Marliese kalthoff takes over

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View of Aachen Cathedral © engel.ac (shutterstock)

Good news from the Diocese of Aachen: Marliese Kalthoff, former managing director of a media house for the tourism and mobility industry, will be the new head of communications for the diocese and press spokeswoman for Bishop Helmut Dieser.

The media manager steps down from her post on 1. March, as the diocese announced on Wednesday. Kalthoff succeeds Jurgen Jansen. The theologian, who also heads the Strategic Controlling Department in the Episcopal General Vicariate, had temporarily taken over the task last June after his predecessor Ulrich Andree left the diocese after only one and a half months for personal reasons.

In mid-March 2020, the diocese had released its longtime head of communications, Stefan Wieland, from work. Dompropst Rolf-Peter Cremer had then taken over the office provisionally and was replaced by Andree in mid-April. Kalthoff is thus the fifth person in just under a year to hold the office.

Great wealth of experience

According to the diocese, Kalthoff, who comes from Julich, studied German, political science and economics in Bonn. She has been a journalist since 1991. From 2004, she headed the communications department at Edeka headquarters in Hamburg. In 2013, she took over as managing director of FVW Medien GmbH in the Hanseatic city, which specializes in the tourism industry, where she also worked as a publisher.

She gave up this position for the 30. June 2020 to devote himself to new tasks, according to FVW.

According to the Aachen diocese, Kalthoff has "a wealth of experience in change management, marketing and crisis communications, as well as in developing and expanding digital formats and platforms." Bishop This emphasized that a professional communication culture is important for the church.

This showed restructuring processes in the diocese, the processing of sexualized violence and the reform dialogue synodal way. "That's why Ms. Kalthoff's outside perspective and corporate experience will certainly help us to pursue innovative, engaging and high-profile ways of communicating," said Dieser.

Cardinal Karl Lehmann © Fredrik von Erichsen

Cardinal Karl Lehmann (l.) and ex-ZDF director Markus Schachter in 2007 © Arne Dedert

Former ZDF director Markus Schachter describes Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, with whom he has now published an interview book, as a special person who "likes to laugh loudly" – shortly before Cardinal Lehmann's 80th birthday. Birthday.

Interviewer: They sat down intensively with Cardinal Lehmann for the book's. What impression did you get? What kind of person is the bishop of Mainz?

Markus Schachter (former director of ZDF): A special person, a kind one, one who laughs loudly and with pleasure. For the church itself, he is a stroke of luck with staying power who, as a great communicator, with patience, persistence and tenacity, has always established a thread of conversation between church and society on the one hand, between faith and science on the other, and also between the opponents within the church, of whom there were very many. He has also spun a thread of conversation between ecumenical factions within the church. He is one who has always made an offer for dialogue. That makes him unique and special.
Interviewer: He is in poor health, can only walk with great difficulty. How will things continue in retirement for Cardinal Lehmann?? How did you experience him now?
Schachter: That's quite a problem for a man who has been a man bursting with health for the past 75 years. He can only walk with supports. The bishop's crozier is no support for him in the figurative sense. He has had two knee surgeries that have not healed very well, if I am evaluating this correctly. So he goes very, very hard.
Interviewer: They also talked with him about the future of the church and about Pope Francis, among other things. What does Karl Lehmann think?
Schachter: As for the future of the church in what is certainly a difficult situation, Cardinal Lehmann already has a special idea. The most important center of strength in the future will be the credibly lived, everyday existence of the people, as Cardinal Lehmann himself puts it. The emphasis is on credibility. In addition to the lived testimony of as many people as possible, there is also the hopeful view of the universal church with its formative power. And Pope Francis, as a charismatic and credible personality, is the figure who lives the Christian faith in an exemplary way and makes the faith attractive for many people with the idea of a serving church and can thus set the course for the future. In this situation, says Lehmann, Francis is a gift. In Lehmann's view, other sources of strength will again be the religious orders and the spiritual movements. He is convinced that an awakening will also come emphatically from religious of both sexes. Orders, which have already arisen in the past, when Christianity was looking for a new, a radical way. Cardinal Lehmann also sees this as a special perspective.
Interviewer: At the moment, a statement from your interview book is also going through the press: Cardinal Lehmann speaks out in favor of the ordination of married people and family fathers to the priesthood. Can you just say that?
Schachter: You can say that because this has been the case for some time now. He means the so-called viri probati – an expression I had to learn first -, that is, the experienced men who are fit for the priesthood. He proposed these decades ago, but there was a lack of courage in the European churches, where the bishops' conferences could perhaps have been more proactive themselves. Now he says that so much has already been lost in the priest-poor or priestless era, and that it is now time to finally gain ground.
Interviewer: And Cardinal Lehmann is a fan of Jurgen Klopp and Mainz 05. Mainz I can still understand, as bishop of Mainz, but why Klopp?
Schachter: Yes, that is a special friendship and if you will, an ecumenical friendship of the heart. Karl Lehmann was himself a very enthusiastic soccer player. So it was not out of the question that the two most prominent people from Mainz, the bishop and the soccer coach, meet and become friends. They often sat together over coffee in the bishop's house and talked to each other about God and the world and top-level soccer. Cardinal Lehmann was particularly curious about the way soccer is lived in this professional era. And Jurgen Klopp was always interested in questions of ecumenism. Cardinal Lehmann is convinced that Jurgen Klopp is a very intense Christian who lives his Christian ideals. Jurgen Klopp has invited him now once again to Liverpool. Whether he can do that with his knees, I don't know. But it is an indication of a living friendship.

