Global Ethic Foundation, Tübingen Activities of the year 2008

The year 2008 was fraught with crises and changes, whose global effects cannot at the moment be foreseen. The global finance crisis has given rise to calls for an ethical frame-work for financial markets and for the economy in general. And Germany’s president Horst Köhler has gone so far as to demand that the world community come to agreement about “a commonly accepted ethic”, about common values “that we all share and whose violation should be sanctioned by society.” All such demands are targeted at what is the central theme of the agenda of the Global Ethic Foundation and thus confirm, in these dramatic times, the need for our work. Already some ten years ago, Prof Küng had insisted, in his book A Global ethic for global politics and economics, that the globalization of the markets requires agreement about a global ethic. And since its inception, the Global Ethic Foundation has endeavoured to develop the foundations of a global ethic based on the world religions and philosophies and to promote the implementation of such an ethic in the diverse areas of society, national and international.

The election of Barack Obama as the new president of the United States has awakened hopes around the world for a new ordering of international politics: cooperation and dia-logue instead of confrontation and aggression. Here too the Global Ethic Foundation has for years been doing pioneering work. Already in 2001, Hans Küng – at the invitation of the United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan and together with a group of interna-tionally renowned persons – had contributed to the development of a future model for cul-tures and religions living together. The publications A Global ethic for global politics and economics (1997), Friedenspolitik (2003) and Religion – Macht – Frieden (2007) have done groundbreaking work, that needs to be further developed in the coming years.

It is not enough for intercultural dialogue and agreement on common values to be politi-cally willed and prepared for; they need also to be scientifically thought out and concretely put into practice. Here too, the Global Ethic Foundation has – together with like-minded people around the world – made outstanding contributions in the year 2008: in basic inter-religious research, in educational work in schools and in general education, in the media and in local projects. All in all, an impressive record of initiatives and successes, which will be described in this report.

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Activities of the core team of the Foundation

All those who belong to the scholarly team of the Global Ethic Foundation are continu-ously engaged, each in his or her own way, in the promotion and realization of the global ethic themes – in teaching engagements, in public lectures, in publications. In particular, the following activities deserve special mention.

Prof Küng undertook a lecture tour to three major universities in the USA from 12 to 22 November. Speaking on the topic “The challenge to Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the face of the global crisis”, he lectured at the Columbia University in New York, the Univer-sity of California in Santa Barbara, and the Georgetown University in Washington D.C. On the same topic, he spoke on 16 June in London at the Porticullis House of Parliament at the invitation of Lord St. John of Fawsley, member of the House of Lords. As a board member of the Global Humanitarian Forum founded by Kofi Annan, Prof Küng also took part in the yearly assembly of that organization in Geneva (23-25 June). Likewise, in his role as academic advisor, he took part in the Stockholm meeting of the InterAction Council of former heads of state and of government (24-27 June). In Germany, Prof Küng was in-vited by Germany’s President Horst Köhler to take part in an international discussion group “Aspects of Modernity”, which met in Schloss Bellevue in Berlin on 8 July. On 18 October, in Augsburg, he delivered the eulogy for Prince Hassan of Jordan on the occa-sion of the latter’s reception of the Augsburg Peace Prize.

On 19 March, Prof Küng turned 80. His birthday was celebrated in Tübingen and in his Swiss homeland in a number of public events, which, in diverse manner, paid tribute not only to his life work, but also, in a special way, to his “chief work” of the last twelve years, the Global Ethic Foundation. A selection of serious and humorous contributions by and about Hans Küng on the occasion of his 80th birthday has been published by Karl-Josef Kuschel and Stephan Schlensog in the Piper Verlag under the title Hans Küng – eine Na-haufnahme (Hans Küng – a closeup).

