ECU welcomed to campus Dr. Lutz Görgens, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, for a free, public lecture on Monday, October 26. 

Görgens spoke to a group of students, faculty and local residents about transatlantic opportunities for Germany and the U.S. in fields such as natural resources conservation and alternative energy development. A question and answer session followed his presentation, and he hosted a special seminar on Germany's recent election for German majors and minors on Tuesday morning.

The Consul General's visit was made possible by ECU's Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences and by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Please check back soon for pictures of the event.

Servus! The students and faculty of the German program at East Carolina University welcome you and wish you „Alles Gute!“ in your academic and career-related endeavors. With your study of German you are off to a great start to achieving your goals, but do you realize what a smart choice you have made? Here are some fun facts about German you may not know.

•More than 140 million people worldwide speak German as their first language, and another 60 million are learning it along with you (though not all here at ECU!).    

•German is the most commonly spoken language in the European Union, more prevalent even than English or Spanish!

• Almost 20% of the world's books are published in German.

• Goethe, Nietzsche, Kafka, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Freud, Hesse, and Einstein all spoke German, just to name a few.

•Learning German provides deeper insights into central Europe's intellectual and economic life and its cultural history.

•Germany is the U.S.’s largest European trading partner and the world’s third largest economy.

•More than 240 German-owned companies call North Carolina home, and North Carolina’s top 5 exports to Germany exceeded $350 million in 2002. With auto giants such as BMW, Mercedes and Porsche all possessing factories or distribution centers here in the Southeast, German is the logical choice for business and East Carolina is a great place to study it.