Midwestern Leaders Study Tour 2025

Sheboygan to Charleroi, Coal River Valley to Cottbus – US-German Heartland Change-makers Share Lessons at Today’s Carbon Crossroads

Executive Summary

At a time when the transatlantic relationship is eroding under Trump 2.0, cooperation between US and German regions, cities and communities is of vital importance – particularly if momentum on climate change amelioration is to be maintained across democracies in North America and Europe. Local leaders on both sides of the Atlantic remain committed to actually solving global problems such as climate change, economic inequities, and community resident disengagement and disillusionment. As US Midwest elected officials hailing from coal, steel, and manufacturing communities recently criss-crossed Germany, meeting peers facing similar challenges of helping communities and residents successfully adapt to seismic economic structural change and concomitant cultural dislocation. Important insights were gleaned about the future health of our economies and our democracies.

Subnational Diplomacy in Action

A group of Midwest leaders organized by Michigan’s John Austin, coordinator of the Heartlands Transformation Network and current Visiting Fellow at the Academy of International Affairs-NRW – brought their experiences and open minds and ears to Europe last month. This was part of Das Progressive Zentrum’s  Transatlantic Heartlands Dialogue project. 

Exploring Germany’s industrial heartlands along with Austin were US Midwest elected officials and economic change-and decision-makers Steve Patterson, Anne Mervenne, Kent Smith, Ryan Sorenson, and Martina Guzmán. From deserted villages in the Rhenish mining area, to the heart of the German former coal and steel country in Duisburg and the Ruhr, to Cottbus’ ambitious post-coal transformation path, our delegates met and discussed with local and federal institutions, mayors, innovation hubs, ministries, and civil society actors.

As Athens, Ohio mayor and president of the US National League of Cities Steve Patterson told an international audience at our kickoff event hosted at the Academy of International Affairs in Bonn, Germany: The need and opportunity for strong subnational collaboration and agenda-building is now more important than ever.  

Further discussions with our delegates built out the opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and assistance:  Whether at our Berlin expert roundtable with former US Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy Amb. Nina Hachigian (ret), meeting with MP Katrin Uhlig, sessions with the youth volunteers at Ruhrpott für Europa  – all demonstrated: there are ample subnational channels already in place and ready for expansion. And a huge potential in local actors to reshape transatlantic ties from the ground up.

The delegates saw and forged new opportunities for continued subnational diplomacy working together through emerging networks like Nina Hachigian’s City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE) – in the face of US abdication of its leadership role under the current Trump Administration, and German national government uncertainty about climate renewal. 

We spoke with Duisburg deputy mayor Dr. Sebastian Ritter, steelworkers representative Can Y. and Duisburg Business & Innovation GmbH leaders about strategies to bring heavy industry transformation, climate protection and quality employment together while facing geo-economic pressure – further intensified by US tariffs.

The group learned how successful transformation is more than new jobs and what role quality of living and recreational areas play in the city’s future from city developer in  Cottbus Stefan Simonides-Noack. 

Those exchanges showcased how subnational diplomacy is already delivering tangible policy engagement – linking local leaders across borders to drive economic, environmental, and democratic transformation from the ground up.

At the Carbon Crossroads – Which Way Will We Turn?

Our delegates from the US trod familiar terrain among the German coal-mining regions, steel, heavy manufacturing communities that had been the economic powerhouses of former West Germany and the then-GDR East. They all came from regions with similar industrial background: The heart of coal country on the banks of the Big Coal River in West Virginia; Detroit, the iconic capital of autos and the arsenal of democracy; steel and oil centre Cleveland and Sheboygan, Wisconsin – a manufacturing and port city just up the Lake Michigan shoreline from Milwaukee, once the machine tool capital of the world. The challenges facing Rhenish region & Cottbus were familiar – where local leaders were working hard to forge affirmative post-coal futures.   

