Awarded with the Europakreuz in gold
02/11/2010
In the presence of the honorary senator Gerhard R. Daiger, managing director of the manufacturer of the Walser dental matrices and other dental instruments, the Europakreuz in gold was awarded to the former FDP chairman and retired state minister Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt.
In recognition of his great contributions to the unity of Europe in liberty and peace, the European Senate to promote Business and Culture in European Countries in the economy committee Germany recently awarded the former FDP chairman Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt (member of the German Bundestag) in Potsdam with "The Europakreuz" in gold under presence of Senator Gerhard R. Daiger.
The federal senate economy and technology presented the Europakreuz in gold by Siegfried Auffermann, federal chairman and chairman president of Wirtschaftskomitee Deutschland e.V., under presence of numerous guests from politics and economy in Potsdam/GERMANY. The WBA, connection office to the German Bundestag with Europasenat for the promotion of the economic, scientific and cultural relations between the states and regions Europe and Germany, in which Gerhard Daiger is active, has his headquarters in Berlin.
On the following day Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt , who is a chairman of the Friedrich-Naumann foundation for liberty, gave a greeting to which senator h.c. Daiger was invited. The greeting took place in the Truman house in Potsdam-Neubabelsberg in which the foundation has its residence.
On May 19th, 1958 engaged liberals and Federal President Theodor Heuss met in the villa Hammerschmidt in Bonn/GERMANY to found the Friedrich-Naumann foundation which opened its office in the Truman house in Potsdam in 2000. Already in 1891 the publishing businessman Carl Müller-Grothe instructed the architects Karl von Groszheim and Heinrich Joseph Kayser, to build a summer residence directly at the Griebnitzsee on the property Kaiserstraße 2 in Neubabelsberg, the house Erlenkamp.
At that time, Müller-Grothe could not suspect that once his estate would be of historical importance. Already in the street name could almost always be read reliably in which epoch the visitors of the house lived: In the time of the National Socialism the address was street of the SA.
After the battle around Berlin1945 the winner, general Shukov, confiscated the estate for some days. U.S. president Harry S. Truman obtained the villa as a residence during the Potsdam meeting on July 15th, 1945 - he called her "Little White House", his stay brought the villa the name "Truman Villa". The at that time most powerful man of the world also greeted Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin here.
The Truman house is a historical centre of the area on the shore of the Potsdam Griebnitzsee. It has become to the mirror of the heights and depths of the German history of the 20th century.
