Will you be working for a US company? Paid in dollars or euros?

German company paid in Euros. I am still paying off student loans and do not want to have to pay 20 Euros every time I decide to fund my American account. I also want to be able to continue to use my American credit card there for purchasing services in the US, but of course I would need to be able to make payments to the card.

If you open an account at a bank that is operating in both countries transfers from one account to the other should be relatively cheap. It even might make sense for you to transfer not on a monthly base, but on a quarterly base - but for that decision you need to know the actual cost for the transfers.
Citibank and Deutsche Bank are active in both countries. There are other banks as well. It might make sense if you ask your current bank if they have a partner in Germany they work with.

Even a USD account in Germany with an American Bank does not reduce my transfer costs to & fro US.
 
The only advantage is the cheap draw down of cash dollar bills. And that apparently depends from the clerk. Some do not know how to handle it and try to convert USD - EUR - USD with the corresponding losses to me.

Prophylaktisch ist es vielleicht ganz gut anderswo Fremdwaehrungskonten zu halten um dank EUR-Schwäche drohenden Kapitalverkehrskontrollen zuvor zu kommen.

http://library.fes.de/fulltext/id/00888.htm

This from a banker:

You can open an account here in any freely convertible currency, but you cannot withdraw any of those currencies in cash without suffering losses.

We must differentiate here between Devisen and Sorten. Devisen = book money (your account), Sorten = foreign cash (different handling, different exchange rate!). So all you can do is transfer your dollars back to the states, which is apparantely what you intend to do, and that is no problem if you keep in mind that tranfer charges will apply)

Withdrawals here in Germany will only be possible in euros. The loss will for cash withdrawals will occur since your dollars will be converted to euros at the buying rate for Sorten (cash), and as I said, the rate is unfavorable.

This may present a good opportunity to dive into the world of internet banking, as transaction fees are traditionally much lower....

I've dealt with this issue for a while now, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a real cheap solution... if you do internet transfers such as paypal, they are only cheap if you transfer smaller amounts of money; but I've found that they do not turn out to be much cheaper in the long run.
I usually save up as much money as possible and then send a big sum to the other account, so that I only have to pay a fee for wire transfer every two or three months, instead of every single month.
Another thing you can do, if you have a person you trust back in the US, is send them a check card with access to your German account, and have them withdraw money and an American ATM with it and deposit it into your US account. While you will still have to pay a small fee for this service, it is generally a lot cheaper than wire transfers.
Hope this helps...
ps: If you find another way, I'd love to hear about it!

#4 The only advantage is the cheap draw down [sic] of cash dollar bills.

@Pachulke: Do you maybe mean "withdrawal"?

My boyfriend is from the States and kept his American account because he has to pay off his student loan... and because sometimes it's good to still have an American bank account (e.g. to keep your American iTunes account ;-)). But to get back to your question, Deutsche Bank is probably really the best solution for you. My bf has an account there, too and what he does to pay off his loan and other bills is quite easy: whenever he returns to the States on a visit, he takes his Deutsche Bank card and withdraws money from his German account and deposit it to his American account.
It's kind of complicated, I know, but maybe that's a solution, too...

Falls es für Dich eine Option ist, in USA Bargeld abzuheben oder abheben zu lassen und auf Dein dortiges Konto einzuzahlen, kann ich Dir in Deutschland die Postbank empfehlen.

Mit einer Postbank-Sparkarte kannst Du zweimal pro Jahr kostenlos an allen Geldautomaten abheben, die das VISA-Zeichen haben. Du bräuchtest wahrscheinlich mehrere Karten, aber das ist kein Problem, die habe ich auch.

Ich habe mein Girokonto bei der Postbank und kann online kostenlos Geld auf meinen Sparkarten deponieren. Im Urlaub fällt dann nur noch der Kursverlust an.