Minister President Hendrik Wüst holds laudatory speech for Joachim Gauck

The Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, will be the laudatory speaker for the winner of the Mönchengladbach Benedict Prize, former Federal President Joachim Gauck. The ceremony will take place on Thursday, 5 December 2024, in the Kaisersaal of Haus Erholung in Mönchengladbach. ‘We are very proud of the Prime Minister’s commitment,’ says Ulrich M. Harnacke, Chairman of the Board of the Mönchengladbach Benedict Prize Association, ’because it not only recognises Joachim Gauck’s life’s work, but also confirms the importance of the award ceremony.’

As President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Gauck has always stood up for justice and freedom and democracy, has repeatedly raised awareness of the great good of freedom and emphasised its link to responsibility, according to the Board of Trustees of the Mönchengladbach Benedict Prize Association in its unanimous award statement.

The Benedict Prize of Mönchengladbach has been awarded for more than half a century and, since its reorganisation in 2013, is the third prize in North Rhine-Westphalia with a state-wide claim and supra-regional significance alongside the ‘Aachen Charlemagne Prize’ and the ‘Peace of Westphalia Prize’ in Münster.