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PRESS COMMENTARIES - A SELECTION
"I want to point out that big things do not always happen in big cities and not always with a tremendous to-do and ballyhoo that soon disintegrates. I think that something wonderful has happened here, something that is probably almost unique to the present day."
Heinrich Böll, patron of the EÜK, on the occasion of the opening of the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium's new domicile on 24 April 1985.
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"In this year, the 700th death anniversary of Alfonso X, the Learned, we Spaniards might remember with justified pride that it was this king of Castile, who, as son of a German princess, Beatriz of Swabia, had claim to the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. He contributed decisively to the introduction of Greek and Arabic culture to the Western world by keenly supporting and encouraging the school of translators, which had already taken up its activity in Toledo in the previous century. True to his tolerant and ecumenical convictions, the wise king gather around him scholars of all religions and origins, including a man from this country, Hermann the German, who came to be Bishop of Astorga. On the model of the school of translators in Toledo, the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium was later founded in the nearby town of Straelen."
King Juan Carlos I of Spain in his eulogy during the award ceremony of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen to Karl Carstens on 31 May 1984
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"Every town has its peculiarity. Ulm has a minster. Gladbeck has the largest electric power station in Europe. In Straelen, I visited the EÜK. In my opinion, this Kollegium is the most human and important peculiarity of contemporary European culture that I have recently come across."
Andrzej Szczypiorski, entry in the visitors' book of the town of Straelen on the occasion of his reading at the Europäisches Übersetzer-Kollegium on 24 October 1996