In the brown coal mining area along the Rhenish mining area in Germany’s West, whose coal and workers had powered the industrial engine that had been Germany’s Ruhr, we visited huge coal pits and deserted villages – evacuated in front of the proposed path for coal mining by energy giant RWE’s. We heard from residents who resisted the pressure to leave and watched their home turning to ghost-villages. Today, the decades-long advance of the giant digging machines clawing coal of colossal pit mines – gobbling up whole German villages in the process – was grinding to a halt. Protesters from around Germany and Europe more than a dozen years ago had joined handfuls of villagers determined to remain in their homes, protesting and trying to halt the mine’s relentless advance.

But it was Europe’s recent years’ embrace of the Green New Deal, and Germany’s national decisions to end lignite coal mining and embrace renewable energy, that had meant a last-minute reprieve for Keyenberg and other villages – too late for others that had already been clawed underground. The families and farmers’ houses in lost villages had been bought up by the energy company, which paid for their moves and new houses, but to nearby cities and villages decoupled from their past, their neighbours, their community.

But now with changes in governments, ever-changing energy policies and whipsawing political dynamics in Germany, Europe, and beyond second guessing the need for the great “green” transformation, would the truce hold?

At the Thyssenkrupp steel plant in Duisburg, we got a close look at the German steel crisis and steels own “carbon crossroads” – with the future of the industry and thousands of jobs in play.  We toured the massive ThyssenKrupp steel company itself, representing the merger of two competing German former Steel titans desperately trying now to compete versus foreign steel. The Duisburg complex is in the vanguard of German and European efforts to make the big move to “green” steel. But talking to management and workers we learned declining demand for automobile steel and the job-reducing technological changes in making the green transition were now bringing the threat of significant layoffs and creating an impasse with the workers union over their own and the giant plant’s future.

Back home in America, Nippon’s Steel’s off again, on again plan to purchase Pittsburgh based US Steel had just gone through now that election winds had subsided. It promised a competitive future for Pittsburgh’s industry icon via modernization, and new investment. Or did it? 

On the other side of Germany, in Cottbus – deep in the former GDR (and today a centre of spiking support for the far right AfD party) – we found a mirror community to the soft-coal mining region of Germany’s west. We stood in front of what the Rhenish mining pits may one day become: The Cottbus Ostsee, a former open-pit lignite mine turned into a vast lake. 

Here mining had been halted, the massive power plant looming in the distance was slated to close, and the giant pit had been filled with diverted river water to make a colossal new man-made lake (also being contemplated in the West with diverted Rhine river water to fill the Rhenish mining areas’ vast pits). But the city’s current plan to remake Cottbus from a coal-mining town to a waterside-lifestyle community was being thwarted by the former pit walls (now waterfronts) constantly crumbling – halting development, at least for now.

It was eerily similar to the situation in coal country in the US: The rounds of extractive industry boom, then bust, then search for a different clean energy future – then whipsawing promises from leaders to “bring back coal” and the past (at least now under the Trump Administration) – that our US Midwest communities leaders and their communities have experienced.

The Germans we visited with, like the farmer Norbert Winzen, who with his extended family were practically the last citizens left in living in (town), were feeling the same carbon and climate change whipsaw. Resigned to their village being subsumed in the pit of the coal-mining and fossil fuel business inertia – they’d managed to ignore the objections of Germany’s famous historic farm-preservation-in-amber bureaucracy, and power up their farm compound with newly installed solar panels in what they thought was a last act of symbolic statement-making and defiance.

Now the farm and the village was spared by the sudden imperative for Germany and Europe to go green – a move seemingly eagerly embraced by the rhetoric on the RWE-energy sponsored placards and explanatory panels placed on the lip of the (still-working) massive Garzweiler open pit mine – to explain what they were seeing for the many visitors and gawkers who came visit this awe-inspiring monument to the carbon economy.

Or was Keyenberg really finally to be spared?  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had forced Germany’s fast retreat from Russian gas and oil. Did Germany and Europe still need some coal and carbon based energy to keep Germany’s manufacturing economy going?

Similarly back home: The head-turning pivot from green, clean energy leadership offered by the now turned out Biden-Harris Administration to “MAGA-red” had turned upside down the future economy-building table we all were playing on in the still struggling and transitioning communities of Middle America.

