The Leucorea is a relic of Wittenberg’s great heritage as a centre of the Reformation and Renaissance humanism.
It was where Hamlet, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern studied.Â
It is now an institution based in Wittenberg in Germany supporting academic research.
It ran its third Trivium conference last week.
The Trivium ‘rebooted’ is the brainchild of Dr Karl Tetzlaff, a young academic theologian who is the managing director of the Stiftung Leucorea.
This letter was enclosed in the welcome pack for the delegates to the 25th European Speechwriter Network conference at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge…
The European Speechwriter Network is driven by new ideas. As old ways of doing things fall out of fashion, it’s important to come up with new concepts to reinvigorate our organisation. Most of us enjoy being creative and imaginative. We need to find new ways to be imaginative and creative.
Here are some ideas that we’ve been exploring over the past 12 months, and which we will be pursuing over the next 12 months.
Rediscovering Democracy
1) Terry Szuplat’s Pre-Conference Workshop
White House communications used to be characterised by eloquence, gravitas and uplift. Terry worked in the last White House (Obama) administration that maintained that tradition. Memory of how things were done is one of the most powerful ways to hold on to standards in the face of adversity. Terry will be sharing his insights at our conference in Cambridge.
2) Defining Democracy Read more
If we want our future political and business leaders to offer compelling visions that bind us together we need to give them more opportunities to practise speechwriting and public speaking at school and university.
The most appropriate place in Europe to revive this study is Wittenberg in Germany with its strong historical associations with rhetoric.
From the 26-28 March 2025 we had our 24th Speechwriters’ & Business Communicators’ conference in Exeter College, Oxford. Being a conference of writers, many were moved to write about what they experienced. Here is a collection of the pieces we could find published on websites and social media sites like Linkedin.
Lech Mintowt-Czyz gave us a colourful write-up on the Pro Rhetoric blog.
Tennyson’s Morte D’Arthur is a poem about the passing of an old order.
King Arthur is about to die. He realises that with his death all the romance of the Round Table goes with him.
Summary
As an Anglo-Saxon, it was very trying, but I loved every minute. (A friend said that was exactly her experience of living in Paris for the last four years.)
1) What does it all mean?
The title of this year’s conference is ‘Speechwriting in a New Era’.
The job of a speechwriter is to gather facts, policies and ideas to craft sentences linked with the phrase, ‘which means that’.
Alastair Crooke has become famous in his eighth decade. Fans of Judge Napolitano’s You Tube channel tune in every Monday to listen to his  commentary on the latest geopolitical developments.
He’s also a regular on The Duran, another independent geopolitics channel that has emerged in recent years. Like Judge Napolitano, The Duran is highly sceptical of Western narratives.
1) Connection
We’re living in a world moderated by technological filters. Speechwriters need to know what’s going on. This is your chance to break free and eat, drink and talk with writers from all over the world, for three days, without interruption.
