FREUDENBERGSTIFTUNGinformiert

The first 20 Years of the

Freudenberg Foundation

1984 – 2004

Table of Contents

Foreword of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees 3

About this report 9

Integration and immigration 11

Sinti and Roma 29

Young people between school and working life 39

Learning democracy and assuming responsibility in school and the community 55

Employment for mentally ill people 71

Developing local models in selected areas and city districts 81

Developing, supporting and disseminating our projects 95

Annexes 109

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Foreword of the Chairman

of the Board of Trustees

The Freudenberg Foundation, established in 1984, is celebrating its 20th anni-versary this year. We believe this is a good occasion to look back on the workit has done so far.

The Foundation was born when members of the Freudenberg family decidedto transfer a part of their holdings in the Freudenberg company, which untilthen had been owned exclusively by family members, to a non-profit foun-dation. Since then the Freudenberg Foundation, having the legal form of anon-profit limited company, has been a partner of the company – albeit with-out voting rights. Günter Freudenberg took the decisive first step when hetransferred limited partnership capital shares. According to his request, theFoundation was to concentrate on sociopolitical issues and be managed ac-cording to professional criteria. When the managing bodies were formed, he– so as to set a good example – did not want to be a member himself. TheBoard of Partners with five members and the Board of Trustees comprisingnine persons control the fortunes of the Foundation. The Board of Partners,in which the company holds only two places, appoints the Board of Trusteesand, together with the latter, the Executive Director. Apart from that, its workis limited to defining the financial framework every year and it has the final de-cision when the Board of Trustees wants to make any fundamental changesin the Foundation’s program or guidelines. That, however, has never occurredin the past two decades. The objectives of the Foundation – as is the case inmost statutes of foundations – are formulated only in a very general manner.Accordingly, the Foundation’s objective is to promote the sciences and edu-cation as well as peaceful coexistence in society. Based on its statutes, theFoundation also can do „charitable“ work. Therefore, the first task facing theBoard of Trustees twenty years ago was to accurately define the Foundation’sfields of activity. The thematic profile created in this way during the Founda-tion’s first two years has proven to be both open to necessary developmentsand stable at one and the same time.

The Board of Trustees was able to continue the thematic interests and expe-riences of the company and individual partners. Thus, the areas of interestpursued by the Foundation were not chosen „out of the blue“ but can lookback on a long tradition. An outstanding example is the so-called „EttlingerKreis“ founded by Hans Freudenberg, which was headed first by him and thenby Hermann Freudenberg for 20 years up until the middle of the 1970s. Themost significant topic of interest of this circle of entrepreneurs and scientists,which, by the way, was not very popular with industrial associations, was

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reforming the general and vocational education of young people. The„Ettlinger Kreis“ was succeeded by the „Stiftung Ettlinger Gespräche“ withinthe „Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft” (Donors’ Association forthe Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany), which also washeaded by Hermann Freudenberg. This foundation was interested in the top-ic of immigration and integration and to this end developed a model projectfor the vocational and social integration of primarily „foreign youth“, whichwas realized in Weinheim with funds from the Freudenberg company in 1979.Based on the pattern of the „Weinheim Project“, the program of RAA, shortfor „Regionale Arbeitsstellen zur Förderung ausländischer Kinder undJugendlicher“ (regional centers for the promotion of foreign children and ado-lescents) was developed and built up in nine cities in the Ruhr district between1980 and 1984 with funds from the Federal government, state and municipalgovernments as well as the „Stiftung Ettlinger Gespräche“. When theFreudenberg Foundation was established, the Board of Trustees decided tocontinue this thematic tradition and, thus, also took over the projects of the„Stiftung Ettlinger Gespräche“ in its program. It had, so to say, a flying start.The same holds true for another area of concentration of the Foundation: Pro-fessor Rudolf Freudenberg, who had emigrated to England, proposed open-ing psychiatric wards and finding ways to reintegrate mentally ill people in theircommunities. He was particularly concerned with the question as to howthese people could find work, and he was able to prove the feasibility of thesesuggestions on the basis of practical models.

Therefore, in the past two decades, the Foundation has dedicated its work tothe following five areas. Firstly, the integration of immigrants and cultural mi-norities in a society that has become an immigration society as well as thehostile and discriminating reactions facing them. Secondly, the promotion ofa democratic culture, since this is a prerequisite for peaceful coexistence insociety. In this respect, the main focus – in a positive sense – is on promotingprojects with the objective of teaching democracy and individual assumptionof responsibility in schools and communities and – in a negative sense – ofcombating extremist, above all right-wing extremist, influences on the every-day culture in which young people grow up. Thirdly, the Foundation concen-trates on assisting young people who, particularly due to social discrimination,encounter problems at school and in the system for attaining vocational quali-fications. Fourthly, reintegrating mentally ill people into working life as well asincreasing society’s awareness of their specific problems. This area hasachieved numerous significant goals in the past 20 years and will no longerbe continued as a separate area of activity.

The other three main areas of activity will continue to characterize the Foun-dation’s profile in the future. Assuming it is correct that foundations should beactive primarily „anti-cyclically“, i.e. that they are not supposed to do what is

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being politically promoted anyway, then the areas of interest defined by theBoard of Trustees when the Foundation was founded were well chosen be-cause they still respond to sociopolitical deficits today: inadequate policy ofimmigration and integration, insufficient democratization policies, in particu-lar in eastern Germany, and insufficient education and vocational training poli-cies. The Foundation can be glad and also a little proud of the fact that it didnot give up its areas of interest, even when only very few people were inter-ested in them. Up until today – and despite the PISA study – such topics asyouth, education and vocational training do not enjoy political priority. The in-fluences of right-wing extremism on everyday life no longer rate news cover-age, even though the same misdeeds as before are occurring every single day.Although the linguistic and social integration of immigrant families is being dis-cussed in public again, no appropriate action is being taken.

At first glance, it may seem that a foundation which allocates between € 1.7–2million per year is trying to realize a confusingly broad thematic program.Yet, in fact, the three areas overlap and are closely interconnected. All areasare concerned with the problems of social discrimination and lack of recog-nition. Moreover, children and teenagers are the center of attention: the Foun-dation strives to promote the social, linguistic, educational and vocational in-tegration of the next generation. Based on our past experience, this calls fora broad approach that encompasses the families, the neighborhood and sur-rounding environment, the institutions responsible for education and assis-tance as well as the possible occupations and employment market. A fre-quently quoted wise saying claims that only a couple is needed to bring a childinto this world but a whole village is needed for the child to be raised well.

Based on this maxim, it can be concluded that if the village, the city district,the „social environment“ of the family gets into difficulties, this will affect theyoung children and youth. For this reason, we have decided – as a fifth areaof interest – to concentrate our efforts on individual towns or city districtswhere there is great need of development. We want to apply the experiencesgained in our other three areas of interest there and contribute to the develop-ment of local models of urban renewal as well as the intensification of „inte-gration potentials“. We hope that in this way the interrelationship between thethree main areas of interest – integration, vocational qualification, learningdemocracy – will have an actual effect on the persons concerned.

Although a description of its thematic areas of interest and sociopolitical ob-jectives is certainly important when characterizing the Freudenberg Foun-dation, its work gains true color only when one looks at „how“ these objec-tives are realized. The basis for this is formed by the guidelines, which we havenot had to change in the past twenty years. Accordingly, the Foundation isprimarily an „operational“ organization. In other words, even though it accepts

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applications and supports interesting projects, it does not wait for others topresent their ideas but develops projects itself together with its partner or-ganizations. In doing so, it responds to innovation gaps caused by bureau-cracies and tries to find solutions by developing practical models. For this pur-pose, it calls on scientific studies to identify such gaps. Yet, frequently, theexperiences gained in the course of practical project work disclose such inno-vation gaps.

Whenever practical models have proven their worth, usually in a local con-text, the Foundation tries to make them public, ensuring that they are sus-tained and implemented elsewhere as well. It cannot cope with this task onits own; therefore, from the beginning, the Freudenberg Foundation, when thiswas still very uncommon in Germany, endeavored to set up partnerships withstate institutions and collaborate with other foundations. This is a good occa-sion to thank them for their multifaceted advice and the good cooperation –representative for all the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the „Stifterverbandfür die Deutsche Wissenschaft“ (Donors’ Association for the Promotion ofHumanities and Sciences in Germany), which acted as sponsors at the be-ginning. Whenever we were unable to find partners, we sometimes partici-pated in the establishment of foundations and associations. Without theircommitment, wealth of ideas, initiatives and trustful cooperation, the activi-ties of the Freudenberg Foundation would certainly have taken a different turn.

In this connection I would like to emphasize the close cooperation with theRobert Bosch Foundation during the initial phase of the German Children andYouth Foundation, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, the „RAA“ (regional cen-ters for issues regarding foreigners, school and youth work in the new Ger-man states and the promotion of children and adolescents from immigrantfamilies in North Rhine-Westphalia), the Center for Turkish Studies and theCenter for Democratic Culture, which actively and effectively points to thedangers of a right-wing extremist everyday culture.

Our first and most important partner as far as the practical implementation ofprojects is concerned was FGM (Forschungsgruppe Modellprojekte e.V.), andwe would like to express our special thanks to them. Together with FGM, theFreudenberg Foundation established the „Stiftungs- und FördergemeinschaftModellprojekte GmbH“ (SFGM), where we manage and assist foundationsthat have approached the Freudenberg Foundation because of the affinity oftheir areas of interest with ours. Thus, for example, close relations have beenformed with the „Lindenstiftung für vorschulische Erziehung“ (pre-schooleducation), the „Karl und Ria Groeben Stiftung“ (intercultural and interreligiousunderstanding) and the „Heinrich Stoess- und Gerda Koepff Stiftung“ (pro-motion of Roma). We would like to thank all of you for your trust and the fruit-ful symbiosis.

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The following report will not only discuss projects, but also describe the manydifferent activities that precede, accompany or follow the actual project work:conferences, meetings, expert opinions, memos, studies, cooperation. Yet,in the final analysis, they all refer to concrete problems of persons with namesat identifiable places and to the practical actions taken. If I were asked to de-scribe what I, from a partner’s vantage point as observer, found most fasci-nating, then I would name the characteristic mixture of very concrete smallinitiatives and sociopolitical effects: in a small town in the Saarland somewomen felt disturbed by a group of unemployed teenagers hanging out onthe streets and frequently getting into trouble. These women founded a clubfor the teenagers in the school with the help of the Freudenberg Foundation.The RAA did the same thing in Hoyerswerda. The Robert Bosch Foundationdeveloped similar ideas in its program „Practical Learning”. The „DeutscheKinder- und Jugendstiftung” (German Children and Youth Foundation) devel-oped them further together with RAA and other partners. Thanks to the foun-dation supported by us for 10 years, there now exist thousands of studentclubs. We could tell many such stories. Some will be related in the followingreport.

All of this could not be initiated and managed by a foundation working alongthe following lines of receiving applications, having a board of trustees decideabout the allocation of funds and a small administrative staff reviewing the re-ports and proof of the utilization of funds. The Freudenberg Foundation mostcertainly owes its profile to a Board of Partners that has set a reliable frame-work, given sound advice, controlled gently and, apart from that, exercised„the art of restraint and letting things happen” as well as a Board of Trusteesthat lent direction to the work of the Foundation and has accompanied it withwise advice and committed support.

Throughout the past two decades, the Foundation about whose activities weare proud to report here was created, formed and managed by my prede-cessor as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Hermann Freudenberg, the Exe-cutive Director of the Foundation, Christian Petry, and the administrative staffwho daily define the meaning of an operational foundation. If anyone is to becongratulated on the anniversary of this institution then it is they.

Dr. Reinhart Freudenberg

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About this report

Actually, it was tempting to write a completely different report: a report thatdoes not describe sociopolitical objectives, innovation gaps in measurestaken by bureaucracies, thematic concepts, methods and forms of work andsustainability of projects, but rather a report that concentrates on people, be-cause all the courageous, successful and sometimes moving projects arebacked by committed men and women – perhaps women more often thanmen.

The structures that have been created, the funds that have – hopefully – beenutilized intelligently and strategically as well as the carefully established sup-portive networks alone achieve nothing. True, they open up opportunities –but it takes courageous people to face the challenges and opportunities andto make something of them. It would be nice if the report of a foundation couldsimply be a series of small portraits. That would reveal what causes the suc-cess of project work: fantasy, reliability, openness, persistence, emotional in-telligence, warmth, altruism, fearlessness, humor, and sometimes also thatgrain of insanity which frequently discloses new paths to pragmatic reason.Then it would become very clear that many of the objectives and subjects de-scribed in separate chapters in this report for reasons of analytic clarity actu-ally belong together and form one multifaceted whole.

The problems to which the projects respond as well as the motives and skillsinvolved in the projects do not vary significantly from one chapter to the next.Yet, since, in a short report, it is easier to imagine the persons involved in thestructures than vice versa, we decided to adhere to the conventional form.Nonetheless, we do not want to begin our report without thanking all thepeople, without whose work and commitment this report would never havebeen written.

Twenty years is such a long period of time that it would be impossible to strivefor completeness. Thus many projects are missing; also projects that were im-portant at the time of their creation and implementation. In particular, we willdiscuss those projects that are characteristic of our learning history and willbe part of our future work.

The report is written as a story of development. In its seven chapters, it pro-vides a comprehensive description of the experiences gained in the pasttwenty years as a case history for our tasks today and in future. Five chapterscorrespond to the thematic main areas of interest that have defined the pro-ject work of the Foundation throughout the past two decades:

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– integration and immigration,– learning democracy and assuming responsibility,– young people between school and working life,– developing local models in selected towns and city districts,– work for mentally ill people.

Even though the chapter „Sinti and Roma” is not a separate thematic area butpart of the subject integration and immigration, the special situation of thisminority in all European nations calls for a coherent description. The last chap-ter – „Developing, supporting and disseminating our projects” – focuses moreon the „how” than the „what” of project work. Above all, we would like to pointout what we owe to cooperation with others.

The report is written in the form of a continuous text, but it need not be readthis way. Every chapter begins with a brief description of the problems, towhich we have tried to find practical solutions and is followed by a descrip-tion of the projects initiated to put the proposed solutions into practice. Inmany instances (marked by a colored background) we included reports basedon practical experience. Hopefully, these will convey an impression of the con-crete actions and events referred to in the abstract description of the projects.You can start with the stories and then read about the problems, or you canfirst study the descriptions of the problems and then go to the stories, or youcan turn directly to individual – color-marked – projects. We hope that –irrespective of which path you choose to take – you will gain an overall im-pression of the Foundation’s profile.

All staff members, consultants and many project managers of the Foundationcontributed to this report. I would like to thank all of them.

Christian Petry

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Integration and immigration

In the past forty years, Germany in actual fact has become an immigrationcountry. Many of the problems that the Foundation strives to remedy arisefrom the fact that politics did not address this situation and that,consequently, no adequate conclusions were drawn. Since the middle of the1970s, when the guest workers remaining in Germany brought their familiesas a result of the stop in recruitment, immigration should have irrefutablybecome a principal political task. This was not the case at the time and upuntil today it has not been possible to create the much-needed legalframework conditions for this significant sociopolitical task. Not even theterm „immigration country” can be used in public undisputedly tocharacterize the issue concerned.

At the initiative of and with the support of the „Stifterverband für dieDeutsche Wissenschaft” (Donors’ Association for the Promotion ofHumanities and Sciences in Germany) and the Freudenberg Foundation,60 scientists got together under the leadership of Professor Klaus Bade in1993 and published the „Manifest of the 60: Germany and Immigration”.This manifest describes the tasks facing politics and proposes solutions.Accordingly, a prerequisite for improving integration, besides an amendedright of citizenship, would be an immigration act that included laws onintegration and anti-discrimination laws. Substantial progress has beenmade as regards the right of citizenship. Despite the extensive discussionin the past years accompanying the work of the immigration commissionand the preparation of an „immigration limitation law”, nothing haschanged in the political reality of Germany since the law failed to beadopted by the German Bundestag. In view of the fact that immigration tothe Federal Republic of Germany has actually been taking place for closeto forty years, the design for the social and occupational integration ofimmigrants who are cultural minorities in Germany should enjoy politicalpriority.

The local institutions as well as the initiatives and social organizations activein this area still do not receive the much-needed systematic support.Integration is a task which should be handled jointly in an organized fashionhorizontally by the different ministries and vertically by the different levels ofpublic administration ranging from local authorities to the federalgovernment. This also holds true for the cooperation between the state andcivil society. Yet, the opposite is the case: as a rule, the institutions andorganizations working at the local level compete with one another and areegotistically determined to protect vested rights.

The problem

Manifest of the 60: Germany andImmigration

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The PISA study drew attention to the fact that the promotion of integrationat the preschool and school levels leaves much to be desired. Young menand women, particularly from Turkey, are continuously migrating to Germanythrough marriage and no one is concerned with their linguistic and socialintegration. These new immigrants cannot help their children becomeintegrated in kindergarten or school. They themselves would need help.

Moreover, ever since the heated debate about asylum at the beginning ofthe 1990s, the German population is not willing to make concessions. Thestance that the „boat is full” has become an established worry of thepopulation, and it is revived time and again during election campaigns. Inaddition, the public authorities’ highly restrictive attitude displayed towardspersons seeking asylum and refugees also affects the general mood. In viewof the flow of refugees, the politicians and public authorities need to answertwo questions: first, who will be granted entry? Second, how should the„immigrants” be treated?

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These questions should be answered separately: when an immigrant isgranted residence in Germany, then all efforts needed to ensure integrationshould be undertaken – even if the period of residence is only intended tobe temporary. However, as a result of the debate on asylum, the positiontaken widely by the public authorities offers only one answer to bothquestions: we should create conditions in Germany that spoil staying inGermany for persons seeking asylum and deter others from coming.Amongst other things, this is justified with the general suspicion that mostabuse the right of asylum. Since the German population cannot easilydifferentiate between, for example, Turks with or without a Germanpassport, „tolerated” Kurds, Afghan refugees or Portuguese constructionworkers, it is to be feared that the overall development towards a Europeansociety with increasing cultural and ethnic diversity will have negativefeatures in the eyes of the population. The continually present danger ofspreading xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and propensity for violencewill not be lessened but only heightened in this manner.

What is more, the relationship to the Moslem population is overshadowedby Islam terrorism. In the public discussion following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, it became very evident that the inter-religious dialogin Germany is not adequately developed. Most people have almost noknowledge about Islam in general and Islamic life in their own town.Therefore, the attitude of local politicians and the climate prevailing in thepublic authorities and the media in the individual towns significantlydetermine, for example, whether the construction of a mosque leads to akind of battle of cultures or whether the visible presence of Islam will beaccepted by the population.

Furthermore, xenophobia will find a breeding-ground wherever youngpeople live under socially deprived conditions, feel that they arediscriminated and powerless or that they are not acknowledged. If thegeneral climate in such communities also is characterized by rejecting andrepulsing anything considered „foreign”, only slight reasons and easilyarranged occasions will be enough to provoke violence.

Frequently discrimination and the feeling of not being acknowledged alsoform the breeding-ground for violence on the other side, i.e. among youngpeople coming from immigrant families. This is particularly true when theycome from families where they have experienced violence themselves, asshown in a study by Professor Pfeiffer. The public discussion about theexperience of violence and the propensity for violence, above all amongyoung Turks and Eastern European emigrants of German origin contributesto the German population’s concern and in turn increases processes ofdiscrimination. It should be borne in mind that these developments are

Young Turks…………

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occurring against the background of a declining birth rate among theGerman population. Already now it is foreseeable that in a few years onethird to one half of the children attending schools in all large cities will comefrom immigrant families. Consequently, improving the assistance providedto them is one of the most important social goals facing German society.

And yet it is evident already now that all this will not suffice, that – in spiteof unemployment – there will have to be more – and not less – immigrationagain. Therefore, the emergence of a form of cosmopolitan basic attitude inGermany is an important and simultaneously neglected objective of politics,business and society.

This chapter will describe the Foundation’s project work focusing directly onthe integration of „immigrants”. The following chapters „Young peoplebetween school and working life” and „Learning democracy and assumingresponsibility” are concerned with developments that apply to all. In otherwords, this also refers to society’s integration capability.

When we use the term integration, we associate three intentions with it: withour project work we would like, firstly, to help our society learn to acceptcultural diversity as a natural characteristic. That is what the word„cosmopolitan” stands for. Secondly, we would like to ensure that ethnicand cultural differences cannot be used to justify fewer educationalopportunities and opportunities in life in general. Through our project workwe want to participate in the efforts to attain justice, equality, equalopportunities and participation for the immigrants becoming culturalminorities. Thirdly, we believe in the strengths and capability of developmentof a culturally heterogeneous society and hope to help make this visible. Byno means does this imply that the immigrants need not take active part inthe integration processes themselves, too. Parents with an immigrantbackground must allow and help their children to become integrated in theGerman education and social system. Equal opportunity can only be basedon systematic assistance and a culture of mutual acknowledgement. At thesame time, society in general must open up. Then change will come, too.

The most significant practical response of the Foundation to deficits inGermany’s integration policy was and is RAA, short for RegionaleArbeitsstellen zur Förderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen ausZuwandererfamilien (regional centers for the promotion of children andadolescents from immigrant families). At the beginning, the FreudenbergFoundation was able to base its work on five years of experience inWeinheim: within the framework of the model study program of the Federaland State Commission for Educational Planning and Research Assistance(BLK), a concept of action designed to offer comprehensive support in

What we have done

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particular to students attending special schools, school drop-outs andschool-leavers was created with the help of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs ofBaden-Württemberg, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research aswell as donations from the company Carl Freudenberg KG in 1979. The mostprominent target group was foreign youth, 60–70% of whom left schoolwithout having acquired any school-leaving qualification. In 1980,acknowledgement as a BLK model study also was attained in the Ruhrdistrict for a comparable concept bearing the name RAA for „RegionaleArbeitsstellen zur Förderung ausländischer Kinder und Jugendlicher”(regional centers for the promotion of foreign children and adolescents).Other cities quickly followed, e.g. Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, several citiesin North Rhine-Westphalia, and Mannheim.

RAA can be described in three ways: we can present the people workingthere, the work they do as well as the methods and functions thatcharacterize this organization. RAA employs teachers and socialpedagogues of different national or ethnic origins. In other words, peoplewho are familiar with several cultures and different areas of specializationwork here: there are teachers from different types of schools and faculties,kindergarten teachers, people who worked in family education or haveexperience in youth work. There are social scientists, social anthropologistsand even artists. What is more, RAA acts as student council advisor inschools with which it is cooperating closely. There are full-time staffmembers and particularly many volunteers participating in the workinggroup and projects concerned with schools. When viewed as a whole, theflock of RAA’s staff is a very colorful group of people who can convey a widerange of varying competence.

We could describe RAA also on the basis of the contents of their work. Allin all it can be said that there is no problem related to immigration andintegration which is not being handled by at least one regional association:integration problems encountered by immigrants, irrespective of where theymay come from, as well as varying intercultural conflicts: when problemsarise with a group of Lebanese men or there is a dispute between Turks andEastern European emigrants of German origin, when Turkish girls cannot ordo not want to stay at home any longer, a RAA usually is asked for help. Asa rule, the focal points of the RAA’s work are at so-called points of transition:above all between kindergarten and elementary school. Then later betweenelementary school and secondary school as well as between school andvocational training. It is hard to promote children in school without theirparents’ help. The greater the distance between a child’s home and school,the more difficult will it be for a child to succeed at school. However, thereis no greater distance than that between immigrant families who do notspeak German and are not familiar with the German system of education.

