About Us

The Wisconsin Sesquicentennial in 1998 provided an opportunity to deepen some old ties between Wisconsin and its Sister State of Hessen. In the winter of 1997, James R. Klauser, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration, called to life a Hessen-Wisconsin Society to promote existing connections and create a range of new ones. The Society established committees including Education, Tourism & Culture and Science & Technology to work beyond the Sesquicentennial to build bridges.

More recently since 2009, the Hessen-Wisconsin Society has worked with Frankfurt based Steuben-Schurz Society's Intern Program to promote the placing of German interns in Wisconsin businesses. In addition, the Hessen-Wisconsin Society became involved in 2010 in a more significant way with the Hessen-Wisconsin Writers Exchange Program. Each year, on a rotational basis between Wisconsin and Hessen, a selected writer is invited to spend several summer months in the other state to further their artistic creativity and exchange ideas. The Hessen-Wisconsin Society obtained a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Society to fund this most important cultural exchange program in Wisconsin during the summer of 2010.

The Hessen-Wisconsin Society hosted a reception at the Milwaukee Athletic Club (MAC) in May 2010 for Hessen Education Minister Dorothea Henzler and her delegation. In June 2010, several Hessen-Wisconsin Society officers were invited to attend a dinner in Milwaukee hosted by Michael Boddenberg, Hessen Minister of Federal Affairs and Hessen State Representative to the German Federal Government in Berlin. Minister Boddenberg also led a delegation to Wisconsin.

Officers and Board Members

Detlef Moore (President)
John Dienhart (Vice-President)
Jeffrey Geil (Secretary-Treasurer)
Ed Langer
Antje Petty
Gerhard Fischer
Dan Sweeney
Albert Brugger
Herman Veits
George Weiss
Jack Weissgerber
Rodney Raasch
Karl Gutknecht
Rosemarie Blancke