GRUSSWORT VON GEORGE H.W. BUSH Bridges don‘t just appear – they need to be artfully designed, carefully built, and constantly maintained. Otherwise, they won‘t serve a need, or they are in danger of creeping corrosion or sudden collapse. Atlantik-Brücke – that bridge across the Atlantic conceived and constructed fifty years ago – has stood the test of hard times and rough weather. It was built when Germany emerged from the ravages of dictatorship and war in search of a mutually satisfying relationship with the occupying power from across the Atlantic. It stood fast during the difficult years of the Cold War. And it was ready to help with the establishment of a new world order after the Cold War had ended. The peaceful unification of Germany – which, I am proud to say, was achieved on my watch – symbolizes the reality of that new world order. Organizations such as Atlantik-Brücke were instrumental in reaching this goal. Mainly, because of the groundwork they had laid years earlier. The bridge across the Atlantic as built and maintained by Atlantik-Brücke is not a highly visible one. Rather, it functions in a myriad of quiet ways (just like the many individual strands that make up the cables holding up such magnificent structures as the Brooklyn Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge). Yet it is only right that occasionally such institutions of quiet effectiveness reveal to a larger public just how they work and how important their work is. Professor Kühnhardt has undertaken that task with admirable skill and remarkable success. His is a story not only of the great men and women who conceived and constructed Atlantik-Brücke fifty years ago, but also of the many highly engaged people on both sides of the Atlantic who contributed their best ideas for understanding current developments and designing future policies. How their thoughts fit into and indeed helped shape fifty years of German-American relations and German foreign policy is artfully interwoven into the story of Atlantik-Brücke. It is a story as impressive as the emergence of Germany as a unified country with no greater ambition than to lead a uniting Europe to peace and prosperity while remaining a solid and reliable partner of the United States. George Bush President of the United States of America 1989-1993			Grußwort von George H. W. Bush