Zinkann on the peace awards Defence, business and youth

Oct 24, 1648

Frohloff introduces WWL chairman Reinhard Zinkann's complete closing address. He congratulates both laureates and asks political, business and social leaders to accept the tension between wanting peace and needing credible defence. He interprets the 1648 negotiations as rule-making between opponents, defends a peace prize for NATO through its mutual-security promise, and calls for greater European responsibility. Speaking as an entrepreneur, he argues that business needs peace and peace needs economic strength, reliable institutions and partnerships. He presents the youth laureates as people who make peace lived through encounters and responsibility, urges curiosity, dialogue and tolerance of dissent, and recalls Giscard d'Estaing's peace-through-conversation quotation. He closes with a shared mission for NATO, young people and society, thanks the organizers, city and media, and Frohloff formally concludes the ceremony. These are the organizer's rationale and appeals, not a new defence budget or arms order.

The peace agreements negotiated at Münster and Osnabrück end the Thirty Years' War in 1648. In substantial retrospectives, Wüst stresses sovereign equality, territorial integrity and law; Merz recalls five years of negotiations and 150 envoys and interprets the result as protection for small and middle powers and a precursor to the modern security order. Czerny emphasizes dialogue and reconciliation, and Zinkann rules that allow opponents to coexist despite differences. These modern interpretations remain attributed. The working track renders Czerny's year as 1668; the other addresses and the verified treaty chronology establish 1648.