Joachim Gauck

Former President
Federal Republic of Germany

Joachim Gauck was born in Rostock on 24 January 1940 and studied theology after graduating from high school. He served the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg for 25 years and worked as a pastor for many years – the longest time in Rostock. Even as a teenager, Joachim Gauck opposed the dictatorship in the GDR. During the Peaceful Revolution, he was one of the initiators of the church and political public protest movement in Rostock. In 1990, he became a member of the first freely elected Volkskammer and was appointed Special Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR on 3 October 1990. His second term of office ended in 2000. From 2003 to 2012, he was Federal Chairman of the association ‘Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie e.V.’ (Against Forgetting – For Democracy), which is dedicated to historical remembrance work with a concrete commitment to democracy. On 18 March 2012, the Federal Assembly elected Joachim Gauck as the eleventh President of the Federal Republic of Germany. His term of office ended on 18 March 2017 and Joachim Gauck has received numerous honours and awards for his work.

In Potsdam, he gave the laudatory speech for the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard at the M100 Media Award ceremony in 2010.

Photo: © J.Denzel-S.Kugler

I am very moved, especially because I was not expecting to hear these words, which are like an embrace for me. So I want to thank you for this award, for the incredibly moving words of Giovanni di Lorenzo, for this wonderful sky that has welcomed me to Potsdam, and also to thank the Federal Chancellor for her touching words, and for her encouraging presence. Because the awareness raised heartens me a lot more than words. Roberto Saviano, M100 Media Award laureate 2016
It is a great honour for me to be here and receive this great price. It's a very big day for me. I thank Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dr. Joachim Gauck for the kind and strong words, and for their appreciation. Thank you, I will never forget this day! Kurt Westergaard, danish cartoonist, M100 Media Award laureate 2010
At the same time, today’s prize is an appeal to all persons who hold positions of responsibility in governments, in culture and in the media: be steadfast, value-oriented and also COURAGEOUS when irresponsible persons and powers undermine or relativise our values of freedom. It is a virtue to yield to a convincing argument, but it is cowardice to yield to a threat from enemies of freedom. Joachim Gauck in his laudation to Kurt Westergaard, 2010
I receive [this award] with an immense joy, happiness and humility also, because I think by being with you today here, I am receiving this price in the name of those who are still suffering in the jungle of Colombia and of those in the world that are living in similar conditions and who cannot speak for themselves freely. Ingrid Betancourt, M100 Media Award laureate 2008
But I have to say that in our modern society the media has a very, very particular responsibility, also for the European idea. And I hope that the event today – and the events which will follow – will help us to communicate better, to explain better and to convince people that Europe – and acknowledging all the problems, the mistakes and the deficits – […] that at the end of the day the idea of European integration is the best idea that we have ever developed in our history. Günther Verheugen, former EU-Commissioner, in his keynote speech 2005

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