News

Recently, personnel changes have taken place on the board of our very close partner, the Kreisau-Initiative Association from Berlin. After 10 years, Ole Jantschek resigned from the position of chairman of the board. (Ole Jantschek is at the same time vice-chairman of the Council of the Krzyżowa Foundation). The new chairman became Paweł Prokop, who joined the board of Kreisau-Initiative in September 2019.

We would like to thank Ole Jantschek very much for our joint initiatives and fruitful cooperation, which culminated last year's jubilee celebration for both our organisations. We wish the new Chairman good luck!

On 12 November 1989, a holy mass was held in Krzyżowa, attended by Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The mass, during which representatives of the Polish and German governments stood shoulder to shoulder, was a milestone - especially given the very difficult political relations between the two countries since the end of World War II.

Thanks to symbolic gestures, the meeting at Krzyżowa wrote down in history as the Reconciliation Mass.

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.

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.

Would you like to stay up to date?

Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about upcoming events!

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.