Now denizens of towns along the Ohio River Valley which several of our Midwest leaders delegation leaders called home were feeling the jerk of the US’ on-again-off-again push towards a carbon free economy – seeing the first Trump Administration abandoning US climate agreements, the Biden Administration and their own local efforts then putting pedal to the metal on “going green”. Leaders like Mayor Patterson had led the charge Now Trump II pulling the plug again and holding up the nostalgic chimera of a return to a fossil-fuel based economic boom-time for his voters.

Both the US and German communities and their leaders were moving through the same cycle of economic and cultural dislocation – local leaders working hard to treat and  build better lives and new opportunities for residents along the coal country and industrial corridors of the US Ohio River Valley, and Germany’s Rhine, Ruhr and Lusatia regions. Supported one day, then undercut by changes in national leadership and prevailing political winds. 

From Alienation to Climate Action

Navigating these “carbon crosscurrents” to create meaningful new economic opportunity for similar regions across our countries is a huge shared challenge, as it involves strong emotions and feelings of identity, alienation and anger – that if not treated now manifests in ethnonationalist resentment driven populist movements.  Understanding, and engaging effectively with resident in regions undergoing seismic changes is aided enormously by the kinds of new insights gathered on the delegation’s trip, opening a window onto the lived experience of community residents, and the lessons in what works – and what does not.

Manufacturing and Coal-country residents of Michigan, Cleveland, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania felt immense pride in their work and contributions to the economic power of their nations. There is tremendous nostalgia in Detroit and Flint, Pittsburgh and the Big Coal River Valley for the time of good-paying jobs and lively communities. There is anger and frustration that those jobs and way of life are diminished– and anger at those outsiders who tell them “you need to change.”

We found much the same feelings – particularly in the East – where residents had gone through such a disorienting economic and cultural seismic change after reunification. Community residents under the GDR, while not appreciating being told what they could do and where they could live by state directive, enjoyed once-secure jobs and were proud of the fact that they were the coal and energy-producing economic powerhouse of the former East. But now with such high hopes for a new life after the Berlin Wall fell and reunification, instead they had experienced disorienting economic and social dislocations. There was investment and a rebuilding, yes, but controlled by West Germany money and directive, leaving residents feeling powerless. Today, there was little faith in the latest big “plan” for economic transformation. As one community leader put it: “In public, the residents will nod and make nice comments about our current economic regeneration plan. But talking themselves, they will say, ‘what a bunch of garbage.’”

At several stops on the road, Athens Mayor Patterson, part of a band of Ohio-River Coal Country Mayors banding together to promote a clean-energy headed Marshall Plan for Middle America, shared stories of some steps toward success working at the local level:  His own work in Athens, Ohio Athens, to engage the community in new ways, in “reimagining” their municipality. “In Athens, we came together […] to reimagine our community – 76 percent of residents voted to pass a ballot initiative to pay for retrofitting the whole community for clean energy and sustainable systems. In so doing, bringing a new and different form of manufacturing back.” Or his fellow Mayor in Huntington, West Virginia, sparking new battery manufacturing, bringing 350 new jobs for people displaced from the coal industry. 

These Mayors are working hard with other leaders in the region to move past the nostalgia for the coal and heavy industry boom town years in so many communities – to chart a course to use new clean energy opportunities for community growth and renewal – Austin had just returned from sharing similar examples from international heartlands transformation work around how similarly-situated older industrial communities chart a new, brighter path in another coal country community – to economic development officials in the abandoned mines and coal camps in Durham and England’s North the historic Red Hills Miners Hall.

There are not one but many paths to new economic opportunities for similarly situated transitioning economic regions. These paths for new prosperity must be locally developed, owned, and operated. It does not work – as we saw in Cottbus, to be “done to” – to have development directed from outside. Success must be built on communities’ identities and whatever local assets each community has to work with: whether it is the making of things, or natural location (such as waterfronts), or reputation as committed to education or innovation; or arts, heritage and culture, or leveraging the formidable economic power of research (learning institutions and universities).

