We planted the first Trees Of Peace
With the desire to achieve one of our goals – the promotion of world peace – in mind, we have set ourselves the goal of planting trees around the globe, peace trees, known internationally as “Trees of Peace”. The impetus for this project came from a historical event, namely the fact that 5 trees were planted for Count Luckner in Israel in 1966. You can find more information >>> HERE <<<. As the first action for the “Trees of Peace” we chose the city in which our company is based, namely Halle (Saale). In particular, we chose an open space near the Plantetarium. On November 25, 2024, we took action and planted the first peace trees. You can find more information in the above mentioned link.
Update to the project “Integratation sets a precedent”
We are delighted to have received the news today that we have been able to gain another patron for our above-mentioned project. Dr. Judith Marquardt (councillor for culture and sport) agreed to do this in response to our request. Many of our members also know and value Dr. Marquardt due to her diverse activities and appreciate this second patronage to the same extent.
Receipt of a donation in kind
Today we received a donation in kind from Switzerland, which we were very pleased about.
It is the rare book “The Sea Devil’s Fo’c'sle” by Lowell Thomas in a 1929 edition. Lowell Thomas (author of “With Laurence in Arabia” among others) had already written the book “The Sea Devil” in the early 1920s, which formed the basis for Luckner’s popularity in the USA. In 1959 Thomas ensured that the count was honored in the program “This is your life”.
The book donated today deals with stories of the count, which he described in German, for example in the book “Seeteufels Weltfahrt”. The program also included signed pictures and a great newspaper clipping that we had not seen before.
We were very pleased about the donation in kind, thank you very much for the support of our museum and send our warmest greetings to Beinwill am See in Switzerland.
Update to the project “Integratation sets a precedent”
Today, July 15, 2024, Ms. Katharina Brederlow, Councilor for Education and Social Affairs of the City of Halle (Saale), officially took over patronage for our project. We are very pleased about this and would like to thank you very much for the trust you have placed in us!
Museum of the seafaring
Today we had the opportunity to take over part of the “Museum of Maritime Travel”. For this reason we drove to Geiselhöring (near Regensburg) and met the operator, Ms. Hella Meister, daughter of the museum’s founder, Mr. Hellmut Osten, who incidentally founded the museum under the name “Graf Luckner Museum”. We are very grateful for the offer to take over the part of the collection relating to Count Luckner for a fair price and promise to continue to manage what has been transferred to us in the spirit of Hellmut Osten.
Matthias J. Maurer
Our president is Matthias J. Maurer. His namesake, who worked as an astronaut for a long time on the International Space Station ISS, is probably better known throughout Germany. Incidentally, he had a copy of the famous Nebra Sky Disk (the oldest known depiction of the sky) with him, which is on display in the State Museum of Prehistory, which is based in Halle. In the autumn of this year, he brought the disk back. A second visit included a visit to the new planetarium in the Saale city, where the astronaut presented his book “Cosmic Kiss”, in which he reports on his time on the ISS, among other things. Our president made an effort to attend the event not only because of the similarity in names. There he was able to hand over “fan mail” to his namesake that had been sent to him in error. He also asked him about his attitude to international understanding, because promoting this is a goal firmly anchored in the Graf Luckner statutes. The astronaut answers this question as expected, saying that he obviously sees himself as an ambassador for peace and that we could all see ourselves as astronauts, because we are all basically astronauts and our spaceship is the Earth. What a fascinating perspective!
Of course there was an autograph in the book that was purchased, and a very special one at that, because the astronaut also has a “J” between his first and last name, which he does not use, contrary to our president’s habit. But he did use it for the autograph!