22 dedicated KAAD-scholars from 14 countries made their way to the city of Freiburg/Breisgau in order to work as voluntary helpers during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. They had followed a call from the Archdiocese of Freiburg, which was published by KAAD in the internet platform "Alumniportal Deutschland". In addition to these official volunteers, a number of other scholars joined the group in Freiburg in order to take part in the events during the Pope's visit.

Scholars studying in Freiburg gave the group a city tour before they went to witness Pope Benedict entering the city and speaking to the people gathered on the cathedral square. Another important highlight and unique experience was the vigil for young people, whereby the KAAD-scholars gathered together with 23.000 others who prayed together with the Pope and gave witness to their faith.

On Saturday, the 24th of September was the day of the big papal mass on the airfield of Freiburg. Here the KAAD-scholars did their service by being ushers and helpers to the thousands of faithful flocking the place. In order to get to the venue, they had to do a major pilgrimage on food in the middle of the night - their service started at 4.00 AM!

After they had done their work, the group met with KAAD-President, Prof. Josef Reiter, who was invited to the Pope's speech at Freiburg’s “Konzerthaus”. In his short speech, Prof. Reiter encouraged them to continue making room in their busy study schedules in order to attend important events of social and religious nature.

In early September, another group of KAAD-scholars has been close to Pope Benedict, when they participated in the study tour and pilgrimage to Rome. KAAD's General Secretary, Dr. Hermann Weber, led the scholars to a papal audience at St. Peter's Square.