© Falk von Traubenberg
Opening of the Congress
The opening event will take place on Tuesday, 16 May at 18:30 in Room A of the Estrel.
Cerstin Richter-Kotowski will deliver the opening address.
Guinevere will provide musical accompaniment for the opening event.
Afterward, around 20:00, there will be a get-together at the waterfront right in front of the Estrel.
Cerstin Richter-Kotowski was born on 14 April 1962 in Berlin and is a German politician of the CDU. Since June 2025, she has been State Secretary for Culture in the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Prior to that, she was Deputy District Mayor and District Councillor for Education, Culture and Sport in the Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf from December 2021 to June 2025. She had already shaped local politics in the district for many years: in 2006, she took up the post of District Councillor for Education, Culture and Citizen Services in Steglitz-Zehlendorf for the first time. From 2016 to 2021, she served as District Mayor of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and was also a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for several legislative periods.
In doing so, she became a defining figure in the district’s educational, cultural and sporting policy.
Cerstin Richter-Kotowski is married and has one son.
Dr Aljoscha Burchardt is a Principal Researcher, Research Fellow and Deputy Head of the Berlin branch of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Burchardt studied computational linguistics at Saarland University, where he obtained his PhD in 2007. Following his doctorate, he coordinated the Centre of Research Excellence “E-Learning 2.0” at Darmstadt Technical University before moving to the DFKI.
Burchardt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute for the ‘vernetzte Gesellschaft’ and Deputy Chair of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the German Bundestag’s Enquete Commission on Artificial Intelligence. He is also co-host of the ARD podcast ‘KI – und jetzt?’.
We are Guinevere. Originally part of the Albertine Sarges Band, this project represents an artistic departure. The repertoire, penned by all three artists (Lisa Baeyens, Rosa Mercedes and Albertine Sarges), combines German and British folklore, 70s harmony vocals, groovy bass lines and flute sounds. Between melancholic ballads, playful arrangements and polyphonic singing, soundscapes are created that combine tradition and the present, creating a unique, timeless atmosphere.
