Claudia Clark - Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel

When I decided to undertake a project of this magnitude, little did I realize there were many people whose help and support I had relied on often and whose encouragement and assistance at different points in my life served as the foundation that made this book possible. Therefore, for ease and fairness, people are grouped based upon the roles they played in my life.

First of all, I would like to thank my publisher, Disruption Books, and all the people responsible for overseeing this book and for having faith in both the project and my ability as an author and a historianmost importantly associate publisher Alli Shapiro. I would also like to thank my social media and public relations assistants: Mitzi Valentin, Mike Onorato, and the other members of the Smith Publicity firm.

Over the years, academia and many of my former professors played vital roles in helping me to develop the necessary skills to take on such a task, including: Dr. Lisa Fine, history professor and chair of the history department at Michigan State University, who first introduced me to the field of womens history when I was an undergrad more than twenty-five years ago; and Michael Unsworth, history bibliographer emeritus at Michigan State University, who taught me the necessary skill of plowing through historical and congressional records and always acted as my own personal librarian for the numerous history and public policy papers I wrote during my undergraduate studies. I also owe my sincerest gratitude to both my history thesis advisor at San Jose State University, Dr. Patricia Evridge Hill, and Michael Reisch, former social work professor at the University of Michigan, who served as an incredible mentor and advocate for me in my community organizing and social justice campaigns.

My political and professional colleagues served as both mentors and sources of inspiration, including Judy Pipkin, Santa Clara County Democratic Party administrator; Kevin Mullin, speaker pro tem of the California State Assembly; Sergio Jimenez, San Jose city council member; Andrew Byrnes, former chair of the San Mateo Democratic Party; and Sabrina Kochprapha, political consultant.

I would also like to thank my friends on both sides of the Atlantic: David Mikosz, Harry Joel, Karen Routt, Susan Garmo, Karsten Scheibler, Robert Schumann, Angelika Purtell, Patrick Oberlaender, Emily Froemel, Janet Day Strehlow, Shari Temple, Candice Kerestan, and Matt and Kim Hudson. Most importantly, I would like to thank my oldest and dearest friendsJennifer Blum, Athena Trentin, and Rebecca Perry. Although our lives have taken us all in different directions, they continued to support and encourage me, and I knew they were always only an email or a phone call away.

It would be irresponsible for me to not include my social media community when I thank my friends. Thanks to social media, activists who otherwise felt isolated or helpless in light of the various injustices over the past few years have outlets. It has been reassuring to see the lengths that like-minded people will go to to stand up and affirm othersoften people they do not physically know. This book would not have been possible without the support from my #resister family.

I would like to thank my mothers close circle of friends, who served as surrogate mothers to me as a child, and as I grew up served as some of my own closest friends as well, including Mary Black Juntonnen, Lillian Damer, Kriss Ostrom, Carolin Sage, Nancy Lucas, Janet Bordner, and Cindy Stone.

President Obama and Chancellor Merkel often referred to one another as partners and friends. I would like to thank my partner, friend, and the woman who translated the manuscript into German, Desiree Karge. Desiree and her husband immigrated to San Jose, California, from Hamburg, Germany, over twenty years ago, and we were neighbors until my husband and I moved to Germany in 2017. The fact that an American living in Germany wrote an English version of a book translated by a German living in the United States further illustrates the interconnectedness of the United States and Germany.

It is important for me to acknowledge Sophie Karge. Technically Sophie should be acknowledged with the other members of my social media and publicity campaign as she helped me tremendously in that role. However, Sophie served as much more than that, and I think it is only fair to single her out. Not only has Sophie been like the daughter I never had, she is also an amazing resource, excellent social media assistant, and friend as well.

I would like to thank my mother, Judith Clark, who not only instilled in me from a very early age the importance of social justice but also had the patience and tolerance for my many causes. Whether it was my refusing to buy a particular brand of tuna fish because it was not dolphin safe or her taking me to seventeen different stores without complaining when I tried to find an American-made jacket and not one made in a sweatshop in a developing country, she not only supported me, but encouraged me. When she insisted I visit a concentration camp during my first trip to Germany, she taught me the importance of learning from the negative components of the past as well as embracing the victories, like when she and I went to President Clintons first inauguration in Washington, DC. I was fifteen when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and, at the time, she was not certain she would live to see me graduate from high school. Fortunately, thanks to eleven years of remission, she lived long enough to see me not only graduate from high school but college and graduate school as well. She saw me marry and saw most of my milestonesunfortunately, in 2000, she lost her battle with cancer and did not live to see the US elect the first Black president, nor did she live to see any part of this project. Nevertheless, she is still present in this book.