Dear members, dear friends,

On Tuesday, July 6, 2004 in the "Franckesche Stiftungen" (their director is a member of our team) there was a "Count von Luckner evening" with four lectures about the Sea-Devil. This evening was organized by the "Society for the history of the town of Halle" and the room was overcrowded!

Two lectures were given by members of our society. Wolfgang Seilkopf, who is the Historian Curator and member of the board talked about "stations of his life" and von Luckner's role in being a cosmopolitan; the second lecture was hold by our President, Matthias J. Maurer, who spoke about von Luckners role in World War II in saving his hometown Halle from being completely destroyed.

Later on we watched a film from 1959. Ralph Edwards presented von Luckner as a guest in his show "This is your life". Among others von Luckner met in this show Terry de la Mesa Allen, the person, with whom von Luckner negotiated in 1945 in Halle. Furthermore, Ms. Rose Janson thanked the Count for saving his life during the Nazi time. We remember, von Luckner in Berlin found a German passport that belonged to a lady killed during the bombing. He took this passport and gave it to a Jewish lady who asked him for help. He said to her: "From now on your are Frieda Schäfer" (this was the name in the passport). Furthermore, he helped her getting a job. Due to this the Jewish Lady survived.

The evening was a great event and we were fortunate to get some publicity for our society.

Best wishes,

Matthias J. Maurer