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50 years of the Unna district: Ceremony with Lammert at Cappenberg Castle!
The Unna district celebrates 50 years at Cappenberg Castle with a ceremony, speeches by Norbert Lammert and musical performances.
50 years of the Unna district: Ceremony with Lammert at Cappenberg Castle!
On June 16, 2025, the ceremony for the district's 50th anniversary took place at the impressive Cappenberg Castle in the Unna district. Under the motto “Constantly changing”, numerous guests from politics, business and administration gathered to celebrate this special occasion. Three former district administrators were also there - Gerd Achenbach, Michael Makiolla and Mario Löhr - who will never be forgotten for their contributions to the development of the Unna district.
The day also had high-profile visitors: Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, former President of the German Bundestag, gave the ceremonial speech and made it clear what a central role municipalities play in democracy. He emphasized the fragility of democratic structures and called for us to defend our achievements together. For Lammert, municipalities are not just administrative units, but essential “base camps of democracy”, like the Federal Agency for Civic Education explained.
Local politics in focus
In his speech, Lammert spoke powerfully about the importance of local politics, where decisions directly affect the lives of citizens. According to the former President of the Bundestag, it is essential that society cultivates a culture of respect for different opinions in order to protect democracy. These considerations are particularly relevant given the challenges facing democracy today, as Lammert also made clear in a speech to the Hesse state parliament, where he called on citizens to put the continued existence of democratic values above their own interests.
The district director Philipp Reckermann took the opportunity to honor the significant successes of the Unna district over the last 50 years. The development of the region is impressive and shows how important it is for citizens to actively participate in shaping their electoral community, which is also taught in democratic self-governments such as the projects discussed here.
A look into history
In his speech, Sebastian Graf von Kanitz gave those present an insight into the history of Cappenberg Castle, which not only functions as a beautiful event location, but also as a contemporary witness to many important events in the region. As part of the ceremony, Lammert and Kanitz were also presented with gifts that showed a rescue helicopter and symbolized home, security and change.
The event was musically accompanied by a string quartet, followed by a jazz band, which brought the celebrations to a successful end. The panel discussion, moderated by Thorsten Wagner, brought in further perspectives on the development of the Unna district with Michael Makiolla, Marion Freitag and Mario Löhr, underlined the importance of regional participation and the need to continue making citizen-oriented decisions in the future.
As the Frankfurter Rundschau reports, the challenges for local politics are great. Nevertheless, the participation of citizens remains a fundamental element that cannot be ignored - after all: “All politics is local,” which the former US politician Tip O’Neil summed up perfectly. This makes it all the more important to promote these local structures and strengthen democracy at its base.