The Way Forward

Our visit left us with some a hopeful notes. The village Keyenberg was already planning its hosting in 2037 of the “Bundesgartenschau” (biennial German federal horticulture show) that would bring 20,000 visitors from across Europe to the streets and farm courtyards of Keyenberg. 

The German Ministry of Economy – despite the new Conservative dominated coalition  government removing the term Climate from its name – was still spending millions of Euros to support the regeneration of coal country regions and to aid the ongoing great green transformation.

The US mayors and delegates in tow noted the fact that the combined GDP of the states and cities in the US committed to maintain a green transformation dwarfed those following the Trump Administration’s efforts to roll back climate policy by 2:1. US leaders on the trip saw new promise in linking arms and sharing ideas with peer leaders at the level below the national government – and continuing to press on with strategies for climate change amelioration and coal and heavy industry region transformation. 

The delegation took inspiration from Dr. Manfred Körber in the Rhenish mining area at the self-organised Café Nr. 5., a new community meeting ground for remaining village residents, newcomers wanting to be part of the village’s future story, as well as farmers that remained but also those who had moved. Providing a space to come together in a refurbished barn and chicken coop, have a meal, find common ground and plot a new brighter shared future for their community.

It was a place, as Körber told the group: For those who had been demonstrators  against the energy company, as well as those who had been accommodators, to come together – to move from a place on the brink of vanishing to a space of co-reation, renewal and hope. 

About the Authors

About the Initiative

The Heartlands Transformation Network is a transatlantic collaborative partnership dedicated towards closing geographic economic divides and reconnecting residents of rural and former industrial heartland communities to economic opportunity. The initiative works to return community pride and optimism about the future, and diminish the appeal of polarizing, resentment-driven, isolationist and ethnonationalist political movements that threaten our democracies.

The initiative, its learning exchanges, convenings, events, study tours, presentations, publications, and other learning products, are conducted with partners including the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College; the Brookings Institution; the Georgetown University BMW Center for German and European Studies; the Jefferson Educational Society; Das Progressive Zentrum; the Ruhrkonferenz of North-Rhine Westphalia; Policy Manchester at the University of Manchester, U.K.; the University Allianz Ruhr; the German Consulate General in Chicago; the European Commission Directorate of Regional and Urban Policy; and the Committee of the Regions of the European Union, among others.

Learn more about the Network and join in its activities here.

With colleagues from the German Council on Foreign Relations, the author John Austin was facilitating an MSC side event of elected officials and leaders representing 20 democracies – all trading notes on how to bring new economic opportunity and optimism to residents of our countries feeling left-behind and ignored.

A Tale of Two Futures – US Industrial Heartlands Fellow Study Tour Fall 2024

Industrial Heartlands Revisited: Building Hope, Jobs, and Trust in the US Midwest

Four weeks before the 2024 US presidential election, our team travelled across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan to revisit the heart of American industry. With the fellows of our Industrial Heartlands project, we explored how communities are navigating the long road from deindustrialisation to renewal — and what these transitions tell us about politics, identity, and the promises of economic justice.

From Pittsburgh’s high-tech revival to Youngstown’s grassroots urban renewal and the entrepreneurial push in Erie, we encountered impressive local efforts – but also deep-seated wounds, unresolved tensions, and the sobering weight of generational loss.

Investing in the Future — But Not Forgetting the Past

In cities like Pittsburgh, transformation is visible. Once a steel-producing giant with suffocating air, it now thrives as a regional high-tech hub, driven by universities, innovation in robotics and medical science, and capital from its industrial past. This success didn’t happen by accident — it’s the product of decades of intentional policy, strategic partnerships, and the refusal to cling to nostalgia.

Yet the scars of deindustrialisation run deep. Psychiatrist Kenneth S. Thompson, a Pittsburgh native, underscored the psychological legacy of economic collapse — “unspoken shame, articulated anger,” and the need for societal acknowledgment. For many in the region, healing begins not just with new jobs, but with the recognition of old sacrifices.