RAA, regional centers forthe support of childrenand adolescents fromimmigrant families

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Thus, overcoming this distance is extremely important if the children fromimmigrant families are to be promoted. For this reason, RAA have tried inmany ways to improve the cooperation between families and schools.Accordingly, teaching German is one of RAA’s central goals. After 20 years,they have a wealth of experience and ideas as well as a treasure trove ofproven materials.

In addition, the RAA could also be described by their functions andmethods. The RAA develop concepts, proposals as well as materials, andthey work out further training programs for others: the spectrum ranges fromteachers to police(wo)men. They act as consultants and offer a large numberof services. The doors of the RAA are always open. When you enter, youmay encounter the parents of a teenager who has not found the right schoolyet. Or two teachers may be in the library looking for new pedagogical ideasto use in their classrooms. Or a group of Turkish assistants may be packingboxes of materials.

One particularly important function of RAA is passing on contacts andcoordination. No other organization is able to bring together in a comparablemanner other organizations and groups so that they can cooperate with oneanother. And once you have gotten used to the fact that a RAA is a placewith a secretary’s office, conference room, seminar room, offices,exhibitions, materials, books, films and boxes, you will be surprised to findthat RAA sometimes also becomes active in schools or communities: e.g.working with a group of children or mothers or organizing a reading room,an intercultural writing workshop or a student club. Furthermore, RAAsponsors other projects and initiatives. They can become active themselvesand usually do so when other organizations having a broad approach thatexceeds beyond limits of responsibility encounter difficulties.

If we take the pilot project of RAA as the beginning, then the westernGerman RAA network has been in existence and looking for ways to improveintegration conditions for immigrants for 25 years now. What has changedduring this time? Looking at the persons who work in RAA and the projectscooperating with RAA, we are happy to note that quite a few young men andwomen from families with an immigrant background are growing up with asound education and vocational qualifications. Not as many as one mighthope for, but if one looks only at the young generation, one could gain theimpression that the multicultural society, which was but a futuristic vision 25years ago, actually exists.

The functions and methods of RAA are still effective, and many of theoriginal thematic approaches, e.g. development of language skills, have notbecome obsolete. The changes in the „work with foreigners”, which is also

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reflected in the history of RAA, can be gauged by the transformation in oneof the central tasks of RAA – namely „intercultural education”.

At the beginning this was understood to mean gaining and conveyinginformation about the native countries of the „foreign children” and theirfamilies. The underlying idea was that greater understanding for them inschool and their environment could be achieved by conveying informationabout their languages, religions and cultural traditions. Thus, the primaryconcerns were, for one, eliminating prejudices by providing information andpassing on contacts and, for another, allowing relationships to evolve on thebasis of mutual respect. This concept was based on two expectations: firstlythe hope that the immigrants would feel welcome at school as a result ofintercultural education, that the distance between a child’s parental homeand school would be reduced and consequently the parents’ willingnessand ability to help their children in German schools would be increased;secondly that this would create a basis enabling everyone to cope betterwith the intercultural conflicts that would inevitably arise.

When one reads the reports of RAA and some of the accompanying projectsfrom the first years, then many of the hopes described above are confirmed:Turkish mothers prefer going to kindergartens where they occasionally hearTurkish songs and games and where not only Easter but also the Turkishfestival of sacrifice, Kurban Bayrami, is observed; and visiting the home of aTurkish or Moroccan family to discuss an educational problem is mucheasier when the first conversation between the teacher and parents doesnot revolve around a problem but occurs, for example, at another, morepositive occasion.

Nevertheless, the objectives of intercultural education would be describeddifferently today. The reason for this is that „culture” is not static, butchanges continuously. The „cultural background” of the children andadolescents, for example, is no longer defined by Turkey but by their lifeamong the Turkish minority in Germany. Thus, an infinite number of culturalmixtures arise. Furthermore, the number of different cultures has multiplied.In most classrooms in urban schools, you will find many different languagesand cultures.

Accordingly, intercultural education as such should find pedagogical,organizational and methodological answers to the prevailing culturalpluralism, thereby promoting coexistence. Intercultural education strivestowards cosmopolitan openness, the recognition of the equality of allpeople, and a democratic culture. Consequently, its task is to help childrencope with heterogeneity, respect cultural differences, fend off discrimination,deal with conflicts of values and use these productively to define their own

Intercultural education

identity. This is not an easy task, because intercultural education does nottake place in a protected space. It is threatened by many different factors,not only by such obvious social counter-movements as provincial narrow-mindedness, racism, extremist self-withdrawal etc.

In addition to that there are two dangers that could impede the desired goalsof intercultural education: the tendency towards „ethnicization” and „self-ethnicization” of cultural and sub-cultural differences and, consequently, theblocking of social and cultural developments. If intercultural education isdefined in this way it will remain one of RAA’s central tasks for a long time.When Cengis, the German-born son of a single mother of Turkish originsworking as a union secretary, is asked by a teacher at school to tell the classhow he, „being a Turk”, views the issue of honor, then this could cause himto repel „intercultural education”. As a matter of fact, it could be that after awhile he will defiantly define himself as being Turkish, even though he barelyspeaks Turkish. Self-ethnicization and fundamentalist withdrawal can easilybe the results of stigmatization, discrimination as well as unsuccessfulattempts at cosmopolitan openness.

When the foundation took up its work there were, firstly, not enough placesfor children in the kindergartens in the areas where, for example, Turkishfamilies lived; secondly, those few kindergartens that were available wereaffiliated to one of the Christian Churches. Then it could happen that theTurkish children were asked to stay at home on the day the bishop wasplanning a visit. It should have suggested itself to at least set up apreparatory class at school, if integration could not be achieved inkindergarten without difficulties. Five-year-old children should not be sent toschool without any preparation. Yet, this turned out to be a difficult issue. Atthat time a kind of war of faith about the question as to where these five-year-old children belonged was being waged: should they go to pre-schoolor kindergarten. The winners were the Churches and the other supportinginstitutions. In particular the Turkish children were left with nothing.

At that time, the integration concept of the state of North Rhine-Westphaliafor the families of Turkish guest workers was as follows: we will concentrate– to paraphrase the policy of the state government at the time – onpromoting the „second generation”. Any efforts to assist the parents, the„first generation”, would be useless anyway. Accordingly, trying to organizesuch assistance through self-help groups for the parents was blocked atfirst, too. For example, the authorities were very strict in making sure thatchildren did not meet in rooms that did not observe the buildingspecifications for kindergartens.

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XYZ

Faced with this situation, we, the Bernard van Leer Foundation and RAAtogether developed the project „Turkish children and mothers” inGelsenkirchen. In order to help us prepare adequately, the Bernard von LeerFoundation established contacts to comparable projects in Great Britain.There we were particularly impressed by projects that concentrated on„community education”, meaning that these projects did not focus only onthe educational promotion of children at the pre-school and elementaryschool levels, but also involved the families, in particular the mothers. Thedirector of the Community Education Center in Coventry related aninteresting experience to us: a group of primarily Pakistani children wasdivided into three groups. All three groups were supposed to learn how towrite English. The first group was made up only of children, the secondcomprised children and mothers, and the third included only mothers. Afterseveral weeks, stock was taken to determine which group had done best.As expected, the group made up of children and mothers took first place.Yet surprisingly it was followed not by the group consisting of children alone,but by the group of children that had not had any lessons at all, i.e. whereonly the mothers had attended the English lessons. Nothing is as importantas overcoming the distance between parental home and educationalinstitution, we were told in Coventry. This would be facilitated if the familiesliving in the community did not feel as strangers in the school, if they feltwelcome there and were asked to participate and also assumeresponsibility. In order for this to happen, the school had to open up andbecome a „community school”. We knew immediately that his approachwould also be relevant for Germany and that we had to try to implement itin Germany and make it known. Above all we understood that in this way theissues of intercultural understanding/communication and education couldbe integrated in a concept involving society as a whole.

Bearing this in mind, we developed a model in Gelsenkirchen that intendednot only to prepare the parents and children together for school but also tocontinue the joint work throughout the first grade. The result wasencouraging: even children who had never attended kindergarten, whofrequently had not held a colored pencil before their fifth birthday did not feelstrange at the beginning of their first year of school. Their mothers were withthem, learning the same things they were. Proud laughter was heardfrequently when the children were quicker, explaining to their mothers:„That’s not a folower, Mama. It’s called flower.” Mothers help schools, evenif they expect to be helped by the school, too.

Much more than mere German lessons took place in the groups of motherswho met in the afternoons. All kinds of family problems were discussed, thewomen helped each other handle difficult negotiations with the authorities,discovered their neighborhoods and surrounding areas, went on tours and

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Turkish children and mothers in Gelsenkirchen

celebrated together. This group of mothers felt quite at home at school andgained significant self-confidence. As a matter of fact, the principalsometimes was stunned by their ideas and requests.

One of the results of the project „Turkish children and mothers” was aheightened awareness among German mothers and fathers: „Why are theafternoon classes only open to Turkish women? We want to come, too,” saidthe German women. Thus, the project intended to promote the pre-schooleducation of Turkish children turned into a community education project,indeed, a further education project for everyone.

The situation changed after several years: more places in kindergartenbecame available, and it was no longer necessary for the school to assumeresponsibility for preparing the children. Hence, the close cooperation withthe mothers relaxed as well.

RAA, however, did not simply file away the positive experiences gained byinvolving the mothers in the preparatory phase before school and duringschool, managing the transition together and opening up the school topromote integration. Together with a project for intercultural education inkindergartens in Berlin, they founded the Comed Association (communityeducation in Germany). Here various schools, scientists and projects worktogether to further their belief that opening up the institutions of educationand promoting the participation of the parents and community is anopportunity for development. The Foundation, which supported thedevelopment of community education for many years, also worked togetherwith the American Mott Foundation for a time.

A few years after the initiation of the project in Gelsenkirchen, a Dutchproject group that wanted to see for themselves that the learning success ofthe children and the integration of both mothers and children could beboosted by involving the mothers visited the mother-and-child project. Thekey role played – in connection with integration – by helping mothers/fathersand children acquire German language skills led to the development of abilingual language acquisition concept including parents, children andteachers: the idea leading to the development of „Rucksack” was born, andit was realized with the help of the Dutch De Meeuw Foundation.„Rucksack” comprises language acquisition materials in German and in therespective native languages of the families with immigrant backgrounds.The prototype was revised by the Regional Centers for the Promotion ofChildren and Adolescents from Immigrant Families in North Rhine-Westfaliain German, Turkish, Italian, Greek and Russian versions and expanded toinclude age groups 1-3 as well as elementary school students. In the Ruhrdistrict, amongst others in Essen and Gelsenkirchen, the program has been

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„Rucksack“

COMED – Community education in Germany

running successfully for several years now. The spec ial feature of„Rucksack” is that it is more than a model for cognitive languageacquisition; it is in actual fact a model for the promotion of integration.„Rucksack” is based on a culture of mutual respect and joint learningprocesses: immigrant parents are welcome in the kindergarten, they helptheir children learn, bilingual persons accompany the parents, acting asmediators between languages, and the teachers deepen their interculturalcompetence.

Frequently, developments occur discontinuously. Twenty years ago, weconsidered important the language acquisition of children, the transitionfrom kindergarten to school, and the accompanying support of the mothers.We noticed that a self-confident generation of young women has grown up;they are committed and know how to help their children. We did not followthe development attentively anymore, turning our attention to other topics.Thus, we did not notice that a „first generation” of immigrants is arisingrepeatedly through marriage migration and these „new” immigrants needthe same integration assistance as the immigrants did twenty years ago.

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There is one other change that is posing new challenges: more and moreimmigrants are living in groups that are ethnically and linguisticallyhomogeneous. This calls for new approaches and efforts with respect toeducational promotion. However, there is an important difference comparedto the situation ten or twenty years ago: today the immigrant populationincludes young educated women who speak German, who can act as

every day.” She had not been given that chance. Inaddition, Ali had his own book, in which he couldcollect pages and games, and he could show it tohis mother every afternoon. Her mother had neverdone anything like that with her, Ay?e complained.So, she at least wanted to do that now, too. „Thatwas when I realized how important it is to have timefor my children, to let the dirty dishes be and notjust let them watch TV. It is good for me, too, toremember the games we played as children and tolearn the games Ali brings home from kindergarten.And, at the same time, he and I learn German. Ihave signed up for two German courses. I want tofinally learn German so that I can understand morehere.“

Türkan: „Now I know that the small flower bloomingin the snow over there is called snowdrop,” saysTürkan with a smile. Mehmet showed her theflowers and told her the German word for themwhen she picked him up from kindergarten. Everyday he and eight other children learn German withZecha, his kindergarten teacher. Spring was thesubject at the moment. Directly after lunch heasked: „Mama, when will we do my homework?”He really likes learning German in a small group.Today, during the Morning Circle, when all childrenin his kindergarten group sit down together in acircle, two other Turkish children taught a fingergame in German to the other children. He is proudthat he dared to do something like that for the firsttime, says Türkan. Her eyes are bright as she tellsus this.

The stories of three Turkish mothers fromWeinheim:

Gülsum: In response to being asked what shewanted to achieve after accompanying twelvemothers for nine months, Gülsum took a piece ofpaper and drew circles around a point in the center,explaining: „When you throw a stone into water,circles start moving outward. I myself am onestone. I move away from doing only my householdchores. It is fun working with the mothers, learningwith and from them: for example, to refrain fromusing a Turkish word when I do not know the rightGerman one, but to look for the correct Germanword. I have finally bought a dictionary. I have goneto the library and borrowed books on Christianreligions so as to be able to tell the motherssomething about Easter. I want to gain a betterunderstanding of the culture I live in, together withthe Turkish women. Now I know where the libraryis, where my children can join a sports club, or whois responsible for women’s issues in the localgovernment. The „Rucksack” project got thesethings going.

Fatma: The materials of the „Rucksack”, the storiesit holds, the games and songs help her speak to herchildren, allowing them to have something incommon, something to do together. Just recently,her daughter Ay?e, who is already attendingschool, came to her in tears and asked: „Didn’t theylike me in kindergarten?” And following hermother’s questions, she explained: „Because Ali islearning German with other children in kindergarten

23

language teaching and integration assistants. Two things are needed,however: first, not all resources should be concentrated on languageclasses for children, the mothers need to be taught as well; second,investing in the continued education of the language teaching andintegration assistants from among the mothers themselves. In Weinheim,Mannheim and in other towns, we are trying to put this into practice. The„Rucksack” project of RAA promises to give us a good start.

The RAA have helped many schools develop concepts to improve thepromotion of students with an immigrant background. In the course of thiswork, an immense wealth of ideas and experiences has been gathered. Inthe final analysis, however, it is up to the principals and their colleagues todecide whether the proposals can be put into practice and whether thesewill lead to a consistent and effective educational program in their schools.

There is no way of knowing for sure which proposals will have the besteffects and are most encouraging. Curricula can provide a stimulus, as canproposals embedded in projects. For one school, opening up the school isan extensive development, for another school the concept „healthy school”has the same effect. Homework assistance is part of the standard inventory.Thousands of private after-school instructors, mothers and students try tohelp slow students – most schools are completely unaffected by this.

We discovered what could evolve from homework assistance in anelementary school in Nieder-Roden near Offenbach. In this school, whichhas a student body of 300 pupils, there were about 10–20% who hadproblems keeping up in class, who refused to participate or disruptedclassroom instruction. Evidently they could not be sufficiently supervised athome. At any rate, the teachers complained that the situation wasunbearable, and the principal decided that something had to be done. He„went shopping” for donations to set up a kitchen and renovated two rooms,one for playing and one for doing homework. Then he convinced severalmothers to prepare lunch for those children who could not go home afterschool. In addition, mothers volunteered to supervise the close to 30children who signed up for this program – and after a short while thisincluded all those children who had been causing trouble. However, theprincipal had made it a condition that a teacher always had to be there, too.The Freudenberg Foundation was asked to sponsor a part-time position forone of the mothers, so that there would always be one permanentsupervisor. After one year, the town assumed these costs.

The afternoon program was also open to those children who had leftelementary school to attend the neighboring Orientierungsstufe (adiagnostic stage during which the aptitude of the pupils regarding various

Helping with………

Homework assistancein Nieder-Roden

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types of secondary schools is assessed). As described above, a teacherfrom the Orientierungsstufe had to be there to supervise the homework, too.On one occasion no teacher was available, and the principal came and tookover. He was surprised to find that he was not able to solve some of thestudents’ homework problems because he did not understand the question.

Teachers rarely receive feedback from the hundreds of thousands ofmothers and the many other people who help students with their homework.Most of them try not to ask questions so as to avoid shedding anunfavorable light on their children, since an inquiry may be considered anaccusation; thus, they try to avoid them. The teachers participating in thehomework assistance learned about this. Since, however, they were nowconfronted by precisely this situation themselves, they began coordinatingthe homework amongst themselves. This took some of the sting out of thehomework. The overall result was extremely positive: complaints aboutchildren dwindled, the relationship to the families and the communityimproved, and the scholastic performance of the students also improved.

„Friends are important, they are like family” is written below Faruk’sphotograph. He is one of eighteen adolescents of different cultures andreligions from two German cities, who participated in the „Mannheim-Berlin”project. The idea can be traced back to a project that evolved in the slumsof Rio de Janeiro in the 1990s: street children photographed things that wereimportant to them: a ball, a flower or a poster. Then the photograph wasdeveloped, enlarged and a professional photographer took pictures of theindividual children with their own photograph at one of their favoritelocations in the district. These pictures then formed a touring exhibition.The members of the groups from Mannheim and Berlin were as different asthe cities where they live. Eight young persons of different origins – Angola,Iran, Germany – came from the Heinz-Brandt-Oberschule in the Weissenseedistrict of Berlin. The Mannheim group comprised twelve Turkishadolescents. Each group visited the hometown of the other group to attendthe opening of the exhibition there. After sizing each other up carefully, theice was broken by a breakdance session. Afterwards they talked about thephotographs being shown and about the meaning of homeland.

The media, in particular television and radio, play a central role in theperception of cultural differences. They can decisively contribute to creatingnormal coexistence in a heterogeneous society. For this reason, we calledinto life the Civis Media Prize in 1988 together with the Federal Governmentcommissioner for immigration issues and ARD, the national television andradio network. The program was organized under the overall control of theWDR (West German Broadcasting Company). Up until 2002, the prize hadthe motto: „Living in cultural diversity – against racism and discrimination”

Youth culture work

Civis

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in Germany. In 2003, the organization and execution of the ARD Civis MediaPrize, which was given a new profile, passed over to the newly establishednon-profit Civis medien stiftung for Integration and Cultural Diversity inEurope. The dream being pursued now is a kind of Oscar for German andEuropean media productions contributing to intercultural understanding.Together with WDR, the Freudenberg Foundation is a partner of the Civismedien stiftung and is on the Board of Trustees. Up until 2002, the civisYouth Video Competition was carried out at the same time every year; thiswas organized by RAA in cooperation with WDR and an independent jury ofyoung people. It gave young people between 14–22 years of age theopportunity to independently plan and make video films on the subject of„Living in cultural diversity – against racism and discrimination” incooperation with schools, centers for media education, youth organizationsand video workshops. This gave young people a venue for expressing theiropinions, perceptions and ideas in the discussion on right-wing extremism,racism and a multicultural society in a popular medium within a Europeancontext. In 2004, the Youth Film Prize will become „YEFF! Young EuropeanFilm Forum for Cultural Diversity” with a different supporting organization.Instead of underscoring the competitive aspect, young Europeans are to beencouraged to meet and get to know each other.

If you are interested in the confusing area of immigration and integration,you will need an orientation aid. The Freudenberg Foundation promoted twoinitiatives in the past years: The Center for Turkish Studies and the Councilon Migration.

The Center for Turkish Studies was established in1985 by the Donors’Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany andthe Freudenberg Foundation. The initial idea came from the group ofscientific advisors of RAA and proposals made by a group convoked by thefoundation „Ettlinger Gespräche”. The task of the center, which was locatedfirst in Bonn and then in Essen, is to contribute to a better understanding ofTurkey and the Turkish population in Germany on the basis of information,consulting services, documentation, projects and research. There is almostno aspect relating to the life of Turks in Germany and Europe as well asGerman-Turkish relations, which has not been the subject of studies,discussions and articles.

The Center earned respect for three functions in particular: First, the Centervery accurately analyzed and defined indicators for the integration processof the Turkish population over a period of twenty years: from the purchaseof their own homes to economic independence to the utilization of media.The conflicts and problems of integration in different areas of life and socialsectors also were documented. Based on these representations as well as

Center forTurkish Studies

the continued observance and analysis of the processes described, theCenter acquired a good basis for two additional functions.

Second, the Center has assumed the role of mediator in situations of crisisduring the past ten years. This role gained special significance following themurder of a Turkish family in Solingen. It became evident that there are onlyvery few non-governmental organizations which can explain both theGerman side to the Turkish population as well as Turkey and the Turkish sideto the Germans. A third function is less evident. Turkish groups with varyingpolitical orientation sometimes use the Center as a neutral forum fordiscussions about the conditions of life of the Turkish population inGermany. The Freudenberg Foundation sponsored the Center up to 2001.Today, it is being funded by its own foundation.

The Council on Migration is a registered association with the objective ofadvising politics and organizations active in the field on questions ofmigration, integration, discrimination and intercultural development. TheCouncil on Migration publishes an immigration report every two years, inwhich it describes the problems involved in this socio-political field. Thecurrent report, for example, discusses questions about the integrationpotential inherent in a welfare state, the creation of inequality in the systemof education and the possibilities offered by local integration management.The latter is particularly important to us.

In our efforts to improve the integration conditions faced by children with animmigration background, the vocational orientation of school-leavers, or thedemocratic competence of adolescents, schools ready to initiate changehave proven to be indispensable partners as far as the development andintroduction of practical innovations are concerned, since they can address,at least in a structural respect, all children, young people and their families.Long before PISA and IGLU, we were aware of the potential of schools toheighten social inequality. We would like to show how schools couldbecome „motors of integration”. It has become evident that individualschools can do much to help students learn what they need to be able tolead a successful life. Elementary schools can cooperate with day-carecenters to ensure continuous language acquisition and to involve theparents in the learning process at the same time. Classroom instruction canbe organized in such a way that it takes into account the heterogeneity ofthe children. The school can initiate a development plan that emphasizesintegration. We would like to make sure that the schools receive the supportthey need to become „schools of integration”. Perhaps we will organize acompetition to award a prize to schools that have taken the path ofintegration in deprived districts and to follow their development process inthis way. In this connection, we are thinking about concluding target

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Council on Immigration and Integration

Prospects

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agreements with selected schools if they want to become model schools.

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Sinti and Roma

Roma live in all European countries, and everywhere they live at the marginsof society. There are great differences between them: despite their commonlinguistic roots, they speak so many different variants of Romani thatdifferent groups cannot communicate with one another. Many have adaptedto their environments and completely lost their knowledge of Romani. Theyprofess different religions. Their economic basis cannot be reduced to acommon denominator. Some are nomads, the majority has settled down,living by working on farms or other jobs. Some few groups live by pursuingthose kinds of actions that give them a bad reputation and feed prejudices.They have different names. The groups who migrated to the German nation600 years ago via the Roman Empire are called Sinti. The groups thatmigrated to Eastern Europe via the Ottoman Empire were called Tsigan (fromthe Greek astiganos, untouchable). The groups entering Western Europe viaNorth Africa are called Gypsies (or Egyptians). They call themselves Roma,which means „people”. Since new Roma groups from different countries arecontinuously migrating into the regions inhabited by Sinti, who have usuallybecome more socially established, the latter are struggling to avoid beingincluded in the collective term – they want to be called Sinti.

