{"id":3887,"date":"2022-03-02T17:17:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T17:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alst.org\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2024-03-12T06:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T06:29:31","slug":"newspaper-article-awarding-honorary-citizenship-to-max-liebster-from-the-municipality-of-reichenbach-lautertal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/history\/biographies\/newspaper-article-awarding-honorary-citizenship-to-max-liebster-from-the-municipality-of-reichenbach-lautertal\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWSPAPER ARTICLE AWARDING HONORARY CITIZENSHIP TO MAX LIEBSTER FROM THE MUNICIPALITY OF REICHENBACH (LAUTERTAL)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reichenbach \/ Lautertal \u2013 Germany<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Max Liebster becomes an honorary citizen in his hometown<\/strong>.
Excerpts from an article printed in the November 20, 2004 issue of the daily Bergstrasser Anzeiger<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Award
Award of honorary citizenship of the municipality of Reichenbach (Lautertal) to Max Liebster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The new honorary citizen from Lautertal, Max Liebster (third from the left) with, from left to right, Mayor J\u00fcrgen Kaltwasser, Max’s wife, Simone Arnold-Liebster and Community of Communes Chairwoman, Heidi Adam.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lautertal<\/strong>. \u201cThis honor is to be bestowed upon an extraordinary man,\u201d said Community of Communes Chairwoman Heidi Adam, to a capacity crowd at Reichenbach City Hall. Today the Chairman of the City Council had only one item on the agenda: bestow the ceremonial decoration of honorary citizenship upon Max Liebster\u2013humanitarian, eyewitness of the Holocaust and nonetheless, a son of Lauterbach, who declared, \u201cI still feel like a true Reichenbacher.\u201d (\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the presence of innumerable friends, guests of honor and well-wishers, Mayor J\u00fcrgen Kaltwasser handed the certificate of merit to Liebster. A citizen of Lautertal, Liebster contributed enormously to the study of mechanisms of persecution under National Socialism. His reconciliation efforts are a matter of the heart. \u201cHe arrived as a propitiator, not as an accuser,\u201d stated Mayor Kaltwasser, impressed by a man that radiated goodness and hope despite his heartbreaking life story. (\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Liebster\u2019s official words of thanks were a plea for hope and charity that lie in the deep faith of the 89-year-old man. Contact with members of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses who wore the \u201cpurple triangle\u201d in concentration camps has permanently influenced Max Liebster\u2019s life and philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Liebster was impressed by their uncompromising self-determination and a total rejection of Nazi ideology. \u201cTheir fine example became my goal in life,\u201d he says. (\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His biography, Crucible of Terror<\/em>, and his wife\u2019s memoirs, Facing the Lion<\/em>, help to close the gaps and to come to terms with the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJehovah\u2019s Witnesses as victims have been left out of history books. The discrediting of this religious group casts gloom on an otherwise clear view of the past,\u201d observed Cologne historian Hans Hesse in his official speech. Hesse appreciated Liebster\u2019s international work on peace and his humanitarian appeal, both inseparable from his experiences in the Nazi era. (\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Uwe Klages, the Chairman of the \u201cArnold-Liebster Foundation,\u201d a good conscience is justified mainly by fundamental knowledge of historical connections and faith-specific characteristics: \u201cPeace means love of men. This is exactly what is in Max Liebster\u2019s heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klages emphasized how the honoring included the activities of the foundation as well as the furtherance of Lautertal\u2019s good reputation throughout the world by means of Liebster\u2019s international engagements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the festivities, Max Liebster signed the community’s Golden Book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Max
Max Liebster signs the Golden Book of the municipality of Reichenbach (Lautertal).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The new honorary citizen, Max Liebster, signing the Golden Book. Also present on this solemn occasion, from left to right: Heidi Adam, Honorary Mayor Josef Weitzel, J\u00fcrgen Kaltwasser and Horst Steinmann (the first honorary citizen of the town)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accompanied by beautiful music played by the \u201cQueen of Klezmer\u201d Irith Gabriely, and Martin Wagner on the accordion, Heidi Adam and J\u00fcrgen Kaltwasser had another present for the honored guest:  a picture of the Felsenmeer (The Ocean of Boulders) that reunited Liebster with the very soil and favorite playground of his childhood. (\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBesides his colourful memories and his openness toward the audience, the conciliatory chord that he struck distinguished the native-born Reichenbacher. All this consequently justified the honourary citizenship,\u201d expressed the historian. \u201cMax Liebster’s message is more urgent today than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Musical
Musical contribution at the honorary citizenship ceremony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reichenbach \/ Lautertal \u2013 Germany Max Liebster becomes an honorary citizen in his hometown.Excerpts from an article printed in the November 20, 2004 issue of the daily Bergstrasser Anzeiger. The new honorary citizen from Lautertal, Max Liebster (third from the left) with, from left to right, Mayor J\u00fcrgen Kaltwasser, Max’s wife, Simone Arnold-Liebster and Community of Communes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9180,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions\/9180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alst.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}