With six teams of horses, the association will start its journey towards Osnabrück on April 4 at around 10:30 a.m. from Münster Town Hall. Accompanied by fanfares, the arrival of the horse trek will take place on Thursday, April 6, around 11 a.m. at the cathedral forecourt in Osnabrück. There the Osnabrück City Players will prepare the audience for the arrival of the Swedish envoy Oxenstiernas, who played a leading role in the peace negotiations until the conclusion of peace in 1648, through a staged play. "The first peace treaty of the Peace of Westphalia was concluded by handshake between the emperor, the German princes and Sweden in Osnabrück on August 6, 1648," explains Wolfgang Beckermann, First City Councilor of the City of Osnabrück. The city will be welcomed at the event by Brigitte Neumann, cultural policy spokesperson for the CDU and member of the cultural committee and the steering committee for the 2023 anniversary.
On its tour between the peace cities of Münster and Osnabrück, the Friedenstreck will stop on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 4, at the historic market square in Warendorf, which is also known as the "Mecca of equestrian sports." The horses will then rest in the historic buildings of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Stud. On the morning of April 5, a visit to the German Equestrian Federation is scheduled. After a lunch stop in Glandorf, the trek reaches the day's stage destination Georgsmarienhütte in the late afternoon. There, the historic Osthoff stud farm of the Kasselmann family opens its doors and allows man and horse a restful night.
The association Friedensglocken e. V., founded in 2019, has set itself the task of promoting peace on horse-drawn carriage treks in Germany and other European countries with a peace bell cast from military scrap. "On the peace route between Münster and Osnabrück, we will attract attention with our triad of horse clatter, the sound of bells and music and draw attention to our concern that peace should not be taken for granted," says Heinz Bley, organizer of the Peace Bells Association. The great goal of the association is to bring the bell 2025 - eighty years after the end of World War II - with a horse trek from Berlin to Jerusalem.
Event overview
Arrival of the Swedish envoy Oxenstierna With Friedensglocken e.V. and Osnabrück city players Thursday, April 6, from 11:00 a.m., cathedral forecourt, admission free Project sponsor: Team Jubiläum 2023, City of Osnabrück