Thousand-year anniversary of the death of Holy Emperor Henry II from 12 to 14 July in Bamberg

At the invitation of the Archbishop of Bamberg, Herwig Gössl, the Order of St. Henry, in cooperation with the organisers of the celebrations, organised and held a festive programme for the Order's Annual General Meeting on Saturday 13 July in the diocesan house of St. Otto. The programme began the day before with a reception in the Erbacher Hof at the invitation of the antiquaries Christian Eduard Franke-Landwers and Freiherr Christoph von Seckendorff.
On Saturday, the Order organised a visit to the Diocesan Museum with a special exhibition on the symbol of the cross and the Historical Museum.
The general meeting took place in the ballroom of the St Otto diocese house. Reverend Professor Peter Bruns was invited as the keynote speaker and spoke about the church policy of the Holy Emperor. Afterwards, Mr Markus Cottin from Merseburg spoke about the numerous visits of Henry II and his wife Kunigunde to Merseburg and their work in the important city.
This year, the St. Heinrichsnadel was awarded to Professor Reinhard Schmidt from Freiberg by Prince Alexander, Lord of the Order. He has rendered great services to the mining industry as Saxony's Chief Mining Commissioner and Chairman of the University Council of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

In the evening, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra gave a festive concert in the cathedral under the direction of 97-year-old Herbert Blomstedt. The 9th Symphony by Anton Bruckner was performed.

On Sunday, Archbishop Herwig Gössl celebrated a holy mass on the cathedral square in front of around 2000 faithful. Our Order took part in the solemn procession of the clergy and invited members of the Order to the altar. In his sermon, the Archbishop paid tribute to the special services of the Holy Emperor for the foundation of the Archbishopric of Bamberg, the development of the city and the Christianisation of the German Empire. Henry's work was driven by faith in God and eternal life. This is why he founded the diocese, churches, schools and monasteries and promoted charitable work. "People should experience who is the reason for all life. They should celebrate the presence of the living God, and they should feel that the Creator also cares about the earthly life of his creatures," said Bishop Gössl, adding: "Because Emperor Heinrich firmly believed in the reality of eternal life, he was able to devote all his strength and energy to these earthly concerns, without taking his own health or himself into consideration."