31 August 2005

Mikhail Gorbachev to Receive the Augsburg Peace Prize

     On August 8, 2005, in the city of Augsburg, Germany, at a press-conference celebrating the anniversary of the Religious Peace of Augsburg the Oberbürgermeister of Augsburg Paul Wengert announced the names of the winners of 2005 Religious Peace of Augsburg Prize.

     The Religious Peace of Augsburg Holiday has been celebrated for 355 years and is an official holiday for the city of Augsburg. The signing of the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555 was the first example of interdenominational compromise in the history if the European civilization. It put an end to the decades-long religious wars between Protestants and Catholics on the territory of Germany and granted them equal civic and political rights. Since the first time it was celebrated in 1650 it has evolved into the day of interdenominational and intercultural dialogue, into a holiday to uphold the ideals of tolerance, peace-building, respect for human rights and freedoms, and repudiation of violence.
    
     The Religious Peace of Augsburg Prize was instituted in 1985 and is awarded every three years.
        
     This year in view of the 450th anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg the interval between the awards was shortened to two years. Given this special occasion, the award committee was particularly careful in selecting the winners. The focus was on the commitment to the ideals of freedom, peace and peaceful resolution of conflicts as the basis for evolution of any society. The committee has unanimously voted for President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and Christian Führer, Pastor of the St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig which became a symbol of the peaceful revolution in Eastern Germany in October 1989.

     The official award-giving ceremony will take place on October 5, 2005, in the Golden Hall of the City Hall of Augsburg. The winners will be greeted by the former foreign minister of Germany Hans-Dietrich Genscher.