Europa sieht Deutschland 2022: Am Ufer der Freiheit (Europe sees Germany 2022: On the shores of freedom)

Lecture to mark German Unity Day, featuring

Moderation
Prof. Dr. György Széll, Osnabrück University

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Two years ago, the popular uprising against ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenko failed in Belarus. His controversial re-election, which is not recognized by the member states of the European Union, triggered a major protest movement in Belarus in August 2020, which was brutally crushed by the state apparatus. The government continues to crack down on political opponents and critical voices to this day. In the war of aggression that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since February 24, Lukashenko is on Putin’s side and at the beginning of the war, Belarus was the deployment area for the Russian aggressor.

Belarusian-born conductor and political activist Vitali Alekseenok, who has been living and working in Germany since 2016, joined the peaceful protests for freedom and democracy in the summer of 2020 and took part in the rallies in Minsk. His book published last year, “The White Days of Minsk. Our Dream of a Free Belarus”, published last year, documents the events and the desperate struggle of the Belarusian opposition. In his lecture, he shed light on the situation in Belarus, the prospects for the democracy movement and Belarusian-German relations in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Vitali Alekseenok conducts concerts and festivals in Western and Eastern Europe and is active as a juror, composer and author. In November 2022, he will begin his tenure as Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and will make his debut as a conductor at La Scala in Milan on October 15. From 2021-22 he was chief conductor of the Monferrato Classic Orchestra in Italy. In June 2021, he became the new artistic director of the Kharkiv Music Fest in eastern Ukraine. He also most recently conducted the Abaco Orchestra of the University of Munich from 2018-2022. From exile, he continues to support the resistance against Lukashenko’s regime and has been committed to helping Ukrainian refugees since the outbreak of the war.

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Oktober 3, 2022, 11 Uhr, Council meeting room in Osnabrück town hall

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