10 years "Kunst im Atrium"

Opening of an exhibition by Heinz Mack in 1996: Franz Xaver Hirtreiter, State Minister Dr. Hans Zehetmair, Angelika Diekmann and the artist.

Across from Austria for the opening of Arnulf Rainer’s exhibition in 1997: Federal Chancellor Dr. Franz Vranitzky

Cosmopolitan Prince Karl zu Schwarzenberg, publisher Angelika Diekmann, NPV director Franz Xaver Hirtreiter and Federal Finance Minister Dr. Theo Waigel view a work by Jir?í Kolár? Kolar in the Media Centre.

Lech Walesa and Hans-Dietrich Genscher met in the Passau Media Centre on 11th October 1999 to look back on the Polish revolution, which began in the port of Gdansk, and on the political consequences, which a decade later resulted in German reunification.

The protagonists in 2000: the director of the Neue Presse Verlag, Franz Xaver Hirtreiter, EU Commission President Prof. Dr. Romano Prodi, Angelika Diekmann and the Italian artist Fabrizio Plessi.

Slovakia ante portas: On 5 October 2001, the Slovak deputy head of government Ivan Miklos debated European unification with EU Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen.

»Do you remember, Mikhail ?« On 30 September 2002, former chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl, journalist Peter Boenisch and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev reminisced about German reunification.

17 September 2003 in Passau: an extraordinary summit unfettered by protocol: Poland’s former president Lech Wale?sa, the Czech head of state Va´clav Klaus, Germany’s Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the Hungarian parliamentary speaker Katalin Szili. Television journalist Dieter Kronzucker chaired.

Colleagues in tandem: The President of Poland, Aleksander Kwas´niewski, met his German counterpart, Dr. Horst Köhler, in Passau. On 8 October 2004, the two presidents assessed the initial results of the EU enlargement.

Lecture and questions from the audience. On 14 October 2005, Christo and Jeanne-Claude revealed in the Media Centre that »We wrap many things. But we don’t wrap our Christmas presents.«

Farewell flowers for the prize-winners of the MiE Award 2006 (l. to r.): Madeleine Albright and Václav Havel. Dominik (8) thanked the high-level guests in Czech, their native language. Angelika Diekmann and Josep Borrell Fontelles (President of the European Parliament) joined the group.

At the opening of "MENSCHEN in EUROPA" in 2007, Kofi Annan was presented with the MiE-Award. In a moving speech, the former Secretary General of the United Nations appealed to Europe for help for the countries of Africa.

The "MENSCHEN in EUROPA" series of events was launched in 2008 with the conferral of the MiE Award on Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. EU Commission President and laudator José Manuel Barroso praised her as a great European. Her vita, he said, is exemplary for European reconciliation.

The initiator of the MiE series of events, Angelika Diekmann, presented the first MiE Art Award for a lifetime's achievements to couture designer and photographer Karl Lagerfeld . The award was in recognition of the lasting influence of his unerring feeling for style, quality and perfection in the world of art, photography and interior design.