Mr. Teitelbaum,
Dear guests of the opening reception to night.

I will give to all of you the best greetings from North Rhine-Westphalia.

North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the strongest industrial regions in the very heart of Europe with 18 million inhabitants. The land is full of creative and culturally committed people. We are rich on theatres and operas, big and smaller museums, concert halls and many other cultural institutions. Especially the Rhineland, home of the artists presented here, has a long cultural history. We are proud of our roman heritage. Cologne has one of the most famous Cathedrals in the world, situated just one the Rhine and the important museum Ludwig immediately beside.

Cologne is the city in which Angelika Hoerle was born, lived and died. It is the City were young artists about Heinrich Hoerle and Seiwert joint into groups to promote their new artistic ideas, but also their political ideas as is reflected in the title „art on a weapon“. They were united in the hope for a better future. Today best known are the “Cologne Progressives”, of whom we can see here this wonderful exhibition.

I want to thank all the personal of Art Gallery of Ontario involved in establishing this exhibition, especially Michael Park-Taylor, Dennis Reid, who took care of the Fick-Eggert-Collection and of course Matthew Teitelbaum who is responsible for all. I also thank Lynette Roth who so perfectly curated the Cologne Progressives.

Let me express a special thank to my friend Angie Littlefield. Her enthusiasm, her persistence, ideas, knowledge are one reason for this wonderful meeting tonight and the opportunity to have the exhibition from Cologne Progressives and Angelika Hoerle in the art gallery of Ontario.

This exhibition is a way to deepen the relations between our countries and to demonstrate the links of our cultures. It is a way to learn more about the history, the feeling and thinking of our past. I am very happy about this prolific cooperation between the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Museum Ludwig and hope that we can continue this kind of cooperation in the future.