Prof Karl-Josef Kuschel, the Vicepresident of the Foundation celebrated his 60th birthday in March. On 26 May, in the course of an academic celebration in his honour at the Catho-lic Theological Faculty, he was presented with a festschrift Herzstücke. Texte die das Le-ben ändern, edited by Georg Langenhorst and Christoph Gellner, with contributions, among others, by Hans Küng and the former Ministerpräsident Erwin Teufel. A high point of the year was Prof Kuschel’s much applauded address on the occasion of the University of Tübingen’s solemn academic celebration to commemorate Hans Küng’s 80th birthday; this address is published in the above mentioned collection Hans Küng – eine Nahauf-nahme. In addition to numerous lectures in Germany and Switzerland, Prof Kuschel par-ticipated in a scholarly conference in Kyoto, Japan, in September, as a board member of the Tübingen University’s German – East Asian Scientific Forum. In addition to his works listed under the rubric “new publications” later in this report, two publications deserve spe-cial mention Zeitzeichen. Vierzig Analysen zu Kultur, Politik und Religion and „Mein Geist ins unbekannte Land“. Dichter und Denker auf Tübinger Friedhöfen.

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Dr Stephan Schlensog, General Secretary of the Foundation, celebrated his 50th birthday in November 2008. Alongside his manifold tasks in the management of the Foundation, he was particularly occupied (together with Julia Willke M.A.) with the development of the In-ternet learning platform “A Global Ethic Now!” In addition, he held numerous lectures and participated in various educational programmes. Among the latter, a global ethic meeting in Mediasch in Rumania, 12-13 March, deserves special mention. Organized by the Ger-man Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen, this convention brought together several hundred students, teachers and school administrators from German schools in Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary. With impressive presentations, the students demonstrated how they had worked over global ethic themes in their own contexts. Dr Schlensog held sev-eral lectures at the meeting and conducted working projects with students and teachers.

In 2008, the cooperation with the Selma-Rosenfeld-Realschule in Eppingen made notable progress. There, at the initiative of the two teachers Heike Biegel and Claudia Bätz-Gabriel, a multi-year curriculum is under development, to propagate and above all to put into practice global ethic themes. Dr Schlensog is engaged in this project, giving intellec-tual support and advising the teachers in the carrying out of the project.

Furthermore, Dr Schlensog is increasingly engaged in the work of the Swiss Global Ethic Foundation. With the departure of that Foundation’s general secretary in 2007, the work of the Swiss Foundation had to be reorganized. Accordingly, Dr Schlensog is involved in manifold ways in both the conceptual work and the carrying out of Swiss foundation pro-jects.

Dr Günther Gebhardt is the project coordinator for the Tübingen Global Ethic Foundation and the personal assistant to Prof Küng. Among his duties is assistance in carrying out the worldwide, multi-lingual correspondence, the preparation and the drafting of the Foun-dation’s yearly reports, and, together with Anette Stuber-Rousselle M.A. the upkeep of the comprehensive bibliography. In addition, he has held lectures in diverse cities in Ger-many. He held a lecture in Bologna (17 Sept.) and took part in a podium discussion in Strasbourg (3 March). He is also the Tübingen Foundation’s contact person for ongoing projects in China, Italy and the French-speaking parts of Switzerland.

Prof Hermann Häring (Tübingen), an academic advisor to the Foundation, lectured in Mexico City at a congress devoted to the God issue, which was co-organized by the Glo-bal Ethic Foundation Mexico under the leadership of Gerardo Martinez Cristerna. For the book Hans Küng – eine Nahaufnahme, Prof Häring contributed an impressive survey of the life work of Hans Küng.

Global ethic and global law

Legal regulations alone cannot guarantee a peaceful living together, when they are not supported by an ethic that includes an extensive ethical readiness to obey them. This holds for the national as well as for the international community. The complex relation-ships between law and ethic have been outlined by Prof Küng in a lecture on “Global ethic

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and global law” delivered before the assembled justices of the German Supreme Court in Karlsruhe (28 Oct.). In the future, this topic will be further developed within the agenda of the Global Ethic Foundation. The Austrian Global Ethic Initiative (see below) is making it the topic of a lecture series at the University of Vienna in the winter semester 2008/09 under the title “Global ethic and law”. One of the principal lecturers is Prof Dr Heinz-Dieter Assmann, professor for international business law at the Tübingen University School of Law and member of the Foundation’s advisory board.