This duality — optimism about the future, pain from the past — is echoed across the region.

Reviving Downtowns — But What About the Neighbourhoods?

Erie’s Downtown Development Corporation (EDDC) has breathed new life into the city centre since 2017, opening lofts, food halls, gyms and the first downtown grocery store in decades. Youngstown, too, has seen its core revitalised, thanks in part to sustained federal investment and institutions like America Makes and the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI).

But outside the city centres, the story is different. Neighbourhoods are struggling. Streets are dotted with vacant homes, and the exodus of talent continues. The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) is trying to reverse this — street by street, tree by tree, house by house. It’s grassroots, patient, and profoundly local.

“Our work is about stabilising,” one YNDC staff member told us. “We’re putting neighbourhoods back together.”

They’re not alone. In Erie, initiatives like Erie’s Black Wall Street tackle economic exclusion head-on. Founded to build community among Black residents, the organisation now educates on home ownership, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy — filling a gap long left by unfulfilled institutional promises.

The figures are stark: Erie’s white households earn nearly twice as much as Black households. Redlining practices continue to separate the East Side from opportunity. “How can you benefit from something you don’t even know exists?” one local advocate asked. Trust, they said, must be rebuilt — not with empty promises, but with consistent, visible action.

The Economy Is Central — Climate Comes in Later

Across nearly all conversations, one theme dominated: economic survival. Job security, decent wages, and future prospects take precedence. Climate protection? It’s welcome — but only if it translates into employment and lower costs.

In Youngstown, union leaders and incubator heads stressed the need for “sticky jobs” — roles that don’t just arrive with ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but stay, pay well, and allow people to build a life. The Building Trades Union noted that after the 2008 crisis, unemployment in the trades hit 30–35%. “People lost their homes, families, some even their lives,” one representative recalled. They are now focused on diversifying work — building hospitals, schools, even carbon capture infrastructure.

Environmental policies were often met with justified skepticism. Can federal green funding really reach these communities? Will solar and energy-efficient housing be affordable? Or will climate migration simply push prices up without improving lives?

In places like Erie’s Black Wall Street and YNDC, sustainability is slowly entering the conversation — from solar panel incentives in new builds to rethinking land use through local land banks. But the green transformation is only beginning to intersect with these communities’ daily realities.

Education, Equity, and Opportunity

Higher education institutions are evolving too. At Penn State Behrend, students work directly on industrial projects. The Beehive Network, a consortium of five universities, offers free entrepreneurial support, applying for joint funding and helping students connect with real-world opportunities.

Still, most students in the region are “non-traditional” — older, working, or balancing family life. With declining public funding, universities increasingly turn to industry partners, who now shape research and hiring strategies. Across the region, the consensus is clear: education must be practical, applied, and better integrated with economic needs.

That same pragmatism drives local organizing. At Jefferson Educational Society, civic spaces attempt to fill the vacuum of declining party affiliations. “Being non-partisan is an attraction,” one organiser told us. “We want to be a space where people can learn and engage — not just choose a side.”

Power, Politics, and the Struggle for Inclusion

Democratic participation is changing. In traditionally blue cities like Youngstown and Detroit, frustrations simmer. In Detroit, Arab American leaders described a growing sense of disillusionment with both parties — but also a new wave of empowerment through entrepreneurship and civic leadership.

“Faith in the system is declining among the younger generation,” said one Arab American community member. “But more of us than ever are in positions of power. That’s a kind of hope.”

Still, many communities feel sidelined. In Erie, as in Youngstown, residents want to see themselves reflected in the decisions that shape their future — from where housing investments go, to how climate policy is applied, to who gets a seat at the table when funding is allocated.

Conclusion: A Tale of Two Futures

The Industrial Heartlands are at a crossroads. On one hand, there is reinvention — a new economy slowly taking root in labs, incubators, neighbourhood councils and trade schools. On the other, there’s a lingering sense of abandonment, mistrust, and the spectre of past losses.

