German-US-American Youth Exchanges
auspices of the U.S. Congress and the German Bunde- stag. Senator Lugar explained the reasons in the Sen- ate as follows: “The German-American relationship is unique. It is founded on the rubble of the Second World War, on the experience of occupation and reconstruc- tion, on the reintegration of West Germany into Western Europe [...].” 2 The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange program is now almost 40 years old. The one-year scholarship enables 350 US-American and 360 German high school students, vocational school graduates and young professionals to spend time in each other’s country. Some 28,000 Ger- man and US-American scholars have so far participated in the program. The U.S. Department of State and the Federal Ger- man Foreign Office also co-fund the German-American Partnership Program (GAPP), which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022. This program funds school partner- ships and short-term group trips for students from all types of schools in both countries. Almost 9,000 young people participate annually. Around 350,000 young adults have so far travelled with the program. Alongside the programs presented here, student exchanges as well as au pair and camp programs are also offered by numerous private providers and organi - zations. What’s happening today? Exchange programs play an important role in terms of foreign and security policy, yet they also have a social dimension since they promote integration, equal oppor- tunities, diversity, and civic responsibility. Exchange pro- grams are open to all school children and students from Germany and the United States. However, due to differ - ent access and funding opportunities as well as varying levels of awareness about the programs, not everyone participates. Although the three programs mentioned above are scholarship programs, certain demographic groups of young people are generally poorly represented in
President Eisenhower welcomes 760 exchange students at the White House.
2022, the German-American Fulbright Program, set up in 1952, celebrated its 70th anniversary. Some 40,000 Germans and US-Americans have so far participated in the program over its lifetime. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the youth exchange program People-to-People . The final legal basis for a post-war academic exchange program was created in 1961 through the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act . Also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, co-initiated by Congressman Wayne Hays of Ohio, the act extended the program’s range to include other countries. It also led to the establishment of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), which today carries out programs with 160 countries around the world and in which over one million Germans and US-Americans have participat- ed so far. In the 1970s and 1980s, the younger generation of Germans developed an increasingly skeptical attitude towards the United States. The fact that subsequent generations no longer recognized the same positive his- torical and cultural references with regard to transatlan- tic relations provided the impetus for the introduction of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange . US Senators John Heinz and Dick Lugar proposed setting up a Ger- man-US-American youth exchange program under the
1 From a speech on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Fulbright Program in 1976. 2 Congressional Record - Senate, Washington, Thursday, September 22, 1983, p. 25264
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