Mr Klaus Rosenthal lives in and is a native German. What connects him with Bolesławiec is the secondary school he completed here, as well as a sentimental attachment to the land of his childhood and youth. The turmoil of war marked a turning point in his biography and forced him to leave his “little homeland.” What remained was a lasting affection for the picturesque towns on the Bóbr, memories, and a desire to draw closer to Poland and the Polish people.
Mr Rosenthal has taken on the duties of a genuine ambassador of friendship and rapprochement between the two partner cities, Bolesławiec and Siegburg, as well as between the two nations, Germans and Poles. It is an impulse of the heart and a life calling, a sign of a new era, and an inner need to serve the community pro publico bono.
The hospitable house on the outskirts of the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany is always open to guests from the town on the Bóbr. President Józef Król, TMB chairman Zygmunt Brusiło, and Education and Culture Committee chairwoman Dorota Pińczuk have stayed there. Recently, a secondary-school student selected by his school returned from a several-week stay as Mr Rosenthal’s guest. His welcoming host provided him not only with food and accommodation, but also showed him many interesting places in this part of Germany.
This is how the idea of reconciliation and international rapprochement is put into practice—a wide gateway to a new Europe.
There is no need for grand words or propaganda: neighbouring nations can and must live together in friendship. Mr Klaus places his hopes in young people: tomorrow and the new world of the future belong to them. Affection for the city of his youth prompted him to bring many friends, former pupils of Bolesławiec’s Alma Mater, to a ceremonial reunion of graduates; the 80- and 90-year-old former female students could not hold back their tears of emotion. The secondary school welcomed everyone with dignity and warmth, to the best of its abilities and in keeping with traditional Polish hospitality.
It all began four years ago, when the first contacts were established with German Siegburg, home to a large group of former residents of our city. Each year, the scope of contacts and the circle of people interested in cooperation grew. Were it not for the language barrier and the considerable distance, visits and return visits would surely take place every day. Even so, Mr Klaus often visits us, most recently in July with a group of several people. His compatriots left, but he stayed for a few more days because he simply likes the colourful town on the Bóbr.
We spoke aboard the barge-boat that has now become a permanent part of the landscape of the parkland and pond beside the historic defensive walls.
The Society of Bolesławiec Enthusiasts hosted the charming guest for a modest dinner. How much he has to say about our town after so many years away: his knowledge of details is impressive, details one would hardly even guess at from the shape of the centuries-old buildings. He possesses broad, truly encyclopaedic knowledge and an unfailing memory. He knows where the monument to Marcin Opitz was erected, right beside the old theatre; he tells colourful stories about the history of the local ceramics school, the paintings decorating the interior of the Baroque parish church, the former orphanage, and the ceramic factories known throughout Europe. His lifelong hobby is ceramics, especially ceramics from Bolesławiec, and at home he has amassed a collection of “fire art” so impressive that professional museums could envy it. One can envy his passion and his enormous collecting achievement, which delights not only experts in the field.
This personality seems to have been taken straight from the Renaissance: broad knowledge, an engaging manner, inner spiritual richness, and openness to the world, to his surroundings, and to other people. Wisdom and modesty, knowledge and experience, a voracious desire to discover each day in all its rich colours, a traveller’s passion, and a heart on his sleeve. And also personal nostalgia and affection combined with respect for intimate memories: his school, the old park trees, the venerable defensive walls, and the medieval Town Hall in the city of his childhood and youth...
Romanticism, but also clear-eyed practical realism: by loving the past, one must pass universal values and objective truths down through the generations—truths that will help young people build a shared future in Europe.
Mr Klaus Rosenthal has incorporated an original and beautiful accent into his ancestral coat of arms: ordinary human friendship.
And that is worthy of the highest respect.