Cities like Pittsburgh may be islands of progress, but beyond their centres lie vast landscapes still waiting for their share of hope.

What we saw was not despair, but determination. Determination to stay, to rebuild, to be part of something again. Whether federal programs, state strategies, or local leadership will succeed in matching that determination remains to be seen.

On election day, Erie County — like many others in the Midwest — may prove decisive. But for many we spoke to, the question isn’t just who wins, but whether they show up — and whether, finally, someone will keep their word.

Germany is an unequal country both socially and spatially: inequality between north and south, east and west, urban and rural areas and between economically dynamic regions and those affected by structural change remains significant. The regions differ greatly in their structure. These differences have a significant influence on migration flows, income levels and people’s fundamental living conditions and opportunities.

Deutschland ist sozial und räumlich ein ungleiches Land: Ungleichheit zwischen Nord und Süd, Ost und West, Stadt und Land und zwischen wirtschaftlich dynamischen Regionen und solchen, die vom Strukturwandel betroffen sind, weiterhin deutlich. Die starken Unterschiede in ihrer Struktur beeinflussen maßgeblich die Wanderungsbewegungen, Einkommensverhältnisse und die grundsätzlichen Lebens- und Chancenbedingungen der Menschen.

At the Progressive Governance Summit 2024, we debated and strategised on how to make an impactful contribution to shaping a comprehensive concept of progressive security. In this session, the panellists focused on industrial policy as a means of grappling the challenges in the industrial heartlands within the context of recent geoeconomic shifts.

Residents of regions in long-term economic decline are understandably angry and upset about diminished prospects for themselves and their families and the degraded condition of their communities. In order to turn residents’ outlook from frustration, resentment and distrust of leaders and institutions to hope, optimism and confidence in democracy leaders must listen, understand and appreciate residents’ real worries and frustrations then take small steps to deliver better living conditions and rebuild trust.

A modern industrial policy can promote a just democracy. Under the mantle of “Bidenomics”, the US administration has launched a new industrial policy aimed not only at boosting economic growth and competing with China, but also at strengthening American democracy.

At the Progressive Governance Summit organised by Das Progressive Zentrum on Friday 21 June, several of our project fellows participated in a panel discussion to debate strategies that empower the industrial heartland regions by creating positive narratives about their future. This roundtable discussion was organised as part of the Transatlantic Dialogue of the Industrial Heartlands project.

Four weeks prior to the US elections and together with the fellows of our Industrial Heartlands project, we toured crucial electoral battlegrounds in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. This synopsis highlights remarkable efforts to revitalise these once thriving centres of industrial manufacturing – and the remaining challenges that we saw.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump offer their voters very different visions for the future of America’s industrial development. Under the motto “foreign policy for the middle class,” the Biden administration expanded protective tariffs against China, thereby scoring points in the industrial heart of the country. With the “Inflation Reduction Act,” Biden made a U-turn on climate policy in the U.S., while continuing the protectionist economic policy of his predecessor. However, a second term for Trump would have even more serious consequences for Germany and Europe.

Kamala Harris und Donald Trump bieten ihren Wählerinnen und Wählern sehr unterschiedliche Zukunftsvisionen für die industrielle Entwicklung Amerikas an. Unter dem Motto „Außenpolitik für die Mittelschicht“ weitete die Biden-Administration Schutzzölle gegenüber China aus und punktete damit im ­industriellen Herz des Landes. Durch das Investitionspaket des „Inflation Reduction Act“ vollzog Biden in den USA eine klimapolitische Kehrtwende, verbunden mit der Fortsetzung protektionistischer Wirtschaftspolitik seines Vorgängers. Eine zweite Amtszeit Trumps hätte jedoch noch schwerwiegendere ­Folgen für Standorte in Deutschland und Europa.

Why should use the term “industrial heartlands” rather “rust belt” when we speak about former industrial regions in the US and Germany? In this paper, authors John Austin and Jürgen Hein discuss why the language we use matters and why without careful communication, anti-democratic and populist sentiments may be fuelled.

