Excellencies, dear Major Jakobs, dear colleagues and dear participants!
It is a great pleasure for me to greet you all on behalf of the Herbert Quandt-Foundation, who is happy to support the European Youth Media Workshop as well as the M 100 Sanssouci both, in terms of content and finance. However, I have to confess that I feel a little-bit uncomfortable in the position to give the key-note-speaker of this evening, simply because I always thought that key-note speakers must be old and wise. In this regard, I don’t know whether I can fulfil your expectations.
Be it is as it may: The overall-topic of the European Youth Media Workshop fits perfectly well to the programme, I have the privilege to supervise, the Trialogue of Cultures. Starting around ten years ago, the Herbert Quandt-Foundation, named after one of the leading entrepreneurs of past-war-Germany, the Trialogue of Cultures tries to counter-act Samuel Huntingtons scenario of a “clash of civilisation” in searching perspectives for inter-cultural understanding, peaceful solutions for conflicts, and a mutual common sense in the Abrahamic religions and cultures. Our foundation is working operatively in three fields: we have a school-competition on “Trialogue in the school. European Identity and cultural pluralism” running in the German States of Hessen and Berlin. This school-competition came about as the result of survey done in cooperation with the University of Birmingham on the role of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the curricula of eight European countries. The result was somewhat bias, giving examples of best practice, but also proving a lack of a balanced and adequate presentation of the three faiths and their importance for European history. Thus, the foundation wanted to start changing schooling in this regard – and we are very happy that the schools year by year bring about wonderful projects – musicals, little movies, text-book-analysis, a trilateral recipe-book, debates with political, academic, cultural and religious figures.
Our second field are various conferences and publications on political and social issues of the Trialogue of Cultures, and last but not least, the foundation is also entertaining a young-journalist-exchange-programme between Germany, Israel and the Palestine territories. Therefore, I am very happy to welcome tonight, firstly the former editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post and longstanding supporter of our journalist-exchange-programme, Ari Rath from Jerusalem. He will play a leading here in the Youth workshop as a journalist, as a person who was seeking peace between Jews and Arabs for decades of his life – and perhaps as the wise voice of a different generation compared to most of the active participants here in the workshop. And secondly, I would also like to give a welcome to our four young fellows, who won our scholarship this year. Thus, our foundation is trying not only to bridge gaps between cultures, but also between generations.
Education and modern journalism are essential topics for our work, and our overall-aim is to enable those who will form public opinion in the future to understand other cultures in a more differentiated and complex way than they did before. In a time, when the “return of the Gods” or the “rediscovery of religion” or the “renaissance of faith” – just to quote some recent book-titles – is or seems to become an penetrating topic of at least European, perhaps even World media, religious and cultural competences are without a doubt a necessary if not a key-qualification for journalism. Now, journalists are normally not the most-religious people, they even more tend to be free-thinkers, which might be sensitive in reporting critically on all sorts of topics. However, in a situation when religious sentiments re-gain a certain influence on social and political development, only a functional or structural understanding of religion as a quantité negliable of the Western secular modernisation-process seems to be inappropriate. Things get even more tricky, when private enterprises forces editing-teams to cut down information on 1.30 minutes in television or 80 lines in newspapers to deliver the newest news. This is a somewhat dangerous situation, where stereotypes dominates the public view on religions, cultures and even entire regions of the world. But the issues – we have to face are much to complex to be reduced on pure headlines. Who regards the Islam as a warrior-religion overseas the richness of its culture and the peaceful impulses of many years. Who focuses in thinking about Judaism only of the Ultra-orthodox people with their old-fashion heads, the long coats oversees the multi-face developments of the last centuries. And Christianity is much more than the Pope or America`s fundamentalism. In a way, strangely enough, public opinion seems to see fundamentalist believers as the core of religion. I think this observation is false. Religions, cultures and civilisations are complex matters, and one must not tend to reduce them to single-issues-phenomenon. An awareness is needed for complexity – and I think complexity should be always a challenge for good journalist, whose job it is – day by day – to reduce complexity, but in a responsible way, and this means – in a way that reflects the possible outcome and effects of reports, messages, headings etc.
In thinking about complexity, I would also come to my last point: I believe that cultures cannot clash nor – to be a bit self-critical – can cultures start communicating with each other. Who can clash, but even better: talk and learn more about the other are groups and individuals, whether they are old or young, wise or still on the way to learning, journalists, politicians, diplomats, artists, theologians etc. etc.
Our European Youth Media Workshop  seems to be a good start. Thus, I finish in wishing you all fruitful debates, new impacts and an enriching dialogue.