This year we are honored to have Axel Dittmann, Deputy Head
of Mission, German Embassy Washington and Mayor Dirk Breuer of Hürth, North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany as Grand Marshals of our Parade.

Ambassador Dittman was assigned to his current position earlier in 2022. In 2018 – 2022, he was at the
Federal Foreign Office as the Director for EU Institutional Affairs, EU Coordination, Conference on the
Future of Europe, EU-UK, in Berlin, Germany.

Mayor Breuer was elected to his first term as Mayor of Hürth in 2015 and re-elected as Mayor in 2020.
He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Cities and Municipalities of
North Rhine-Westphalia and a member of the General Assembly of the German Association
of Cities and Municipalities. In addition, Mayor Breuer is involved with companies in the
utilities sector of Hürth.

Axel Dittmann has been the Deputy Head of Mission since 2022 at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. He was born on March 23, 1966 in Bonn and is married to Natalie Ebert. They have three children Karl, Theo and Marta.

After graduating from high school in 1985, Dittmann began studying economics, which he completed in 1991. In 1992 he began preparatory service for the senior foreign service. After graduating, he was a staffer at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City in 1994/95. He then worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Berlin from 1996 to 1998 and returned to the Foreign Service in 1998, where he briefly worked in the Political Department of the Foreign Office. Then he was in 1998/99 in the branch office of the embassy in Serbiain Priština and from 1999 to 2000 as a member of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Dittmann then acted as deputy head of department in the United Nations department of the Federal Foreign Office and was then a member of the negotiating team of the EU Special Envoy for Macedonia François Léotard for a period in 2001. From 2001 to 2004 he was part of the Foreign Office’s negotiating team for the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe . After that, between 2004 and 2006, he worked at the Embassy in Washington before he was a member of the negotiating team of the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Kosovo UNOSEK (United Nations Office of the Special Envoy for Kosovo) in Vienna from 2006 to 2007 .

After returning to Germany, Dittmann was deputy head of department in the European department of the Federal Foreign Office from 2007 to 2011 and then head of department for fundamental EU issues in the European department of the Federal Foreign Office from 2011 to 2015. In July 2015, Dittmann became the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Serbia. In the summer of 2018, Dittmann took over the position of Brexit coordinator at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

Mayor Dirk Breuer was elected to his first term as Mayor of Hürth in 2015 and re-elected as Mayor in 2020. Dirk Breuer grew up in Hurth. After graduating from the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Hürth and completing his basic military service, he studied administrative sciences at the University of Konstanz . He successfully completed his studies in 2004 with a degree in administration.

He then became office manager in Berlin for Willi Zylajew, member of the Bundestag, and from 2007 he was managing director of the CDU parliamentary group in the Rhein-Erft district. In 2011 he took over the management of the investment management of the Bonn City Treasury .

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Cities and Municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia and a member of the General Assembly of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities. In addition, Mayor Breuer is involved with companies in the utilities sector of Hürth. Breuer is married and has two children.

Hürth is located in the heart of the Rhineland and borders on the metropolis of Cologne. Located in the triangle formed by the major cities of Aachen, Düsseldorf and Bonn, the 12 Hürth towns form a diverse and lively city that is characterized by open-minded and fun-loving people.