Documentation International Youth Projects 2008/2009 DOCUMENTATION 2008/2009
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Funding programme of the Foundation EVZ DOCUMENTATION INTERNATIONAL YOUTH PROJECTS 2008/2009 DOCUMENTATION 2008/2009 Projects for the year 2008/2009 which were supported by the funding programme for international exchange between schools and youth or- ganisations from Germany and Central Europe, Eastern Europe, South- eastern Europe or Israel EUROPeanS FOR Peace © 2009 Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Editors: Heide Lübge, Ulrike Daniel (MitOst e.V.), Sonja Böhme, Nadine Reimer, Franka Kühn (Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”) | Photos: pictures from the funded projects, Jan Zappner, ullstein bild – sodapix, dpa (page 24) | Translation: Alison Borrowman | Layout: die superpixel, Leipzig | Printed by: PögeDruck, Leipzig CONTENT Introduction 5 Günter Saathoff, Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Examples of Projects in 2008/2009 9 The Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility 22 and Future” MitOst e.V. 23 Current topic 24 2 3 preface Dear readers, for the fourth time, young people from 22 different countries developed and implemented international projects of a sophisticated thematic stand ard together. The EUROPEANS FOR PEACE funding programme of the Foun dation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (Foundation EVZ) pro vided the framework for those projects in the 2008/2009 programme year. Since 2002 the foundation has supported international projects that keep alive the discussion of NationalSocialist injustice and promote interna tional understanding and the defence of human rights in the present day. Those ac tivities include this funding programme, which is directed at young people from Germany and from Central, Eastern and SouthEastern Europe or from Israel. Partnerships between schools or nonschool educational institutions bring young people together to explore specific issues, ad dressing in particular the history of European injustice in the 20th century and conditions for the preservation of peace, democracy and human rights since 1945. The theme of this year’s call for applications – “Origin and Diversity” – inspired many partner ships to explore, for instance, the relationship between the history of individual families and 20th European century history or to examine problems associated with the coexistence of dif ferent cultures or ethnicities. The young participants came up with a wide range of answers to the questions “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?” They addressed topics like forced resettlement, flight and expulsion, and they tackled issues like racism, antiSemitism and xenophobia. Participants located interesting and interested eyewitnesses who had experi enced flight, exile or emigration first hand and were able to open up new perspectives for the students – and often for the project directors as well. Reflecting the funding programme’s mot to “Looking back – moving forward”, partnerships adopted either a historical or a presentday perspective, or a combination of both, for the implementation of their project ideas for the first time in this programme year. 4 5 Once again, the project results are very impressive. The best projects – selected from a total of 71 partnerships funded by Foundation EVZ – are presented in detail in this report. So you can read, for example, about young people from Berlin and Hosman, Romania, who prepared a the atrical performance inspired by the play Andorra by Max Frisch. The character of Andrei, whose social origins cause him to be the victim of social ostracism, inspired the young Roma and non Roma participants to focus on the relationship between minorities and majorities in Europe. You will learn about a GermanPolish project partnership that examined the dual expulsion of Ger mans and Poles, taking the city of Gollnow/Goleniów as its example. Eyewitnesses from both countries related their memories of forced labour, flight and expulsion. Participants created a bilingual project newspaper, intended to be read in their schools and beyond. We are pleased with the results of all of the projects and with the level of commitment shown by the young people themselves and by the men and women who directed the projects, and we would like to offer them all our most sincere congratulations for their achievements. We would also like to thank the staff of MitOst e.V., who once again showed great commitment and crea tivity in implementing the funding programme in cooperation with the Foundation EVZ, and ex press our gratitude to the jury members and to our media partner, Deutsche Welle. Günter Saathoff, Member of the board of the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” 6 7 EXAMples of projects » I am keen to promote the study and analysis of 20th century Eu Examples of projects in the ropean history. Young people in particular have to learn from the struggle for peace, democracy and human rights in the past. For EUROPEANS FOR PEACE programme they are the ones who are gradually taking on responsibility and will shape the future. I would like to sincerely thank the Founda tion “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” for initiating this “Where do we come from? Where are we going? How diverse was and is Europe in its people, significant programme five years ago. « cultures and history?” Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, former German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and patron of EUROPEANS FOR PEACE These and other questions were the focus of 71 international school and youth projects in the 2008/2009 programme year of the EUROPEANS FOR PEACE funding programme. Young partici pants from Germany and from Central, Eastern or South Eastern Europe or from Israel opted to use a historical or a presentday approach, or a combination of the two, to address the theme of “Origin and Diversity” in a project. Some project groups investigated the biographies of people whose lives were changed by their experience of flight, expulsion, exile and/or forced labour or labour migration. Others looked in to presentday problems, the stories behind migration or manifestations of social diversity. The projects were carried out by joint partnerships of schools or institutions who are actively involved in international youth work. Each project included one partner from Germany and one or more from a Central, Eastern or Southeastern European country or Israel. The project work culminated in meetings of the partner groups in their respective countries, which lasted several days. The central aspect of each project was the dialogue between the young participants and the historical witnesses or those people whose life stories they had focused upon. At a festive ceremony held in Berlin in December of 2009, six examples of the 2008/2009 part nerships presented the results of their projects publicly. The following pages will provide you with a view of their crossborder project work, their aims and the results of their cooperative efforts. 8 9 EXAMples of projects » I have learned to work in a group and to listen to other people’s In rehearsals and at the perform opinions, which might be better » What makes working who is andrei? – the country within me ance, Andrei went through twenty than mine. Calina » « with young people Young Roma and non-Roma in Germany and Romania reflect on heads and twenty bodies and special is their curiosi their situation in life spoke in twenty voices. Every ty and eagerness to member of the ensemble played experiment and to Andrei in one scene, imagining minorities and majorities in Europe. They in play. Their own ques Projektpartner Where do I come from, who am I, what do I and embodying his or her own vestigated a range of different social roles and tions about identity, SpreeAgenten think about myself, what do I want to be like? interpretation of that character. experimented inquisitively with masks, cos « their future, about e.V., Berlin (D) Am I the way other people think I am? Why do Susanne Chrudina, project director tumes, movement and language. The village what it means to be they ignore some parts of me? Am I really only Communication went smoothly: of Hosman was transformed into a theatrical » an outsider. Sustainable the sum of my biographical coordinates? I had the feeling we were speaking « performing and viewing space, whose collages Branka Pavlovic´, workshop leader Hosman the same language. Simon of scenes provoked interest and inspired dis « Association, These are questions that 16 young people cussion. The young people documented their We worked together like Hosman (RO) from Berlin and Hosman asked themselves » work in a video and created a catalogue with a family. Mihai together and to which they also found very « photographs and texts. personal responses in the preparation of a play about the character Andrei. In a work inspired by the play Andorra by Max Frisch, Andrei suffers social ostracism due to his eth nic origins, experiencing prejudice and dis crimination from the people of his commu nity. Andrei, in the search for his identity, served the Roma and nonRoma participants as a mirror enabling them to reflect their indi vidual situations. The character inspired them to examine their own identity, their role in their community and the relationship between The project participants from Romania and Germany created masks for their collages of scenes 10 11 EXAMples of projects Bosnian and German young people got to know each other in intercultural teamwork step by step – stages on the path to understanding and reconciliation German-Bosnian youth encounters on the theme of migration and social diversity During the project encounters, the young par Project partners How was it possible to arrange a school part ticipants interviewed people who were forced Youth Academy nership between Germany and Bosnia includ from their homes in the Yugoslavian wars Walberberg, ing young Germans, Bosnians, Serbians and (1992–1995), some who had since returned Bornheim (D) Muslims? What it required above all else were and some who had not, and examined the co people who were ready and willing to take ac existence of ethnic majorities and minorities Paths of Peace tion on behalf of others and who did not shy in their everyday lives.