The industrial heartlands have become central to the political and policy future of advanced economies. There is a political battle over who can speak for the communities of the industrial heartlands; and who can offer a new prosperity for areas that have been marked by the social, economic and cultural effects of deindustrialisation. Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, rising prices for energy and housing and general inflation have triggered material uncertainties, alongside challenges over immigration, integration and trade with China, and the need for action on climate change.

How can we, economically and socially, revitalize former industrial heartland regions while promoting a green transition? In this report, John Austin reflects on the experiences of the tour, which took participants to several iconic mining and steel regions: Charleroi, in Belgium’s Wallonia region; the Saarland linking Germany and France; and Saxony in Germany’s former East.

In his new paper, John Austin delves into the global rise of nationalist and anti-democratic sentiments, particularly in economically declining industrial heartland communities in Europe and the United States. Based on the learnings from the Industrial Heartlands and Democracy Study Tour in November 2023, the paper outlines the reasons behind people’s dissatisfaction and anger. Factors such as economic decline, geographic inequality, social alienation, and political disillusionment emphasize the urgent need for leaders to understand the underlying emotions and experiences driving these anti-democratic sentiments.

Author: Sandra Rath

As part of Das Progressive Zentrum’s “Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands” Project, a group of local decision makers from the US Midwest travelled through Belgium and Germany last November to strengthen transatlantic ties and exchange ideas on a common challenge: Fostering economic revival through climate neutral industries and fortifying liberal democracy in industrial heartland regions. During their visit to Brussels, Charleroi, Saarbrücken, Leipzig and Berlin, our delegation met with experts, civil society leaders and politicians on local and federal levels to learn how they approach issues ranging from trust in democracy and political institutions, transforming production towards climate neutrality, the role of science and innovation as well as financial instruments to fund local initiatives.

Meet the Delegation

The delegation was further accompanied by John Austin, Director of the Michigan Economic Center and Senior Fellow at Brookings Insitute and Wolfgang Mössinger, former German Consul General in Chicago as well as our project team with Florian Ranft, Axel Ruppert and Sandra Rath.

Key Takeaways

1. Local green transition projects must be rooted in the identity of the local population and workers, incorporate their needs and encourage their participation.
2. Local and municipal governments must be equipped with the necessary governance tools and funds to impliment bottom-up policies that foster local identification and ownership, thereby countering right-wing populist narratives.
3. To successfully communicate green transition measures, it is imperative to be sensitive towards “change fatigue” and past experiences of upheaval of the local population, especially in East Germany.
4. To rebuild trust in democratic institutions and decision-making, governments must communicate green transition policies transparently and create spaces for deliberation and participation.
5. Providing a local network to connect research and development (R&D) with businesses is crucial to fostering innovation and directly implementing green technology in the region.

In the final meeting of the day, the delegation learned from Saarland’s Minister of Finance, Jakob von Weizsäcker, about Saarland’s Transformation Fund, a fiscal instrument to allocate government funds to local green transition initiatives, underlining the all-of-government approach to the green transition in the Saarland. The meetings of the day emphasized the power of a united approach to green industrial policy that encompasses workers, company management and the political level.

(Fotos: Corinna Mehl)

In a last meeting of the day, our delegation met with Thomas Kralinksi, State Secretary in the Saxon Ministry of Economy, Labour and Transport and Sounding Board member of the Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands Project. During the conversation, Kralinski spoke about the government’s strategy to attract chips production through the “Silicon Saxony” initiative, thus fosterting the creation of green jobs, and the “Future Sax” platform which aims to connect universities with small and medium sized enterprises around the state. Regarding the rise of right-wing populism in the state, Kralinksi reiterated the fear of change in East Germans rooted in the reunification experience and currently driven by the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, inflation, migration and the war in Ukraine.

(Fotos: Corinna Mehl)

In the afternoon, the delegation attended the official launch of the Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands Project at Das Progressive Zentrum’s Innocracy Conference. They discussed the Project Fellows’ impulse papers and gave feedback and advice on what topics to focus on throughout the course of the fellowship. The day ended with an informal meeting with representatives of the Atlantikbrücke, rounding up a week of week of transatlantic peer learning on industrial heartland regions.

