The schwelle awarded the first International Bremen Peace Prize to people for their exemplary commitment for justice, peace and integrity of creation.

Sister Weronika Sakowska is a member of the Catholic Order of Pallotines and is from Poland. Sister Weronika has worked for almost 10 years in a camp for refugees of the genocide in Rwanda (now near Goma, DR Congo). She worked there with other sisters to establish a nutrition and health centre to, above all, provide orphans in this area the minimum in healthcare and nutrition. Parents Circle is a union of Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost their children to the violent conflicts in the Middle East. The members are united in grief and use various activities to make the public in the Middle East sympathetic towards a just peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Hans Graf von Sponeck, born in 1939 in Bremen, served for 30 years as a diplomat in the UN. Most recently he held the rank of UN Assistant Secretary General responsible for the "Oil for Food" programme. In 2000 he, together with two other top diplomats, stepped down from this post and resigned from the UN out of protest against the sanctions policy of the Security Council and in particular the USA, responsible for the death of several hundred thousand Iraqi children.