Author: Mette Ahlefeldt

The Johanitter Order in Belgium and Luxembourg extended invitations to Oxbridge alumni societies for their charity event 3 April 2025 at Cercle Münster: a Dinner-Talk with Oxford Chair, Mette Ahlefeldt-Laurvig (Dphil, history), and the evening drew a good crowd from across the societies.

Mette gave a wide-ranging PowerPoint presentation on her subject of Reformation in a talk entitled: ‘Sin, Sex and Salvation: Marriage and Childbearing after the Reformation,’ focussing on legal, theologian and social issues with regard to the Lutheran regulation of marriage.

The talk was followed by a lively Q & A session in the cozy surroundings of the 1st floor restaurant of Cercle Münster.

The event was arranged by the Jan Könighaus and Moritz von Kunow and all net proceeds go to the charitable work of the Johanitter Hëllefsgemeinschaft.

What a fabulous evening we had with Jens Tholstrup at Cercle. Jens’ talk on the Hanseatic League took us back to the late Middle Ages when the League was at its height and in control of the trade in the wider Baltics area of many essential products, from herring to cloth. The talk inspired a host of excellent questions and this in turn was followed by a delicious and congenial dinner with members and friends from both Oxbridge, LSE, the Johanitter Order and Deutscher Verein. A Warm thank-you to Jens Tholstrup and to all our guests for making it such an enjoyable evening.

For some great pictures of the event see below

An evening with Franz Schubert’s Winterreise

On 1 February, alumni of Oxford, Cambridge and Cercle Club members enjoyed a beautiful late afternoon & evening Concert-Dinner with Oxbridge tenor Alexander Gebhard (Trinity College, 2012; St Edmund Hall, 2016) and French pianist Grégoire Baumberger, whose intimate and spellbinding performance took us through Franz Schubert’s Winterreise. After the concert, the (beautiful) melancholy was washed away with cocktails followed by a delicious dinner by Cercle’s new chef. The event, which was spearheaded by Jan Könighaus, had a really good turnout and great atmosphere.

On 15 January 2025, Beverly and Peter Carter spearheaded a charity concert in support of Nyamirama Primary School in Uganda. Turnout was good and the voluntary donations (through ticket sale) surpassed all expectations. We are pleased to have been able to pass on details on this event.

As can be seen from the pictures below, the Café des Capucins in the Luxembourg City centre had a packed audience at this year’s first event, a literary evening 14 January, organised by our member, James Leader (Wadham, 1983) and Olivia Katrandjian. James spoke of his new novel ‘Into Babel’, currently #1 on the Ernster bestseller list, and Olivia moderated. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion with the audience over a glass of wine.

James and Olivia are envisioning making another literary event later in the spring.