President SteinmeierI am in the habit of tuning in to the opening and closing of the academic year in the College of Europe in Bruges, and yesterday (21 June 2024) was the closing of the 2023/24 academic year.
I attended the College in 1967/8 and I don't remember such an occasion. If it did take place it would have been a simple affair. The event has grown over the years and is now a very elaborate presentation and it includes a keynote speaker.
This year's was one of the best I have heard. He was Frank Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany. His speech was very personal, to the point, and constructive. You can view it here at 1:32:51.
Bruggeling Honoris Causa
Bruges Mayor de PauwOver the years a custom had grown up where the Mayor of Bruges announced that graduating students were now honorary citizens of Bruges. I thought it would be nice to be one of these and applied to the city for retrospective application of the honour.
You can check out my correspondence with the city here. It transpires that what was in mind was effectively a souvenir piece of paper and that actual honorary citizenship had only been awarded about six times in the history of the city and that to people who had made some serious contribution to its history.
So I was interested to note that the Mayor of Bruges dropped any reference to this item in his address though the Rector did mention it in passing.
Year Book
I was interested to hear one of the student representatives refer to a year book. There was no such thing in my day and I was elected to compile one, which I did, but it vanished. In recent times with the advance of technology I have compiled a blog setting out my own impressions of my year at the College. You can check it out here.
Finally, you might like to check out my last visit to Bruges on the 50th anniversary of my graduation, here.