For several days, a wave of protests has been sweeping through Poland over the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal on the incompatibility of the current provisions on abortion with the Constitution. The scale and nature of these protests, as well as the reactions of people and circles reluctant to them, indicate that we are dealing with a continuation and escalation of the process of polarization of our society, which has been going on for many years and which is increasingly threatening the good future of all of us. The Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe, working for the peaceful coexistence of nations, social groups and individuals, observes this process with growing pain and anxiety.
Abortion is a very controversial topic that evokes extremely strong emotions. Modern democracies have not yet found model solutions that would satisfactorily protect both life from conception and women's right to subjectivity and self-determination. It is precisely due to the conflicting, polarizing potential of disputes over abortion, as well as the fundamental difficulty in developing appropriate legal solutions, that this topic should be approached with great responsibility.
Read more: Statement of the Management Board of the Krzyżowa Foundation in connection with the wave of...
94 years ago, on 20 October 1926, in the Królewska Huta (since 1934 Chorzów), Ewa Elżbieta Unger was born - long-time president of the Wrocław Club of Catholic Intelligentsia, co-founder of the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe and long-time president of the Foundation's Board.
Dr Ewa Unger died a few months ago, on 15 March 2020. Due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic at that time, the funeral ceremonies were very intimate and not everyone who wanted to farewell to Ewa Unger could do so. That is why we are already announcing a ceremony which will allow us to commemorate Dr Ewa Unger - a person so important for the Krzyżowa Foundation and for everyone involved in Polish-German reconciliation - in a larger group.
Read more: ||SAVE THE DATE|| Ceremonies commemorating Dr Ewa Unger - Wrocław, Krzyżowa, 13 March 2021
It is with deep sadness that we received the information about the death of Janisław Muszyński (9.10.1942-10.09.2020), the first non-communist Wrocław voivode, initiator and organizer of the Lower Silesian Political and Economic Forum in Krzyżowa, a long-standing friend of the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe.
It is thanks to the vision and determination of Janisław Muszyński that for fifteen years (1999-2013) Krzyżowa turned into Davos in Lower Silesia, where representatives of politics, business, science, non-governmental organizations and culture met to exchange opinions and learn from each other. The main idea of the forum was to initiate and sustain discussions on what to do to make Lower Silesia a good place to live. It was a very rare thread of all talks about the development of regions, and Janisław Muszyński made it the basic issue of all editions of the Lower Silesian Political and Economic Forum in Krzyżowa. It was an event thanks to which Krzyżowa attracted the attention of national media and hosted foreign business representatives, many of them contributed to the development of the region in a very tangible way, investing their capital here and creating jobs.
Janisław Muszyński wanted to see Lower Silesia as the land of Polish-German reconciliation, also on the level of joint activities for the economic development of Europe. The transnational cooperation, which was also part of the mission of the Krzyżowa Foundation, was the joint goal of the activities of the foundation and Janisław Muszyński, therefore we say goodbye to the great friend of Krzyżowa - place, people and ideas - with great regret.
We express our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Janisław Muszyński.
Read more: Farewell to Janisław Muszyński
This year is crazy and unique in every way. Who could have predicted in January that the world would look completely different in the summer?
After the massive cancellation of almost all concerts and performances - even those in 2021 - it was almost a utopia to hope to organise the Krzyżowa-Music 2020 Festival. Nevertheless, thanks to the extraordinary courage of Matthias von Hülsen and Viviane Hagner, the professionalism of the festival team and the staff of the Krzyżowa Foundation, as well as the great support of the company CENTOGENE, this has become possible.
The 2020 edition was very extraordinary: suddenly we all realised that we had become more mature. Each of us had enough time to reflect and ask questions that had never been answered before.
Read more: Krzyżowa-Music. The 2020 edition was very extraordinary | Alexey Stadler