When we came to Ravensburg twenty years ago, the Sinti fromHohenzollern shook their heads at us: „We’re Gypsies”. Now, they also wantto be „Sinti”. Accordingly, we have titled this chapter „Sinti and Roma” andtaken this to refer to all the different population groups which presumablyhad their origins in India and migrated to Europe over a period of manycenturies. What they have in common is that they are forced to suffer socialdiscrimination in all countries. In particular in Eastern and SoutheasternEurope, where the largest group of Roma with a population of about fivemillion live, they endure considerable social pressure: in these countries theyare threatened by poverty and discrimination, their civil rights are notensured by any means and we repeatedly receive news of violent attacksand persecution against them.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Roma first from Romania, then from theformer Yugoslav republics have made their way to Western Europe. It isestimated that hundreds of thousands live here as tolerated refugees or asso-called illegal aliens. Since the Europe of 15 has become a Europe of 25,Roma from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, where they live in poverty, maybe tempted to legally search for a better life in the wealthier regions ofEurope. However, Europe is not prepared for this. Roma and Sinti are not apolitical issue in the individual European states nor does their socialintegration take high priority as a common European task. Basically the

The problem

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same holds true for civil society. The topic is considered to be difficult andunrewarding. For this reason, only few foundations in Europe haveincorporated Sinti and Roma in their programs.

The involvement of the Freudenberg Foundation began in 1986 with aproject for the development of a concept for a documentation and culturalcenter of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg. The Central Council ofGerman Sinti and Roma, which wanted to set up this center, did not havethe necessary organizational, political and programmatic resources. Withoutthe assistance of the working group of Sinti organized by the Foundation onthe one side and representatives of ministries, the Church and scientificcommunity on the other side as well as the funds for a full-time staff memberto work out a program, the documentation center probably would not exist.Most likely the catalytic role and guarantee ensured by the seriousness andreliability of the plans was a decisive aspect. There was an instant when theproject would have ceased had it not been for the indemnity bond in theamount of DM 4 million furnished by the Foundation.

Hermann Freudenberg, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of theFreudenberg Foundation was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of theDocumentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma for morethan ten years. His nephew Andreas Freudenberg, a research assistant atthe time, helped develop the program in the first years. Today he is on theBoard of Trustees of the Foundation. This reflects the Foundation’s strongcommitment to this project. Why is it so important to us? Because theDocumentation and Cultural Center opened up new ways of integrating the

What we have done

Documentation andCultural Center of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg

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Sinti and Roma in German society. Up to the beginning of the civil rightsmovement at the end of the 1970s, the Sinti and Roma were consideredmerely a social problem. Not even the fact that genocide had beencommitted during 1940s was actually acknowledged by the general public.Only after Federal President von Weizsäcker’s famous speech on 8 May1985 did this horrible crime begin to gradually gain public awareness.

Even though they have been living in Germany for 600 years, their existenceas a minority with its own culture and language has been widely ignored. Itwas impossible for the Sinti and Roma to stand by their identity self-confidently and be respected at the same time in Germany before thebeginning of the civil rights movement. The long-term effects of thegenocide that had been committed aggravated the situation. More than500,000 Sinti and Roma in Europe were victims of genocide. Together withthe 25,000 German and Austrian Sinti and Roma who had been murdered,the moving forces of the culture, the administrators of justice and the oldmembers of the groups had been murdered, too. That made it hard for mostof the Sinti and Roma, who lived in seclusion after the war, to pass on thelanguage and culture to their children.

The Documentation and Cultural Center intended to find solutions to theseproblems: remembering the genocide through permanent exhibitions inHeidelberg and Auschwitz; intensifying efforts to strengthen the group’s ownculture; amongst other things, initiating projects and programs to improvethe social situation of Sinti and Roma; helping improve their opportunities inschool and vocational training. Apart from that, the Documentation andCultural Center was to be a competent and respected partner fordiscussions and negotiations concerning all issues related to the conditionsof life of this minority in German society. And we are happy to say that theseefforts have been successful. Today the Center is funded by the FederalGovernment.

In the next 15 years, the Freudenberg Foundation, together with the LindenFoundation for Pre-School Education, which we manage, and later with theHeinrich Stoess- and Gerda Koepff Foundation, which was transferred to us,concentrated on the particularly problematic areas of education andvocational training of Sinti and increasingly also of Roma who hadimmigrated to Germany and to some countries of southeastern Europe.Educational promotion is considered difficult because no quick success ispossible. The Sinti and Roma have a prejudiced relationship to educationand school. Since the times of Empress Maria Theresa, schools haverepeatedly been used as instruments of assimilation. By enforcingcompulsory schooling, Maria Theresa wanted to cure the „gypsy children”of their nature. Since then the Sinti and Roma have come to distrust all

Focal points of the work:Promoting education andvocational training

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educational programs of the state. In the other extreme, they wereprohibited from attending school so as to keep them at the fringes ofsociety. This, for example, occurred during the Nazi era. Thus, throughoutthe past centuries they have learned that either they are not welcome ineducational institutions or they are accepted for the wrong reasons. Inaddition, the Sinti and Roma always have to expect to meet with negativereactions and prejudices. These negative attitudes have been reinforcedthroughout the centuries so that experts speak of Gypsophobia or anti-ziganism existing parallel to that of anti-Semitism in European societies.Therefore, all actions and support programs have to take into account theexistence of such attitudes.

Nonetheless, it is possible to contribute to educational furthering. Thisbecame evident in many projects in the past two decades. The firstencouraging experiences were made together with the Linden Foundation inRavensburg. A school principal, who learned Romani, a committedchairwoman of the German Society for the Protection of Children, andcooperative municipal authorities, who listened to her, created the materialprerequisites: they built houses in Ummenwinkel, promoted the playhouseand created a climate where educational furthering bore fruit: the number ofSinti children attending the Sonderschule dropped, a Sinti girl became thebest student of the year at the Hauptschule and one young boy turned to usin surprise and said: „You act as if I could become a carpenter.”

Then things went quiet in Ummenwinkel: the principal died, the chairwomanof the German Society for the Protection of Children retired, the Sinti familiesquarreled amongst themselves and the number of Sinti children at theSonderschule rose again. At the present time, the Freudenberg Foundationtogether with the Linden Foundation and the city of Ravensburg are tryingto reinitiate this program; however, with less emphasis on the significance ofindividual persons. It remains to be seen whether the Ravensburg RoundTable can successfully launch the program again.

In Göttingen we promoted an encouraging project for close to ten years.Concerned Sinti women decided to prepare for school children from Romafamilies who had just immigrated to Germany and to accompany themduring their school years. To this end, they set up a counseling center, whichthey have maintained up until today despite numerous financial difficulties.

We owe numerous interesting initiatives directed primarily to the educationalfurthering of immigrant Roma in the past years to the National Associationof RAA. In particular, this includes helping children from refugee homes atand outside school, student volunteers acting as sponsors and culturalprojects in which young Roma can demonstrate their skills. The most

Experience gained in aproject in RavensburgUmmenwinkel

Sinti women help Romachildren in Göttingen

Projects of the NationalAssociation of RAA

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significant experience gained in this respect most likely was how much canbe achieved when we don’t try to act for them, but plan and work togetherwith them. It was a gratifying discovery when the RAA in Berlin came toknow Roma with different educational backgrounds, who were interested incounseling young Roma in the schools. Something resembling theoccupational profile of an educational counselor has evolved from theirwork.

We asked a journalist to write reports about the experiences gained throughprojects by the Freudenberg Foundation and Linden Foundation as well asother interesting supporting organizations and to portray the Roma involved.The reports have been compiled in a book having the title „Die Schule mussschmecken” and will be published by the Beltz Verlag in 2004.

At the present time, the Foundation is sponsoring three model projectsconcentrating on the education and further education of Roma in Germanyand Eastern Europe. Within the framework of the Equal Program of theEuropean Commission, a project with two objectives has been developed:offering qualification opportunities to Sinti and Roma, opening upemployment possibilities to them and, consequently, helping them securean existence. The projects are being carried out in Berlin, Aachen andFrankfurt. Approximately 70 Roma, men and women with differenteducational backgrounds, are participating. The spectrum of educationallevels ranges from illiterate persons up to high-school graduates. Some didnot have residence permits in Germany. Through the personal interventionof the Senator of the Interior in Berlin, residence permits were obtained forthe three-year period of the projects for 25 – most of them young – Roma.RAA Berlin is handling the coordination of the German part of the Europeanproject. About one third of the Roma included in this program are trying totake their Hauptschule leaving certificate. Further education courses in basicskills such as, for example, writing courses, are available to all participants.

The courses „Qualification for Social and School Counselor” are verypopular. These training courses are divided into individual modules, whichare certified separately after having been completed by periods of practicaltraining. The information conveyed is of interest not only to the personsinvolved directly. They inquire into and document problems at school and inthe family, learn to mediate between school and family and to developsolutions with both the school and family. Other courses being offered are,for example, qualification in the nursing sector as well as event organizationand management. In Aachen participants can acquire training in the field ofplastic welding. This is frequently chosen because the employmentopportunities for this job are good in the region. The largest problem at the

Florian Lindemann: School should taste good. Encouraging experiencesof young Roman in theGerman education system.

Roma und Sinti:Qualification, employ-ment, securing one’sexistence (Equal Project)

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beginning was developing suitable qualification courses and winning thetrust of the Roma. That has been achieved in the meantime.

Within the framework of a special program initiated on the occasion of the150th anniversary of the Freudenberg company, the project „Dendo vas –Program for the Educational Support of Roma Children and Youth“ wascalled into life in Gorce Petrov, a municipality of Skopje, the capital ofMacedonia. The interesting aspect of this model for promoting theeducation of Roma is that the manager and the majority of the teaching staffare Roma and that the Roma community is responsible for the organization.The project offers pre-school groups for children, homework assistance,support of the neighboring elementary school, a program for working withparents, English courses, accompanying support of students at secondaryschools, an intercultural club and much more. Thus, it includes a little ofeverything: kindergarten, adult education courses, youth and communitycenter, office for homework assistance, pedagogical center and library. Andwhen the families are very poor and any interest in education and school issuppressed, the manager will distribute small gifts to those who come:spaghetti or a bar of soap. The project is being financed together with theSoros Foundation. The Freudenberg Foundation bought the house beingused by Dendo vas.

In 1998, the European Council and the Freudenberg Foundation financedand published an expertise on the issues of poverty and unemployment ofRoma in Eastern Europe. The expertise analyzes past programs andprovides recommendations. The title is „Toward a Pakiv European RomaFund – Income-Generating Program for Roma in Central and EasternEurope”. The main recommendation is that an organization be founded, inwhich Roma organizations and European foundations can work togetherand – in imitation of the Hungarian Autonómia Foundation – can collectfunds for self-help projects as well as for the further education andcounseling required for this. „Pakiv” is a Romani word meaning loyalty,honesty, trust and respect, i.e. values that the Roma strive for in therelationships amongst themselves, but which are seldom shared by non-Roma. Contractual fidelity and fairness between Roma and non-Roma in theplanning of programs for overcoming poverty – that is what the name issupposed to reflect.

With the help of the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, the FreudenbergFoundation and others, the first Pakiv project was a training program for 20young Roma from Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. The trainingcourse took two years. In the first year they studied business administrationand English, leadership and management in Hungary, Denmark and GreatBritain. They learned how to write an application, set up a business plan as

Expertise: Toward a Pakiv European Roma Fund – Income-generatingprogram

Pakiv-Project: Training,mentoring and communitydevelopment – facilitatingcapacility building amongthe Roma

Dendo vas – Program forEducational Support of Roma Children and Youth inGorce Petrov, Mazedonia

35

well as establish and manage a non-profit organization. In other words, theywere supposed to learn how to distinguish between the business sector andorganizations of civil society, i.e. the so-called „third sector”. The first yearended with traineeships in non-profit organizations and the assignment tosubmit a practical proposal for the second year. Each participant couldapply for up to US$ 15,000 for an „income-generating project” in his or herhometown or home region. They would receive a small fee for acting as„facilitators” of the organizations and projects. Travel costs were providedfor exchanging experiences and mutual support. The central project officewas set up in Sofia. Another office was made available by the AutonómiaFoundation in Budapest.

Thirteen projects were created, which included, for example: theestablishment of a cooperative for buffalo-cow breeding, a course for 10hairdressers, a small-loan program, an employment office for tailors, aproject for vocational orientation and job counseling for youth, a cooperativefor pig breeding, a training course for teaching assistants and many more.There were and still are numerous problems: for example, many Roma wantto see the results of the innovations immediately, without wanting to waituntil a piglet is born or the hairdressers have learned how to cut hair. Yet, allin all, the project ideas met with great approval, and they are still beingcarried on one year after the financing has ceased.

A prerequisite for obtaining the funding of the World Bank for the secondyear was that Pakiv become an independent foundation, applying for fundsin the private sector in Europe, too. Thus, the Pakiv European Roma Fundwas set up in Weinheim and Sofia as an independent foundation beingsupported by the association of the same name. Donors are seven Romaand non-Roma, who used private funds for this purpose. In the meantime,the World Bank has prepared a study on the poverty of the Roma populationand organized a conference with the Presidents of the countries involved inBudapest. The result confirms the direction our projects have taken:promotion of education, vocational qualification, furthering of self-initiativesas well as training and encouraging committed young Roma: i.e. capacitybuilding and leadership training. Meanwhile the World Bank has decided toset up a fund by 2004, which will be called „Roma and Education”. Theorganization is interested in cooperating with European foundations and islooking for exemplary projects that demonstrate the direction that needs tobe taken to permanently improve the situation of the Roma.

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Prospects

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where no-one can say: all you find here are liarsand cheats and isn’t that typical for the Roma.”„Yes”, agreed the man sitting next to her. „Herewe can be how we are and should be. That is whyI’m proud.”

„I, for my part, have not been happy and proudvery long,” began the pale young woman sittingon the next chair. „Yet I am now. The year oftraining was nice, everything was all right. Butwhen we were supposed to initiate our ownproject in the village, everything was terrible. Atleast that’s how I experienced it. The old menlaughed at me, they refused to talk to me. ThankGod, that’s over now. Two months ago, theyasked me to speak to them and the discussionwent so well that they now come to mefrequently, asking for my opinion on all sorts ofproblems. That really makes me very, very proud.”

„And what about you“, called a young womanmockingly. „What is a big man like you proud of?“„Me?“ smiled the man with the fancy beard shehad addressed. „I’m proud of my face.” Andwithout being impressed in the slightest by themocking comments that followed, he continued:„Yes, I’m proud of my face because, you see,when I looked in the mirror two years ago, I didn’tfeel good at all. But now, after two years of Pakiv,I like what I see in the mirror. That’s the way it is.“

The newcomers, the young men and womenchosen for the second course of training, weredeeply impressed. And the longer the discussioncontinued between the „new” and „old” Roma,the more evident it became that they didn’t wishfor anything more than being able to contribute toPakiv and to become a part of Pakiv, because itsounded and felt like a good way to find a morepromising future for young Roma.

About 35 young Roma were sitting expectantly ina large circle in a conference hotel near Sofia.They came from five Eastern European countries.Fifteen of them had completed two years oftraining within the scope of the Pakiv Project andwere supposed to relate their experiences to the20 newcomers. In order to get the discussiongoing, I asked the „old-timers”: „When you lookback on your experiences of the past two years, isthere something you are particularly proud of?”The young woman sitting to my rightspontaneously responded: „I’m proud of beingpart of an organization that is different from othersbecause it lets us define the meaning of Pakiv. I’mproud because I realize that it’s up to me.” Theman sitting on her other side nods and adds:„And I’m proud of belonging to an organizationthat is taken seriously by the gajikané (non-Roma)society. The World Bank invited Presidents andmany other important people to Budapest. Andeverywhere – on the podium and among theparticipants in the discussions – were Roma. Inever knew that we were so important.” „That’strue,” laughed his neighbor. „The discussion atthe forum actually was an internal Pakivdiscussion – but the others didn’t notice.” „Is itmy turn?” asked the next woman. „Good, then Iwant to say that I, too, am proud of Pakiv. And doyou know why? Because we women have beenable to cure you machos of your machismo. Ok, ittook three months and it was still terrible inDenmark, but then – come why don’t you admit it– you became reasonable and now you areactually quite tolerable.” Due to the laughter andfoolish jokes that erupted, the next woman had tospeak up two times before she was heard. „It’snice that we can make mistakes without havingour heads torn off if we do make a mistake. Thatway we can really learn something. I have learnedso many things I never even dared imaginebefore. And isn’t it nice that we belong to a group

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Youth between school and working life

In Germany, there are not enough apprenticeships available to young peoplewhen they finish school, and many of those being offered require highpreliminary skills and qualification. The German „Dual System” (acombination of practical on-the-job and theoretical off-the-job training) is ina crisis. This is becoming particularly evident in eastern Germany wherethere are not enough companies which could offer vocational training toapprentices. In addition, there are not enough alternatives for gainingvocational qualifications. Students with an immigrant background in westernGermany are not being promoted sufficiently at school and, consequently,their chances of finding employment are slim.This is reported year after year by the media when young people finishschool and begin looking for apprenticeships. The news reports areaccompanied by forecasts that presumably several ten thousand will notfind employment. In response to this situation, a hectic search forapprenticeships is initiated. With the help of the Federal Agency for Laborthe Federal Government decides to create a new program forunderprivileged youth. Finally, the threatening demand for a so-called„Vocational Training Tax” is being raised, although most experts claim that itcannot possibly fulfill expectations in the proposed form.

Six years ago, the forum „Youth-Education-Employment” sponsored by theFreudenberg Foundation published a memorandum with the title „Ways outof the Vocational Training Crisis” and submitted it to Federal PresidentRoman Herzog. For one year, a group of 33 „experts and independentcitizens”, under the leadership of Professor Ingo Richter, met regularly todiscuss and analyze the problems prevailing in connection with vocationaltraining and employment of young people and to work out 20 practicalproposals as to how these problems could be solved without significantadditional financial expenses. When the forum met for the first time inWeinheim, the question was raised whether one had to bury the hope thatall young people could obtain vocational qualification. Would one have to berealistic and expect that, in the long term, the training posts offered will betoo few and too demanding? All members of the forum – the undersecretaryof state from an Eastern German Ministry of Labor, the scientists andexperts from research institutes and different economic sectors – agreed onthe answer to these questions: young people need not be faced with a lackof vocational training posts and unemployment. The agreement concludedby the heads of state of the member states of the European Union on 21November 1997 stating that after five years no young person should beunemployed for more than six months is not unrealistic. For this reason, the„Forum Youth-Education-Employment” began its memorandum with the

The problem

Memorandum „Ways out of theVocational TrainingCrisis“

40

statement: „Youth problems are the main problems of society. There mustnot – and need not – be a lack of jobs and opportunities for young people.The public responsibility for the next generation takes priority.”

Looking back after six years, it can be said that the „vocational needs” ofyoung people have not declined despite all sorts of government measures.Although some of the recommendations put forth in the memorandum wereaccepted – in particular the „need to promote underprivileged youth” wasacknowledged and resulted in programs with substantial funding – nosignificant structural changes have been made. The rigid „Dual System” isstill defining the scope of action, even though this is one of the causes of thecrisis in the first place. The solution that has to be found should not be moreof the same, but needs to break new ground. From the perspective of thememorandum this did not mean amending the Vocational Training Law orgiving up the time-proven combination of theoretical learning and practicalon-the-job experience. Rather it hoped to develop new combinations ofpractical and theoretical study and to expand the quantitative possibilities ofvocational qualification on the basis of qualitative changes in the system ofvocational training.

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The results of the PISA study once again manifested quite clearly that somestudents leave school without having attained adequate prerequisites forcompleting vocational training within the „Dual System”. This is particularlytrue for students with an immigrant background. In an expertise prepared in2003 for the Freudenberg Foundation called „Five Years after theMemorandum of the Forum „Youth-Education-Employment”, Dr. WilfriedKruse mentions „disintegration processes in general schools”, as a result ofwhich the performance of students with immigrant backgrounds at schoolhad actually worsened. Thus, it is even more obvious than described in thememorandum that the transition from school to employment must beprepared more carefully in school and that some of the young people needmore time. Yet, once again, this means that there should not be more of thesame, i.e. more theoretical study, but that there must be more programsenabling students to participate in traineeships while attending a generalschool and that apprenticeships and vocational training focus on on-the-jobtraining. The rule should apply that all further qualification options includesubstantial practical training and that all practical training courses or jobsthat young people find on their own are not only promoted andacknowledged but also considered qualification measures.

If the options for vocational qualification are made more flexible in this way,if they are divided into smaller units that can be combined in many differentways; if more independent and individual ways are to be acknowledged and,as such, a more diverse landscape is to be created, in which the traditionalform of dual training is only one variant, one is already heightening anexisting problem: the complicatedness of the spectrum and the weaknessesof the counseling system. Especially for those young people who get littlesupport from their families, taking the step from school to employmentfrequently means treading an indiscernible path through a jungle. Thuscounseling and supervision are needed. Our European neighbors call thiscoaching. And this means that all persons involved in the training of youngpeople have to take part: the family, school, youth-work institutions,employer, labor agency etc. But that alone won’t suffice: new resources alsoare needed, and, based on past experience, these can only be obtainedthrough civil volunteer work.

Some of our European neighbors have demonstrated that this kind ofcooperation between state and civil society can give rise to highly effectiveproactive communities taking responsibility. However, it has become evidentthat coordination on the municipal level is necessary. Thus, the 20th

recommendation of our memorandum is as follows: „Local education policy.An independent local education policy is indispensable. The local authoritiesmust assume responsibility for coordinating all measures. Concepts for

Expertise „Five Yearsafter the Memorandumof the Forum Youth-Education-Employment“by Dr. W. Kruse

42

alternative financing are required to support vocational assistance measuresfor young people.”

The beginning of our work with young people having problems making thetransition from school to employment was also influenced by the Weinheimand Mannheim projects „for the social and vocational integration of Germanand foreign youth” in Baden-Württemberg and the RAA (regional centers forthe promotion of children and adolescents from immigrant families in NorthRhine-Westfalia).

Both the Mannheim project as well as several RAA were part of the EU-sponsored program „Transition from school to working life”. Many of theideas and practical experiences gained during this time were put to use insubsequent projects and can still be found in the Foundation’s project worktoday. Amongst other things, we have learned the following: in our existingsystem of vocational orientation and preparation for employment, thefamilies are not being involved enough. Schools, vocational counseling andchild welfare always work with the young people. That is all right when thefamilies are willing and able to actively accompany their child’s process oforientation and preparation with respect to working life and when they canact as models. Yet, whenever the parents themselves face unemployment,they can no longer help their children.

Nevertheless, this is not to say that they should be ignored. It always isimportant to gain their involvement and support. This is particularly true forimmigrant minorities. Many of these families are not familiar with the Germansystem of education and vocational training. At the same time, however,they play a much more important part in the decision-making than is thecase in families belonging to the German majority population.

Frequently, the information conveyed to young people is of little use whenthe parents, above all the fathers, do not receive it directly, too. Therefore,from the beginning, our projects always tried to involve the parents.However, this means that the institutions concerned have to open up andcooperate: job counseling offices of the Agency for Labor, schools, furthereducation institutions and child welfare organizations. Moreover, thestrategic significance of the schools in this connection must not beunderestimated.

