President Eberhard Sinner welcomed Dr Denis Rogov, Consul General of Kazakhstan, on behalf of the Consular Corps members present. Further personal greetings were extended to the former Ukrainian Consul, Dmytro Shevshenkov, now Chancellor of the Ukrainian Free University of Munich, OWWF Vice-President Eric Beißwenger MdL, Gerhard Hopp MdL representing the Chairman of the CSU Parliamentary Group in the Bavarian State Parliament Thomas Kreuzer MdL and OWWF Vice-President Maria Lubyannikowa.

Then the Corona pandemic and Putin's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, but before that there was Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Cohesion and cooperation worldwide, that is globalisation, is massively disrupted.

Without global cooperation, we cannot solve any of our problems, we cannot meet any of our challenges.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Warsaw Pact states and the Soviet republics became sovereign, triggered by popular movements, Havel, Walesa, singing revolution in the Baltic States, confirmed by referendums. For the most part, they have opted for democracy, NATO and the EU. A process that has not yet been completed.
This development was accompanied by a common security architecture. CSCE, OSCE, Budapest Memorandum, NATO-Russia Founding Act, Partnership for Peace, various disarmament treaties and intensification of economic, cultural and social exchange.

To this end, the UN was founded after the Second World War. Ukraine and Belarus are also founding members of the UN. Stalin wanted this in order to establish parity of voice between the Soviet Union and the West, USA, France and Great Britain, but mainly on the grounds that Ukraine and Belarus had paid a high price in blood in the fight against fascism and had made a considerable contribution in the Red Army.

Gorbachev's vision of a "common European house" seemed to become reality.

The house of "European history", the European Union, has permanently overcome bloody centuries of European history.

The Chapel of Peace, a memorial erected on the battlefield of Stalingrad by German civil society on the initiative of OWWF Bavaria, is a common reminder of all victims of the Second World War. Twin cities of Volgograd are also Coventry and Hiroshima, and in Germany Cologne and Chemnitz.
Volgograd 2012 was honoured by the Council of Europe and awarded the Europe Prize through the ceremonial presentation of the Europe Flag. The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in World War 2, it cleared the way for the EU.

The message was: "No more wars of aggression in Europe". Putin has broken with this development. The justifications for this are hollow and a misrepresentation of history. Putin's rhetoric and propaganda show pure will to destroy neighbours who do not submit. Putin has monopolised the fight against fascism for Russia and completely ignores the share of other nations. Foreign Minister Lavrov is laughed at for justifying war at the G20 conference in New Delhi a few days ago. Two UN resolutions overwhelmingly condemn the invasion as a violation of the UN Charter.
Ms Michaela Pulkert took over the welcome as "hostess" on the part of the HypoVereinsbank as owner of the Fünf Höfe. She was pleased that our newly elected Vice-President, her colleague Maria Lubyannikova, had helped to choose the venue for the meeting.

The keynote address was given by historian Dr Franziska Davies. Since October 2016, she has been teaching as an Academic Councillor at the Chair of Eastern European History at Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität. Insights from her research on Eastern European history flow into her profound lecture:

Russian Imperialism in History and the Present

In a broad historical arc, Dr. Davies covers the history from the founding of Kievan Rus through "Tartar Yoke" in large parts of present-day Russia, Ivan IV, called the "Terrible", Peter the Great and the Soviet Union to the present.

After the withdrawal of the Mongols and the consolidation of rule, especially by Tsar Ivan IV, Tsar Peter the Great tried to modernise Russia and promoted Western influences. However, the saying "Russia is not secure until it has extended to the seas" also comes from him.

The definition of an empire is seen differently by historians than the legal interpretation of the term. Thus defined, the history of Russia is an imperial history.

Her conclusion: imperialism is the driving force. The path to peace leads only through knowledge of history, renunciation of imperialism and violence and respect for the UN Charter.

Presentation by Dr. Franziska Davies (password protected - German)

After the event, the participants had the opportunity to visit the recently opened exhibition "Flowers Forever" in the Kunsthalle. In several rooms, objects from art, design, fashion and natural science can be found here, which are intended to depict the cultural history of the flower from antiquity to the present day. The final work of the tour is particularly impressive. In a hanging construction by the artist Rebecca Louise Law, there are over 100,000 dried flowers that together create a kind of walk-in structure.