Charity concert at Stolzenfels Castle, Germany in honor of Paulina Zerluk, Doctor in Tchernobyl 1986.
A Film by Wolfgang Henrich and Volker Hartung.

Chernobyl is the biggest humanmade catastrophe of the 20th century. Only thanks to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them dead, most of them very young men, were able to protect the world from atomic danger. It is hard to imagine what else would have happened to Germany and Europe.
Many books have been written about this disaster. Svetlana Alexievich has published two novels: "The war has no female face" and "Chernobyl prayer," for the literary work she received the Nobel Prize.
Many people, especially the young, do not know about this disaster.

It is important to honor the doctor Paulina Zerluk, who helped the firefighters and soldiers who sacrificed on April 26, 1986, when one of the reactors in Chernobyl exploded, and the resulting crater was sealed with concrete.
So it was even possible to build the first sarcophagus to protect Europe from further radiation. However, since these men had to work without any protective clothing, an alarming number have died. Paulina Zerluk, herself a victim of the GAU, became 88 years old in October 2018 and so together with her, we would like to call for and exhort ourselves to face the "core question: nuclear energy" in order to pay tribute to how careful the reactors are now being dismantled, so that as in the nuclear plant Kahl cattle can graze again.
Paulina Zerluk has been living in Koblenz since 1995, and it is just by chance that employees of the Koblenzbased company Kalzip have sheathed the sarcophagus, which has become fragile due to the radiation, with a stainless steel shell that will protect the earth for another 100 years.

Like no other, Schloss Stolzenfels is a synonym for the romance of the Rhine in Germany with its banquet halls, time culture and its magnificent views. Stolzenfels Castle is a triumph of the time with its fairytale architecture and beautifully decorated halls and rooms. It was initially built between 1242 and 1259 by the PrinceBishop of Trier. It was destroyed in 1689 by the troops of Louis XIV during the Augsburg War in the Palatinate against France. Its ruins towered over the Rhine for 150 years until the city of Koblenz handed them over as a gift to the crown prince, the future Frederick William IV, who had them restored in romantic style. He commissioned the architect Johann Claudius von Lassaulx and then Karl Friedrich Schinkel to make it a summer residence.
The Knight's Hall is modeled on the castle of the Teutonic Knights in Marienburg. Peter Joseph Lenné also built a place for tournaments.
Unmistakable are the influences of English Gothic Revival and Schinkel's romantic style. In 1842, the construction and renovation of the castle were completed, and on September 14, a reception in medieval costumes by Frederick William IV was given. The castle Stolzenfels was visited in 1845 by the British Queen Victoria, who started the transformation of Osborne House this year and three years later with the construction of Balmoral Castle.
In her honor, a concert was given at Stolzenfels Castle, in which the most famous composers of the time participated: Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, and Giacomo Meyerbeer.
Today's concert program reflects this event.

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