Therefore, the RAA and the projects focusing on this problem considered itone of their main tasks to support schools in their efforts to involve parents,to arrange for visits to the family’s home when parents did not respond, toorganize information events and to prepare information material suitable forthe respective target groups and in their different languages. Wherever this

Project Weinheim, Project Mannheim, RAA

Involving the parents

What we have done

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succeeded and schools were willing to accept such offers, the studentsfound it significantly less difficult to master the transition to working life.

Although their command of German is adequate at the end of elementaryschool, students from families with an immigrant background oftenencounter problems at secondary school because their German is not goodenough to follow classroom instruction. The same also occurs at thebeginning of vocational school. Young people with good grades in theirreport cards often find the first months at vocational school very difficult.The teachers frequently do not realize that every new grade, every newsubject are accompanied by new linguistic hurdles. Most likely numerousnative German students also suffer from this; students for whom German istheir second or even third language often need additional help. Manyproblems arising here can be solved when the teachers realize that they alsoare responsible for language teaching. Although RAA has tried to conveythis realization from the beginning, there is still a long way to go. Whereverteachers have been made aware and trained appropriately for languageteaching, children and young people whose native language is German willalso benefit. Many institutions offered language courses parallel to thegeneral studies. Time and again the projects reported that students whowould have broken off their apprenticeship had they not received assistancesuddenly blossomed in the second year.

Schools can facilitate the transition to working life in many ways: forexample, by making this subject part of their program as well as gaining andaccepting outside support. Some schools promote their students to such anextent that they all attain their school-leaving certificates and, hence,vocational qualification. And, contrary to this, in the neighboring school,which works under the same social conditions, the majority of studentsleave school without any ideas or prospects regarding their future vocationalgoals. Many of the teachers at schools like the latter never learn what hasbecome of their former students.

As a rule, a successful school is characterized by the following features: itprovides more possibilities for individual promotion and is more concernedabout the learning progress made by every individual student, thecurriculum includes more practical and social training courses as well asextra-curricular programs and discovery learning, it offers more guidance,training and counseling assistance. In a Hauptschule in Herten, for example,the principal made sure that all 9th-grade students worked one day a weekin a company. This is only possible because a supervisor (a teacher from theschool) is on call immediately in the event of any problems. During the lastyear of school, the principal herself often tries to convince the companies toemploy the students. Frequently, the companies agree – under the condition

The promotion oflanguage as anotherdimension

Promotion at school

Civic Foundation Herten

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Promoting the youngpeople’s personalinitiative

Founding companies tobecome young entre-preneurs

that the school continues its guidance. The principal has persuaded two orthree teachers to assume this responsibility. The Civic Foundation Herten,which is sponsored by the Freudenberg Foundation, has bought the„Küstershof”, a dilapidated farm in the neighborhood of the school, which isbeing renovated by the young people and will be managed by them. Theprincipal is a member of the Board of Trustees of this civic foundation.

The Intercultural Education Center in Mannheim has developed other waysand guidance possibilities: These include the girls’ workshop, which was setup in 1991. At the workshop, girls from grades six and seven – i.e. beforegender roles are strengthened – can gain basic knowledge in wood-workingand metal-working as well as learn about text processing, creative programsand how to access the Internet. The program also includes visits toapprenticeship fairs, and later the center helps the girls find traineeships andapprenticeships. The „craftswomen” working in the girls’ workshop act asmodels and help the – more than 40 – girls, who come one afternoon everyweek, realize that their options are greater than they thought. At the end oftheir courses the girls always have made a product that they can show athome or school. It is hoped that the girls’ workshop will be both a thorn andan incentive for the schools, making them realize how important the specialpromotion of girls is. Half of the girls come from families with an immigrantbackground.

An important objective is to strengthen the young people’s personalinitiative. A concept was developed in Great Britain, Ireland and Israel tohave the students set up and manage their own student companies. InEngland this is called „education for enterprise”. The term enterprisecomprises more than just „student company” – it includes everythinginvolved, i.e. planning, developing, calculating, auditing and demonstrating.The greatest problem in applying this idea to Germany was that the teacherswere very innovative in finding ways to maintain control and always wantedto divide that which was to be learned into small teaching units.Understandably, such ideas of teachers as „We could build a park bench.That is very instructive” met with very little enthusiasm. The project wasdeveloped in collaboration with the Federal and State Commission forEducational Planning (BLK) and the German Children and Youth Foundation.The results were very encouraging: the idea of „setting up our own companyand earning real money, allowing us to finance something important for ourclass or school” has a considerable incentive effect. The students come upwith innumerable ideas: a travel agency for field trips, providing snacksduring breaks and many other things. After two years, one group of studentsat a Hauptschule had become so self-confident that they believedthemselves capable of training a group of teachers in the subject of „Setting

Girls’ workshop

up a student company” within the scope of a further education seminar. Thetwo ninth graders who were chosen mastered the task brilliantly.

Representative for many projects designed by RAA for implementation inschools, we would like to quote from the annual report of RAA Hoyerswerda.This quote wants to underscore the significance of those activities thatpromote the young people’s personal initiative and self-effectiveness.

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RAA HoyerswerdaStudent agency forpromoting earlyvocational orientation

„It is Friday, 17 October 2003, 09:30 a.m. in thelarge conference room of the Sparkasse inHoyerswerda. This afternoon the secondvocational training fair will take place here. TheStudent Agency for Early Vocational Orientationorganized the event. It is the second vocationaltraining fair as such, but the first one for Sandra,Silvia, Sebastian, Patrick, Tina and the othermembers (altogether 11) of the second generationof students in the Student Agency. Accordingly,they are all very nervous. Will all exhibitors come?Have we forgotten anything? Are there enoughtables? And, above all, will many students cometo gather information about vocational trainingpossibilities? Things start to get hectic! The firstcompanies offering apprenticeships arrive loadeddown with their information material. Everyonehas to find his or her place in the large room.Some tables have to be moved again here, atablecloth is missing over there, and then a boardhas to be moved. And then at 1 p.m. on the dot,the second vocational training fair in Hoyerswerdacan be opened. The sponsors, our town’s mayor,Horst-Dieter Brähmig, and Dr. Borghorst, memberof the Board of Management of Vattenfall EuropeMining & Generation AG, together open the fair,thanking the exhibitors and the members of theStudent Agency. You can tell that this fills thestudents with pride. And the room is full.

A few figures and facts on the second vocationaltraining fair in Hoyerswerda: 31 companies andinstitutions were invited by telephone and inwriting; 26 exhibitors came, among them suchlarge companies as, for example, BASFSchwarzheide, Infineon Dresden and VattenfallEurope Mining & Generation AG as well as theChamber of Industry and Commerce, theEducational Institution for Medical or SocialProfessions or Coiffure Optimal Gesellschaft fürHaar- und Körperpflege mbH (a hair and bodycare company), etc. The members of the StudentAgency were particularly happy about the largenumber of visitors: 811 young people and 209adults were counted. The vocational training fairwas a complete success. All exhibitors expressedtheir interest in coming again and addresses forpotential new exhibitors were exchanged. Morethan one thousand visitors had come. Everythingworked out perfectly, and also the stand of theStudent Agency for Promoting Early VocationalOrientation counted many visitors. The agencystaff was tired but happy, all the work andnervousness had paid off. The second vocationaltraining fair in Hoyerswerda, an economicallyweak region, was a special highlight in theagency’s work. But the spectrum of its work ismuch broader.

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In March 2003, the second generation of studentsbegan their work in the Student Agency forPromoting Early Vocational Orientation. Workingunder the guidance of the „old generation” untilJune 2003, new working teams were formed andquickly were able to manage very well. Theirambitious goal was to organize many interestingand effective events by students for students topromote early vocational orientation. Under theguidance and counseling of a RAA staff member,the students from the „Förderschule”, the „Mittel-schule” and the Leon-Foucault „Gymnasium” gotdown to work. On the basis of previously preparedchecklists they organized a discussion betweenapprentices and students regarding jobs in the fieldof medical nursing, a field trip for the „Gymnasium”students to the „Fachhochschule”, a college forhigher professional training, in Zittau/Görlitz, anadditional practical training course with VattenfallEurope Mining and a vocational information day forthe students from the „Förderschule”. Of course ittook courage to make the first phone calls, writethe first letters, design advertising posters and soon, but practice makes perfect. The agency teamlearned to work together through joint workshopsas well as recreational activities, such as abarbecue party on the Knappensee, a smallChristmas party or an afternoon of bowling. Allthese things enhanced the group’s feeling ofbelonging together, no matter that they came fromthree different schools. And so we made consider-able progress. The members see themselves as ateam and the level of independent work hasdeveloped very well. New ideas were born. Thus,the vocational training fair for students attending„Mittelschule” and the vocational information dayfor students attending the „Förderschule” are tobecome permanent events in the calendars’ of theagency, town and schools, and an annual collegeand university fair for the „Gymnasium” students isbe organized as well.

The number of participants at the events organizedby the Student Agency is rising steadily. This showsthat the there is a corresponding demand atschools and among students. Already now, theAgency is starting to recruit new members,because everyone wants the program to continuein the established manner. The 11 members of theAgency are particularly proud that – taking theiragency as a model – a second Agency forPromoting Early Vocational Orientation was set upin Schwarzheide under the sponsorship of BASFand a third Agency was established in Senftenbergin cooperation with Vattenfall Europe MIning AG.The students from Hoyerswerda were there eachtime to present their work. There are many ideas, alarge demand and very committed students and,therefore, the work of the Student Agency forPromoting Early Vocational Orientation will becontinued.

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The Intercultural Education Center (ikubiz) and RAA provide guidance,support, orientation, prepare young people for employment and stimulatetheir personal initiative and then the young people frequently cannot findapprenticeships after school or cannot find employment following vocationaltraining or other qualification measures. Our projects cannot change that,but they can develop concepts and models that convey hope. That is thecase in the Intercultural Education Center, which the FreudenbergFoundation frequently has used as a kind of workshop during the pasttwenty years.

Together with the International Labor Office in Geneva, the FreudenbergFoundation and the Center for Turkish Studies, the Intercultural EducationCenter developed the model „Self-Employed Foreigners Train Others”. Thedifficult part was persuading suitable foreigners, e.g. Turkish and Italianretailers, restaurant owners, travel agency owners etc., to train to be aninstructor and to sit for an examination of the Chamber of Industry andCommerce. If their assortment of goods or range of services was notsufficient, they had to agree to enter into an association with larger Germanpartners and to observe the – not always plausible – regulations of theGerman Vocational Training Law.

Although the obstacles presented by the German Dual System aresubstantial, the project is a success. Since 1996, the city of Mannheim, theChamber of Industry and Commerce, the Association of Retail Dealers andikubiz have established a training association with foreign companies,which, in the meantime, incorporates 80 companies with 200 apprentices,also German ones. The German Federal Ministry for Education andResearch has established a Counseling Center in Cologne to promote thisapproach in other cities.

One problem encountered on the path between school and employment isthe so-called „second threshold” following vocational training or some otherform of vocational qualification. The „first threshold” is that between schooland vocational training. Many young people cannot find employment afterthey have completed their vocational training and sometimes they lose thepreviously acquired qualifications or skills because they cannot put theminto practice for a long time. Encouraged by the Prince’s Youth BusinessTrust founded by Prince Charles, which helps young people set up their ownsmall business, the Freudenberg Foundation – together with the InterculturalEducation Center, the city of Mannheim and others – looked for ways to putthese experiences to use in Mannheim so as to actively encourage youngpeople to overcome the „second threshold”. Thus, the „Project Establishinga Business in Mannheim“ (ProFi) was set up in 1998. The target group isyoung adults with a „patchwork biography”, who have an idea and would

From the project „Foreignself-employed personstrain others“ to theTraining Association inMannheim

ProFi Project Establishing aBusiness in Mannheim

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„People like us ...“

B. P. born in 1972, attained the „Mittlere Reife”school-leaving certificate, he discontinued hisstudies at the „Kaufmännische Berufskolleg” anddid voluntary welfare work in a day-care center forone year before working in a factory. In 1991 hestarted an apprenticeship as a gardener, butchanged employers after one year because „heonly had to shovel earth”. Everything went well atthe new company, and he was later offered theposition of general manager. However, he couldn’taccept that job since he had to do substitutemilitary service. Then he began taking on randomjobs, was unemployed for a time. He thought aboutstarting up his own business. Together with hiswife, he wanted to breed healing plants andethnobotanical rarities and sell them in a shop as

like to start up their own business. They are offered „low-threshold”guidance, help in drawing up a business plan, further education courses, asmall amount of risk capital, sponsorship by successful business foundersand forums for exchanging experiences. About 500 persons were advisedintensively. One important task of the counseling center was to suggestalternatives to those, whose ideas did not stand the slightest chance. In thefirst three years, the establishment of 81 businesses was recorded. Only four

well as providing and looking after potted plants forbalconies and terraces. But how to go aboutsetting up a business? He felt he could not go tothe Chamber of Industry and Commerce, because„people like us” don’t fit in there. Beingunemployed and receiving social welfare benefitsmade him insecure but he refused to let things gethim down. By chance he happened to look into thewindow of the Project Mannheim and saw theannouncement for ProFi. He had found the rightplace. The series of seminars conveyed thenecessary knowledge, the experiences exchangedwithin the group expanded his business idea, andthe counseling helped him order his thoughts anddevelop a business plan. Working with ProFibrought encouragement and, at the same time,opened doors and references. The business ideawas successfully put into practice in 2000.

had to give up again, two of these for health reasons. About half of thepersons who established their own business have an immigrantbackground.

In a village in the Odenwald, where a professor from Heidelberg has been amember of the municipal council for many years, it is customary to help findapprenticeships in the summer. „Every now and again, a little pressure hasto be exerted,” he says. „We have to remind companies that they want toreceive orders from the town and have to show solidarity.” The mayor of atown with a population of 400 people in the Eiffel region takes matters evenfurther. When a boy wanted to discontinue his vocational training for thesecond time, she accompanied him to his employer in the neighboring town

Wanted: Persons willing to assumeresponsibility

49

to see what was the matter. A young girl was unemployed but refused to gothe Employment Office. The mayor accompanied her to witness thedismissive behavior of the appropriate clerk herself. Afterwards she startedphoning around until she found an address for the young woman. „Wecannot allow anyone to hang around our town,” she says. She is extremelysensitive towards such issues as neglect. When beer cans were litteredaround the bus stop and the signs of dilapidation could no longer beoverlooked on the house used as a self-administered youth center, she wentto the families with appropriately aged children and spoke to them untileverything was put in order again.

When young man joined the apprentice workshop at Freudenberg, he wasgiven to understand: if you do decent work, then I’ll do something for youand you’ll get a job. And if he worked decently, then the master craftsmangot on the phone, persuading his colleagues from other departments untilhe found a job. This „given-and-take” system would not work anymoretoday. The whole system was based on the fact that the master craftsmanin the apprentice workshop would do something for the other departmentswhen they needed something urgently because, for example, a delivery hadto be finished. Today all these services are recorded.

It isn’t easy to assume responsibility anymore. The patriarchal or matriarchalway cannot be taken in large towns or fully rationalized companies.Responsibility has wandered off, without ever arriving anywhere: the familiesare overtaxed, youth welfare reaches about 15% of the young people, theschools could do a lot but would have to break new ground, the localauthorities are not responsible, the Employment Office is not designed as tobe helpful in this respect.

Following Danish and Dutch models, we decided to support the promotionof proactive communities taking responsibility five years ago. Actually it wasa logical conclusion, which the Danes, in particular, had drawn: if thetraditional responsibility of the family, school or company no longer worksand such specialized institutions as the Employment Office are overtaxed,then it has to become a joint task of the town. Thus, in 1999, a regionalYouth Agency with the name of „Job Central” was founded in Weinheim. Forthis purpose, the mayor, the mayors of the neighboring towns, the TownYouth Association and the Freudenberg Foundation jointly founded asupporting organization. The project was based on quite simpleconsiderations: for ten years the number of apprenticeships had decreasedby one third in the region and many of the apprenticeships available requiredhigher preliminary skills. Thus, on the one hand, we had to increase thenumber of apprenticeships, but that alone would not suffice. So, on the onthe other hand, we had to make sure that the young people leaving school

Job Central

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Qualipass

have better qualifications and, in view of the high rate of drop-outs, receivebetter counseling and supervision. Yet, that, too, would not suffice:alternative vocational qualifications have to be developed. If the simple andmost direct path, taking a young person from a good school-leavingcertificate directly to an apprenticeship, is blocked and they face onlycurving roads, then they need orientation and acknowledgement.

„Job Central’s” program followed this logic in the past years: a group ofvolunteer supporters was created („Berufsstart”), which tries to create newapprenticeships and looks for more traineeships as alternatives in the future.It is involved in the vocational orientation offered at schools, helps youngpeople look for an apprenticeship and, if necessary, accompanies selectedyoung people even further. Three educators working at the counselingcenter of „Job Central” assist their group of supporters. The counselingservices and the ready availability are called on very frequently. Thecounseling center also tries to promote the further education plans of theschools themselves. Job-application and job-interview trainings are offeredas well as other modules contributing to quality development. In thisrespect, however, the project is just at the beginning.

The search for alternative learning options involving more traineeships aswell as acknowledgement of other activities also has been started. Youngpeople working in jobs, associations and internships learn something. Inorder to give them confirmation of this and to be able to help findapprenticeships or places of employment, the Freudenberg Foundationtogether with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Baden-Württembergdeveloped the Qualipass.

The Qualipass is supposed to enable young people and young adults todocument the practical job experiences and attainment of competencesacquired through internships, jobs with associations, student initiatives,stays abroad, neighborhood assistance groups, their own inventions orparticipation in employment projects. The following entries can be found inthe Qualipass of a 16-year-old student from Weinheim: „For one yearKatharina, once a week, helped two elementary school pupils of Lebaneseorigins with their homework at their home. She has learned to work with thelinguistic skills of the children and to explain complicated topicsaccordingly.” Under special skills Katharina’s Qualipass states: „Interculturalawareness, reliability, persistence and a sense of responsibility.” A criticalfactor of success with respect to using the pass profitably is the need forreliable and trustful relationships with knowledgeable adults who can speakto the young people about their experiences and encourage them when theyare looking for suitable vocational training or jobs. Especiallyunderprivileged youth, as an evaluation study confirmed, cannot find the

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support they need in their own families. The Qualipass has a section entitled„my coach” or my adviser. Thus, the Qualipass proceeds on the assumptionthat every young person has one person who will accompany him/her on thecurved road leading from school to employment and will confirm thequalifications acquired by the young person with his signature.

How can something like a „proactive community taking responsibility” beorganized for young people between school and working life? Like manyprojects in Mannheim, Offenbach, Hoyerswerda etc., the Job Central projecthas developed many individual modes of action. The question is how theseindividual threads can be woven together. The Freudenberg Foundation andthe city of Weinheim have agreed to make the required coordination a joint

Developing Job Central further

task of the city and its citizens and to share the costs. The mayor hasappointed a commission for the promotion of vocational and socialintegration, which consists of representatives from the municipal authorities,associations, independent organizations active in the field, schools and thecircle of sponsors. Once a year, this commission will discuss the integrationreport submitted by Job Central and decide on further steps.

Let us return to the beginning: it remains indisputable that action furtheringthe integration of adolescents and young adults in working life needs to betaken above all at the local level. In the „Memorandum” of 1998 it is statedunder Item 20 „Local Education Policy”: „The consequences of a lack ofapprenticeships and unemployment will have a direct effect at the locallevel. Thus, the local level must be the central point of departure for allmeasures.” For this reason, an independent local educational andvocational training policy as well as local responsibility for the coordinationof all measures continues to be needed. The objective of this project is todevelop and broadly support transferable concepts for successful localcoordination of the integration of young people in vocational training,employment and vocation, always on the basis of local models, in which thecivic commitment of volunteers plays a special part in the vocationalintegration of young people. The Freudenberg Foundation wants to doeverything in its power to make this succeed.

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Prospects

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A few weeks after the beginning of theapprenticeship training, the next complicationsarise: the parents refuse to let the boy attend theobligatory instruction at vocational school,because the technical classes are not taught inthe town but in a regional vocational school. Aftersubstantial persuasion on the part of the „adviser”and strong pressure by the company (whichotherwise would have terminated theapprenticeship agreement immediately) theparents give way.

Based on occasional reports of the owner andboy, there are no special problems during thenext two-and-a-half years. In view of these calmsignals, the „adviser” relaxes his contact. Just afew months before the end of the apprenticeship,the owner informs him of considerable problems– the boy’s grades are bad, endangering thesuccessful completion of the apprenticeship. The„adviser” found out that many things did indeed„go wrong” during the second and third years ofschool. The apprentice hesitantly relates hisexperiences to the „adviser”: evidently the boyhad considerable problems dealing with therough manners and language used in the workteams and on the construction sites. He claimshis colleagues made fun of him several times –severely injuring his and his family’s pride. He felthumiliated. The owner, however, maintained thatthis was normal on building sites and had to beaccepted. The „adviser” persuaded both sides todo everything in their power to ensure that theapprenticeship could be completed successfully.In addition, Job Central organized and financedprivate instruction to prepare the boy for his finalexaminations. Due to this support the boymanaged to finish his apprenticeship and passthe examination. Afterwards, he left the company,since the relationship between the boy and thecompany had been permanently hurt by theevents that occurred during the apprenticeship.

A boy from a Turkish family, who successfullycompleted „Hauptschule” but cannot find anapprenticeship turns for help to the group ofsponsors in Weinheim. A volunteer „adviser” isfound, and in their first meeting it quicklybecomes evident that the boy would like tobecome a roofer. The „adviser” can help: hepersuades a friend to meet the boy. On the day ofthe appointment, the „adviser” picks up the boyfrom his home and goes to the company with him.On the way there, he prepares the applicant forthe expressive, somewhat loud mannerisms of thecompany owner. The interview goes well: theowner proudly shows the boy the company, theboy does not seem to be completely intimidated.After a period for consideration, a two-week in-service training is agreed. The boy is thrilled, theowner satisfied – the contract for anapprenticeship is concluded. At the proposal ofthe „adviser”, a person of confidence, who wouldbe available at all times, was chosen for the timeof the apprenticeship.

At the beginning of the apprenticeship year, on 1September, the apprenticeship nearly fell through:the boy didn’t come to work and didn’t notifyanyone either. The company owner is extremelyangry. At 7 a.m. he calls the „adviser” to tell himhe can forget about the apprenticeship. The„adviser” calms the owner, telling him he will try tofind out why the boy didn’t show up for work. Heturns to Job Central, where a staff member findsout the same morning that the boy and his familyare still in Turkey after having extended theirvacation by one week. Unfortunately, the boy isnot allowed to return home alone. Using all hispersuasive powers, the „adviser” is finally able toconvince the owner to postpone the beginning ofthe apprenticeship until 15 September.

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Learning democracy and assuming

responsibility in school and the community

The issues confronting the Foundation in this area are as follows: How canthe dangers threatening democratic culture, which arise through extremism,particularly right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism, and youthviolence, be repelled and how can democratic values and democraticbehavior be promoted among children and adolescents?

Many young people learn from their immediate surroundings that people arenot equal, but that they themselves and those to whom they feel they belongare worth more than others. They learn that people who seem strangedeserve to be excluded, to have no rights of inviolability and dignity. The lessthey have learned to be able to rely on their relationships with other people,the less acknowledgement they have received throughout their lives, theless security and fewer prospects their futures seem to hold and the moreinjured and vulnerable they feel, the more indifferent will they be when othersare injured and the more willing will they be to use violence towards thosewho seem foreign and disruptive. This propensity for violence will actuallyincrease when they are members of a group that seems to give themsupport and whose goals reflect this disposition and justify it ideologically.