Global ethic and the economy

In order to implement the global ethic themes in the economic area and to position the Global Ethic Foundation in the corresponding international discourse, a provisional pilot version of a document with the title Global Ethic – consequences for global economic activity was drawn up in April. On the basis of the Declaration Toward a global Ethic, this document sketches central aspects of a global economic ethic, which are of fundamental importance for many areas of economic activity.

The text was drawn up by a small circle composed of economic experts and staff mem-bers of the Global Ethic Foundation under the aegis of Prof Josef Wieland, an expert in business ethics from Constance. Under consideration is a proposal to recommend this document as the basis for cooperation between the Foundation and the United Nations Global Compact.

Global Ethic Lectures

For the Global Ethic Lecture in 2009, the world-renowned Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu has been engaged. His lecture will be held on 15 June, 2009. in the ceremonial auditorium of the Tübingen University. The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, who was born in 1931 and retired in 1996, takes his place in the illustrious group of seven Global Ethic lecturers since the year 2000: Tony Blair, Mary Robinson, Kofi Annan, Horst Köhler, Shirin Ebadi, Jacques Rogge and Helmut Schmidt. The Global Ethic Foundation is happy to present once again an internationally outstanding personality as a speaker. The Global Ethic Lectures have been sponsored over the last years by the Karl Schlecht Gemeinnützige Stiftung.

All of the Global Ethic Lectures are available as self-produced DVDs at the Internet Shop of the Foundation. In addition, the lectures by German President Horst Köhler (2004) and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (2007) are marketed commercially through Komplett-Media, Grünwald b. München. The Global Ethic Lecture by Helmut Schmidt has been broadcasted several times by the German TV-channel Phoenix.

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Global ethic in education and the schools

Following the production of a portfolio of educational materials under the title Weltethos in der Schule (Global Ethic in the school), it became possible, with the support of Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Education Helmut Rau, to create a network of multipliers to propagate the global ethic idea and to distribute these materials in the schools of Baden-Württemberg. From all four administrative districts (Tübingen, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Freiburg), qualified teachers from the schools and school district administrations have been appointed to perform this function. Together with these persons, Dr Schlensog was responsible for developing strategies appropriate to each type of school, by means of which, through teacher-training sessions and similar multiplication programmes as well as concrete school projects, the global ethic themes might be more firmly anchored in the schools and other educational programmes. This process will be intensified in 2009. In particular, medium and long-term school projects devoted to the global ethic themes are scheduled to be carried out and the experiences gained thereby will be put at the disposi-tion of other teachers and schools. Once again it becomes manifest that the global ethic themes are particularly well adapted to presentation in the course of interdisciplinary teaching.

To more effectively put the global ethic themes on the agenda of the schools in Tübingen, a contest with prizes for global ethic class projects has been announced for 2009; with these prizes, outstanding learning projects devoted to the global ethic themes will be inspired and honoured. The projects thus honoured will be presented to other schools as models and sources of inspiration. To this end, Dr Schlensog has already held initial con-versations with teachers in Tübingen.

The portfolio of educational materials Weltethos in der Schule (Global ethic in the school) put together by Dr Schlensog and high school teacher Walter Lange in 2008 has been so successful that a second, expanded edition has now been put together.

Many collaborators of the Global Ethic Foundation are active as lecturers in the educa-tional field. In particular, Walter Lange (Castrop-Rauxel) lectures on global ethic themes almost every week in school classes and at teacher training courses throughout Germany. Dr Martin Bauschke has conducted programmes at various schools in Berlin in the course of his school initiative. In Northern Germany over the years, Dr Christel Hasselmann has been carrying out global ethic projects not only on her own school in Garbsen by Han-nover but has also lectured for the Foundation at many other places. Prof em. Johannes Lähnemann (Nürnberg) has lectured on global ethic in education in a variety of academic and public occasions. For his pioneering work in inter-religious education he was awarded the German Federal Order of Merit.

