Gudrun Alt

As the German-Turkish citizens' group "Gülhane Elise", we chose the rose as a symbol for intercultural exchange and in the last years we accomplished many events in the name of the rose. Gül (Turkish: rose) touches every heart, in every culture. "Gülhane" is the name of the rose-park in Istanbul and "Elise" stands for the “Elisenhof” (Elisen-court) in Duisburg-Marxloh. In 2010, in the Elisenhof in Marxloh, the citizens will build a rose-palace in the form of an 11 meters high rose-bud made out of bamboo and covered over with roses. The palace stands for a peaceful understanding of cultures. During the three weeks of construction, the construction-site will be a public get-together with an international programme, where everyone is invited to take part in, to celebrate or to just spectate. The programme will end with a "rose-night of spiritual music". For this event the "Friedenslicht der Abrahamsreligionen" (the peace-light of the religions of Abraham) will be hung up into the cupola of the rose-palace by the artist Leo Lebendig.

In Duisburg in 2010, Ramadan will be celebrated in the rose-palace as well as the Jewish Feast of Booths, the Christian Thanksgiving and the Russian-orthodox service. The path between the church and the mosque will be designed by teen-agers as the "path of the future". With the association "together in peace" pupils will paint pictures that deal with "friendship", which will be put together into a 3 km-long banner reaching from the "path of the future" up to the Rhine River and the "harbour of the cultural capital".