Keynote address to the opening of SFB 804 by the Federal Minister of the Interior, Dr. Thomas de Maizière

The impressing wall painting „Versöhnung“ (reconciliation) served as background for the ceremonial opening of the Collaborative Research Center (Sonderforschungsbereich) SFB 804 „Transzendenz und Gemeinsinn“ in the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden. Guests from the spheres of university and reseach, from politics and society attended the opening, where Hans Vorländer, speaker of SFB 804, explained the objectives of the project: „We want to shed light into the black holes, we want to find out, what are the foundations for the social cohesion of the world at heart. This is not a simple question, and it is not only a question posed by the humanities, but also by the natural sciences, as the researchers of CERN with their particle accelerator, albeit in different ways.“

Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière focussed on the current relevance of the topics SFB 804 in focussing on in its research: the analysis of the preconditions necessary for the emergence, development and stability of social and political orders. Social changes through migration and demographic developments pose questions regarding common foundations in a body politic. „The results and insights of your research will hopefully contribute to politics and society finding good answers to the challenges of this change,“ de Maizière said.

Subsequently, political scientist Gesine Schwan, historian Paul Nolte, and theologian Friedrich Wilhelm Graf discussed with the minister under the moderation of Hans Vorländer, what serves as the basis of the democratic society in Germany. Topics such as ancestry and „heimat“, language as a means of integration, and the role of religion for social cohesion always heat up public debates. „The opening debate went just as we intended,“ Vorländer concluded, „since the conflict is constructive, and we hope to settle some of these questions in the years to come.“