News

The Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe together with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation celebrated the 30th anniversary of the opening of the KAS office in Poland.

A conference "Poles and Germans 30 years after 1989: Neighbors, partners, friends", which summarized the last 30 years of Polish-German relations through the perspective of the experience of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation took place in Warsaw in Teatr Dramatyczny.

The KAS Office in Poland was opened on 10 November 1989, five months after the June elections, two months after the inauguration of Tadeusz Mazowiecki's government and the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In November 2000, in recognition of its work for reconciliation, the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe was the first organization in Poland to be awarded the Cross of Nails by the Community of the Cross of Nails of Coventry.

The Cross of the Nails is located today on the right side of the entrance hall of the palace in Krzyżowa,

behind the glass panel, and is a symbol of reconciliation and a reminder of the atrocities of World War II.

Prayers for world peace are regularly held at the cross.

The network of partnership contacts between the various local and regional authorities and regions in Europe has more than 20 000 contracts. Świdnica Municipality is a member of this group, currently cooperating with 4 European cities: Lampertheim (Germany), Maldegem (Belgium), Adria (Italy) and Ermont (France) and 2 Polish municipalities: Żukowo (pow. kartuski, woj. pomorskie) and Świdnica commune (pow. zielonogórski, woj. lubuskie). This year the Świdnica Municipality hosted the European Meeting of Partner Cities.

A conference of mayors representing Partner Cities took place in the Palace of the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe. It was in Krzyżowa, in the historic place of Polish-German reconciliation, that new assumptions for mutual cooperation were discussed, as well as the issues of disabled people.

A book about Stanisław Stomma, published in Polish in 2018 is extremely inspiring, colourfully written and based on extensive research. Stanisław Stomma's political and intellectual biography, one of the most important pioneers of the post-war Polish-German dialogue will be presented in Berlin.

The discussion about the book will be attended by Radosław Ptaszyński – author of the book (University of Szczecin) and outstanding experts in the work and activities of Stanisław Stomma  Wolfgang Pailer (Berlin) and Robert Żurek (Krzyżowa Foundation).

The meeting will take place on September 16th at 7 p.m. in the Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin (Mayakowskiring 47, 13156 Berlin).

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.