Osnabrück hands European City Charter to Regensburg
f.l.t.r. Katharina Opladen (bureau of peace culture, City of Osnabrück) , Theresa Appoltshauser (Department of Culture, Regensburg), Jürgen Fischer (Programme coordination RUHR.2010) , Boris Pistorius (Major of Osnabrück) / Photo: Jens Lintel
In the Kleine Ratskammer – the Small Council Chamber – of Osnabrück’s city hall, the late afternoon of October 25 saw Mayor Boris Pistorius ceremonially pass the European City Charter to the municipality of Regensburg.
The European City Charter is a project organised under the auspices of the “National Heroes – German Cultural Cities” network, to which eleven former candidate cities that vied for the title of European Capital of Culture 2010 belong and within whose framework the City Charter travels from cultural city to cultural city for supplementation.
Following an address welcoming the guests, and after the presentation of the Osnabrück contribution to the Charter, Mayor Pistorius spoke of Osnabrück as a city specifically dedicated to peace. This he backed up with references to the renowned local painter Felix Nussbaum – murdered in Auschwitz in 1944 and commemorated in Osnabrück’s Felix Nussbaum Haus –, to the award of the Erich-Maria Remarque Peace Prize and to the exchange of city ambassadors, an event unique in Germany. The international symposium entitled “Religions and World Peace”, which ended in the middle of Ocotber, was, he said, also an integral component to the diverse and vigorous culture of peace that prevails in Osnabrück.
Jürgen Fischer, programme coordinator for RUHR.2010, also delivered a statement outlining the development of this currently unique idea of a European City Charter. He was particularly delighted at the keen involvement shown by the former candidate cities for the title of European Capital of Culture 2010 within the “National Heroes” network, and underlined the importance of such a network for strengthening European peace.
Theresa Appoltshauser of the Cultural Committee of the City of Regensburg, who took receipt of the European City Charter with the Osnabrück document from Mayor Pistorius, referred to Regensburg’s Day of Peace, which is to be held in the city on November 20, on which date the European City Charter will be handed over to the city of Bremen.