Awards
In 2022, the Kreisau-Initiative together with the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe was awarded the prize Bernhard-Vogel-Bildungspreis „Chancen schaffen – Chancen nutzen“ by the association Altstipendiaten der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. for the project "Democracy between #Hashtags, likes und digital ethics".
In 2015, the Kreisau-Initiative was awarded the prize "25 Years of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Remembering the Past, Shaping the Present" by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
In 2010, the Kreisau-Initiative was a winner of the federal contest "365 Places in the Country of Ideas”. An independent jury chaired by Prof. Martin Roth, Director General of the Public Art collections in Dresden, and Prof. Michael Hühter, Director of the Institute of German Economy in Cologne, selected in November 2009 365 winners in categories of economy, environment and energy, science and technology, education and youth, art and culture, society and social issues, and sport and tourism. The contest was launched by the initiative "Germany — the country of ideas" of the federal government under the auspices of the Federal President Horst Köhler.
The project MICC was honoured in December 2009 with the prize "Active for Democracy and Tolerance".
In 2008, the co-founder of the Kreisau-Initiative, Annemarie Cordes, was awarded the "einheitspreis – the Unity Prize" of the Federal Centre of Civic Education. The prize is awarded to people and projects that show how creating German unity and understanding between East and West in Europe can be successful only if it becomes an issue of every single citizen.
"The Marion Dönhoff Prize for International Understanding and Reconciliation" goes, according to countess’s idea, to "people who know what it is all about". In 2007, the Prize was awarded to the Kreisau-Initiative and to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The jury, whose members were, among others, former Chancellor Helmuth Schmidt and former Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker, explained its decision: "This award prizes voluntary work of an association which makes legacy of the opposition against Hitler and the reconciliation between Poland and Germany fruitful".
The Kreisau-Initiative was awarded the Polish-German Youth Prize “JugendMitVerantwortung” (Youth with Responsibility) in 2006 for the best extracurricular project. The prize is awarded every three years by the Polish-German Youth Office.
In her speech on the 100th birthday of Helmuth James von Moltke, the Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel pointed to the meaning of Krzyżowa: "It is so wonderful, that Poland and Germany and also many people from other countries were building the international youth meeting centre and help the European Academy in Krzyżowa live on."
In October 2007, President Horst Köhler hosted supporters and friends of Krzyżowa during a reception in the Bellevue Palace. In his welcome address he said: "It is necessary to prize also the strong commitment of many citizens from Poland, from East and West Germany and other countries – and last but not least of the Polish government. And Krzyżowa today? Every year 10.000 people from all over Europe meet there: old and young, famous and unknown. They get to know each other, they discuss, they argue."
The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek spoke out during an international conference on 25th February 2010 in Brussels on the meaning of Krzyżowa as follows: "It is about mutual respect among nations and countries instead of reciprocal resentment". According to the ideas of the Kreisau Circle, the educational work in Krzyżowa is to connect nations, not to separate them.
The German President Christian Wulff spoke during his first official visit in Warsaw in July 2010 about the significance of the Polish-German Youth Exchange for the relations of both neighouring countries and he described Krzyżowa as an important place of European integration.
His Polish fellow leader Bronislaw Komorowski mentioned Krzyżowa during this presidential meeting as an expression of mutual history and successful cooperation of the last 20 years. "We need new perspectives for European integration – new motivations, new inspirations for the population". And Krzyżowa is a place where young people come together and develop mutual ideas for the future.
