Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation appoints new members of the Board of Trustees

The Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation, founded in 2003, has a new Board of Trustees with immediate effect. In addition to the Board of Trustees, which directs the foundation’s destiny, the Board of Trustees supports the foundation’s further work. The new members of the Board of Trustees were appointed for the next four years by the foundation’s sponsors, the City of Magdeburg and Sparkasse MagdeBurg.

For over 20 years now, the Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation has been committed to keeping the legacy of Emperor Otto the Great and his significance for Magdeburg and the region alive. The foundation promotes and supports projects and activities that make Magdeburg known to a broad public beyond the region as an important European metropolis of the Middle Ages and the city of Otto the Great.
The awarding of the internationally oriented Emperor Otto Prize is an outstanding project at the heart of the foundation’s work. Every two years, this prize, which is the highest and most important award of the City of Magdeburg, is awarded to important personalities, groups of people or institutions who are highly committed to the ongoing process of European unification and our democratic values. The 10th award ceremony will take place next year.

The Board of Trustees is chaired by the incumbent mayor of the City of Magdeburg. Every four years, the Cultural Foundation’s agenda also includes the appointment or reappointment of new members to the Board of Trustees. To this end, the Board of Trustees met at its most recent meeting with an increased number of members. The following people were appointed to the Board of Trustees for the next four years:

Chairwoman:
Simone Borris, Mayor of the City of Magdeburg
Deputy Chairman:
Jens Eckhardt, Member of the Management Board of Stadtsparkasse MagdeBurg

Reappointed were:

  • Dr. Rüdiger Koch, former Councillor for Culture, Schools and Sport and former Mayor of the City of Magdeburg
  • Dr. Willi Polte, former Lord Mayor and honorary citizen of the City of Magdeburg
  • Prof. Dr. Matthias Puhle, former Deputy Head of the Department of Culture, Schools and Sport of the City of Magdeburg and former Director of Magdeburg Museums
  • Dr. Detlef Swieter, Chairman of the Board of Öffentliche Versicherungen Sachsen-Anhalt (ÖSA)

Newly appointed:

  • Katrin Budde, Member of the German Bundestag
  • Dr. Lydia Hüskens, Minister for Infrastructure and Digital Affairs of the LSA
  • Anne-Marie Keding, Vice President of the State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt
  • Hardy Puls, Managing Director of Magdeburg Marketing, Kongress und Tourismus GmbH and Magdeburger Weiße Flotte GmbH
  • Dr. Lutz Trümper, former Mayor and Honorary Citizen of the City of Magdeburg
  • Patricia Werner, Managing Director of the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung

The Chairperson of the Cultural Committee will also be appointed to the Board of Trustees in future.

The meeting of the Board of Trustees also provided an opportunity to take stock of the new Board of Trustees appointed just one year ago. Under the chairmanship of Regina-Dolores Stieler-Hinz, mayor and deputy of the Department of Culture, Schools and Sport, the board, which also includes Prof. Dr. Manuela Schwartz and Helmut Herdt, has begun to redefine the foundation’s work. In future, the Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation wants to have a stronger external impact and make the prize of the same name even better known nationally and internationally as one of the most important awards for European commitment and thus also for the City of Magdeburg. It is also a declared aim to involve the city’s society more closely in this process.

In a few days, the management team of the Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation will publicly announce the winner of the Emperor Otto Prize 2025. Next year, two special anniversaries are on the Cultural Foundation’s agenda: the 10th award ceremony and the 20th anniversary of the first award ceremony. From August, various events will be offered in cooperation with the Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation in preparation for this, which will mark the start of mediation and participation formats.

„I am looking forward to working with the newly appointed members of the Board of Trustees,” says Mayor and Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees Simone Borris. “Otto the Great and his work for Magdeburg and Europe at the time are part of our city’s cultural heritage. The Emperor Otto Cultural Foundation was established to convey this message to the outside world and keep the memory of Otto the Great alive. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the foundation’s board of directors, who have been instrumental in initiating the foundation’s profile and continue to drive it forward. I am convinced that, with the strengthening of the Board of Trustees, we have gained personalities to tackle the tasks of the Cultural Foundation together and implement them successfully.“