Elke Büdenbender hat am 23. Juli an der Abschlussveranstaltung des Europäischen Summer Camp 2022 der Stiftung Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium in Templin teilgenommen.

Als Schirmherrin der Tour begrüßte sie die 48 Jugendlichen aus Polen, Frankreich, Deutschland und der Ukraine am Ende ihrer zweiwöchigen Tour, die in Etappen mit dem Kanu, dem Fahrrad und zu Fuß vom polnischen Drawno bis nach Templin geführt hatte. Die Reise der Jugendlichen förderte das europäische Miteinander sowie die Verständigung über sprachliche und kulturelle Unterschiede hinweg.

Grußwort von Elke Büdenbender

Let us look round us in the world of today and see whether we are really justified in claiming for pacifism progressive development and positive results. A terrible war, unprecedented in the world’s history, recently raged in the Far East.

Those words are not my words. They are taken from the Nobel lecture in April 1906 held by Bertha von Suttner who received the Nobel Peace Prize 1905. The war and the consequences she spoke of was the Russo-Japanese War during the years of 1904 and 1905. And she continued to describe the situation in all of Europe at the beginning of the last century:

Meanwhile, in Central and Western Europe which narrowly escaped war, we have distrust, threats, saber rattling, press baiting, feverish naval buildup, and rearming everywhere. […] Fortresses are being erected, submarines built, whole areas mined, airships tested for use in war; and all this with such zeal – as if to attack one’s neighbour were the most inevitable and important function of a state.

As we know today, more than 100 years after Bertha von Suttner gave this speech, all of Europe was hit very brutally by two wars that brought destruction, pain and also showed the evil manhood is able to commit once borders of civility are exceeded. Sadly, Bertha von Suttner was right: there is nothing good at the end of rearmament campaigns.

Looking into the audience, I would say most of us were born after the horrors of the Second World War. Over a period of 70 years we experienced that a peaceful living together is possible in Europe – although the civil war in Yugoslavia in the 1990s showed that peace can be fragile.

Especially we Germans are very grateful, that our neighbours reached out to us – the same neighbours whom we have brought suffering and destruction. We are thankful for the bonds of friendship, big and small, over the border to our neighbouring countries and all over Europe.

How happy would that have made Bertha von Suttner and all her co-pacifists and dreamers of a united Europe a hundred years ago!

Dear participants of the Summer Camp, it must sound rather surreal to you when you hear me quote those words on the inevitability of attacking neighbouring states. Those of you who came from Poland, France and Germany to spend two weeks together in the beautiful landscape between Drawno in Poland and Templin in Germany do not know borders when driving to summer holidays by car or train, no passport controls. You not only talk about the European spirit, but you live it in your everyday life. You reach out, learn foreign languages, and this camp probably will not be the only exchange you take part in. This is great, and it is the basis for a peaceful living together in Europe.
 
Sadly, these days not everyone in Europe can enjoy peaceful coexistence: We have young people here today who were struck by the unthinkable. The lives and dreams of the young people from Ukraine I met and talked to just before the closing ceremony started, who also joined the Summer Camp, were all of a sudden interrupted, changed, even destroyed on February 24th.

We are so very happy to have you here! You certainly have friends here and during the last two weeks experienced that European solidarity is not just an abstract term. The people of Poland, France, Germany and all the other countries are with you.

Dear guests, I was so impressed when the Summer Camp participants gave me some impressions of their two weeks adventure trip through the nature in the German-Polish border region. Out there, they not only managed to get from the start to the finish – no, 48 more or less strangers became friends! We all are very proud of you. And young people like you give us hope for a good and better future.

Before I come to an end, let me thank the Foundation Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium Templin which initiated and organized the Summer Camp. And let me also thank all the supporters.
 
The site we are on right now will be the campus of a wonderful project: the European School Templin. It will be a meeting and gathering place for young people from all over Europe who can learn together and also have fun together and make Cross-European friendships that can last a lifetime and – what is the most important – friendships that will tear down borders existing in our heads rather than on paper.

When the people of Europe and in the whole world stand together, it becomes much harder to drive a wedge between nations. So let’s emphasize our friendships rather than let anyone tear us apart!
 
And where would it be better to begin than with our youth? You are our future. The friendships you form across nations today are the foundation of a peaceful living tomorrow.

Thank you for your attention and time and have a wonderful afternoon!