Reconciliation Events: Berlin June 2023

Two keynote events were held over a weekend in Berlin. If you have any photos - particularly from the concert - please do send them.

Reconciliation Event at the Reichstag hosted by Filiz Polat and the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group’s Department 3 (Democracy and Diverse Society)

The invitation by Filiz Polat provides a great summary of the aim of the event:

On 20 August 2021, the “Fourth Act Amending the Nationality Act”, which had been passed two months prior by the Bundestag and Bundesrat, came into force. This overdue reform created a new legal framework for remedying a striking injustice in nationality law – both for the victims of National Socialist persecution and their descendants as well as for individuals who had been excluded from acquiring German nationality on gender-discriminatory grounds, and their descendants.

In order to honour the significance of the reform passed at the end of June 2021 by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, a reception is to be held almost two years to the day later. It will be hosted by the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group’s Department 3 (Democracy and Diverse Society). We wish to bring you together with a group of survivors and descendants of affected individuals who are coming to Berlin on the second anniversary of the reform; the motto of their journey to Germany is to be "reconciliation".

Our meeting in the Reichstag Building will aim to provide an opportunity to exchange memories and to discuss current issues and challenges; these are bound to include the pending parliamentary deliberations on the reform of nationality law, which mark a milestone in the governing coalition’s domestic and migration policy projects

The event interspersed speeches with music

Filiz Polat

Dr Felix Klein, Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany, and violinist in the quartet introducing each musical interlude

Isabelle Couchman and Filiz Polat

Filiz Polat and Isabelle Couchman immediately after Isabelle’s emotional speech

Concert at the Mendelssohn Remise

A very big thank you to the trio of Heidemarie Wiesner (piano), Felix Klein (violin) and Ramon Jaffé (cello) for an outstanding and varied evening of music. Thank you also to Dr Felix Klein, Alan Garwin and Tad Kelly for their powerful speeches. You can read Tad Kelly’s speech here

Concert programme, June 2023

Dr Felix Klein, Heidemarie Wisener and Ramon Jaffé

A few pictures from the social event after the concert in the courtyard of the Mendelssohn Remise