German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest, Inc. (GACCoM), which was founded in 1963 with the mission of furthering, promoting and assisting in the expansion of bilateral trade and investment between Germany and the United States. GACCoM is part of the worldwide network of German Chambers of Commerce with 120 offices in 80 countries around the globe. It is a not-for-profit organization which combines elements of a trade commission, a membership association and a professional consultancy.

The TAP offers annually a select group of up to 25 U.S. students the opportunity to gain practical work experience in a total immersion environment in Germany, Europe’s largest economy. The program carefully matches each participant to internship positions throughout Germany in their respective fields of study, in particular business administration, engineering, international relation and renewable energies. The TAP also provides participants with a pre-internship ten-day Immersion Seminar in Berlin consisting of German language-building activities, intercultural training and discussions with representatives from German business and politics. The group is brought together again for an Interim Seminar in Cologne to share experiences and for internship review as well as intercultural training.

The German Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Klaus Scharioth has taken on the patronage of GACCoM’s TAP program to encourage the German American Relationship. 

The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) generously co-finances the Transatlantic Program with funds from the Marshall Plan, or European Recovery Program (ERP), as it was formally named. Additionally contributions in 2009 are made by KOMET of America and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. The academic component is conducted in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Chicago. For the internship placement we work with our partner InWEnt – Capacity Building International helping us to set-up and administer the internship part of the program.  We also received excellent support from the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG), the Goethe Institute Chicago, and a large number of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. who consider this business-related program to be a very practical and helpful addition to their schools' German programs. GACCoM sincerely thanks the German Government and all other parties for their contributions and their continued support for the Transatlantic Program.