Roman impressions of the General Assembly 2023

by Britta Kägler

As usual, the - this time 125th - General Assembly of the Görres Society took place at the end of September. Tübingen presented itself in sunny autumn weather, which at most made the sunny Romans still freeze in the morning. The programme was tightly timed and traditionally began with a lecture on the conference venue. Under the title "Reflecting on Eberhard", the regional historian Prof. Dr. Sigrid Hirbodian took up the intense debate about the name of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and contextualised the life and work of Eberhard im Barte, Duke of Württemberg and founder of the University in Tübingen.

Her lecture started from the medieval source tradition and led up to the - distorted - reception of Eberhard in the Nazi era. At the weekend, some of the participants certainly visited the burial site in the collegiate church. However, there was hardly much time for that. The sections had all put together a very respectable programme and almost all of them got involved with the framework theme of "Freedom".

The "History" section focused on "academic freedom" and was able to win Dieter Langewiesche, one of the most distinguished experts on the 19th century, who spoke about ideas of freedom in rectorate speeches. It is a pity that the tradition of university rectors addressing the freshmen, but also all other students as well as the professors, once a year came to an end in the 20th century.

Following the reception on Saturday evening, the Römertreffen took place on the banks of the Neckar. Extremely well attended and with intergenerational conversations, the Römertreffen has now existed for ten years! The first Römertreffen, initiated by Stefan Heid, also took place in Tübingen in 2013 - and the popularity clearly shows that it will not be the last.

But not only among the "Romans" were many young Görresians again this year, the Young Forum was also well attended! The absolute highlight was the closing speech by former Federal Constitutional President Paul Kirchhof on freedom from a constitutional perspective. It is astonishing that here at least the press was not noticeably present. Kirchhof pointed out a whole series of threats to freedom. In a way, this lecture was introduced by the cheerful and at the same time committed to academic freedom of speech greeting by Boris Palmer, Mayor of Tügbingen, whom many may have experienced live for the first time.

The next General Assembly has been announced for the last weekend of September 2024 in Regensburg.

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Category: From around the world