Right-wing extremists scoff at human rights and democracy, which would callfor acknowledging equality and respecting the rights of others, whichguarantee inviolability and dignity to all people and insist on solving disputeswithout violence. They reject the concept that the law applies withoutdistinction of person and that everyone – not only one’s own group – benefitsfrom solidarity and help. Right-wing extremists insist on the superiority oftheir own race, consider themselves the defenders of their own species andblood against all that is defined as foreign; they stress the superiority andhigher value of themselves, will not shrink from using violence in defense ofthese convictions, and make use of the „Führer” principle.

Different forms of right-wing extremism can be found in many Europeancountries. In Germany, the right-wing extremist enemies of democracy basetheir convictions on „national” thought, honor militaristic and nationalisttraditions and use national-socialist symbols and mottos to identify theirgroups. Right-wing extremist groups threaten the development ofdemocratic culture wherever they can count on open or secret approval oftheir xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic activities, mottos or deeds,wherever civil society is too weak for effective resistance and the state doesnot support such resistance decidedly enough.

The problem

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Movements with other political and ideological aims also use the socio-psychological mechanism of gaining self-acknowledgement by joining theextremist and violent groups described above. Islamic groups, for example,owe their success to comparable contexts. This also holds true for bindingyoung people to violent left-wing extremist groups.

The Freudenberg Foundation has given a great deal of attention to right-wing extremism because it has not become established in eastern Germanyas relatively isolated groups at the fringes of society – as was the case formany years in western Germany – but increasingly defines the culture ofeveryday life of young people in many areas. The alarming aspect is that thisdevelopment was incorrectly interpreted, ignored or even denied in spite ofthe obvious violence by which it is accompanied.

One part of the Foundation’s project work can be described as trying toconvey the nature of the problem that needs to be solved. Following the fallof the Berlin Wall, the Freudenberg Foundation invited the „Study Group forIssues concerning Foreigners” of the Central Round Table, the Federal

What we have done: 1. Disclosing the problem

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Government commissioner for immigration issues, several members of localgovernments responsible for issues concerning foreigners as well as expertson immigration and integration to Weinheim to discuss possibilities ofcollaboration.

One of the late results of this discussion was the establishment of a „StudyGroup Against Xenophobia” in 1991. The objective of this study group,which included commissioners for immigration issues of governments of thenew German states and experts in the field, was to plan joint campaignsagainst the xenophobia spreading alarmingly through eastern Germany. Onesuch campaign, for example, was a lecture and discussion tour throughEastern German cities, to which the respective local politicians, importantlocal persons and local initiatives were invited. The aim was to give moralsupport to these, frequently quite isolated, initiatives.

The newly founded RAA, „Regionalen Arbeitsstellen für Ausländerfragen,Jugendarbeit und Schule e.V.” (i.e. regional centers for issues concerningforeigners, youth work and school) was the umbrella organization of thestudy group, which was chaired by the commissioner for immigration issuesof the state of Brandenburg. The „Study Group Against Xenophobia” andmost of the RAA (20 had been established quickly in succession at the time)considered it their most important task to take care of the foreigners whohad remained in eastern Germany, the „contractual employees fromVietnam” and others as well as the refugees who had been sent to easternGerman states by trying to further their acceptance among the Germanpopulation.

An eastern German expert on right-wing extremism and criminologist hadforeseen this situation and warned of violent attacks. He and the founder ofRAA in eastern Germany never tired of pointing out that xenophobia was notan occasional phenomenon caused by certain conditions, but part of amuch more dangerous, more widespread attitude syndrome feeding onhistorical and cultural roots and open to right-wing extremist influences. Forthis reason, they called for the development of a much more comprehensiveconcept aiming at the democratic stabilization of the civil society.

Still under the impression of the violent attacks in Hoyerswerda andRostock, the Federal Government decided to finance „An Action ProgramAgainst Violence”. They proceeded on the assumption that the problembasically related to youths and could be solved through measures of youthpolicy and social education. Therefore, youth clubs, youth centers and youthwork were promoted. The idea was that women and men trained in socialpedagogy, by expressing openness and acceptance, would be able to winthe trust of the right-wing extremist youth and, thus, be able to lead them

Study Group Against Xenophobia

RAA in the newGerman states

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back into the fold of democracy. In actual fact this plan failed most of thetime. More often than not, the right-wing extremist groups occupied theyouth centers made available to them, chasing away all others. The actionprogram was ended after three years and a cost of DM 40 million.

The RAA had attempted to present to the responsible ministry and youth-assistance consultants a comprehensive program that also includedschools. This failed due to the opposition prevalent between the areas ofeducation and youth work. In the following years, the RAA independently putthis concept into practice to show the benefits of an approach that is notlimited to the immediate surroundings of the young people and does notrestrict the learning of intercultural openness and the development ofdemocratic virtues to the young people themselves, but also includesadults, parents and neighbors.

In the middle of the 1990s the RAA told us more and more often aboutattacks and violence of right-wing extremist groups and the gradual spreadof their influence in the everyday life of young people. Occasionally thesereports sounded like horror stories, relating as they were right-wingdominance and the dominating position of right-wing comradeships in someareas.

This situation was not a topic of general politics. We were furtherencouraged to work towards making the public aware of the spread of right-wing extremist attitudes through a television film set in Brandenburg. Thisdocumentary showed the rule of a clique of right-wing extremist youths inthe town of Schwedt. „This town belongs to us,” the spokesman of theclique calmly tells the camera, and the petite social worker responsible forthe group attempts to gloss over the situation, asking for understanding.„Any events we don’t like, we simply disrupt.” He went onto say that thepolice always looked the other way and, anyway, no one would settle downin their territory without their approval. The film received the Civis Prize.Encouraged by this, a sequel was made, reporting about a citizens’ meetingorganized by the municipal government. The mayor denied the existence ofthe problem. Outside, the right-wing hoodlums were waiting and taking ona threatening pose. They accompanied the film team to their hotel rooms.Never in their life had they been so scared, the film team told us later.

In order to shed light onto the matter, we asked Bernd Wagner to conduct astudy on the manifestations of right-wing extremism in eastern Germany. Hewas able to describe to what extent the right-wing extremism prevalent ineastern Germany had its roots in the former GDR, how comfortable theactivists felt in the population and how threatening the dynamics actuallywere. No one had paid much attention to Bernd Wagner, an expert in this

Civis-Prize for a filmabout right-wingextremism in Schwedt

Study byBernd Wagner

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field who had already observed the movement in the former DDR. He waspart of a mobile consulting team of RAA, which was financed by thecommissioner for immigration issues of the state of Brandenburg. TheFoundation assumed some of the costs so as to allow him to set up a„Center for Democratic Culture – Right-Wing Extremism, Youth Violence,and New Media”. The most important task of this center, which wasfinanced almost solely by the Freudenberg Foundation in the first years, wasto document events and developments, to inform the general public, tocollect scientific research (still rare at the time), to advise RAA and developstrategies of action together with them. Another function of the center wasto inform the press. Trips through the German province were offered to all;very few accepted. Only when – with the help of the FreudenbergFoundation – the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which to a certain extent washitched to the RAA and the Center for Democratic Culture, was founded didthe media turn its attention to the threat to democratic culture posed byright-wing extremism, and only then did information on the problem and thedefined possibilities of action enter the political scene.

Numerous small projects, which we developed together with the Center forDemocratic Culture, serve to test different possibilities of action. In Schwedtwe are supporting a group of young people organized by RAA Angermünde.They did not dare enter any youth center because of their democraticconvictions and preference for hip-hop music. The group developed anattractive program, allowing it to become large enough to protect itself.When it felt strong enough, it began using one floor in a youth center. Later,even members of right-wing groups went along on the group’s bike tours –but only after they had willingly removed all right-wing symbols from theirclothes etc.

We learned a lot in the course of supporting the Friedensdorf (peace village)in Storkow, a concept that we didn’t invent, but only furthered together withthe German Children and Youth Foundation. The relief agency Cap Anamurand its manager had grasped the problem and come up with the idea ofbuilding a „Friedensdorf” in Storkow close to the idyllic lake, where right-wing youths would build houses and live together with Bosnian refugees,Vietnamese workers and citizens of Storkow. The last house was intendedfor joint events and provided space for RAA. The project, which was plannedand accompanied by the Mobile Consulting Team of RAA Brandenburg,developed the hoped for dynamics: the right-wing extremist youths wereinterested in earning some money by building houses and finally accepted.The relations to the Bosnian foremen and workers were tense. Onlygradually did the groups begin to talk with one another. The ice was brokenwhen the young men found out that the Bosnians knew how to handle

Center for Democratic Culture

What we have done: 2. Develop possibilitiesof action

Hip-hop-group in Schwedt

Friedensdorf inStorkow

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bazookas. After one year, some of the young people decided to take theopportunity of completing vocational training. When, on a new year’s eve,right-wing groups announced their intention to cause trouble, they patrolledthe building site to defend their work. The surrounding conditions werefavorable: next door was a large Bundeswehr barracks and the soldiersoccasionally helped move huge mounds of soil with a tank or digger, arestaurant owner on the lake did not want to have the tourists scared awayand demanded peace, and the top city officials as well as a former officer ofthe People’s Army were on the board of the supporting institution.

A rule of thumb we learned from the „Friedensdorf” is that, first, you needan attractive idea; second, a managing team like the staff members of theMobile Consulting Team, who are familiar with the manifestations of right-wing extremism and can ensure the observance of democratic standards;and, third, surroundings that are supportive of them. Fourth, it is helpful ifthis is reflected in the media: the „Friedensdorf” gained substantial publicattention – prominent politicians came and the young people could admirethemselves on television. One problem at the time was that the right-wingextremists always had greater chances of gaining the attention of the media.

The RAA or other organizations around RAA carried out other projects: ayouth center received a high-tech audio system; however, the socialpedagogues made it available to everyone on the condition that it may beused only by persons wearing neutral outfits – i.e. not battle dress. Thissucceeded and, yet, a measure like this can only succeed if the socialpedagogues can count on the support of the mayor and the community.Wherever civil society is weak, much depends on the attitude expressed bythe mayor. If he is worried about the town’s reputation and does not imposerestrictions on right-wing comradeships, things may get out of control. InSchwedt, for example, the municipal authorities tried to solve the problemby asking members of right-wing groups to work as hall ushers, neverexpecting to read in the Internet that this or that district, a street, a youthcenter, the square in front of the railway station were „nationally liberated” atcertain times.

The encouraging experience gained with project work in the second half ofthe 1990s was that one can do something. Although this is not always thecase, it is true whenever the basic concept is good, courageous people areinvolved and can be protected.

A young woman pastor in Barnim did not want to be paralyzed by theoppressive atmosphere. She invited young people from her community tomake music together with a group of young people from Kreuzberg, whichalso included children from Turkish families. The right-wing comradeship in

Personal courage inJoachimsthal, district of Barnim

her town lured the police away with a fake emergency, surrounded thechurch and beat up the young musicians. The pastor made the attack asubject of discussion in the community and wanted to know what was goingon. Yet, instead of support, she was confronted by hostility. The more shetried to discuss the subject, the more she became the object of severecriticism that claimed she had no idea about the problems of the people andwould only bring the town into disrepute and that she would have toapologize for the negative press reports. Hardly anyone spoke to heranymore. There were intrigues and the town tried to have her replaced. Atthe same time, the number of violent attacks rose – the vicarage, situated inthe center of town, was attacked thirteen times when she and her husbandwere not at home. Every time the culprits left behind smashed furniture, tornbooks and smeared walls. Nevertheless, no one considered this reasonenough to take her side. The mayor told her that there were no right-winggroups in the town and if there were, then they should not be provoked. Thatwas five years ago. The pastor held her ground. Her superiors in the churchsupported her. First the Freudenberg Foundation, then the Amadeu AntonioFoundation helped organize attractive musical programs for young people.Other pastors initiated comparable programs. The town and neighboringregions grew to like these programs. Albeit the right-wing groups have notdisappeared, the pastor feels a lot better – but it took years.

The Center for Democratic Culture has collected many such examples, usingthem to develop analyses and advice for communities. The RAA increasing-ly have tried not only to react but also to develop models for improving civiceducation in school and youth work. It stands to be concluded that politicaland civic education are called for when weaknesses in the democratic cul-ture become evident. The problem was and is that the traditional spectrum ofpolitical education is not very attractive for young people. In a succinct – andperhaps distorting – manner, the range of subjects can be described as a mix-ture of information about democratic institutions and their historic rise and fallon the one hand and moral appeals on the other hand. It usually is limited toinstruction on institutions, confrontation with the holocaust and all sorts of af-firmation. Partly this can be attributed to the fact that democracy is above allconsidered a form of government in Germany, not a form of society and byno means – as in Anglo-Saxon countries – a form of life. Encountering democ-racy in one’s everyday life, however, is, based on our experience, the onlymeaningful educational strategy. The Theodor Heuss Foundation (also spon-sored by the Freudenberg Foundation) and its contest „Acting Democrati-cally” as well as the Brandenburger Tor Foundation and its contest „Assum-ing Responsibility” have provided clear indicators supporting this opinion. Bypromoting community education, the Freudenberg Foundation has shownhow schools can be opened up systematically and cooperative projectsenable and further democratic and intercultural actions.

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What we have done:3: Promote preventiveaction

Community education in Germany

In two volumes of expert opinions on how democracy can be learned, itbecomes evident that those young people who claim they had possibilitiesof participation, i.e. experienced democracy in school, who report thatschool was fair and the teachers were concerned about the pupils, are notinclined to use violence or take on right-wing attitudes. Vice versa, studieshave shown that in schools where democracy cannot be experienced andpupils complain about a bad atmosphere, the propensity for violence andtones of right-wing extremism occur much more frequently.

The development of civic education and the corresponding curricula, theorganization of schools and school-life is the major – as of yet not copedwith – task, to which end the Freudenberg Foundation would like tocontribute through its projects, hoping to improve the prerequisites forcreating a democratic culture. By no means are we limiting our efforts toeastern Germany. Many western German young people have no chance ofexperiencing democracy, either in their families or surroundings. Studiesconducted by Professor Pfeiffer and others show that many young peoplefrom families with a Turkish background or Eastern European families ofGerman origins have experienced violence. For these young people it wouldbe extremely important to attend schools that demonstrate democracy as aform of life as well as encourage democratic action and assumption ofresponsibility.

The list of initiatives, on the basis of which RAA and other projects are tryingto reach these goals is long and would fill a separate report. They includethe promotion of project instruction, education modules for units ofinstruction on the subject of right-wing extremism, the organization ofinternational meetings and projects contributing to the democraticdevelopment of schools in Brandenburg. Representative for all initiatives, wewould like to describe four projects below.

The Freudenberg Stiftung is supporting a project of the Bernard van LeerFoundation und the Lindenstiftung for Pre-School Education (managed bythe Freudenberg Foundation) in Eberswalde. The project is an experimentattempting to practice forms of democratic behavior in kindergarten:amongst the children themselves and towards the teachers and parents.Children should be given the chance to make decisions at an early age and,thus, learn to deal with conflicts. Naturally this will only succeed if theteachers and parents also behave accordingly. It is frequently difficult toorganize democratic decision-making situations and open discussions atschool, because many children and adolescents never experienced suchforms of communication in their families. Therefore, they often respond withfear and aggressive rejection. This project hopes that such problems can beprevented if democratic communication is learned at an early age in

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Learning and living democracy

Living democracy inkindergarten and schoolin Eberswalde

kindergarten. The first results are encouraging. A study group of RAAdedicated to pre-school education is studying the feasibility of applying thisproject elsewhere. The project is called „Learning and living democracy”.

Student clubs are in-school forums for students, teachers and externalpartners, where children and adolescents can be involved in school-lifethrough their own activities and the support of the principal. Student clubsare a time-proven element of Eastern German educational traditions, andsince 1994 they have been used in many German states as a means to openup schools. For 10 years, the RAA – sponsored by the German Children andYouth Foundation – have been trying to heighten the quality of student clubsin such a way that they evolve into democratic cells in the schools. Inparticular this happens when the students themselves organize the studentclubs, the program is important for the school and contacts are establishedto the parents and the environment of the school.

The most important project originating from student clubs was the PeerLeaders project. Peer leaders are young people who are willing to take onleadership positions and responsibility in groups of children of the same ageand to integrate other young people in the organization of projects andactions. Children learn best from other children who speak their languageand, in their opinion, usually are more credible than adults. The PeerLeadership Training wants to practice methods and exercises to conductdebates, counseling and projects with young people of the same age group.The topics that the young people discuss range from multiculturalism toright-wing extremism, asylum and immigration, democracy and civil societyto the tools needed for moderating groups. Since the beginning of thetrainings in 1999/2000, altogether 70 young people from 4 German stateshave been trained as Peer Leaders. They have launched their own initiativesat their schools or school neighborhood: for example, a hip-hop school tourto promote respect and tolerance or an art action with youth from a homefor asylum seekers. It is planned to extend the Peer Leadership Training tothe European partner cities united under YEPP (Youth EmpowermentPartnership Program). A first step already has been taken in Tuzla: peerleaders from Germany presented the program and their projects to Bosnianchildren.

The problem that the Freudenberg Foundation would like to confront bytransferring „Service Learning” from its Anglo-Saxon context is that youngpeople often have no possibility of taking up the challenge of civicresponsibility or experiencing their own effectiveness in school and theirgeneral environments. The Foundation was impressed by the experiencesgained in North America, which showed that well-conceived ServiceLearning programs which encouraged students to take on civic duties

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Qualitätsentwicklung vonSchülerclubs

Peer leadership trainingfor civic education andintercultural competence

Doing something forothers: The projectLearning Responsibility

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About long journeys and taking the first step

„All beginnings are hard“ and „slowly but surely“. Inthe course of our anti-mobbing project at the OttoNagel „Oberschule” in Berlin we had ampleopportunity to realize the truth of such sayings;otherwise we would not be where we are today: wehave reached a point where we are ready andwilling to act independently, knowing full well thatwe can do well. About two years ago, we askedourselves which problem was predominant at ourschool. We unanimously decided it was „mobbing”,because the same behavior demonstrated by theyounger pupils through fighting and verbal abuseoccurred among the teachers on a psychologicallevel.

Since it is necessary to strike at the roots ofproblems, we concentrated first on grades five andseven and informed the teachers of our plans. Theyoung pupils soon took to us and trusted us. Theteachers, too, quickly came to trust our work andrequested that additional classes be included.Since our team was made up of five men andwomen, the tasks could be divided andcoordinated with our own schoolwork withoutproblems. The training can only be efficient if it isconducted at regular intervals. It would beunrealistic to expect that one 90-minute lesson canhave a sustained effect in the pupils’ manner ofthinking and lead to radical changes. And thisbrings us back to the long journey. Our goal is tosensitize young people in their behavior towardsother pupils. With well-known „aha-experience”games, we achieved this goal with the majority ofthe students.

Today we have come to a point where we can offerour work to other schools. Within the scope of ourstudent company we earn a little extra on the sideso as to be able to finance our numerous otherprojects. And since sayings always make a point:The journey of a thousand miles begins with onestep. We have proven that through the PeerLeaders work and I am proud to say that we don’thave far to go.

outside their school as part of the school curriculum were the most reliableguarantee that these young people would be proactive members of civicsociety later. Furthermore, the young people gained participation andacknowledgement experiences, which help prevent violence and tendenciestowards right-wing extremism. Therefore, in March 2000, following aconference with experts from research institutes, persons active in the field,representatives from politics and public administration as well as fromthematically related foundations, we decided to start a pilot project called„Learning Responsibility”. This project would accompany the model projectof the Federal and State Commission for Educational Planning andResearch Assistance (BLK) called „Learning and Living Democracy”. Ourgoal was to determine its effectiveness and applicability to already existingconcepts of developing democracy at ten schools ranging fromHauptschule to Gymnasium nationwide. The results were very encouraging.Students from a Realschule in Waldmichelbach set up a mentor program forelementary school pupils, students from a Hauptschule in Viernheim visitedwith senior citizens, students from the Gymnasium in Hoyerswerda made adocumentary film for the local Mozambique Club. Preparing and evaluatingthe activities were part of the instruction and, at the same time, aninnovation team made up of teachers, students, school administrators,parents and partners from outside the school accompanied the activities.Due to the successful trial of Service Learning, the persons responsible forthe program of the BLK model project were able to prioritize this approachin Baden-Württemberg, with a five-year promotion by foundations.

Taking the pilot project a step further, we developed a two-pillar model forcomprehensive promotion of democratic competence within the scope ofthe BLK model project „Learning and Living Democracy”: Learningresponsibility and democracy in schools and communities. The first pillar –„learning responsibility” – involves assuming and reflecting on responsibilityas a major element of school education. Learning to take on responsibilitystarts in elementary school in the manageable space of the classroom.Afterwards the space for taking on responsibility extends from theclassroom to the school and, finally, to the community. The other pillar –„learning democracy” – refers to the forms and forums of democracy ineveryday life from elementary school to the end of school education. Theobjective of our model project is to develop a comprehensive and modularcurriculum for „democratic competence”, taking it from model experimentsto implementation in schools up to its becoming a fixed part of schoolinstruction, curricula and programs. Furthermore, we would like to presentpossibilities and methods to schools, thereby raising the awareness ofpolitics and ensuring that the subject of learning democracy is incorporatedin the school system.

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Our project has a double structure comprising a development network inBaden-Württemberg and a nationwide transfer network. With the help offunds from the Freudenberg Foundation and BLK (the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Federal Government, in this case) we have formed aclose-knit school development network in Baden-Württemberg consisting ofseven different types of schools (elementary school, Hauptschule,Realschule and Gymnasium). Together with these schools, we developmodels to implement the above-mentioned approaches for the acquisitionof democratic competence. We are collaborating with the MercatorFoundation to disseminate the successful approaches nationwide. For thispurpose, we have a large transfer network that currently includes 25 schoolsin eight German states.

The project „Learning Responsibility” is part of the larger BLK program„Learning and Living Democracy”. But this program also is only part of thedesired development and implementation of a new concept of civiceducation. This would certainly affect the further development of the„political education” programs being funded currently by the federal

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Student mentors at the Eduard-Spranger„Hauptschule” in Reutlingen

Giuseppe’s „godchild“ had problems reading.Rudy’s too. And Afshin’s „charge” couldn’t dobasic arithmetic. All that is changing because tenstudents from class 8a of the Eduard-Spranger„Hauptschule” have been supervising first- andsecond-grade pupils from the elementary schoolsince the beginning of the school year. In theirfunction as „student mentors”, they have to be „all-rounders”: they help the children learn how to readand do arithmetic, they help the parents, many ofwhom have only a poor command of German, atparents’ evenings and sometimes when officialdocuments have to be translated. They visit thehome of „their” godchild once a week. One of thebasic assumptions of this project is that you have tobe familiar with the circumstances of life of thechildren being supervised to really be able to help.Thus, for example, in the case of Seyit, the causesimply was the lack of a workplace at home, wherehe could do his homework and prepare for school.

His godfather, Tufan, suggested to the boy’sparents that they set up a „learning corner” in theapartment, where Seyit could keep his schoolmaterials and work undisturbed.

A staff member of the Youth Immigration Service ofthe Protestant Church, who is of Turkish originhimself, is supporting the boys. He knows thecultural differences and, thus, he knows wherethere is a lack of communication. He knows that theparents of immigrant children frequently speakhardly any or no German at all, that they are notfamiliar with the German school system andeducational requirements, and that, in view of allthese reasons, they are not able to help theirchildren do their schoolwork. „The parents andchildren do not read together at home, dictation isnot practiced. The parents hardly ever look at theirchildren’s homework.” Since many families „are notfamiliar with the playful culture of learning prevalentat elementary schools here, due to their differentcultural background, the teaching and learningmethods don’t mean much to them,” he explains.

