During the opening ceremony, Guido Rettig, director of the TUV NORD Group, a technical inspectorate that houses the consulate, said that the new Lithuanian honorary consul had wide connections in Hamburg and surrounding federal lands.
Bodewig was Germany's Federal Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure in 2000–2002. he is currently chairman of the board of the Hamburg-based Baltic Sea Forum and is also the European Unions Maritime Ambassador.
Bodewig is Lithuania's seventh honorary consul in Germany. He will cover three federal lands – Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