(Fotos: Fabian Melber)

Authors: Florian Ranft, Axel Ruppert, Sandra Rath

There is a growing convergence of interest and effort on both sides of the Atlantic to bridge geographic economic divides and reconnect residents of industrial heartland communities to economic opportunity. Where these communities continue to decline, residents feel disconnected and alienated from a rapidly changing global economy and polity, while polarizing, resentment-driven and populist political movements that undermine our democracies can grow from within. Where economic regeneration has been done successfully, it serves to return community pride and optimism about the future and reduces political discontent. 

In order to share transatlantic experience and promote effective strategies for investment in people living in industrial heartlands, the Conference on Transatlantic Work to Address “Geographies of Discontent” brings together leaders and economic change practitioners from across Europe, the UK and the US.

After a keynote address by Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Senior Advisor and Vice-President, Bertelsmann Foundation and Sounding Board Member of the Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands Project, we will engage in discussions with:

• Peter Berkowitz, Director, European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy
• Dr. Raphael L’Hoest, German Deputy Director General, Structural and Regional Policy, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action
• Missy Hughes, Secretary & CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
• Bill Peduto, Former Mayor of Pittsburgh, now heading Carnegie Mellon Institute
• Katie Rosenberg, Mayor of Wausau, Wisconsin.

Please note that there is a limited capacity for in-person attendance. We look forward to welcoming you at the convening and discussing the future of industrial heartlands with you.

This conference is organized within the context of a delegation trip of local decisionmakers from the United States to Germany and Europe. The trip’s goal is to engage in a transatlantic exchange on the challenges facing the industrial heartlands in Europe and the United States as well as best practices to tackle them. The delegation trip is organized within the Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands Project.

On 17 November 2023, we held a workshop called “Democracy at the crossroads in the industrial heartlands – transatlantic perspectives for the future of the places that matter” as part of Das Progressive Zentrum’s Innocracy23 conference.

What are solutions for a better, greener and more democratic life in the “places that don’t matter”?

For a generation, people living in the traditional industrial heartlands all over the world have been buffeted by a technological and services revolution, the decline of manufacturing, and the rise of a borderless global digital economy. The result is deepening inequality, ongoing political support for right-wing populists and a hollowing out of the middle class. From the rise of Trumpism to the successes of the AfD, industrial heartlands lie at the crossroads to the future of our democracies. This is why we we’ve hosted an interactive workshop to discuss best practices, political strategies and policy solutions to foster democratic participation, trust and tangible future perspectives for those living in the places that matter. 

The workshop entailed an inspiring exchange with our 12 project fellows of the “Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands” project as well as a delegation of seven decision-makers from the US Midwest. Join us for fresh, transatlantic takes on how to tackle the challenges of a just transformation while rebuilding trust in democracy. 

To combat this decline, Das Progressive Zentrum and its partner organizations from the United States have launched the three-year project “Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands” with the goal of creating new opportunities in old industrial heartlands of both countries by forging a transatlantic dialogue, exchanging best practices, and developing political strategies  and policy solutions for a better, greener, and more democratic future in the “places that don’t matter.” As part of this project, 12 project fellows from the U.S. and Germany are working on the two thematic blocks “Perspectives for the Future, Respect and Participation” and “Climate, Work and Innovation” to demonstrate through their input how the living standards and opportunities for people in the industrial heartlands can be increased while working towards rebuilding trust in democracy in both countries.

As part of the workshop “Democracy at the crossroads in the industrial heartlands – transatlantic perspectives for the future of the places that matter”, we introduced the Industrial Heartlands project and the 12 project fellows presented their impulse papers as a starting point for their project work. Afterwards, participants exchanged ideas with you in four groups and discuss the topics of “Participation and Democracy”, the “Industrial Transformation”, “Bidenomics and the Green Deal – Local Implementation” and “Countering the Far Right”.