Welcome to – the place of the international symposium on “EXPLORING VALUES IN TEACHER EDUCATION – STRATEGIES FROM A EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP“ from April 27th to April, 30th.

Offenburg, a town with overall 60.000 inhabitants is located in the southwest of . Here the mighty river has formed a huge valley with two mountain ranges at its side: The (including Offenburg) and the Mountains in France. For a long time, the area along the river has not only been a border of nations and languages, but also a bone of contention between a long row of historical ages: The Romans settled here, before they were forced to leave by the German alemans, French and Germans settled here for a long time peacefully together (the Alsatian people had the same mother tongue), but later turned into bitter enemies for centuries. All this is hopefully past. Nowadays Offenburg is part of the centre of Europe – only a few miles off from , the seat of the European Parliament, 40 km from with its famous Cathedral and 80 km from Basle, the medieval city of Switzerland. „Salmen” – a national heritage museum

On September 12th,1847 the members of the „club for a national constitution“ met in this former Restaurant Salmen and its hall. Overall 900 participants agreed to build a platform for a constitutional democracy in the state of . They passed a list of claims to the Duke of Baden, in which for the first time in Germany the democratic rights of the people were layed down. These brave man from Offenburg started the democratic german Revolution from 1848 – 1849, which was supressed by prussian guns. Later, the Salmen was turned into the synagogue of the jewish citizens of Offenburg, destroyed in 1938; all jewish citizens were deported to concentration camp in 1940. Nowadays the Salmen is used as a museum and festivity hall of the city of Offenburg. During the symposium, the Salmen is used for the opening evening on Thursday, 27th and on the evening of Friday, 28th with a dinner and a performance of teacher trainees: “Creative Potential”. Starting from the Salmen, we also offer a short guided city tour through Offenburg on Friday at 18h.

Kulturforum Originally used as Prussian barracks, later Nazi barracks and after the downfall of Hitler the headquarter of the french army of the World War II - Allies, the „Kulturforum“ has now turned into a area of recreation, leisure, art and culture. As part of the Kulturforum, the Teacher Training College Offenburg is situated in one of the completely renewed barracks, surrounding by a park and a huge monument of Jonathan Borovsky (Male/Female). The lunch during the symposium is in the area in the “Reithalle” – a former hall for army horses.

Guided Tour by bus through the Black Forest

Cukoo Clocks, breath taking landscapes, mountain lakes, waterfalls – this is the destination of our Sunday tour. We make a tour of around 200km in a circle around the Black Forest – from Triberg with its famous waterfalls (the highest in Germany) to the Lake of , see the snow on Mountain, drive through “Hells Valley” to Freiburg, the Black Forest capital- visit the famous cathedral from 12th century and drive home through the Rhine valley to Offenburg. A trip worth while 30€! Food is not provided, we stop on a lovely place for a rest. Start: 9h30 from the Hotels Return: 17h00 to the Hotels