In the heart of Europe, near the French border, closely intertwined with its neighbor Luxemburg, just two train hours to Paris and 90 miles away from Frankfurt lies the German state of Saarland, which has been a „pioneer of structural change“ – Coal Mining, Steel, Automotive – no region in Germany has gained so much experience and success in structural economic change like Saarland. The current depth of transformation that Saarland and the world have to face, is a unique challenge. Digitalization, alternative mobility, sustainability, and carbon neutrality will change Saarland and its economy again enormously.
Providing a direct link to Silicon Valley
To master these changes, Saarland started a new initiative and installed a state representation in San Francisco and Silicon Valley labeled as “Saarland International @ Silicon Valley”, which is financed by the State Ministry of Economics and Technology. It is the goal to create a direct path for local companies towards Silicon Valley and permanent access to the ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most innovative regions in the world. Furthermore, Saarland will also be presented as an attractive business location, to gain visibility for potential future collaborations in the sector of new technologies.
Expanding the existing ecosystem
Saarland is already today an export nation, with a higher foreign trading quota than the federal average and its perfect logistical location in the middle of Europe. Big industrial production locations of i.e. Ford, ZF, Bosch and soon battery producer SVolt, are corresponding excellent with the Saarland’s science and research landscape, such as Helmholtz-Institute for Cyber Security (Cispa), German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) and Max-Planck Pharma Institute, just to name a few of the bigger institutions within the university environment. However, Saarland isn’t just a production and research location, it also has a very broad positioned industry with the typical “German Mittelstand” and their high-level and world-known engineering skills as well a booming Start-Up scene with excellent names such as Elexir, QuantPi, and K-Lens which are rising stars in their territory.
Future-oriented region
The new aspiration to become a region of founders and start-ups was a deciding factor in establishing an official Saarland state representation in Silicon Valley to support those start-ups and medium-sized companies with their internationalization activities and connect them with the local network. In that regard, Saarland International @ Silicon Valley collaborates closely with the local German-American community to support and complement each other.
“If you want to play a role at an international level and you don’t want to miss the technological advancements, you must have a representation in Silicon Valley”
The state of Saarland demonstrates once more its pioneer role and shows how one can prepare for future transformation.
Julian Bartsch, Managing Director, Saarland International @ Silicon Valley
Julian Bartsch was born in the State of Saarland and lived there the majority of his time. After studying mechanical engineering, he held several leading positions in the automotive industry nationally and internationally at one one of Germany’s best known company. After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014, he decided to reorient himself from the traditional automotive industry towards the field of new technologies, where he is now working on the future of transportation. In 2020 he started intensive discussions with Saarland State Representatives and developed an internationalization concept which was adopted in 2021 as Saarland International @ Silicon Valley and he leads the economic development through network creation, state representation, matchmaking and consulting activities.
