Tuesday 25 March 2025: Dinner-Talk with Jens Tholstrup: The Hanseatic League and its Legacy

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). 

New Year’s Dinner Event, 21 February 2025

The New Year’s dinner-talk organised by Markus Brandstetter at our sister organisation, the Oxbridge Rhineland, Düsseldorf was a great success and several of our members made the trip to meet with our German counterparts and to enjoy the talk by Dr. Dennis Lehmkuhl (Oriel, Oxford, 2005), Department of Philosophy, University at Bonn. Dr. Lehmkuhl gave a fascinating talk on ‘Einstein’s first visit to Oxford and how it convinced him that the universe is expanding.

Concert and Dinner at Cercle Münster, 1 February 2025

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.

Literary Evening with James Leader, 14 January 2025

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.

The Literary Event with James Leader
James Leader at the Cafe des Capucins 14 January 2025
Into Babel Book Cover