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Grand Master in official visit to Germany

Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre received by Federal Republic President Steinmeier and Bundestag President Schäuble

Rome, 14 October 2019

The Grand Master with the President of the Federal Republic of GermanyThe Grand Master Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto today embarks on the first Official State Visit of a Grand Master to the Federal Republic of Germany. Diplomatic relations were established between the two States in 2017. He will follow a programme of institutional meetings together with visits to the medical facilities and programmes which the Order of Malta runs in Germany. 

 On 17 October the Grand Master will meet with Federal President Steinmeier, and, accompanied by Grand Chancellor Boeselager, will visit the Bundestag to meet with President Wolfgang Schäuble. Later he will also greet the Apostolic Nuncio, Nikola Eterović.

Among the week’s appointments will be visits to the headquarters of Malteser Hilfsdienst in Cologne, to a centre for the elderly and the terminally ill in Duisburg, and to a centre run by Malteser Werke for the support of migrants and refugees in Berlin. Malteser Werke is part of the Order of Malta and for the last 25 years has run medical, social and legal assistance programmes for migrants. It currently manages 45 facilities focussed on the reception and integration of migrants and refugees.

In addition to attending consultations with the Order of Malta’s auxiliary organisations in Germany, the Grand Master will meet with many of the thousands of volunteers whose work is vital in supporting its humanitarian programmes. He will also attend a meeting with the protestant Alliance Orders of St John of Jerusalem, who share with the Order the traditional mission and vocation of caring for the poor and the sick.

The visit of the Order of Malta’s Delegation has a special significance, coinciding as it does with the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, during which time the Order played an important part in receiving and assisting the thousands of refugees who had managed to arrive in Hungary from East Germany.