Prospects

government and states. If it were possible to fill gaps in the process, thenwe would make sure that all children and adolescents received „humanrights education”. At the present time, it cannot be definitely assumed thatthe teachers have knowledge of the human rights that are to govern life inour society. This, too, would only be a small part of all that needs to be done.Hence, it would be advisable that all the government-funded programs forthe promotion of democratic action – Civitas, Entimon, Xenos and the BLKprojects – relate more strongly to one another and mark the beginning ofsomething. What is missing is a sustained concept for civic politics.

The choice of the term „civic politics” reflects the idea that the creation andguarantee of democratic culture, the learning of democratic values and thepracticing of democratic conduct can be promoted or hindered by politics.„Civic politics” as an answer to the criticism of the state of the politicalculture is a demand that would have met with surprise just a few years ago.Apart from the government-funded institutions for political education, it wasgenerally assumed that democratic culture was created in a seeminglynatural way in families, at school and in civil society itself. Politics had tointerfere when the democratic order and development was disrupted by

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This is where the special competence of thestudent mentors sets in. Eight of the ten boys aregrowing up bilingually and feel at home in twocultures. With ease they shift from Turkish toGerman, from Russian to German or from Italianto German. Since they have answers both toorganizational questions and issues of mentality,they can actively support interested parents whoneed help. Naturally, both sides must trust oneanother. This basis of trust was created by theteacher of class 8a and the social worker. Alreadybefore the start of the project at the beginning ofthe new 2003/2004 school year, he establishedcontact to the families concerned encouragingthem to accept the new student mentors.

The ten students volunteered because theythought that the student mentor training would bea great opportunity for them. At first Giuseppe

was not sure whether he would find the time topursue his hobbies and be a student mentor atthe same time. Now he would not want to bewithout the job anymore: „I think it’s great that mygodchild is much better at school now.” The tenboys approach their task quite professionally.Obviously the social worker’s seminar preparedthem well for the job. They already spent a joint –pedagogical – weekend together: „After all, weare a team,” says Ingo, one of the boys. At theregular group meetings, they discuss problems,trying to find solutions together. The certificatethey will receive for their job is a nice side effect.The motivation would definitely be the samewithout the certificate. That is quite evident.Nevertheless, it will come in handy when theysend out their first job applications next year.

extremist violence. Then it was the responsibility of the Ministries of theInterior, the police and the judiciary to eliminate such disturbances.

In view of the fact that the everyday culture in eastern Germany – andincreasingly in western Germany – was influenced by right-wing extremismthat manifested itself through violence, racism, anti-Semitism andxenophobia, above all among eastern German youths, it became evidentthat one could not rely on the self-healing powers of civil society in this case.Violence and the „nationalistic” idea of a biologically and culturallypredetermined inequality of people pose a threat to the core of democracyand peaceful coexistence in Europe.

Together with the Volkswagen Foundation, the Marga and Kurt MöllgaardFoundation, ZEIT newsmagazine and the publishing firm Suhrkamp Verlag,we participated in a ten-year long-term study on the development of thesyndrome of xenophobic attitudes (racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia,heterophobia, Islamophobia, privileges of the Establishment, sexism). Theannual evaluations and reports conducted by Professor Heitmeyer provideimportant information on actions that need to be taken by the governmentand civil society. At the next „Weinheim Conference”, scheduled to takeplace in 2005, the importance of schools as well as inter-ethnic contactswith respect to decreasing xenophobia will be a topic of discussion.

All experiences gained in the past ten years show that such threats todemocratic culture cannot be mastered by means of occasional measuresundertaken by initiatives of civil society or individual governmentbureaucracies. This is not only a problem confronting the police, it is not theexclusive responsibility of youth welfare or the Protestant community,schools or the employment market – it concerns everyone everywhere atone and the same time. Moreover, it is not restricted to the protection ofvictims or setting up Mobile Consulting Teams in situations of crisis – it callsfor more comprehensive measures: civil society as a whole has to bestrengthened, democratic values have to be learned and forms ofdemocracy practiced so as to prepare young people for life in a culturallypluralistic Europe. A comprehensive approach is needed, systematiccooperation of the government and civil society and, above all, sustained(i.e. not occasional) promotion of the civil society. In other words, politicalaction is needed. It is important that the socio-political efforts are not limitedto fending off threats to and disruptions of democratic culture, but that theyaim towards such positive goals as learning democracy, assumingresponsibility and living together in Europe.

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Long-term study ofgroup-related xenophobiaby Professor Heitmeyer

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71

Work for the mentally ill

About 400,000 to 500,000 people who are or could be employed requiredpsychiatric help, be it through a stay in a clinic or outpatient treatment in apsychiatric practice. 3–5% of the population is considered to be mentally ill.The chances of being employed again after having to give up one’semployment or being fired due to such an illness are relatively slim. In manycases, the stress of today’s working life was one of the causes of the illness.Recollections of the behavior of the person concerned in the time before thefirst outbreak of the illness frequently prevent employees and employersfrom working together again. In addition, many persons find it difficult tounderstand that a mental illness is an illness and not a personality defect.Thus, for example, the inability to keep up an accelerated speed of work isfrequently considered laziness. Although some employers are still willing tolet people take up their work again after psychiatric treatment, they arebecoming fewer and fewer in view of the increasingly aggravated conditionsthat have been prevailing on the labor market for many years.

In many cases, mentally ill persons face depressing alternatives: either theygo into premature retirement, they accept the offer to work in a „workshopfor handicapped persons” or they stay unemployed permanently. Mostworkshops are designed primarily for mentally retarded persons. Therefore,the available work or the organizational form frequently is not suitable formentally ill persons. Unfortunately, there are far too few workshops formentally ill persons, where their special problems can be taken intoconsideration. Taking an extreme case, just imagine an engineer sufferingfrom depression welding objects into packages next to a person with Downsyndrome. Moreover, the monthly wages of € 80.00 are a pittance and byno means help boost the injured feelings of self-worth of the mentally illperson. They are not given the feeling of doing valuable work and beingrewarded accordingly. Even for healthy people permanent unemployment isaccompanied by psychological stress. Therefore, as a rule, vocationalrehabilitation and reintegration in the labor market is a prerequisite for therecovery of mentally ill persons, to whatever extent cure is possible.

The question that arose in 1985 when „Work for the Mentally Ill” became anarea of interest of the foundation was: Is it possible to identify areas in thelabor market that can offer integration opportunities to people with a mentalillness? The answers we found were not very encouraging. Many companiespointed out that they had to introduce measures of rationalization, and themore sophisticated technology increased the general pressure on theemployees and also resulted in the obliteration of many side jobs. Jobopportunities in industrial enterprises dropped in the past decades. A former

The problem

72

union chairman noted: „Today you have to work 130% otherwise you’ll beout on the street.” Where does that leave the mentally ill?

Another factor hindering integration in the labor market is the relative lack offlexibility in the structure of the employment market. As a rule, one can applyfor a full-time or part-time position in the primary employment market.However, mentally ill persons can only work two or three hours per dayduring the initial phase of reintegration. If all goes well the number of hourscan be increased; sometimes they may be able to cope with a half-time,three-quarter-time or even full-time position. Contrary to the flu, a mentalillness is never cured completely in many cases. Relapses have to beexpected and, accordingly, also renewed reintegration measures and aworking time of two hours. Not all mentally ill persons have these problems,but they must be expected.

In order for the employment of mentally ill persons to be successful, morefactors than the number of working hours need to be taken intoconsideration. The speed of work, the amount of responsibility,unforeseeable events that may be part of the job and sometimes also noisehave to be evaluated carefully. Handling these factors cautiously may leadto success quicker than generally expected. In view of rationalization and„lean” company structures, difficulties can be expected in this connectionalso in normal companies.

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In 1985, when we began taking an interest in this problem, we were able tofall back on the work done by Professor Rudolf Freudenberg in England. Heproposed not only to open psychiatric wards but to also create jobs for thementally ill in the community at the same time. He had developed such amodel in London.

When the Foundation was established, there were about ten „self-helpfirms” for mentally ill persons in Germany, whose initiators had modeledtheir firms on the ideas and experiences of Rudolf Freudenberg. One ofthese self-help companies – „Integra” in Walldorf” – was supported by theFreudenberg company. Taking this as an example, the Foundation beganpromoting self-help companies in the hope that these would develop flexiblejobs paying standard wages for mentally ill persons.

We gained our first own experiences in the course of setting up the self-helpcompany „Work Source” in Weinheim. „Work Source” offered handloomweaving jobs to five persons, three persons worked in a second-hand shop,and two persons earned money by mangling and ironing. The financialbacking was earned with industrial production work for Freudenberg SimritKG. When this lapsed, „Work Source” had to be closed.

We supported the company Integra in Walldorf, which also began withindustrial services. Integra has survived up until today, but is nowrestructuring operations to concentrate on the services sector.

Hopeful results were achieved whenever psychiatric clinics becameinvolved and tried to create jobs in neighboring areas. The Foundationpromoted one such model in Wunstorf. The interesting aspect was thataccompanying psychiatric guidance was ensured.

Besides gaining our own experiences in the development of self-helpcompanies, the most important project was the initiative designed toestablish and fund FAF, an association for the promotion of employmentinitiatives and company projects for mentally ill persons. The FreudenbergFoundation quickly realized that it would be neither feasible norrecommendable to support the rapidly growing number of self-helpcompanies. Together with psychiatric associations, the FAF was establishedin 1985 as an agency providing professional consulting to companyprojects. Based on its commercial and administrative competence, FAFdecisively contributed to the consolidation of the companies for mentally illpersons. FAF became the Federal Working Group of Integration Firms. It isnow active as a lobbyist and political consultant. „Integration firms” is thenew name for self-help companies, and it makes clear that the objective of

What we have done

„Work Source“ Weinheim

Integra Walldorf

Küsterhof Wunstorf

FAF – Association forthe Promotion ofEmployment Initiativesand Company Projectsfor Mentally Ill Persons

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these projects is to enable the persons working there to return to the generallabor market. In the meantime, there are more than 440 such firms withabout 4,000 places of work. The Federal Working Group is a foundingmember and part of a European network of firms for mentally ill persons.

A common denominator of the integration firms – regarding their tasks,structure and financial situation – is that mentally ill persons cannot earnmore money than what they receive as wages or salaries; any investments,the rent and management of the premises, the administration andpsychological treatment have to be financed separately.

As expected, a study of work opportunities for the mentally ill in theMannheim-Heidelberg region determined two things: there were not enough„jobs for extra income”, i.e. part-time jobs, and the counseling and supportservices offered for mentally ill persons trying to become reintegrated in thegeneral labor market was not adequate. What was needed and proposedwas the establishment of a flexible ambulant service. Two projects evolvedfrom this study.

Together with FAF and the Initiative for the Promotion of Jobs for Mentally IllPersons Heidelberg (IFA e.V.), the Foundation developed „Proposalsregarding the Improvement of the Status of Persons with InsignificantEmployment under Labor Law”. Taking IFA Heidelberg as an example, thecreation and mode of operation of a so-called „extra-income company” waspresented. It made evident that most of the firms for mentally ill develop intomixed forms of employment; for example, after a while the so-called „extra-income companies” frequently also offered full-time positions. This form ofreciprocal supplementation meet the mentally ill persons’ need for flexibilityand have proven to be meaningful from an economic standpoint, too. Thedirect result of the projects designed to clarify this important aspect of thedevelopment of firms for mentally ill persons was a definition of marketingand financing concepts.

The second conclusion drawn from the study caused the Foundation topromote models for the „ambulant support of mentally ill persons reenteringthe labor market”, later simply called „Integration Services”, in Wunstorf andin the Rhine-Neckar region. The project provided important informationabout the tasks and possibilities of such a service. Amongst others, thisincluded defining career choices and qualifications, organizing trainings,acquiring places of employment on the regular labor market and counselingthe employers, superiors and co-workers there.

After reunification, the Freudenberg Foundation also became active in thenew German states. In 1991, we met the director and some staff members

Study in the Mannheim-Heidelberg region

„Extra-Income“ concept,marketing,financing

Integration service

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of the „Office for Rehabilitation” in a district of East Berlin. Viewed from aWestern standpoint, the rehabilitation system of the former GDR was veryinteresting – the aspect most conspicuously missing in the system of theFederal Republic took central position here: namely reintegrating peoplewho had fallen out of the labor market into working life. To this end, theOffice of Rehabilitation had at its disposal protected jobs in companies.Everything was managed by one office: sheltered housing, activities helpingto structure days, counseling, guidance and employment. Consequently,this was a truly comprehensive approach. This is not to say that therehabilitation system of the former GDR should be described in radiantcolors only. Indeed, substantial criticism can be put forward against theideology that characterized this system, as is clarified by the contributionsof forty „psychiatric patients”, which illustrate the history of psychiatry in apermanent exhibition called „Irr-Sinn” (a play on words: „irr” which can betranslated by mad or insane and „Sinn”, i.e. meaning or sense) and a touringexhibition. The exhibition was organized with the help of the FreudenbergFoundation. Nevertheless, the indubitably justified criticism does not meanthat the system had no positive effects at all. In the final analysis, it was upto each individual. If you were interested in learning and committed, as wasthe case in Weissensee, then the system offered a good basis for helpingmentally ill persons.

When committed staff members decided to stay together after reunificationand form an association in which they could continue their work, albeit in achanged form, i.e. one adapted to the conditions of the Federal Republic ofGermany, their greatest worry was that the core of their system – theprovision of suitable places of work – would be obliterated. The FreudenbergFoundation decided to support the newly established association „WIB –Weissenseer Integration Behinderter” in its efforts to adopt Western Germanresources as well as open up and create employment for mentally illpersons. The advice given by FAF in this connection proved very helpful.

The tenth anniversary of this dynamic association, celebrated in September2000, demonstrated the success of the promising attempt to combine theideas of the Western German reform of the psychiatric system with thecomprehensive approach of the rehabilitation system of the former GDR,thereby creating realistic offers for mentally ill and handicapped persons.

One year after the foundation – in September 1991 – the Contact andCounseling Center for Psychiatric Patients in Berlin was opened. Only twomonths later, the vocational qualification and employment firm „SpektrumGmbH für berufliche Bildung und Integration” was founded. The firstprojects involved jobs and qualification measures in the areas of EDP, officework and electric engineering.

Weißenseer IntegrationBehinderter Berlin(WIB e.V.)

Exhibition „Irr-Sinn“

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Prospects

As of June 1993, mentally ill persons could also earn „extra income” in suchfields as „industrial production” and services, depending on their individualneeds. At the same time, Spektrum GmbH added the field „industrialassembly of rubber parts”. The special aspect of this business area was thatit was the result of a collaboration between a Berlin-based company –Freudenberg Dichtungs- und Schwingungstechnik GmbH – and a social-welfare organization. The Berlin-based subsidiary of Freudenberg undertookto make available work and appropriate space on its premises forhandicapped persons. Up until today this is a successful model worthimitating, which was modeled after the protective departments.

In the course of time, the integral approach of WIB e.V. led to a highlycoordinated range of projects being conducted together or alongside oneanother in such areas as working, living arrangements, counseling and jobplacement. Besides contact and counseling centers, employment andextra-income projects, all-day centers offering jobs, this also includessupervised living arrangements, a sewing workshop with a second-handshop, a washhouse, the establishment of an integration assistance serviceas well as a vocational counseling center for persons with hearingimpairments.

Characteristic of this project is the innovative power, persistence and highdegree of identification manifested by the staff members of WIB e. V. in theirwork. Despite financial problems, the difficult situation on the employmentmarket, increasing tendencies of discrimination in society and a new legalsituation (amendments to the Disabled Persons Act), the association hasbeen able to open up new areas of activity.

Looking back on the past thirteen years, it can be said that the attempts ofthis dynamic association to combine the ideas of the Western Germanreform of the psychiatric system with the comprehensive approach of therehabilitation system of the former GDR as well as providing suitable jobs formentally ill persons has been successful and has led to interesting results.

When the Freudenberg Foundation incorporated the area „Work for mentallyill persons” in its range of activities, it primarily wanted to help make self-help companies a viable alternative to long-term unemployment orpermanent premature retirement. In connection with the ensuing projectwork, it became evident that the reintegration in working life called forcautious and knowledgeable counseling and guidance of the personsconcerned. Both objectives have basically been achieved since „integrationfirms” and „integrations services” have become legally fixed options. Morethan anything else, this success is owed to the FAF project. In a certainsense, the Foundation has achieved its goal. Such underlying goals as

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increasing the number of jobs altogether, heightening ideas and willingnessin society and contributing to more understanding and sensitive awarenessof mental illness in the working world can, by nature, be achieved only in bitsand pieces. They cannot be made objectives of core areas of activity.

Consequently, the Freudenberg Foundation will limit its activities in thethematic area of „work for mentally ill persons” and only promote individualprojects for heuristic reasons, as it were: in order to stay in touch with thedevelopments in this field.

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her work could not be compared to those of a

„healthy” employee.

During one of her regular sessions with the psychol-

ogist, Mrs. J. told her that she had visited a work-

shop for handicapped persons before applying at

the self-help company in order to see what her fu-

ture might look like. The impression had been terri-

fying. The worst part had been that two people were

sitting at their workplaces with their heads on their

arms and no one had taken notice. She realized im-

mediately that this „wasn’t real work” and that she

couldn’t picture herself there. „I want to be proud of

my work, and this is the case here.”

In time, Mrs. J. gained stability. She cautiously be-

gan to take on responsibility. When the manager was

absent, she began to answer the phone, provided in-

formation about the company and, finally, she was

included in small planning processes. Yet, there

were serious backlashes, too: times when her illness

caught up with her again, keeping her from work for

several weeks at a time. Afterwards it sometimes

was necessary to start all over again with small

steps, i.e. short working hours and no responsibility

other than for her own work. Sometimes it went

quicker, but this had to be determined and agreed

every time. Through her meetings with the psychol-

ogist she learned to accept the fact that her capa-

bility of performance was limited, that she needed

medication and, if possible, to recognize an upcom-

ing crisis and, accordingly, immediately decrease

her workload.

Through the work that she is able to do in the small

self-help company, Mrs. J. gained self-confidence,

refreshed some productive skills and acquired new

ones as well. She says: „Coming here allows me to

walk with my head held high and when I feel down,

then I always have hope and do not think it is the end

of the world.”

When Mrs. J. came to the self-help company for thefirst time, she was 24 years old. During her last year of„Gymnasium” she had often „felt very bad”. Fear offailure, insomnia and panic attacks characterized thisperiod of her life. Preparing and sitting for the „Abitur”examination required immense effort and caused se-vere inner tension. Subsequently, she suffered abreakdown. She underwent outpatient treatment witha psychiatrist, which was predominantly based onmedication. The diagnosis was endogenous depres-sion. Gradually her condition improved. Her parents,to whom she is very close, took care of her and triedto help her find a way into working life.

Mrs. J. was afraid of vocational training because shefeared she would not be able to master the require-ments. She tried a variety of jobs for unskilled per-sons or traineeships, from working in the warehouseof a discount store to office work to working in akindergarten. Every time things went well for a while,but then the familiar feelings of insecurity and fear offailure crept up again accompanied by insomnia andfeelings of senselessness. The medication had to beincreased and the side effects affected her ability towork. This regularly led to termination of the em-ployment relationship, either by Mrs. J herself or theemployer.

In the job interview with the self-help company, Mrs.J. described her situation as hopeless: she neitherexpected to be hired nor did she think she couldmaster the expectations. Nevertheless, she re-sponded positively to the suggestion that she cometo work for two hours for the first two weeks so as tofamiliarize herself with the company and get used toregular hours and a certain obligation again. In ad-dition, it was agreed that she see a psychologistonce a week to talk about the situation at work etc.It took many very small steps and several months toincrease her work time to five hours. Her perform-ance came up to her own expectations and this ledto a sort of mental relaxation, although the results of

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81

Developing local models in selected

towns and city districts

„Endangered urban society“ is the title of a sociological study by WilhelmHeitmeyer about social disintegration processes and ethno-cultural conflictsin German communities. What he means can be discovered easily enoughin almost all medium-sized and large towns and cities: namely that there aredistricts and residential areas where unemployment is high and whererelatively many people are on social welfare, where very few children makethe transition to higher schools, where the milieu is marked by neglect andwhere conflicts and violence are more frequent than in more affluentresidential areas.

As early as the end of the 1980s and in the first half of the 1990s, the OECDand several foundations (among these the Freudenberg Foundation)conducted two projects to determine how such conditions as thosedescribed above affect children and adolescents as they are growing up.The OECD called these children „Youth at risk”, since they are threatened bytheir social situation and, at the same time, can become a danger to society.The OECD worked out two solutions to this threat: first, a concept topromote such young people by furthering their acknowledgement, self-confidence, initiative and empowerment; second, a comprehensiveapproach ensuring that the assisting and educating institutions worktogether. In order to formulate a detailed description of this approach, theOECD in collaboration with the Mott Foundation and the FreudenbergFoundation initiated the project „Integration of Services”.

At the end of the 1990s, a group of European and American foundationsworking together in a study group of the European Foundation Centerrevived the OECD concepts and decided to initiate a joint program. Thus,the Project YEPP (Youth Empowerment Partnership Program) was born in2000. In the meantime, this program has been set up in seven Europeancities, among these Tuzla and Mannheim, where the FreudenbergFoundation is active. The foundations want to contribute to the developmentof social European cities so as to enable youth to have good prospects ofsocial and economic participation.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the German government responded to thedownward spiral threatening urban residential areas in Germany by callinginto life such state programs as the one enforced by North Rhine-Westfaliafor so-called „cities with special redevelopment requirements”. Later thejoint federal and state program „Urban districts with special redevelopment

The problem

Youth at risk

Integration of Services

YEPP – Youth EmpowermentPartnership Program

82

needs – the social city” was started in 1999. The policy of our Foundation –with reference to the Federal Republic of Germany – is to continue thelessons learned by state programs and to remedy their deficits. It hasbecome evident that a municipal integration policy is needed: without thebacking of politics and public administration institutions for a joint conceptof action in an urban district, limits of responsibility and competitionbetween administration departments, supporting institutions and initiativescannot be overcome and block problem-solving projects.

The German Institute for Urban Studies defined the factors contributing tothe success of a joint project in urban districts, and this specification reflectsthe experiences gained repeatedly by our Foundation: „Many years ofexperience show that significant commitment, high personal involvementand perseverance in frequently very trying tasks are fundamentalprerequisites for successful district management.” Time and again, peoplewith leadership skills and „souls of fire”, as they say in Denmark, are needed:people who are willing to take on a leading role, to leave well-trodden paths

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and to find constructive solutions that activate the personal initiative of thepeople concerned. Ideally, this is achieved by so-called district managers,because they unite legitimacy – by having been commissioned by the localadministration – and structure-forming powers. However, very rarely canthose people whose conditions of life are to be improved by such urbandevelopment processes be involved in the projects: children, adolescentsand families with immigrant backgrounds as well as persons belonging tominorities, who are affected by but not involved in urban top-to-bottomstrategies. In this situation, too, it is important to find and involve peerleaders and community leaders from different religious and culturalcommunities. Another difficulty: using day-care centers and schools aspartners or even motors of urban development.