In Switzerland, institutional cooperation with the teacher training institute Pädagogische Hochschule Zentralschweiz has been initiated. More about this below under “Global Ethic Foundation Switzerland”.

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The Foundation office in Berlin

The principal activity of the Foundation’s half-time representative in Berlin, Dr Martin Bauschke, has been the continuation of his school initiative begun in the academic year 2007/08. By mail and increasingly by personal contact with teachers and by visits to schools and to teacher training courses, 52 schools have been informed about the possi-bility of showing the Global Ethic Exhibition and about other available educational materi-als offered by the Foundation. All in all, the Global Ethic Exhibition has been shown in various Berlin schools continuously from February until Christmas 2008. The educational material portfolio Weltethos in der Schule (Global ethic in the school)s has been presented to those responsible for the training of teachers for the so-called LER-courses in ethics and religion at the schools in Brandenburg. These people were enthusiastic and are mak-ing the global ethic materials known throughout Brandenburg in the course of the 2008/09 school year.

Dr Bauschke continues to be involved in the on-going training of international multipli-ers. In 2008, as in every year since 2003, he participated in the teacher training pro-gramme “European Islamic Cultural Dialogue” sponsored by the pedagogical exchange programme of the Conference of Ministers of Education. In August 2008 he led two global ethic training sessions for more than 40 teachers and multipliers from the Islamic world. As in the past, these courses found excellent resonance especially among the imams. Likewise important was a training course conducted by Dr Bauschke for the first time un-der the aegis of the Islamic Federation of Teachers for Islamic Religious Education.

In addition, Dr Bauschke initiated the very successful Global Ethic Exhibition in Dort-mund, which he opened together with former parliament’s president Rita Süssmuth. With an opening speech, he participated in the showing of the Exhibition in Torgau in Saxony and with a closing speech in the showing of the Exhibition in Minden. At his initiative, the Exhibition will be opened in June 2009 at the Berlin City Hall by Berlin’s Mayor Klaus Wowereit together with Prof Küng.

Global ethic in Weimar

With the conference “Global ethic – ethical standards for our time”, the Global Ethic Foun-dation began a three-year programme of cooperation with the Friedrich Nietzsche Kolleg of the Foundation of Weimar Classics. At this conference in Weimar, Prof Küng held the opening lecture at the Bauhaus University. The professor of religious education Johannes Lähnemann (Nürnberg) and high school teacher Walter Lange (Castrop-Rauxel) spoke at the Goethe National Museum on global ethic in education and school teaching. In Novem-ber 2009 a further conference is planned with the theme “Global ethic – impulses from lit-erature and philosophy”. For October 2010, it is planned to close the series with a confer-ence on the theme “Global ethic – challenge for the world religions”.

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Internet-homepage of the Global Ethic Foundation

According to the latest statistics, some 30.000 visitors click into the Internet-homepage of the Foundation (www.weltethos.org) each month. This is an impressive sign of the grow-ing interest of a broad public in our work and in the diverse information and materials, which our Foundation offers via the Internet. For the outstanding professional presentation of these offerings, we thank the Rottenburg Media Studio Christoph Lang; the conceptual work is done by Dr Stephan Schlensog and Julia Willke, M.A.

An entirely new dimension of the Foundation’s educational work via the Internet is repre-sented by the interactive learning platform “A Global Ethic Now”. After three years of work by Stephan Schlensog and Julia Willke, this project will go online in German and English presumably in February 2009. With this programme, the Foundation now has at its disposal a unique, comprehensive and worldwide accessible instrument of education. The basic version in German and English has been paid for (up to a third of the costs) by the Robert Bosch Foundation; the rest has been covered by other sponsors. In 2009, a French version of the learning platform will be prepared: for its financing we thank the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (Directorate for Development and Cooperation). The Foundation hopes to find sponsors for other versions – if possible also in non-European languages.

