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Zweierpasch to receive this year’s Adenauer-de Gaulle Prize.
The hip-hop duo Zweierpasch is to receive this year’s Adenauer-de Gaulle Prize.
The Prize will be presented on 22 November 2018 at 7.30 p.m. in Paris by the two Commissioners for Franco-German Cooperation, Michael Roth, Member of the German Bundestag and Minister of State for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office, and Nathalie Loiseau, Minister for European Affairs at the French Foreign Ministry.
Minister of State Michael Roth and Minister Loiseau made the following comments about the recipients:
Zweierpasch are vibrant proof of how fruitful and deep-rooted Franco-German relations are: They are twins, political poets and language ambassadors leading a double life. Their lyrics are very much like they are themselves: bilingual and committed to both countries. They cross the Rhine like migratory birds advocating unity and friendship. The Zweierpasch duo with band was created in 2012 and have been rapping their way through the border region since then. Their Franco-German lyrics breathe life into the shared history of the countries and bring people together. What is more, the two musicians are always tuned into controversial topics. Zweierpasch clearly shows that unity goes with diversity, remembrance with future and the voices of Konrad and Charles sound good together, in other words, Zweierpasch lets us experience Franco-German reconciliation and the resulting deep friendship in all its facets.
At the same time, Zweierpasch makes a stand against nationalism, the division of Europe and social injustice. They are actively committed to countering a process in which our cultures and societies threaten to drift apart. In schools and cultural centres, they lead intercultural hip-hop projects on rhythm, language and co-existence. Their ambitious programme “l’école du flow”, conducted in cooperation with the Centre Culturel Français Freiburg and the Ernst Klett publishing house, is designed to improve pupils’ political and cultural education and uses beats and world music to deepen young people’s understanding of democracy .
Background
The band Zweierpasch and above all the twins Till and Felix Neumann are being awarded the Prize for their tireless efforts to communicate the Franco-German friendship through music. As well as on topical issues, their committed songs also focus on the history of the two countries and their shared future in Europe. Aside from live performances, the brothers are often on tour in the region and beyond leading intercultural hip-hop projects on rhythm, language and co-existence in schools and cultural centres. More than 600 pupils in the border area are currently taking part in the “école du flow” schools rap competition.
The winners of the Adenauer-de Gaulle Prize receive 10,000 euros. The French and German Governments created the Prize on 22 January 1988, the 25th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. It is awarded to individuals, initiatives or institutions which through their work have made an outstanding contribution towards strengthening the Franco-German friendship.
The Prize recalls the historic achievement of Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle who, with the signing of the Élysée Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation in 1963 provided decisive momentum for the process of reconciliation between the French and the German people and for cooperation between the two countries.
It is designed to recognise and promote active efforts on the part of the citizens of both countries to shape the Franco-German partnership and to provide a framework in which to further develop such commitment. The two Commissioners base their decision on the proposal presented by a Franco-German jury made up of figures from politics, culture, the media, academia and business reflecting the diversity of both societies.
The current jury was appointed for a period of four years by the Foreign Ministers in spring 2017 at the proposal of the Commissioners for Franco-German Cooperation. On the German side, the jury members are: Professor Bénédicte Savoy, Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, Daniel Hager, entrepreneur in Saarland and Alsace, Dr Franziska Brantner, Member of the German Bundestag representing Heidelberg and the Bergstrasse, Tobias Bütow, Chairman of the Franco-German Cultural Centre in Nice, and Peter Boudgoust, President of arte. On the French side, the jury members are: Béatrice Angrand, General Secretary of the Franco-German Youth Office, Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, Deputy Mayor of Strasbourg for European and international relations, Karl de Meyer, Editor-in-Chief of Les Echos weekend, David Capitant, Professor of Public Law at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University and Vice-President of the Franco-German University, and Gunnar Gräf, Professor at the École supérieure de commerce in Paris, entrepreneur and French-Tech ambassador in Berlin.
Previous winners include Patricia Kaas (1999), Ulrich Wickert (2000), Daniel Brühl (2004), arte (2013), the Franco-German Youth Office (2014) and the “Berufliche Schulen Kehl” (2017).