The objective is that projects of the Foundation, for example, help mothersactively involved in an urban project become acknowledged integrationassistants, who can voice their needs and have a firm place in theinstitutions. At the same time, motors of the democratic civil society need tobe involved in the processes: e.g. an association of a mosque speaking outin favor of an open form of Islam or a citizens’ action group that wants toimprove the conditions for trade businesses in the district. Another goal isto make schools partners in or even motors of urban developmentprocesses. In this connection, we work together with local institutions andinitiatives to identify strategically important thematic gaps and to find ordevelop trend-setting approaches. This can lead to comprehensive projectspromoting the language skills of mothers and children in day-care centers,which may be continued in elementary school, or this may result in projectsdesigned to help students learn to take responsibility so as to help solve theproblems prevailing in their community.

If, as a result, parents want to stay in the district and don’t move away„because of the high percentage of foreigners” and the ensuing fear ofinsufficient elementary school instruction, we would have accomplishedsomething. Naturally, schools alone cannot master the diverse problems ofliving together, local economics, and life in particularly underprivilegeddistricts. Therefore, a joint concept of action is needed that involves all thepersons responsible for a district from institutions, civil society and thebusiness world. Only then can feasible solutions be defined andimplemented.

The path that the Foundation has tried to smooth in the past two yearsthrough its own projects can be described as a combination of opening upschools and urban development. An open school is one that responds to theneeds of students and parents, promotes participation and is a place oflearning for many generations. Opening up a school also means involving

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the parents of the children in the school and outside of school in thecommunity and world of work. Since its establishment, communityeducation as a means of overcoming such limits of responsibility as thedistance between assisting and educating persons and organizations hasbeen a central concept of the Foundation. To this end, we promotedCOMED as an agency to promote the opening up of schools. Taking thisidea a step further, we would like to promote the creation of schools whichask: What does the district need? How can we as a school help here? Howcan we be a permanent part of the development network in the district? Theschool should open up for the district and the district for the school. In orderto master the task of opening up for the district, the school needs stronglocal development partners: RAA or comparable support organizations suchas, for example, Job Central Weinheim, the Intercultural Education CenterMannheim or local community centers.

What prerequisites do we define for involvement in districts and towns? Onthe basis of what criteria do we make our selection?One important aspect determining our involvement in districts or regions areexisting, trusting partnerships with project initiators and local authorities,with whom we were able to successfully implement individual innovativeconcepts:(1) The town must be willing to set up a community management system aswell as make the required structural changes and investments. The citycouncil has confirmed this development plan and defined objectives.(2) The associations, clubs and initiatives active in the community or districtwill cooperate.(3) The local authorities are willing to implement a bottom-up approach andto support the development of participation, i.e. they do not want to handleeverything on their own.(4) There is at least one kindergarten, one elementary school and onesecondary school that are willing to develop further, i.e. to open up, to makecommunity education their goal and to work closely together with theFoundation to realize corresponding projects. There is an all-day schoolwilling to adopt the ensuing possibilities for school development in thisconnection.(5) There is a RAA or comparable organization or initiative that is able andwilling to support this kind of process. With respect to community offices orsimilar, this means that supporting measures for school development arealso possible.(6) Priority will be given to those RAA and towns which are open for themethodological requirements of participation development, empowerment,the imparting of self-effectiveness experiences and self-initiative, impulsesto take on responsibility, shift of ownership as well as the correspondingtraining courses.

COMED – CommunityEducation inDeutschland e.V.

Selection criteria

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(7) The RAA or a comparable supporting organization is willing and suitablefor a development partnership (dynamic contact, quality development,evaluation).(8) There are organizations, groups and persons among the immigrantpopulation or democratic civil society who can be involved in the necessarycooperation in the district.(9) The supporting organizations (community centers or RAA) areexperienced in intercultural communication and strengthening democracy.

We chose Mannheim because the Intercultural Education Center is a long-standing partner and we have worked together effectively with the localauthorities in many practical projects. For the Foundation, Mannheim is akind of pilot workshop for innovations in such areas as the integration ofimmigrants and the promotion of vocational qualifications between schooland employment. Numerous initiatives evolved from the Mannheim„workshop”, gaining national attention and successors. This includes theprojects „Foreign self-employed persons train others”, the business start-upproject ProFi and the workshop for girls. In 2002, different organizations and,consequently, different types of practical action were combined. A localsupporting group formed by us, which comprised the municipalCommissioner for Foreign Residents, the municipal Department forEducation, the municipal Department for Children, Adolescents andFamilies, the Office for Cultural Affairs, the municipal EmploymentPromotion Office, the Institute for German-Turkish Integration Studies, theAssociation for Intercultural Life, the state Education Office, the Diakonie(Protestant social and welfare organization) as well as the Coordinator forCommunity Management, first decided to concentrate all efforts on theNeckarstadt-West district in the hope that this would have a catalytic effect.If we can create a mood of starting over and achieve real improvementsthere, this will gain attention throughout the rest of the city, was the opinionheld by the majority of the supporting group. An agreement concluded withthe mayor to combine the city’s anniversary in 2007 with its development toa European social city gave the plans even more impetus.

Neckarstadt-West has a population of about 20,000 and almost half haveimmigrant backgrounds. Despite numerous initiatives, associations as wellas programs offered by public and private organizations, this district, whichis located near the city center and dates back to the 19th century, isdeclining: socially and economically stable families are moving away, 13%of adolescents and young adults under 25 years of age are unemployed,and compared to the urban average, children here have nine times fewerareas where they can play safely. Where to start? Which problems should besolved to create an atmosphere of renewal? The answers received by staffmembers of the Intercultural Education Center can be summarized as

Where and how did we start?

„Intensivwerkstatt“ inMannheim Neckarstadt-West

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follows: first, a coordinated manner of proceeding is needed so that thediverse efforts can be combined into one joint whole. Second, many childrenbarely speak any German when they start school. Third, it is difficult toadequately involve parents in day-care centers and schools. Fourth, theyoung people do not have the prerequisites for vocational integration and,fifth, the young people are not given enough opportunities to activelyassume responsibility and form own initiatives, which would decrease thedanger of their turning away from democratic forms of participation.

We started with small key projects at strategic points of intersectionbetween separate spheres of responsibility, e.g. between kindergarten andparents, between schools and such partners as the municipal University ofMannheim, and between artists and young people, which aimed at creatingan atmosphere of renewal and encouraging joint actions in the district. Onesuch project is „Rucksack” at day-care centers in the district: a Turkishlinguist trains bilingual assistants as well as kindergarten teachers inbilingual language acquisition methods. Together with their teachers, thechildren playfully learn German everyday vocabulary on the basis of 10topics within 9 months. The assistants help the mothers practice the samevocabulary at home in their native language. Both the assistants andkindergarten teachers have background knowledge of interculturalcommunication. „Rucksack” has many different effects: mothers feel morewelcome at kindergarten, they can ask for help in raising their children, andthey can train to become assistants. The children learn more German inkindergarten and, at the same time, are adequately supported at home. Incooperation with the Office for Foreign Residents, integration andorientation courses are offered to „Rucksack” mothers as accompanyingmeasures, allowing them to improve their knowledge of German and thesurrounding infrastructure. In order to give the mothers and their children aspecial place in the district, a reading center was opened, where they canfind books and toys in various languages. Reading support and activitiespromoting reading skills are offered, too.

Promotion of languageskills and integration

Leseladen

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With „Rucksack” on the way to integration

Songül Y. is one of the assistants active in the„Rucksack” project in the Neckarstadt-Westdistrict of Mannheim, and she is proud of this.She helps mothers and one father at two day-carecenters practice vocabulary in their nativelanguage at home using stories, games andpictures. At the same time, this vocabulary isimparted to the children in German atkindergarten. In 1978, Mrs. Y., who was born inSinop on the Black Sea, came to Mannheim withher parents. She was six years old at the time.She still attended the Turkish classes at theNeckar Elementary School. As a young girl,following her parents’ return to Turkey, she lived inIstanbul seven years and, without completingschool, finished training as a tailor. She returnedto Mannheim in 1993 at the invitation of herbrother, married and has a five-year-old son. Sheworked for a cleaning company for close to tenyears and held a management position at the end.She learned some German in Hauptschule butmost by copying passages from books. Ofcourse, German was also spoken in the companywhere she worked. Today she is still trying tocontinuously improve her knowledge of Germanand always asks the linguist to correct hermistakes.

„I am involved in ‘Rucksack’ because I want toteach the other women something. I missedpromoting my own son, and I don’t want the otherwomen to miss helping their children. ‘Rucksack’teaches us to take time for our children. We speakabout our problems, knowing that we are notalone. At the same time, we have become moreconfident about speaking to the kindergartenteachers. Previously, the teachers thought: ‘Theydon’t want to speak to us.’ And we thought: ‘Theywouldn’t listen to us anyway.’ This has changed.Today we are confident enough to speak about

our children.” At the same time, Mrs. Y. hasbecome a model for other mothers: „Through methey discover that they can be involved and nowthey want to be trained as assistants, too.” Withthe help of Mrs. Y., they visit important institutionsin the district such as, for example, the library, andwhen they were discussing ‘Celebrations’ theyvisited a Protestant parish.

Mrs. Y. definitely wants to continue her work andshe is looking forward to the planned furthereducation course so that she can become alanguage trainer and train assistants herself in thefuture. The linguist, who is currently writing herthesis on the „Rucksack” project, meets with theassistants once a week and helps thekindergarten teachers implement the program.Her most important tasks are providinginformation, listening, reporting back and givingencouragement: imparting pedagogicalinformation, perceiving the problems anddevelopmental expectations of the women,providing feedback on the weekly developmentreports and encouraging the assistants to speakto the kindergarten teachers about theirquestions. „Mrs. Y. really insists that thekindergarten teachers implement the ‘Rucksack’project as planned. If her son, who is participatingin a group, comes home and didn’t have anyGerman instruction that day, she immediatelyspeaks to the teachers the next day,” reports thelinguist. Together these two women – bydistributing leaflets in Turkish and in some casesvisiting the homes of the families – successfullyadvertised a German course for beginners. Whatis still missing is a German course for the„Rucksack” mothers, who can carry onconversations in German, but have no sufficientknowledge of written German or grammar.

„Rucksack” is like a window for systematicallyneglected educational and participatory needs of

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Learning responsibility in coperation with the university

Community managementsponsored by privatesupporting organizations

Cultural work with youth

the women and their children. Bridges to the formaleducation and employment system need to be builtso that „Rucksack” can become a reliable andeffective activation movement and women like Mrs.Y. can be fully acknowledged integration assistantsin institutions. That is our real hope in pursuing this

project: giving rise to development by creatingspaces for learning and involvement and bycarefully addressing needs. And, finally, todiscontinue the neglect of elementary opportunitiesof development in kindergartens and schools.

„Friendly Monsters“ are the product of collaboration between a woodsculptor and children in an urban redevelopment area. The woodensculpture, on which the children can play, was planned and made togetherwith the children and adolescents. With the support of the municipalresidential building company and the Diakonie (Protestant social and welfareorganization), the playground is a meeting place both for children and theirmothers, who also helped paint the wooden beams. Young people who meet in the Job Café QuiSt and in a youth project in themiddle of the redevelopment area worked out a concept for a musical –Neckarstadt-Westside-Stories. With the help of a theater director from thedistrict, they present the results of their writing workshop and playfullydescribe the stories told by life in Neckarstadt-West.

The Neckar elementary school and Humboldt Hauptschule started theproject „Learning Responsibility”, within the scope of which the students areprepared in their classes to take over common tasks. In the Neckarelementary school, for example, students offer dispute arbitration andreading assistance. In the Humboldt Hauptschule, students help youngerchildren with their homework. Both school projects are supported bystudents at the University of Mannheim (faculty of Pedagogical Psychologyof the University of Mannheim, Professor Dr. Manfred Hofer). They train thestudents in dispute arbitration and show them how to improve reading skillsand help with homework problems. Another group developed its ownconcept for directly training the parents of children attending the elementaryschool. The elementary school principal and parents are very pleasedbecause it provides innumerable helpful tips for mastering everydaysituations.

In January 2004, with the support of the mayor, we established theSupporting Organization District Management Neckarstadt-West togetherwith the Mannheim residential building company GBG, Diakonie (Protestantsocial and welfare organization, Caritas (Catholic welfare organization),Arbeitersamariterbund (workers’ Samaritan association) and Arbeiterwohlfahrt

(workers’ welfare association). The objective of this association is to do whatthe OECD delegation had demanded during its visit in December 2002:integrated action on the part of all parties concerned is needed – a lot ofgood is being done, but everything is being done side by side. The egotismon the part of social organizations has to be overcome and practicablesolutions have to be found for prevailing problems with respect to livingtogether, education, local businesses and residential issues. These are theobjectives of the association and, to this end, it has employed a committedexpert on integration, who began his work in May 2004.

Increasing inequality can be found not only in socially underprivilegeddistricts of German cities, but also at project locations throughout the world.Our partners there are trying to build up an integrative district developmentthrough initiatives of their own: for example in Tuzla Simin-Han, where thejubilee project started in 1999 has evolved into a sustained process of urbandevelopment.

Simin Han is a district at the edges of Tuzla in Bosnia, which wassignificantly affected by the war and experienced negative changes.Destroyed houses, a neglected infrastructure and high migration of thepopulation have left their mark. The district desperately needs to beredeveloped and built up, both from the inside and outside. Since there is avery active elementary school, project ideas regarding the school, the needsof the school and other local facilities, especially the local organization„Prijateljice”, have been circulating around the school from the beginning.„Prijateljice” are partners, with whom a joint process of strengthening andreconstruction was started, focusing on women, children and adolescents.The Simin Han elementary school, a focal point of the activities, has evolvedinto a community school in the past seven years, which is open to parentsand the district, takes its students seriously, allowing them to participate,and at the same time modernizes its teaching methods.

Since 2001, 40 children divided into four groups are supervised andcoached in individually designed programs within the scope of all-dayeducational supervision. The organization „Prijateljice” and the Simin Hanelementary school work together and intensively involve the parents in theirprograms. Two groups attend school in the morning, are picked up there andtaken to the house of „Prijateljice”, where they have lunch and participate ineducational programs promoting their development. A teacher works withthe children individually to help them with their schoolwork and performanceat school as well as personal development. The team members coordinatetheir work and are in touch daily with the teachers at Simin Han elementaryschool. The other two groups spend the morning in the house and attendschool in the afternoon. One staff member visits families at home to affect

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Global, local, social

Tuzla – Simin Han in Bosnia

Day-care

changes in the immediate surroundings of the children and to improve thestatus and situation of the family. In addition, the children’s physicaldevelopment is promoted, they go on field trips, visit cultural events and areinvolved in the events taking place in the district. Art and music therapistsfrom Holland frequently visit the project, and these visits enrich the programtremendously. All these efforts have led to improvements in such areas ashealth, hygiene, cultural skills, communication, social behavior and learningperformance. The children are better integrated in their classes andsurroundings and the additional contact to the families helps improve theoverall situation in the families. Altogether more than 104 children haveparticipated in the program up until now. The high fluctuation rate is causedby immigration.

In February 2003, a civic foundation was established in Simin Han in orderto continue the projects that had been initiated, e.g. vocational orientationfor young people, entrepreneurship training and AGORA, as a kind of self-managed youth and citizens’ center in the district and to place furtherdevelopment measures into the hands of the citizens. The foundationdistributed small amounts of funds to citizens and takes active part incoordinating the activities in the district and increasing the start capital. Atthe same time, it is a contact office with respect to the administration. Itorganized the design of the park and motivated citizens to undertake newactions.

RIOS („Razvoj interaktivnih otvorenih Skola“) is a project for thedevelopment of a network of interactive open schools, in which schoolsfrom Tuzla and Osijek in Croatia as well as from Novi Sad in Serbia and fromMontenegro are participating. The idea for this project can be traced backto the desire to apply the positive development of Simin Han elementaryschool in Tuzla to other schools. The objective of the project is to replace theclassic teaching methods of frontal instruction in a hierarchically structuredschool by cooperative and interactive forms of teaching and learning in aschool based on participation. In the meantime, the existing school networkhas set up an organization having its seat in Tuzla, which concentrates ondisseminating information on interactive learning and democratic schooldevelopment and, in addition, supports the schools. Only when the schoolsthemselves are more democratic will they be able to have an active impacton the development of democracy in their districts and towns.

The Trust of Programs for Early Childhood, Family and CommunityEducation was founded in Jerusalem in 1984 with the goal of improving theconditions for proper child development, educational and employmentopportunities for women and development in Palestinian communities. Point

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RIOS

Ramle in Israel

community foundation

of departure was the insufficient availability of educational programs forchildren in the Arab section of Jerusalem, whose families frequently livedand still live under uncertain economic circumstances. The Trust started bytraining paraprofessional teacher aides, setting up family centers, visitinghomes, building bridges between parents and teachers as well as offering„Community Leaders” training courses. The different programs of the Trustalways strived to activate children, adolescents and mothers to develop acommunity approach.

In view of the uncertain political situation in East Jerusalem, in particular thepressure put forward by the Autonomy Authorities to enforce politicaladaptation, as well as the difficulty of implementing structural changes withschools, the Trust has transferred the focus of its activities to Ramle. Ramleis a small town 20km from Tel Aviv with a population of 60,000, one fifth ofwhich is of Arab origin. Fifty-one percent of all Arab families have more thanfive children. Ramle was chosen due to time-proven partnerships with theEarly Childhood Center, Women’s Club Simdiane, a network with clinics andlocal NGOs and good collaboration with persons responsible from politicsand public administration. The Trust has been active with its own programsin Ramle since 1996, including, amongst others, the Mother to MotherProgram, which offers home visits from paraprofessionals to provideindividual counseling and group sessions with babysitting at the same timeas well as lectures by external experts; moreover, it focuses on working withmarried couples to improve their relationship and to promote the idea ofraising their children together and including other important members of thefamily such as the grandmothers. In addition, teacher aides are trained whocan help improve the educational quality in Arab day-care centers andinvolvement of the mothers. The „Women’s Empowerment” training coursehelps women become active in their community. Proceeding gradually fromthe individual programs, the objective is to achieve community developmentin selected Arab communities in Ramle. Whether it will be possible, as wasthe case in the original Community Center in East Jerusalem, to develop acommunity approach from the work with mothers and children in Ramleremains to be seen. Another completely open issue is how to promote theintegration of Arab communities in the Hebrew majority urban society of theIsrael heartland.

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First we would like to determine how to reinforce the strengths of citizens inselected towns and districts so that independent organizations or projectsmanaged by the citizens themselves can be created, which will remain inplace after the Foundation withdraws after several years: for example, a caféfor mothers, an art shop, intercultural conflict arbitrators trained to mediatedisputes between neighborhoods, reading coaches, a district orchestra orstudents who regular conduct service projects in the district. This cansucceed only if politics and public administration agencies are involved inplanning the development processes, support them and provide funds tohelp sustain them. The final point could be the establishment of communityfoundations managed by the citizens themselves, as is the case in TuzlaSimin Han. These, in turn, provide long-term prospects for self-supportingstructures and sources of funding. We began in Mannheim, Tuzla and, withthe help of the Trust, in Ramle/Israel. Wuppertal, Hoyerswerda, Leipzig andBerlin are other cities where development projects will be initiated inindividual districts.

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Prospects

From a niche existence to everyday culture: thedreams of QuiSt

QUIST is a meeting place for young people in themiddle of Neckarstadt-West. When viewed fromthe outside, it appears to be a youth center likemany others: many teenagers, almost exclusivelyimmigrants, sit at computers, playing games,some are doing their homework or just hangingaround. The young people like the large room,because they usually live in small apartments. Thestaff members know the history andcircumstances of every teenager. They give themwhat they so desperately need: the feeling ofbeing wanted, taken seriously and of being helpedin their search for their own way. „When we havechildren of our own, we will move away fromhere,” is the attitude expressed by many of theyoung people. Nevertheless, they also proudlyclaim: „I come from Neckarstadt,” knowing fullwell that this is not a good address.

What these teenagers miss most are sports andfootball areas, nice stores, a shopping mile and anice café, especially for women. They also don’tlike the brothel located in the middle of theresidential area. What needs to be done so thatthese young people believe they have a future inthis district? The staff member of the facility,which is under the constant threat of being shutdown despite high professional recognition, hasmore than enough ideas which, however, all circlearound one point: any changes and developmentsin the district must take into consideration theneeds, capabilities and opportunities of the youngpeople themselves. „If it were a matter of coursethat consistent intercultural work be done from thebeginning, i.e. in kindergarten, elementary schooland Hauptschule, meaning that the parents andtheir competences as well as educationaldemands had a firm place in these institutions, ifcultural heterogeneity and intercultural

communication were commonplace and multi-ethnic teams normal, then our teenagers wouldn’tbe where they are now.” Moreover, theadolescents need more models, e.g. older youngpeople, who could take the teenagers by thehand, so to speak, and give them the support theythemselves received or mentors who help theadolescents find jobs and stay in touch with them.A kind of „employment exchange” in the district,where young people could advertise and findsmall jobs would also be a possibility.

Yet, if she were allowed to dream, then she wouldalso like to mention completely different issues:the vicinity to the river, the beautiful bank of theNeckar river, which could be used for open-airmovie shows, boat trips and picnics. For manyteenagers the Neckar River is an actual border.They hardly emerge from their close-knit networkin the district. For this reason, going on trips withthe teenagers is one of her dreams, because theywould never dare leave familiar territory on theirown. Or permanent possibilities of promoting theteenagers’ creativity such as theater or musicprojects, in which professionals work togetherwith young people and teachers. Turning back toeveryday life, she also enumerates other urgentproblems. A project for adolescents who are tiredof school and skip school regularly and who attaina school-leaving certificate from the 6th or, in thebest case, 8th grade enabling them to attend avocational preparation year and then manage toperform even worse there. If the dreams of QUISTare to become but a piece of reality through theprojects initiated in Neckarstadt-West, the work ofcommitted people is needed to addressneglected needs and existing opportunities fordevelopment. These people must stimulateothers and they need secure resources: money,time, political support and acknowledgementfrom those who have such resources at theirdisposal.

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Developing, supporting and

disseminating our projects

The Board of Trustees of the Foundation defined demanding guidelines forthe work of the Foundation: it is to become active wherever the negativeseffects of social development are particularly tangible. It is to be an„operational” foundation, in other words it is to develop projects at the locallevel to find practical solutions to erroneous social developments.Preferably, it is to initiate and promote projects that can be applied not onlyto one specific case but, rather, can be used as models. Furthermore, theprojects should be designed in such a way that they can help accomplishtheir fundamental social goals.

The guidelines also state how the tasks are to be addressed. Accordingly,the Foundation is instructed to obtain expert opinions, take intoconsideration international experiences and strive for collaboration withother foundations and government agencies at all levels. Finally, theguidelines particularly underscore the active participation of the personsconcerned, self-organization, personal initiative, civil responsibility andvolunteer work. In short, it was and is expected that the FreudenbergFoundation, through the contents, form and methods of its work, activelyand effectively helps strengthen civil society.

Therefore, our work is based on the following questions:How do we disclose innovation gaps in measures taken by bureaucracies?How do we initiate and organize a project that responds to such gaps andmeets the quality standards set by the guidelines?How can the results be secured and disseminated, and how, if necessary,can they be applied politically?

