Gunter Thielen Wins ‘Bild-Osgar’

Gunter Thielen last night was honored with a Bild-Osgar 2006 for his achievements as the initiator and driving force behind the "Du bist Deutschland" image campaign. Each year since 1994, "Bild," Germany’s biggest tabloid, has bestowed Osgars "on people whose efforts have advanced peace, freedom and a unified Germany." The ceremony was held yesterday at the new town hall (Neues Rathaus) in Leipzig. Gunter Thielen, who won in the Politics category, joins an illustrious list of former prize winners that includes Shimon Peres, Lech Walesa, José Carreras, Helmut Kohl, Wendelin Wiedeking and Heinrich von Pierer. The Osgar has been awarded to 67 people in the twelve years since it was introduced.

The other recipients of a Bild-Osgar 2006 were the German president’s wife Eva Köhler in the Charity category, champion biathlete Kati Wilhelm (Sports), Deutsche Post World Net CEO Klaus Zumwinkel (Business), the band Tokio Hotel (Music) and actor Thomas Kretschmann (Entertainment). Bertelsmann AG’s Chairman & CEO accepted the Osgar for the "Du bist Deutschland" campaign together with TV presenter Minh-Kai Phan-Thi, Schlager singer Patrick Lindner and pianist Justus Frantz. The three celebrities– and roughly 40 others – had leant their faces to the popular campaign. As reported, the campaign had attained its goal of contributing to a new sense of optimism about the future in Germany on many levels.

As Gunter Thielen put it at the awards ceremony: "If ‘Bild’ bestows an award on us, it means that the campaign got the message across to the ones it intended to reach: the people of this country." He added that "Du bist Deutschland" has long since become an established and popular phrase, and cited an opinion survey which concluded that millions of people felt motivated by the campaign. Thielen closed by summing up the success of the campaign: "The mood in this country is better than just a year ago – and I am sure that ‘Du bist Deutschland’ had its part in that." In this spirit, Gunter Thielen emphasized that he was accepting the award "on behalf of thousands of people"– the media companies that jointly called the campaign into being, the agencies and production companies that put it into practice pro bono, and all the companies, organizations and citizens who joined in.