From the former death strip in Berlin via Latvia to Poland
Handover ceremony at International Green Week
On 17 January 2015 and to the applause of the Latvian Minister of Agriculture Jānis Dūklavs and other high-ranking representatives of Polish and Latvian Ministries of Agriculture, Latvian undersecretary of state Dace Lucaua handed over the European PeaceBread to the Polish Vice-Minister Zofia Krzyzanowska at International Green Week. The bread that has its origin on the former death strip at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin thereby continues its journey via the partner country of this year’s International Green Week to Poland, host of the next PeaceBread forum “Agriculture and Peace”.
Background: On 1 October 2014 and thus shortly before the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ambassador of Latvia to the Federal Republic of Germany, Elita Kuzma, received the first European PeaceBread from the German Federal Minister of Agriculture Christian Schmidt. The grain for the bread had been grown on sites of national historic importance in all twelve Middle and Eastern European partner countries of the PeaceBread project on the basis of rye seeds which had originated from the former death strip in Berlin. The European PeaceBread thus is bread that became the symbol for peace, freedom and international understanding between countries which share the fate of the cold war with Germany, and which live in freedom and democracy today.
The “peace rye” harvested in all partner countries in 2014 was used by master baker Wolfgang Zimmermann in Berlin to bake the first mutual European PeaceBread. On that occasion, Friedensbrot e. V. (Association PeaceBread) organised an international conference “Agriculture and Peace” in Brandenburg on 29/30 September 2014 and a solemn ceremonial act “Sowing and Harvesting in Peace” in Berlin on 1 October 2014.
During the event, participating partner countries agreed in a mutual declaration to establish a lasting platform “Peace and Agriculture” for meetings and exchange and to sow the European “peace rye” on an annual basis from now on. In regular conferences in partner countries, the underlying idea of “Sowing and Harvesting in Peace” shall be deepened. For 2015, representatives of the Republic of Poland have extended the invitation to celebrate the European PeaceBread close to Warsaw in conjunction with the Polish harvest festival.