The interview was conducted by Verena Troster.

Berlin receives another memorial. The memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered by Nazis will then be inaugurated between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. A topical appointment: for months, organizations have been criticizing discrimination against Roma in the Balkans.

For the ceremonial handover by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on Wednesday (24.10.2012), the chairman of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, Berlin's Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD), Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann (CDU) and the executive artist Dani Karavan are also expected to attend the event. This also marks the end of a debate that has dragged on for more than 20 years about the meaning and form of a memorial for this group of victims. According to estimates, up to 500.000 Sinti and Roma murdered by the National Socialists.

After the memorials to the Jews and homosexuals, it is the third memorial in the Berlin center for a minority that was systematically persecuted by the National Socialists. The Bundestag had already passed the resolution in 1992. An artist competition went out in favor of Karavan. According to the design of the 81-year-old, who was born in Tel Aviv, a black stone forms the center of the monument. It is submersible and placed in the middle of a round water basin with a diameter of about twelve meters. On this stone, according to Karavan's will, there should always be a fresh wildflower. It is also to be renewed daily in winter.

Controversial dedication text
Time and again, the start of construction was postponed because of disputes over the initially planned dedication text. The Central Council of Sinti and Roma had objected to a wording endorsed by the Bundestag because it contained the word "Gypsy". Other victims' associations such as the Sinti Alliance, however, welcomed it. Finally, an agreement was reached in 2006. Instead of a dedication, there is now a "Chronology of the Genocide of Sinti and Roma". This was intended to "take the concerns of the victims' associations into account as far as possible," emphasized Minister of State for Culture Neumann at the time.

Official start of construction was four years ago. The state of Berlin provided the land, and the federal government covered the costs of 2.8 million euros. After Karavan's disagreements with Berlin's building administration, the federal government also became the project's builder. Like the other memorials, it is now cared for by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Current explosiveness
More clearly than some observers believed, the memorial also took on current explosive power: Refugee organizations have been criticizing massive discrimination against Roma in the Balkans for months now. They also warn against "racist agitation" against the minority in Germany. They also object to politicians repeatedly pushing to reintroduce visa requirements for Serbian and Macedonian citizens. The idea is to stop the "massive influx" from the countries.

With this in mind, Central Council Chairman Romani Rose expressed the hope "that this memorial will have a symbolic effect beyond Germany's borders. It is outrageous that the everyday life of many Sinti and Roma almost 70 years after the Holocaust is characterized by exclusion and often by violence. Rose calls for resistance to the fact that, in addition to Jews, Sinti and Roma are repeatedly used as scapegoats for economic and social upheavals.

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