The “Internet Shop”, where materials, media and books can be purchased, continues to prove a huge success. In 2008, some 14,000 articles were ordered, among them 7400 exhibition booklets, 2500 Global Ethic Declarations and 780 learning material portfolios Weltethos in der Schule.

The exhibition “World Religions – Universal Peace – Global Ethic”

The exhibition booklet is now available in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Fin-nish, Hungarian, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia. This year, the travelling exhibition was shown for the first time in Finland.

– In Germany, the larger version of the Exhibition was shown this year in Reutlingen, Limbach-Oberfrohna, Duisburg, Dortmund, Herna and Spaichingen. The smaller version was shown in many schools (which often purchased it for future showings) and in a num-ber of other cities and towns. For more information about such showings, see the Founda-tion’s website under the rubric “Exhibition”.

– In Switzerland, the exhibition was shown in both the French and the German versions at the University of Fribourg and in Winterthur during the “Orient Week”.

– In Austria, the English version of the exhibition was shown at the UN City in Vienna as well as in some adult education colleges in Vienna.

– In France: in Aix-en-Provence and Les Pennes.Mirabeau.

– in Great Britain, coordinated by Canon Alan Race (Leicester) in Cambridge, Norwich and Peterborough.

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Global Ethic Foundation Switzerland

With great sorrow, the staff and friends of the Foundation received the news of the death of the generous founder of the Global Ethic Foundation Switzerland, Martita Jöhr-Rohr. She died this year at almost 96 years of age. Until the end, she followed the activities of the Foundation with great interest. The Foundation, whose work was so dear to her, will continue to keep Martita Jöhr in fond memory.

Even more than before, the work of the Tübingen and the Zürich Foundations is closely entwined, although each Foundation continues to retain its own operative profile. With the departure of the Swiss executive secretary Guido Baumann in 2007, the representation of the Swiss Foundation has more than ever lain in the experienced hands of Heinz Müller and Dr Josef Studinka, who, together with Hans Küng constitute the Governing Board of the Swiss Foundation. A business office for the Swiss Foundation – responsible particu-larly for the storage and distribution of materials – has been erected at the renowned La-salle-Haus in Bad Schönbrunn. There are plans to give greater attention to global ethic themes in the future educational work of that institution. With Lukas Niederberger, the Foundation has engaged a competent and experienced project director and lecturer.

At the University of Fribourg on 25/26 April, 2008, a “Global Ethic Forum” was held, the organization of which was due especially to Prof Alois Riklin (St. Gall), member of the Foundation’s board of advisors. Prof Küng held the opening speech and Prof Kuschel op-ened the exhibition “World Religions – Universal Peace – Global Ethic”, which was shown in both the German and the French versions in two university buildings. In a seminar on the dialogue between the cultures moderated by Advisory Board member Dr Erwin Koller, lectures on various aspects of the global ethic theme were held by Rabbi Dr Walter Ho-molka, Prof Kuschel, Amira Hafner-Al-Jabaji and Dr Ursula Renz. In a ceremony to mark the close of the exhibition on 8 May, Prof Riklin spoke on “The Parable of the Ring and the global ethic”.

The Global Ethic Foundation was an official partner of the Orient Week in Winterthur (13-18 May). Prof Karl-Josef Kuschel held the opening speech under the title “Tolerance in Orient and Occident” During this week, the exhibition “World Religions – Universal Peace – Global Ethic” was on display there.

