NATO to Receive International Peace Prize of Westphalia on October 1

The NATO military alliance will be awarded the International Prize of the Westphalian Peace on October 1, an honor accompanied by a prize sum of 50,000 euros. The award is organized by the Wirtschaftliche Gesellschaft für Westfalen und Lippe, a lobbying association founded in 1919 whose members include directors and executives from regional industry, the chamber of industry and commerce, and the savings banks association. The prize jury includes senior politicians from the CDU, SPD, and Greens. According to the source, the organization describes itself as a "community of conviction" and a "bastion." The award ceremony is to be held in Münster and the honor is to be presented by an aristocrat, whose name is not specified in the available text. The source frames the prize ironically, noting that the 50,000 euros will enable the alliance to continue its armament course and purchase additional F-35 stealth bombers at a unit price of 250 million euros. The source explicitly states the date is not April 1 but October 1. Further details are available in the current issue of the Freitag publication.