The man who cemented peace and broke down the Berlin wall: Mikhail Gorbachev , stepping out of the black Lancia Thesis which brought him to the Berliner Rathaus to celebrate the 10th summit of the Nobel price, awarded here in this city...  

As you can read elsewhere on this site, we were very impressed by the driving qualities of the latest flagship of Lancia, the Delta.

In the events surrounding the 20^th anniversary of the Berlin wall, we see that the Delta is also used on the roads toward peace: it was the official car used during the 10th World Summit of the Peace Nobel Awarded in Berlin. We tell you here a bit more…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

Berlin was this year the place where the Summit was held, actually the day after the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

The Delta proved fitting transportation for Muhammad Junus, the Bangladeshi banker and economist who developed the microcredit concept.

Here a great number of Nobel Peace Laureates and various protagonists from the international scene committed to the battle to knock down all walls, both physical and cultural, came together, to commemorate the victory of freedom, and peace.

Annie Lennox was also driven to the Summit in a Lancia Delta. In addition to her career as a musician, Lennox is also a political and social activist, leading such events as an anti-war rally in London on 3 January 2009 in response to the conflict in Gaza...

This included Nobel Peace Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik Willem De Klerk, Lech Walesa, Muhammad Yunus, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams and many guests of honour such as the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, Annie Lennox and others.

The Lancia was also used as backstage for the film dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi realized during the 10th World Summit of the Peace Nobel Awarded in Berlin...  

Lancia wished to support the Summit with its presence and the use of its flagship Lancia Delta. It wished to stand alongside the Nobel Peace Laureates to be another central voice in the universal message of freedom.

Lancia Lancia supports the "Your Face For Freedom" campaign, (www.yourfaceforfreedom.org) with this large poster, showing the face of Aung San Suu Kyi, the nobel peace price laureate who remains imprisoned behind a wall of silence...   

In order to reinforce the meaning of its presence, Lancia created an imposing background at the front of Summit: a symbolic section of the Berlin Wall shattered by the message of the ex-President of South Africa Mr. Nelson Mandela, projected on an enormous screen in the middle of the installation.

The South African leader has created this message especially for this Lancia initiative, accompanied by moving pictures that tell the story of barriers broken down by the desire for independence and emancipation.

The man who triggered the freedom movement in central Europe, Lech Walesa, could not be missed on the Nobel Peace Prize celebration...

We can only applaud this initiative, as it is in line with the values for which the Lancia marque stands for: striving for the best for mankind, in responsibility, accountability, truthfulness and sincerity.

The use of the Delta and its bigger brother, the Thesis, was only fitting, as the make exudes in its latest creations these very qualities, combining it with refinement , savoir-faire, and man-made timeless elegance.

We would be tempted to drive soon one of the Delta versions to Berlin, or other places of freedom, in a longer test drive, at the beginning of next year…  

Hans Knol ten Bensel