A central project in Switzerland is the cooperation, established in 2008, with the Päda-gogische Hochschule Zentralschweiz (PHZ), a teacher training college located in Schwyz, with a specialized centre for ethics, religion and culture in nearby Goldau. Through courses and other joint presentations, the global ethic idea will thus be firmly an-chored in the preparation and ongoing training of teachers. The goal is to create a “Com-petency Centre Global Ethic” located at the PHZ. The legal contract of cooperation will be signed on 4 March, 2009, in Goldau. This marks the first time that an official relation-ship will link the Foundation to an institution for teacher training. In the future, it is hoped to establish such cooperation relationships with other teacher training colleges. The Swiss Foundation’s project director Lukas Niederberger will function as contact person to the PHZ,

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In the French speaking Western Switzerland, the success of the global ethic school competition “Main dans la main” in 2006/07, led to the establishment of a new contest under the same name for the year 2008/09, this time concentrating on the cantons less well represented in the first competition. As in the preceding contest, the jury will be mod-erated by the distinguished professor of ethics Denis Müller (Lausanne). The organiza-tional work has been entrusted to the project directors Mark Haltmeier and Laurent Borel in Neuchâtel. For more information see www.mdlm.ch.

Global Ethic Initiative Austria / IWEO (www.weltethos.at)

The Initiative Weltethos Österreich (IWEO) is organized as an association. It is under the direction of the renowned professor of political science Anton Pelinka; general secretary is Mag. Edith Riether. As in previous years, the chief activity this year was the organization of interdisciplinary university lecture series devoted to diverse dimensions of a global ethic. Since 2005, these lecture series have proven a great success. Of particular note is that students, at their own request, can take examinations in the content of the lecture se-ries.

In the winter semester 2007/08, an interdisciplinary lecture series “Ethic and technol-ogy” at the Technical University of Vienna under the direction of Prof Hermann Knofla-cher was offered as a cooperative venture of the Technical University, the IWEO and the organization “Wiener Vorlesungen”. The IWEO was represented by a number of promi-nent lecturers. The publication of a report of the lecture series is planned.

In the summer semester 2008, the fourth interdisciplinary lecture series under the title “Ethics and the shortage of resources” was offered at the University of Natural Re-sources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, under the direction of Prof Helga Kromp-Kolb. The lectures, held by high-ranking speakers, attracted an unexpected number of students. A report of these lectures is also in planning.

In October 2008, a new lecture series (ending on 29 Jan. 2009) began at the University Law School in Vienna under the topic “Global ethic and law”. The direction of this project was undertaken by the professors Richard Potz and Gerhard Luf. One of the high points of this series was the lecture by the former president of Iran Mohammad Khatami on 27 October. Almost all of the lecturers in this series are members of the IWEO. Among the speakers, as mentioned above, was Prof Heinz-Dieter Assmann (Tübingen), who is a board member of the Tübingen Global Ethic Foundation.

The report of the lecture series “Global ethic and globalization” held in the winter semester 2006/07 was published by the LIT-Verlag in June 2008. This collection was edited by the vice-president of the IWEO Prof Erwin Bader on behalf of the IWEO.

The Exhibition “World Religions – Universal Peace – Global Ethic” was shown in the Ro-tunda of the UN City Vienna from mid April to mid May and again in September and Octo-ber in two adult education centres in Vienna.

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The IWEO working group “Ethics Education” undertook several initiatives directed at those responsible on the federal and state levels for the promotion of ethics education in Austrian schools.

The IWEO board member Mag. Michael Weiss has taken up a teaching position at the Pädagogische Hochschule Niederösterreich, a teacher training college in Baden, Austria, where he conducts courses in ethics for ethics teachers in training. The global ethic themes are an integral part of these courses.

Further information about the activities of the IWEO is available on the Internet pages of the organization, which are maintained by Mag. Kilian Sternad. Since 2008, it is possible there to subscribe without cost to a regular e-mail newsletter.

Independent of the IWEO, the “Innsbruck Forum for the Scholarly Support of the Global Ethic Project”, under the leadership of Prof Helmut Reinalter, is currently engaged in preparing a symposium “Global ethic and the dialogue of the cultures in European per-spective”, which will be held in Innsbruck 4-7 June, 2009. Dr Schlensog and Dr Gebhardt will take part as lecturers.

Global ethic international

- In 2007, Dr Diana Segantini was recruited as the Foundation’s official international representative. In 2008 she was primarily occupied with fundraising. She established new contacts in Switzerland and elsewhere, among them in several Arab countries.

