang Schäuble was the Majority Leader. Helmut Kohl the Chancellor.
I explained the underlying historical and cultural currents moving political developments in the U.S. From the American perspective, but in the German language, with an understanding of German history and politics. I was a translator in the truest sense of the word.
And I brought people together. Americans and Germans. People who needed to know and understand each other. Office-holders from both parties and both executive and legislative branches. But also the experts who advised them. I established and deepened relationships. Between Germans and Americans.
I helped the leadership of Germany’s ruling party to better understand America and Americans. Their politics, political parties, the Clinton Administration, the Republican opposition in the Congress, think tanks and thought leaders. And I helped the Americans to better understand their counterparts in Germany.
Siemens–Westinghouse — Munich, 1999–2002
Siemens had acquired Westinghouse. Power generation. Post-acquisition integration, especially cross-border, is extraordinarily complex. After eleven years in Germany I was able and ready to help. With my knowledge of language, history, politics, and in the widest sense culture.
I was a one-man consulting practice within Siemens with profit and loss responsibility. I made sure that colleagues from both companies understood three things: Where they differ in how they think, therefore work. The impact of those differences on their collaboration. And how to make the differences help and not hurt them.
I applied my expertise at all levels, in all disciplines, and at all locations in the U.S. and Germany. I coached senior-level management, conducted seminars for mid-level management and subject area experts, and executed customized workshops on difficult integration topics.
Consultant — Bonn, 2003 to the present
At the start of 2003 I went into business for myself. Siemens engaged me for another five years, and each year we broadened and deepened the integration work together.
In 2009 Cornelsen Verlag in Berlin published my book, Verstehen sich Deutsche und Amerikaner? — a fictional story based on my years with Siemens–Westinghouse.
Over the two decades since going independent I took on further clients among the German DAX30 and the American Fortune 25. The focus never changed: helping multinational teams to collaborate better by addressing the cultural differences.
Cultural Intelligence – Bonn, since Nov. 2025
In November 2025 I took a deep dive into AI — Claude (Anthropic). Early on I realized that I could train it to apply my research method to countries beyond Germany and the United States. I iterated with Claude over many weeks.
I then tested it on Germany, the United States, and ten foundational topics. I had the expertise. I was in a position to judge the accuracy of its analysis. The results astounded me. They were equal to my own insights, and in places superior to it.
The research method I had spent more than twenty years developing, applying, and refining, could be scaled. It was a breakthrough. I am now offering multinational companies cultural intelligence which they can embed into their AI environments.
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