New Honorary Consul for North and South Carolina

The new Honorary Consul of the Republic of Austria for North and South Carolina was sworn in by the Austrian Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Christian Prosl. The businessman Roland Zimmer has spent most of his life promoting the relationship between Austria and South Carolina. On September 15, 2011, Zimmer was sworn in as Austria’s new Honorary Consul for North and South Carolina during a ceremony at the Piedmont Club in Spartanburg, SC.

Zimmer had founded the Zimmer America Corp. in 1984. His corporation is an offshoot of the Zimmer Machinery Corp., which is a textile printing machinery corporation that his father, Johannes Zimmer, had brought to Spartanburg in 1970. Roland Zimmer’s grandfather, Franz Zimmer, had established the company in 1874 in Austria. Zimmer is succeeding the previous Honorary Consul Bob Friedl, who passed away earlier this year. He was inaugurated by several Austrian dignitaries, among those the Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United States, Dr. Christian Prosl.