.png)
This text is a written version of the opening lecture of the event 'Responsibility, Community, Europe. The legacy of the Kreisau Circle today". It took place on 2 September 2022 in Haus am Dom in Frankfurt am Main in cooperation with the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe, the German Institute for Polish Affairs, Haus am Dom and the Freya von Moltke Foundation.
The lecture was given in german.
"The geopolitical holidays are over," the Polish diplomat Marek Prawda recently pointed out. The era of relative prosperity and security that has accompanied us in recent decades is coming to an end. New times are coming with great challenges. The legacy of the Kreisau Circle can help us to successfully stand up to them.
DSc Robert Żurek
PART I
What distinguished the Kreisau Circle
At Whitsun 1942, a strange group of people came together in Krzyżowa in Lower Silesia. People who could hardly have been more different in terms of their professions, their social status, their world views or their political sympathies. And it was no accident, it was deliberate, that was the Kreisau Circle.
This meeting was followed by two more - in autumn 1942 and then at Whitsun 1943. Ten to eleven people took part in each of these three meetings. These were not all members of the Kreisau Circle, but so many were allowed to meet under the conditions of conspiracy without being immediately discovered by the political police.
Read more: Lessons of the Kreisau Circle
After 13 years, Nina Lüders has left the Kreisau-Initiative e.V., our sister organisation in Berlin, to begin a new phase in her professional life. In her role as Executive Director, she was the most significant contact person for the Krzyzowa Foundation over a long period of time and shaped the good partnership and growing cooperation between our organisations. With her expertise and her network, she brought many important impulses to Krzyzowa. Beyond her professional qualities, we have also perceived her as an extraordinary person who shapes communication and work processes with a great deal of empathy and understanding. We will therefore miss Nina Lüders in many ways. At the same time, we wish her all the best in her new stage of professional life and thank her most sincerely for her commitment, heart and soul and the memories she left behind. We hope that Krzyżowa will always stay in your heart, Nina!
We would like to recommend the farewell article written about Nina Lüders by Urlike Kind, a board member of the Kreisau Initiative e.V. association.
Robert Żurek and Dorota Krajdocha
Read more: Farewell to Nina Lüders
Announcement from the Copernicus Group
On 24-26 November, the Polish-German Copernicus Group met in Warsaw for its fortieth meeting. The report "Germany and Poland - regaining trust" summarises the joint reflections of the Group members.
Prof. Waldemar Czachur, Warsaw
Prof. Peter Oliver Loew, Darmstadt
15 December 2022
Read more: Announcement from the Copernicus Group
