German Consulate General San Francisco

Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Today the Pride flag was raised at SF City Hall, kicking off a month of joy across the city. Consul General Theo Kidess was proud to attend the moving ceremony hosted by Mayor Daniel Lurie.

Let’s all together celebrate diversity, belonging and resilience and continue to support and embrace the LGBTQ+ community.

Happy !

🌿 A milestone worth celebrating: Germany’s Federal Environment Ministry turns 40 tomorrow, June 6th.

🇩🇪 Founded in 1986 in the wake of Chernobyl, the ministry has spent four decades making a difference — from helping close the ozone hole to turning the electric car into a serious alternative to the combustion engine, and transforming landfill waste mountains into a thriving, export-strong recycling industry. Proof that environmental commitment pays off!

Bridging Innovation & Climate Action 🌍🤝

🇩🇪🇺🇸A delegation from the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag (Haushaltsausschuss) completed the first leg of a fact-finding mission across California and Washington, D.C., exploring opportunities for deeper transatlantic cooperation in economic development, research, education, climate action, and technology.

From high-level meetings in Sacramento during California’s primary elections, and in the midst of crucial state budget negotiations to exchanges with Bay Area tech leaders, climate innovators, security experts, and leading research institutions, the visit highlighted the strong ties and shared ambitions between Germany and California.

✈️Wishing the delegation a good onward journey to Los Angles & Washington D.C., !

🎓Endlich Abi!

🎉Last Saturday Consul General Theo Kidess proudly joined GISSV Class of 2026 in celebrating their graduation. The 17 alumni received the German Abitur as well as the American High School Diploma - not only a piece of paper but a key to the world.

✈️Many of the 17 AbiturientInnen will make that leap and study in Europe, thus becoming a new generation of bridge builders across the Atlantic.

✨Congratulations GISSV Class of 2026!

Join our team!

The German Consulate General San Francisco is looking for a bilingual (English & German) team-member to join our consular- and passport- department.*

Applications are open until June 4th.

For more information and to apply, find the link in bio.

*The German Consulate in San Francisco welcomes candidates of all genders, backgrounds, and nationalities.

Last Wednesday, the “The Dialogue of Memories” based on Howard Reich’s book “The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel” premiered at the Presidio Theater.

Consul General Theo Kidess & Deputy Consul General Franciska Obermeyer were honored to be part of the San Francisco inaugural performance of this wonderful and touching opera with music by Tom Cipullo.

In the interview before the performance, moderated by Mina Miller, founder and artistic director of “Music of Remembrance”, the audience gained touching insights on Howard’s family story where – as in many survivor families – the Holocaust was not talked about. The opera touches on that and aims at illuminating how understanding can be reached across generations and opening doors of memory, hope and compassion.

The Consulate General of San Francisco was happy to once again support Music of Remembrance as a community partner alongside Open Austria, the Consulate General of Israel and the American Jewish Committee.

We are already looking forward to next year’s performances in Seattle, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in San Francisco in Spring.

The German Consulate General in San Francisco will remain closed on Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day.

🚀AI, Energy, Security: The German Ambassador in the Bay Area

This week, we welcomed German Ambassador Jens Hanefeld on his inaugural visit to the Bay Area — the epicenter of artificial intelligence and the defining questions that come with it.

The program took us from a warm welcome by Mayor Daniel Lurie to San Francisco’s first AI-run store, from Google’s developer conference “Google I/O” to Anthropic and NVIDIA, from roundtable discussion at Stanford HAI and the Hoover Institution to a defense tech exchange with our German tech community — and finally to a visit of the Lawrence Livermore’s National Lab including a tour of its National Ignition Facility.

We had powerful discussion on the latest exciting AI developments as well as AI’s influence on socities, labor markets, safety & security and energy. More conversations to come — in D.C., Berlin, Brussels, and right back here. 🌉

We are delighted to welcome German Ambassador to the USA, Jens Hanefeld to the Bay Area!

🤝To kick-off his visit he met with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, yesterday.

🇩🇪🇺🇸They discussed the importance of transatlantic relations, San Francisco and Germany’s close cultural and business connections and of course the city’s partnership with Kiel!