News

With deep regret, we have received the news of the death of Professor Kazimierz Czapliński. Professor Czapliński, born on April 16, 1926, in Puławy, was an outstanding civil engineer, full professor at the Wrocław University of Technology, long-time president of the Catholic Intelligence Club in Wrocław (1966-1984), an active member of both the Archbishop’s Social Council and the Archbishop’s Charitable Committee, and, not least, one of the founding fathers of the Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding and a member of the Honorary Council of our foundation.

The 1965 letter from the Polish bishops with the famous words "We forgive and ask for forgiveness" was a turning point in the activities of the Catholic lay movement in Wrocław and paved the way for cooperation with Germany. Kazimierz Czapliński was part of this movement and, together with his wife Wanda, actively participated from the outset in these contacts, such as in visits by delegations from the Bensberger Circle from West Germany or in the "Polish Seminars" in Magdeburg, later known as the Anna Morawska Seminars. This activity for Polish-German reconciliation led to the Catholic Intelligence Club in Wrocław playing a leading role in the founding of the Polish Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding in 1989. Kazimierz Czapliński made a significant contribution to the establishment of the International Meeting Center in Kreisau/Krzyżowa, on the grounds of the former estate of the von Moltke family, which in 1989 was a place with a dilapidated manor house and similarly neglected outbuildings under the control of a state-owned estate. The Czapliński home in Wrocław became, during this time, a welcoming place for many guests connected to the international Kreisau initiative, including Freya von Moltke.

Read more: We bid farewell to Prof. Kazimierz Czapliński