Carsten Apsel, head of the German International School in Washington, D.C., will be the featured speaker at Wartburg College’s annual Kleinfeld Lecture in German History, Culture and Politics at 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10.
Apsel’s lecture, “Bridging Worlds: Language, Culture, and Science in Global Education,” will be in Wartburg’s McCaskey Lyceum in the Saemann Student Center. It is free and open to the public.
At 4:45 p.m., the college will celebrate the elevation of the Herbert and Mildred Kleinfeld Distinguished Professorship in German Language and Culture. Ethan Blass, assistant professor of German, will continue to hold the professorship, which was originally established in 2023. It was elevated to a distinguished professorship through a $1 million gift from Gerald Kleinfeld in honor of his parents and provides expanded support for teaching, research and learning within the German major.
Apsel is an experienced education leader with a strong background in bilingual education and school administration. He studied biology and English secondary education in northern Germany and throughout his career has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to educational innovation, sustainability projects and school-community partnerships.
He holds the rank of Oberstudiendirektor (senior principal) and continues to shape German international education through his current role as chair of the Association of German Schools in North America and Canada. In addition, he has published in academic journals and presented at numerous conferences on bilingual education.
“I am excited for Mr. Apsel’s talk, which brings together so many interesting dimensions of the world in which we live: culture and STEM. Understanding different languages enables us to bring these worlds together – a lesson that goes beyond even this topic,” said Daniel Walther, the Gerald R. Kleinfeld Endowed Chair in German History. The annual Kleinfeld Lecture in German History, Culture and Politics is part of an endowed series made possible by a contribution from the German Studies Association.
