Since its inception, the German Marshall Fund has brought Americans and Europeans together to increase understanding and to build future transatlantic networks among the political, media, business, and nonprofit communities.  GMF works closely with partner organizations to sponsor a range of fellowship and exchange programs designed to provide both broad cultural exposure and more targeted opportunities for learning about specialized policy areas.  The Marshall Memorial Fellowship for young American and European leaders is the flagship GMF fellowship program, but GMF sponsors other fellowships for scholarship or exchange, including the Congress-Bundestag Forum, the Manfred Wörner Seminar, and various travel programs supporting transatlantic learning for congressional staff and European parliamentarians.

GMF also sponsors journalism fellowships that support travel and reporting by European and American journalists, and may include writing an article or a book, or participating in an organized trip to explore a specific transatlantic issue.  In addition, GMF awards an annual senior and junior Peter R. Weitz Prize for the best reporting on Europe by American journalists.

The Transatlantic Fellows program allows scholars, policymakers, journalists, and businesspeople to generate new policy approaches to transatlantic issues while in residence at GMF.