Selected Events 2005

July 18, 2005.
Consul General Matthew M. Rooney, together with Bavarian Interior Minister Beckstein, was the key speaker at the 60th anniversary celebration of the first free elections in Germany after World War II in which under US Army supervision the North Bavarian town of Ebermannstadt elected a new mayor on July 18, 1945. The Consul General's remarks were enthusiastically received and quoted in the local press. American contribution to democratic, social and economic post-war reconstruction in Germany was celebrated and gratefully acknowledged. Consul General Rooney also paid a visit to the German subsidiary of Kennametal, an American lead producer of high precision machine tools and chief employer in Ebermannstadt. The photo shows Ebermannstadt mayor Franz Josef Kraus (center) with Consul General Rooney (left) and Alfons Sponsel (right), son of the 1945 elected mayor. Photo: Barbara Herbst