Award winners 2006

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

The 2006 Peace of Westphalia Prize honors the former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing not only as a convinced and convincing builder of Europe, but above all for his work as Chairman of the Constitutional Convention of the European Union. In tough negotiations, he succeeded in drafting a constitutional treaty for a united Europe.

The international jury of the Peace Prize voted for the prizewinner not despite, but precisely because the draft constitution failed in the referendums in France and Holland for predominantly domestic and party political reasons. "The treaty is anything but unsuitable; a constitutionally united Europe would be an additional guarantee for the internal and external peace of an entity of European states located between a confederation of states and a federal state under constitutional law," the jury's statement said.

Young people in the von Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten Bethel

The Youth Prize of the Year 2006 goes to the young people at the von Bodelschwinghsche Anstalten Bethel, who carry out their self-sacrificing work with old, sick and disabled people during a social year there. They are also honored on behalf of numerous other young people who volunteer to help in socially sensitive places.

In Bethel, more than 150 young people now contribute their willingness to help to the largest diaconal institution in the world every year. They practise humanism and charity there and consolidate their own social skills, according to the jury's statement. Especially in 2006, a year in which many places are commemorating the 175th anniversary of Friedrich von Bodelschwingh's birth, the work carried out in Bethel seems particularly worthy of recognition.