There is no question: we would have loved to have this facility in Saxony and kept our fingers crossed for the joint application from Plauen and Leipzig. The decision was made on 16.02.2023 and we congratulate Halle/Saale. May the institution fulfill the promise made in its somewhat unwieldy title: a place for forward-looking discourse. A place that does not focus on what divides us, but on the challenge of how we want to and can live together in the future, a challenge that moves us all and can only be overcome together.

What needs to be tackled together? Socially relevant research, dialog and encounters as well as art and culture will become a hub in Halle, not only for but above all together with the citizens of Europe. For a reinvigorated and, above all, tangible sense of unity, which we urgently need not only in these challenging times. In Saxony as well as in Saxony-Anhalt. Across Germany. And throughout Europe.