Our Mission

Our mission is to develop a community for Black Germans living in the United States of America  and in Germany in order to create a forum for their cultural heritage. The purpose of the society is to bring together Black Germans to establish and foster relationships to discuss and carry out research on basic issues and questions of their cultural heritage that include:

• How we want to identify ourselves as Black Germans, individually and as a group within German and American communities,

• How we can educate others and expose them to the Black German community and culture,

• How we can strengthen our Black German community and continue to build upon relationships with the African American community and other groups who are working to eradicate racism and improve opportunities for all people of color.

Objectives

Our goal is to further develop and maintain international German-American relations by encouraging an ongoing relationship between persons of color of dual heritage (German & American) now living in the US and those in Germany. We believe that the strengthening of this relationship is consistent with the objectives of both the United States & German Governments.

We propose that establishing and maintaining an ongoing dialogue among these individuals will be beneficial in the following areas:

• Nurturing an international relationship to strengthen the socio-cultural community among this unique focus group in an endeavor to promote individual and collective health and wellness education, and bilateral cultural awareness.
• Encouraging a better understanding of the socio-political relationship between the two countries both historic and present day, in an effort to dispel myths and stereotypes; promoting a sense of bilateral national pride in individuals who uniquely share a personal family heritage in both the US and Germany.
• Ensuring that History is recorded accurately as it pertains to this first generation group of individuals post WWII.
• Establish a forum for ongoing assistance, communication and support while searching for living and deceased birth family member information and personal identity documentation.

Opportunity

We believe that the time is now for these persons to actualize their dreams of pursuing wholeness as individuals by visiting these respective homelands, and creating productive and meaningful relationships with:

• Academicians and Organizations in Germany and the US who can provide bilateral insight, assistance and information with regard to:
  • History
  • Language
  • Culture
  • Personal & Family records and documentation.
• The respective counterparts of these similarly situated individuals in the visited country.
• Extended family members if possible who may be remaining in the visited country.

Post War relations between these two countries have fluctuated significantly due to global political circumstances however in a general sense they have always remained friendly. There still exists a significant culture of German expatriates in the US as reflected in the many communities where the culture of Germany is evidenced by the businesses, social clubs and events celebrated by people of German descent.

BGCS is not a political or activist organization but focuses on education, building relationships and the encouraging a sense of culture and pride in the dual heritage of German Americans and specifically persons of color of German and American descent.

Unfortunately, this particular group of German Americans has experienced both a physical and emotional separation and alienation from their heritages and familial homeland. Generally speaking, they are not reflected In the social, academic or cultural organizations representing the respective heritages bilaterally, thereby exacerbating their fragile and distorted personal and familial identities.

In addition to living with the psychological ramifications of an elusive identity, situations arise where the lack of knowledge and inability to effectively communicate has been problematic in terms of obtaining pertinent family health history and vital identity information.

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