125 years young – Friedensau celebrates its foundation

Friedensau was founded in 1899 and is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. A festive service was held in the arena on Saturday, 19 October 2024, followed by the official anniversary ceremony in the afternoon, to which personalities from partner universities, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and the local community were also invited. Companions and long-time friends, graduates and other alumni also gathered to celebrate the anniversary in Friedensau.

The sermon was delivered by Lisa Beardsley-Hardy, Ph.D., Director of Education at the General Conference, representing the highest governing body of the Church. The keynote speaker in the afternoon was Prof. Dr. Hendrik Olbertz, former Minister of Education of Saxony-Anhalt. He entitled his speech ‘Believing to know’.

On this day, there was also an opportunity to quote some passages from the Friedensau Chronicle – no one could do this better than historian Dr. Johannes Hartlapp, who is currently working on the final version of the Friedensau Chronicle in book form. The Friedensau Chronicle will be published in spring 2025 and will be available for purchase.

The celebrations were accompanied by music from Friedensau students such as Martin Lindtner (with Elise Thiel, guitars), the university choir, the Lehmgrübner brass band (Freiberg) and Jürgen Hartmann (Berlin) and Helmut May (Wittenberg) on the organ.

Throughout the year, there have already been a large number of events to mark the anniversary, such as the permanent exhibition on local history in the university library, the open day and a lecture series on ‘Flourishing’ towards the end of the year.

Graduation ceremony on Sunday

On Sunday, 20 October, the Deans Prof. Thomas Spiegler (School of Social Sciences) and Alexander Schulze, Ph.D. (School of Theology) presented the certificates and diplomas to the graduates of the class of 2024. 48 graduates from the both Schools of Social Sciences and School of Theology received their Bachelor's and Master's certificates. Ventsislav Panayotov, Head of Department for Pastoral Services at the Inter-European Division in Bern, gave the keynote speech. Panayotov also studied at Friedensau and recalled his student days fondly in his speech.

During the graduation ceremony, students were honoured with awards: The DAAD prize for outstanding achievements by foreign students was awarded to Stanley Tangie; the sponsorship prize of the ‘Freundeskreis Friedensau International e.V.’ association went to Vida Owusu Agyemang. The Waltraud and Herbert Blomstedt Prize was awarded to the students Martin Lindtner (Prize vo Theology); Andrei Sisu, Matej Lukšic, Michael Bistrovic and Cin Dei Tuang (Prize of Music).

These were eventful days, especially for our graduates. As can be read on one of the oldest buildings on the campus, the Wilhelm-Michael-Haus: ‘Open up, become light!’ They are now starting their professional lives with this mission. We wish them all God's blessing! (Text: Andrea Cramer).

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