The objective of the week-long trip, organised at the time of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, was to enable the participants to understand better the political and social processes taking place in Hungary and to allow them to compare their personal experiences with the—mostly negative—news and commentaries regarding Hungary in the German press. Joachim Klose, former head of the KAS representation in Dresden, was always committed to ensuring that our bilateral relations do not fall victim to political communication.
Director Gergely Prőhle presented the background of the establishment of the Otto von Habsburg Foundation and the lessons learned during the past five years of its operation. In his presentation on the oeuvre and intellectual legacy of Otto von Habsburg, he repeatedly referred to the stance taken by our namesake concerning the most pressing political issues of our time and the motivation behind his activities towards strengthening European integration. The participants were from the western and eastern provinces in equal numbers, which was reflected in the diversity of questions and comments. Those from the eastern regions were more understanding of the policies of the Hungarian government and more critical of the functioning of the European institutions. In the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, Otto von Habsburg’s famous 2005 lecture was met with great acclaim, in which he warned of the dangers of President Putin’s vision of a superpower, ahead of his time and in contrast to the then mainstream opinion in Germany.
In the course of the visit, the possibility was raised—in confirmation of the timelessness of our namesake’s views—to organise a series of joint events in the near future in Berlin on topics such as subsidiarity or the dilemma of a values/interest-based foreign policy.