– Brazil: On the basis of preparatory work by Prof Paulo Soethe (Curitiba), it became possible in August to open an office at the university UNISINOS (Sao Leopoldo) with a part-time staff member to coordinate global ethic activities in Brazil. Very soon, a Global Ethic Foundation will be officially founded for Brazil. The Tübingen Global Ethic Founda-tion is most grateful to the Georges Wick Foundation in Switzerland for its generous sup-port of the Brazilian project.

– China: Already in 1997 and 2001, the Global Ethic Foundation was able to carry out academic conferences in Beijing on the theme “Traditional Chinese ethics and global ethic” In the preparation of these conferences, the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies (ISCS) in Hong Kong under its director Daniel Yeung was particularly helpful. Since then, the long-term contacts with the ISCS have paved the way for a new major project. To-gether with state institutions in the school sector, the seven films “Spurensuche” and the education materials portfolio Weltethos in der Schule will be translated and adapted into Chinese and thus find entry into the Chinese school system.

– Italy: Contacts have been made with the research centre Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII in Bologna (Prof Alberto Melloni and Prof Pier Cesare Bori). Starting in March 2009, Dr Gianmaria Zamagni will there take up efforts for the Global Ethic Project: on the one hand, qualified research activities, but also, on the other hand, practical tasks of distributing materials and promoting global ethic themes in schools and

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education. In September 2008, Dr Günther Gebhardt gave an introduction to the Global Ethic Project within the framework of an educational event organized there.

The Global Ethic Foundations in Columbia, Mexico, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been able to consolidate and to expand their work in the course of 2008. Special thanks are due to the unflagging leaders of the foundations in these four countries, Carlos Paz, Gerardo Martinez Cristerna, Gábor Glückmann and Karel Floss. Particularly diffi-cult has been the work in Hungary, which is in the midst of dramatic social upheaval. Thus it ranks as a major success that the Hungarian representative Gábor Glückmann has been able not only to make promising contacts in the educational field and in the commu-nity of artists, but also to hold a much noticed interreligious conference at the University of Budapest involving Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Internationally significant is also the new cooperation with Rabbi Prof Dr Walter Homolka, Rector of the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam. The book he has authored together with Prof Küng Global ethic in the sources of Judaism is in the course of being translated for publication in an American and other editions.

Awards

On 8 March, 2008, in Bochum, Prof Küng received the Steiger Award for Tolerance. On 20 November at the Georgetown University in Washington D.C., he received the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Award for his life work in the service of Christian-Muslim dialogue. It was the first time this honour was awarded. On 28 November in Düsseldorf, he received an award for civil courage from the Heinrich Heine Circle of Friends. On 17 December in Berlin, he was honoured with the Otto Hahn Peace Medal of the German Society for the United Nations (Berlin Brandenburg). None of these awards involved financial remunera-tion.

New Publications

Hans Küng – Walter Homolka, Weltethos aus den Quellen des Judentums (Herder, Freiburg/Br.);

Karl-Josef Kuschel, Weihnachten und der Koran (Patmos, Düsseldorf); Stephan Schlensog, Die Weltreligionen für die Westentasche (Piper, München); Karl-Josef Kuschel – Stephan Schlensog (ed.), Hans Küng – eine Nahaufnahme (Piper,

München); Hans-Martin Schönherr-Mann, Miteinander leben lernen. Die Philosophie und der Kampf

der Kulturen (Piper, München); Carlos Paz – Gerardo Martinez (ed.), Etica mundial en América Latina (Trotta, Madrid); Martin Bauschke, Der Spiegel des Propheten. Abraham im Koran und im Islam (Lembeck,

Frankfurt);

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Erwin Bader (ed.), Weltethos und Globalisierung (Collective report of the interdisciplinary lecture series 2005/06 in Vienna; LIT-Verlag, Münster, Wien u.a.);

Thomas Axworthy (ed.), Bridging the Divide. Religious Dialogue and Universal Ethics (Collective report of the experts’ meeting of the InterAction Council in Tübingen 2007; McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston).

