Author: Mette Ahlefeldt

What a fantastic day the OUSL had on 12^th April, when we met at the Villeroy & Boch’s 

(“V & B”) headquarters in Mettlach. The outing was brilliantly organised by Jan Könighaus in cooperation with Baron Paul de Schorlemer, a member of the V & B family. 

We were honoured to count Their Excellencies, the Ambassador of Japan to Luxembourg, Tadahiro Matsubara and his charming wife, among our party, and we had a very good crowd of Oxonians and partners, and families with young children. 

With the sun beaming from a blue sky, making it a summer’s day in the middle of April, we began our day at the Schinkel fountain in front of the headquarters which are housed in old abbey buildings.

Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide took us through the beautiful park full of rare, century-old species of trees. Among other, she showed us the romantic remnants of the oldest church in the region dating from the 9^th century and an impressive modern art installation “Map of the living world” created by Stefan Szczesny for the Expo 2000 in Hannover with five walls covered in thousands of small, jigsaw puzzle-shaped tiles. 

We then moved inside the headquarters in the old abbey and saw a selection of the beautiful rooms where the modern V & B business is still housed. After the tour, we visited the brand-new’ V & B World’ – a gem of a museum which was informative to grown-ups and fun for the young ones. 

Rich with impressions we repaired to lunch at the wonderfully situated Schloss Saareck. Here, Count Felix von Hardenberg made us feel very welcome as he joined our party as we were treated to a delicious meal at an elegantly dressed long table in a private dining room.

A truly wonderful day out with the OUSL!!

Schloß Saareck, once a Boch family residence, now serves as a Villeroy & Boch guesthouse and has an excellent restaurant.

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

Jens Tholstrup is Executive Chairman of Oxford Innovation Finance and Senior Adviser, PMB Capital. He is Chair of Governor of St Clare’s, Director of Advanced Oxford and a Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. Previously, Jens was Managing Director UK, Oxford Economics, Executive Director, Oxford Analytica and Executive Director, UBS/UBS Warburg. 

Jens holds a MA in PPE and an MSc in Economic History (both Oxford). 

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.