New translations

Hans Küng, Erkämpfte Freiheit. Erinnerungen appeared in Italian (Diabasis, Reggio Emilia);

Hans Küng, Umstrittene Wahrheit. Erinnerungen appeared in English (Continuum, Lon-don) and Dutch (Ten Have, Kampen);

Hans Küng – Angela Rinn-Maurer, Weltethos christlich verstanden appeared in Spanish (Trotta, Madrid);

Hans Küng, Der Anfang aller Dinge. Naturwissenschaft und Religion appeared in French (Seuil, Paris) and Dutch (Ten Have, Kampen);

Hans Küng, Spurensuche. Die Weltreligionen auf dem Weg appeared as a single volume pocket book (Piper, München); the seven films in the Spurensuche series appeared in Portuguese in Brazil

Hans Küng, Kleine Geschichte der katholischen Kirche appeared in Croatian (Alfa, Zagreb);

Hans Küng, Musik und Religion appeared in Spanish (Trotta, Madrid); The booklet Weltreligionen – Weltfrieden – Weltethos appeared in a Finnish version.

The Staff of the Foundation in Tübingen

All the members of the team of the Global Ethic Foundation in Tübingen have also this year been engaged to the utmost in carrying out the diverse tasks of the Foundation. Be-cause, taken together, this team consists of only five full-time positions for both the schol-arly and the administrative task areas, each year represents a renewed challenge.

Chief Secretary Ute Wanner has brought to bear her excellent human and professional qualifications in the complex tasks of the secretariat. Foundation Assistant Anette Stu-ber-Rousselle M.A., staff member since the beginning of the Foundation, continues to apply her accumulated experience to the work of editing the numerous lecture and book manuscripts and the comprehensive multilingual bibliography. Julia Willke M.A. applies her knowledge and engagement in the main to the task of producing the Internet learning programme, but also she assists Dr Schlensog in his diverse tasks. Dr Markus Wein-gardt continues to be responsible for the bookkeeping; but in addition he appears more and more often as a speaker for the Foundation, particularly when it comes to political themes.

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Valuable practical assistance is performed by our student assistants, who work alternately with only a few hours a week: Stephan Klinkenberg (till summer 2008), Ivan Lacic and Khira Sippli (since autumn 2008) and high school student Katja Flatters. The Media Studio Lang in Rottenburg is responsible not only for the support of the Internet presence of the Foundation. In addition to producing diverse graphics for media presentations, Christoph and Claudia Lang are responsible for the logistics of the travelling exhibition, for the maintenance of the Foundation’s warehouse and for the administration and proc-essing of orders placed through the Internet shop.

Major sponsors

The Global Ethic Foundation takes this opportunity to thank its board members in Ger-many and Switzerland for their ongoing support of the Foundation’s work and for their nu-merous stimulating suggestions. The Foundation likewise extends its thanks to all the friends and supporters, whose contributions are indispensible for the continuing work of the Foundation. For years now, Prof h.c. Reinhold Würth and Prof h.c. Karl Schlecht have continued to give substantial financial support to the work of the Foundation. For the year 2008, the Foundation in Germany and in Switzerland owes special thanks to Carla Schwöbel-Braun (Lucerne) and Ralf Schneider (Constance) for their more than gener-ous financial contributions, but also to Ute Kohm (Pforzheim), Karl-Hermann Blickle (Balingen), Maria Elisabeth Gräfin zu Münster (Wachtberg-Pech), Bruno and Rita Frei-Küng (Sursee) and many other contributors.

The Global Ethic Foundation has not been left untouched by the effects of the financial crisis. More than ever we are dependent on financial gifts for the maintenance of our ac-tivities. Thus even the smallest contribution represents a great help for our Foundation’s work.

Tübingen, January 2009 Dr. Günther Gebhardt

Translation: Dr. Thomas Riplinger