A culture of cooperation between foundations as well as betweenfoundations and the state would certainly be helpful in finding practicalanswers to these questions. However, when the Foundation was set up,cooperation between different foundations was not yet common practice.The Federal Association of German Foundations had not been founded yet.All we had was a working group, but contents were not discussed there.There was no European Foundation Center. The Bernard van LeerFoundation and the Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Humanitiesand Sciences in Germany were among the few well-known Europeanfoundations that promoted such types of cooperation. Both foundationsplayed an important part in the early history of the Freudenberg Foundationand actively supported the design of the first two projects: the Bernard van

The task: implementingdemandingguidelines

The beginning

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Leer Foundation not only helped develop the concept of Project Weinheimand the RAA but also trained the first project managers at its own costsabroad. It integrated projects, and later the Freudenberg Foundation, in itsadmirable international network and, finally, financed and supervised its firstlarge project in Germany – „Turkish Children and Mothers” – together withthe Freudenberg Foundation. In the first ten years, it was primarily throughthe Bernard van Leer Foundation that the Freudenberg Foundation was ableto integrate international experiences in the design of its projects. Later theFoundation also worked with the European Foundation Center, whichpromotes international cooperation. Many contacts were establishedthrough the actual project work when, for example, it was promoted by theEuropean Commission and the projects were included in internationalnetworks. In contrast to the first years, taking into considerationinternational – and above all European – experiences is becomingincreasingly important, but also much easier.

The Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences inGermany, which had arranged the contact to the Bernard van LeerFoundation, also contributed significantly to the development of the projectsof the Freudenberg Foundation: within the scope of the „Stiftung EttlingerGespräche”, which the Donors’ Association sponsored, it – together withthe state North Rhine-Westfalia and the Federal and State Commission forEducational Planning – created the financial base needed to set up the RAAin the Ruhr district, making it possible to apply the Weinheim Project there.After the establishment of the Freudenberg Foundation, which it supported,the Donors’ Association at first shared the promotion of RAA with theFoundation and, finally, left it entirely to us. When the FreudenbergFoundation had the impression that such subjects as immigration andintegration required more scientific research and study, the Donors’Association became our partner in the establishment of the Center forTurkish Studies and has taken the main responsibility for ensuring itspermanent existence.

Several years later, the Donors’ Association took up our proposal andhelped promote the „Manifest of the 60. Germany and Immigration”. In otherwords, by helping us establish contacts to scientists and researchers, byusing its political leverage, through financial commitment and practicalcooperation, it contributed to the development of a good project base in thearea of immigration and integration in Germany and, moreover, it helped theFreudenberg Foundation define its profile. For close to twenty years, thethree foundations were also closely interlinked through exchanges of staff.

In the course of these first years, this cooperation encouraged theFreudenberg Foundation to develop its own methods and forms of work, on

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the basis of which it tries to comply with the guidelines. And it has foundmany partners, with whom it was able to develop further its project work.

How is a project developed?Every decision regarding a project is preceded by a study on the erroneoussocio-political development and innovation gaps in measures taken bybureaucracies that are addressed by the respective project.

Reports by experts and researchers frequently are needed to identify anddescribe the respective innovation gap. Thus, the Foundation oftencommissions expert opinions or organizes conferences with experts prior todeveloping a project. We have also found scientific reports and studieshelpful in the further development of project ideas. Whenever we found itdifficult to find suitable experts, the Freudenberg Foundation itself tried toimprove the prerequisites for scientific study of the respective subject bymeans of its own projects. That is how the above-mentioned Center forTurkish Studies and the Center for Democratic Culture – Right-WingExtremism, Youth Violence, and New Media came into being.

Many important ideas regarding the identification of innovation gaps and thedevelopment or further development of the project work usually came fromthe projects themselves.

In this respect, the RAA, which have been set up in 46 cities and regions inseven German states, as well as the Intercultural Education Center inMannheim play an important part. Their wealth of ideas, initiatives andexperiences in all thematic areas of concentration of the Foundation havemade the RAA our most important partner organization.In 1995, the National Working Group of RAA was founded. It is an instrumentfor the exchange of views and experiences as well as cooperation betweenthe regional centers in western and eastern Germany. Contrary to the RAAin North Rhine-Westfalia, which are integrated in the local publicadministration structure, the RAA in the new German states work within thestructural framework of private youth help organizations. The objectives ofthe National Association are to strengthen the networking between theindividual regional centers, applying successful methods elsewhere,coordinating joint projects as well as the further development of RAA’soverall profile, joint public relations regarding key subjects and tappingadditional sources of funding.

For a long time now, the Freudenberg Foundation has no longer beenresponsible for funding the RAA in North Rhine-Westfalia and Osnabrück.The Brandenburg RAA are primarily sponsored by the state government andalso as far as the other RAA are concerned, only a slight percentage of their

Expert opinion

Projects lead tonew ideas

National of RAA

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annual budget is borne by the Freudenberg Foundation. Nevertheless, theFoundation and RAA work together closely. Their projects frequentlyprovided and still provide the stimulus for new development work; and weusually use the RAA network to test new ideas. Frequently, the RAA were thefirst supporting „umbrella” organizations for new projects, allowing us todiscuss with them the possibility of applying successful projects elsewhere.The RAA are not only good partners for disclosing the necessity andpossibilities of new projects because they have so much experience in allthematic areas of interest of the Foundation, but also because their structureallows them to recognize problems. Innovation gaps in measures taken bybureaucracies arise in particular wherever different areas of competenceoverlap: kindergarten, school, youth help, further education, vocationaleducation, and social welfare and employment office. Different authoritiesare responsible for children in the morning or afternoon. Yet, when they getinto trouble, no one wants to take responsibility. A policeman in Essensuccinctly described the prevailing situation: „In the evening after 5 o’clock,we’re the only people available: there are no teachers, no social workers, no-one from the juvenile court – and no-one speaks to us anyway.”The RAA are purposely structured in such a way that they can be active inseveral areas: before school, at school, in the morning, afternoon orevening. Their staff includes social pedagogues of different national originsas well as teachers and volunteers. The RAA cannot hide behindcompetencies; they are simply open and cannot protect themselves againstproblems. Thus, the RAA time and again build bridges to solve problems,e.g. helping children overcome the difficult transition from kindergarten toschool or from school to vocational training.

When the Freudenberg Foundation searches for new ways, e.g. to promotethe development of children from immigrant families at school, the necessityof which was clearly manifested by the PISA study, we turn to the NationalWorking Group of RAA. The same holds true for developing furtherpossibilities for promoting the language skills of children and their mothers.Basically, the RAA always are the first organizations we turn to when we areconfronted with complex tasks such as, for example, organizing learningmethods for several generations, which call for a comprehensive manner ofproceeding that addresses different areas of life and involves differentauthorities. In particular, the RAA are important partners when the myriadideas and experiences for promoting social and vocational integration anddemocratic culture in a community or other social spaces need to bebundled. „We are a services office for civil society,” said the manager of RAABerlin when she was asked to describe the many initiatives originating withRAA and the opportunities gained by working together with them.

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An important and relatively difficult task that needs to be solved by afoundation that designs its own project work and cooperates withgovernment agencies as well as other foundations is the selection of reliablesupporting organizations. The RAA were and often are supportingorganizations of projects, in the development of which we are interested.Another institution that has been helpful in this respect to the FreudenbergFoundation is the Forschungsgruppe Modellprojekte e.V. (FGM), a researchgroup for model projects. It was established long before the FreudenbergFoundation at the suggestion of the Donors’ Association for the Promotionof Humanities and Sciences in Germany. The members of this registeredassociation include private persons involved in the work ofLanderziehungsheime (reformatory boarding schools), staff members offoundations, businesses as well as scientific and research institutions. It canfunction in this way because it is not only a supporting organization; rather,the composition, competence and commitment of the association demandthat it can identify with the projects being proposed by outside organizationsand, hence, allow consistent control. FGM always has initiated projects ofits own as well. Together with the Freudenberg Foundation and the Beltzpublishing firm, it organizes the „Weinheimer Gespräche” forum oneducational and socio-political issues. Apart from professional managementprocesses, this type of supporting organization must give the partiesinvolved the certainty that the projects will be managed fairly andcompetently and that the special interests of the partners involved in thecooperation will be taken into account. In the USA, cooperation betweenfoundations has a long-standing tradition. In Germany, we are just startingout, and FGM is playing an important part. Up until it became independent,it was responsible for such projects as the Center for Turkish Studies,Kiebitz, Turkish Children and Mothers, and Intercultural Education CenterMannheim.

In the past 20 years, many foundations were established in Germany, andthese also included small foundations that cannot afford their ownmanagement but do not want to be sponsoring foundations that distributefunds based on applications. Together with FGM, the FreudenbergFoundation set up a private limited company (GmbH) responsible for themanagement and supervision of small-sized foundations, whose objectivesand thematic areas of interest match those of the Freudenberg Foundation’sproject work.

This company manages, amongst other things, the Karl Konrad and RiaGroeben Foundation, the Linden Foundation for Pre-School Education andthe Amadeu Antonio Foundation. The Groeben Foundation promotesprojects contributing to inter-religious understanding, for example so-calledAbrahamic teams (Jews, Muslims, Christians), which support projects in

FGM, FoschungsgruppeModellprojekte e.V.

SFGM, Stiftungs- undFördergemeinschaftModellprojekte GmbH

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schools; Islamic forums initiated by the Intercultural Council; and scientificcounseling of civil foundations. In close cooperation with the FreudenbergFoundation, the Linden Foundation promotes German language acquisitioncourses for Turkish mothers and children, civic education in the form oflearning and living democracy in kindergarten, education projects for Romachildren etc.

Now and then, the Freudenberg Foundation has been asked to take overdependent foundations or funds with a special purpose. The Foundationaccepts such requests if the purposes are compatible with the guidelinesdefined by the Board of Trustees. Thus, the Heinrich Stoess and GerdaKoepff Foundation above all strives to promote the education of Sinti andRoma as well as civic education.

Sometimes the possibilities open to project work are expanded qualitativelyby such funds as, for example, the „Fund Youth Culture Work”. Art and art sponsoring is not an explicit area of interest of the FreudenbergFoundation; however, art can be a wonderful medium to foster

Fund Youth Cukture Work

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communication, intercultural understanding and the development ofadolescents. Meeting and working with artists frequently motivate youngpeople to develop own activities and strengthen their self-confidence. Thisis also true for many other activities that require commitment on the part ofthe adolescents. It is, however, particularly true for art because artists, onthe one hand, present new ways of expression and, on the other hand, makethe common action visible to everyone. If they are willing to work with youngpeople, they can have tremendous educational and social-pedagogicaleffects, perhaps precisely because they aren’t teachers. That is not to saythat all artists have the skills needed for youth and educational projects; butsome are natural talents without even knowing it. If one can win over suchartists, doors previously shut may swing open. A project consultant in theFoundation describes it this way: „Sometimes it is a sculpture, sometimes itis a theater play, a musical, a film, a dance project or an art exhibition. A rockconcert or a colorfully painted staircase in an otherwise dreary schoolbuilding. A writing workshop or break-dance course is also conceivable. Weare active in schools, youth clubs, and city districts or in a village inUckermark. And if we can create art with adolescents there, we will havechanged the lives of all who come into contact with it”.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Freudenberg company,several partners decided to set up their own project to overcome the effectsof war in former Yugoslavia. With the donations made by more than 50partners, a special fund of € 1 million was formed to support projects inBosnia and Herzegovina as well as in Macedonia. At the same time, theinitiators founded an advisory council, whose nine members decided toclosely supervise the planning and implementation of the jubilee project,which was first limited to three years and later expanded to a period of fiveyears. The jubilee project enabled the Foundation to become active in twonew countries and to gain important experiences there. Throughcooperation with other foundations and the establishment of a civilfoundation in Bosnia, we have managed to firmly establish the projectscalled into life in Tuzla-Simin Han (Bosnia) and Skopje (Macedonia).

How can the long-term existence and dissemination of a project beensured?It is relatively simple to identify needs with the help of experts and personsactively working in the field as well as to collect good ideas and initiate aproject together with supporting organizations and partners; however, it ismuch more difficult to ensure the permanent existence of a project so thatthe experiences gained there can be disseminated. The efforts involved indetermining a social problem and discovering practical solutions through aproject at a certain place must not be underestimated; yet, it is discouragingwhen everything disappears again after the project is over and all that

Jubilee Project

Lange Förderung

remains is a memory of the hopeful beginning. This happens every day,because short-term funds are a frequent response to long-term problems.Therefore, an important goal of project work is to establish permanently theideas that have been put into reality. The fact that the FreudenbergFoundation has accomplished this in the majority of its projects is based onseveral reasons: the first reason is that we frequently support projects for along time. The Center for Turkish Studies, for example, became anindependent foundation, sponsored primarily by the state of North Rhine-Westfalia, after 15 years. The project „Turkish mothers and children” wassupported almost 10 years before the concepts developed through thisproject found a new home, so to say, in Gelsenkirchen.

The second reason for the permanence of the Freudenberg Foundation’sprojects can be traced back to the need to enter into cooperation. When onealready works together with government agencies, other foundations andcompetent organizations during the development of the project idea, theprobability of ensuring the long-term existence of the proven modelincreases. The same holds true for disseminating the results.

The third reason is that many of the projects of the Foundation have attainedconsiderable public attention. Thus, we support publications, conferencesas well as press reports and try to involve public figures.

In spite of everything, it sometimes is impossible to gain public attention forgood ideas, proposals and experiences if the prevailing political trends orinterests are opposed to them.

The memorandum „Ways out of the Employment Crisis” prepared by theforum „Youth-Education-Employment” was presented to the FederalPresident and met with general approval in many discussions andconferences. The experts agreed that the 20 recommendations put forwardin the paper pointed in the right direction – nonetheless, hardly any noticewas paid to them in politics. The political course was set in a differentdirection. In situations like this persistence is called for: it is necessary tocontinue supporting the projects that prove the reasonableness of therecommendations in practical applications, perhaps to focus on partialgoals, to look for new partners and to hope for better times. In connectionwith its project work, the Freudenberg Foundation has several goals whichcall for a long-term approach.

The practical projects in all areas of interest, for example, have come to theconclusion that the separation of school and youth work should beabolished. However, the border between these areas is highly protected bysyndicates and limits of competence. Nonetheless, this line can be

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Attaining public attention

Cooperation

overcome. RAA Berlin, for example, encouraged the formation of a studentclub in a school in Hellersdorf, where the students could freely organize theprogram. Even though a social pedagogue supervised the club, it was stillconsidered to be a part of the school. The club could make use of the bestthat both sides had to offer. Shortly afterwards, a student club was openedin a school in Cottbus. The Minister-President came and liked what he saw.A department head from the Ministry for Youth commented on the pleasureof the Minister-President with the remark that this club would be supportedby way of exception; apart from that the spheres of competence would haveto be observed.

The fact that things turned out differently can primarily be attributed to thesuccessful establishment of the German Children and Youth Foundation.The International Youth Foundation proposed the establishment of this newfoundation. The objective of this initiative was to identify good andsuccessful projects for children and adolescents ages 5 to 20 in manycountries of the world and to collect money for the dissemination of theseprojects. Rita Süssmuth, who was President of the Bundestag at the time,invited the Minister-Presidents from eastern Germany, several foundationsand large companies such as DaimlerChrysler and Deutsche Bank toparticipate in this joint action.

The foundation was established in 1994. The Robert Bosch Foundation andthe Freudenberg Foundation in conjunction with the board of managementof the German Children and Youth Foundation „built up” this foundation –frequently encountering condescending smiles – without money. Today theGerman Children and Youth Foundation collects and allocates about € 10million. It has succeeded in promoting student clubs and, consequently,overcoming the traditional borderline between youth work and schools inseveral German states. This borderline still exists and is being defendedintensely. Yet, the German Children and Youth Foundation has evolved intoan instrument that can seriously contribute towards the fall of thisborderline. Within the scope of the federal government’s investmentprogram „Future, Education and Supervision”, the German Children andYouth Foundation is responsible for the design of all-day schools. However,the realization of this project demands that schools open up. The GermanChildren and Youth Foundation is a valuable partner in such projects as„Learning responsibility” (service learning) of the Freudenberg Foundationand the Mercator Foundation.

Currently, the German Children and Youth Foundation, amongst otherthings, is active in three areas that also are of interest to the FreudenbergFoundation: First, community schools; second, learning democracy; andthird, attaining qualifications for the future. Since it is a partner in this

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Establishment of theGerman children andYouth Foundation

foundation, the Freudenberg Foundation is a partner of the entire program.Many parts of the program originated with the Freudenberg Foundation orwere developed together with us: building up „student clubs” and „studentcompanies”, learning responsibility (service learning), early vocationalorientation, preparing for employment as well as collecting and awardingprizes to outstanding project instruction (Schola 21). The German Childrenand Youth Foundation also works together with RAA to implement itsprograms in different German states and in this way helps strengthen thenetwork that is of such importance to us. The German Children and YouthFoundation has not only become an important partner of the FreudenbergFoundation, it also collaborates with such large foundations as the JacobsFoundation, the Körber Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation, theMercator Foundation as well as companies such as Deutsche Bank. In viewof the fact that all eastern German and, in the meantime, also westernGerman minister-presidents are members of the foundation’s board, thefoundation has been able to promote cooperation between foundations aswell as develop models for the – at times problematic – collaboration ofstates and foundations. The German Children and Youth Foundation hasbecome an expert in public-private partnership.

Everyone active in the foundation’s work agree: if the German Children andYouth Foundation didn’t already exist, it would have to be invented now. Yet,if it didn’t already exist today, no one would be able to invent it anymore. Aprerequisite for this foundation was the prevailing situation of young peoplein eastern Germany, which caused people to become involved in somethingas unusual as „joint action”. The Freudenberg Foundation put considerableeffort into the establishment. A good investment as far as ensuring long-term existence and dissemination of projects is concerned.

Eastern Germany faced one problem that the German Children and YouthFoundation could not attend to directly, but which became a central task ofthe Freudenberg Foundation: namely, the xenophobia, aggressive racism,propensity for violence, anti-Semitism, and right-wing extremism thatspread increasingly in eastern German everyday culture. Although thesephenomena existed and still exist in western Germany, too, the weakness ofthe civil society in eastern Germany enabled the xenophobic climate tobecome established in many areas. The 18 RAA in eastern Germany broughtnotice to the danger of spreading right-wing extremism at an early time.However, they could not look the other way since they experienced attacksagainst anyone who did not „look German”.

Together with RAA, we established the „Center for Democratic Culture –Right-Wing Extremism, Youth Violence, New Media” so as to be able todescribe the problem accurately, to draw the attention of the general public

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to the situation, and to develop counter-strategies and counseling optionsfor RAA, initiatives active in this field, communities and governmentagencies. In the course of its counseling activities, the Center discoverednumerous, frequently isolated, courageous initiatives, and some of themwere supported by the Freudenberg Foundation. Yet, it became clear thatmore would be needed to stabilize the projects and disseminate effectiveconcepts of action as well as help victims of violence. Publicity, amovement, commitment on the part of civil society and search for helpthroughout Germany were needed. The problem of right-wing extremistviolence and the creeping spread of an everyday culture influenced by right-wing extremism should be at the top of the political agenda. That was not atask that a foundation like ours could have handled. Therefore, we took upthe initiative of the manager of RAA Berlin and participated in theestablishment of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which we are stillsupporting today. The name is a reminder of the first victim of right-wingextremist violence, the Angolan worker Amadeu Antonio, who was beaten todeath by right-wing extremists in Eberswalde in 1991.

Five years after its establishment, it can be summarized that this initiativehas developed well. When the Federal Chancellor called for an „uprising ofall decent people” following the bomb attack in Düsseldorf, stating thatgovernment programs against right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism andracism would evolve from this, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and theCenter for Democratic Culture were able to suggest encouraging initiativesthat deserved to be promoted. In conjunction with the Amadeu AntonioFoundation, the Civitas program was launched. With funds of about € 5million per year, democratic culture is to be defended and strengthened incivil society. The funds are earmarked for the promotion of initiatives as wellas counseling and assistance for victims of violence, mobile counselingteams in all German states and the interconnecting of all efforts. At first, theAmadeu Antonio Foundation was involved in managing these funds, but itthen decided to concentrate on three of its own projects: the mobilization ofprivate support for ten key projects and their sustained existence afterexpiration of government support, the project „What can be done againstanti-Semitism?” and the development of two civil foundations to further civilsociety wherever it is still weak.

The Amadeu Antonio Foundation has attained public notice for its projects:the news magazine stern planned and implemented its campaign „Courageagainst Right-Wing Violence”, which included rock concerts, publicationsand fund-raising events, together with the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. Thefunds raised were used for projects assisting the victims of right-wingviolence and the EXIT program (a program helping right-wing extremistyouths „drop out” of the extremist scene), which was also supported by the

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Amadeu AntonioFoundation

Freudenberg Foundation. The weekly DIE ZEIT and other newspapers alsoappealed to their readers to support the projects of the Amadeu AntonioFoundation. The active involvement of Wolfgang Thierse, President of theBundestag at the time, proved helpful. He visited individual small initiatives,publicly supported them and became patron of the foundation. Companieslike SAP also chose this foundation to be their partners in their involvementagainst xenophobia. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation was one of the co-organizers of the large OSCE Conference against anti-Semitism andinformed about the problem and possibilities of action in schools in anexhibition. In short: the Amadeu Antonio Foundation proper has become aproject for strengthening civil society. And presumably this is the mostimportant strategy for ensuring the long-term existence of projects.

The problem involved in all initiatives that depend on public support is theshort period of time during which the public takes notice. Very few reportsabout right-wing extremism can be found in the media, even though thenumber of violent attacks has not changed. The threat posed by anti-Semitism also will be replaced by other news topics soon. In this respect, itis important to be able to follow a goal, even it stands against the flow ofpolitical trends. However, to do so, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation wouldneed not only donations but also a small amount of capital to secure its

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position. One of the founders has promised to donate a large sum of moneyif others donate the equivalent amount as well. We hope that in the long runthe Amadeu Antonio Foundation will evolve into a strong and reliable force.

The Freudenberg Foundation is participating in a program called „INSP”(International Network on Strategic Philanthropy). The BertelsmannFoundation, together with the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin, the CarnegyCorporation in New York and others, asked about 40 foundations to studythe quality development of foundations. The term for this is „strategicphilanthropy”. Among the topics discussed here, we find innovationmanagement, evaluation, ethics, program development and cooperation. Inthe course of the discussions, we noticed that the guidelines which havegoverned our work for the past two decades allow us to endow this termwith concrete meaning and experiences. It is encouraging to find that moreand more foundations, also in Europe, are developing a commonunderstanding of this kind of „strategic” action for charitable purposes andlooking for possibilities of cooperating with other foundations. This allowsthe hope that the prospects of strengthening civil society are more thangood.

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Prospects

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Total expenses 2003 and 2004 Euro

1. Integration and immigration

RAA, regional centers for issues concerning foreigners, youth work and schools in the new German statesSupport of individual RAA 461,693

Counseling center of the Project Weinheim for immigrants in Weinheim

Promotion of language skills and integration of mothers and children in Weinheim

Refugee help Weinheim 75,946

Civis Medienpreis 165,390

Jewish counseling center in Berlin 15,000

Asylum in churches 3,000

Weinheim Forum: Promoting language skills of children and mothers with an immigrant background 10,685

Council on Migration 11,826

Reconstruction Zirovnica 7,000

Windows Hebrew-Arab magazine for children and teenagers 3,687

2. Sinti and Roma

Ethnobarometer (Roma´s identity) 8,016

Project „Sinti-TV“ of the Association of German Sinti – Regional Association Rhineland-Palatinate 7,668

EQUAL-Employment and securing the economic position of Roma and Sinti through self-organization, incl. qualified assistance 69,184

Pakiv European Roma Fund 30,371

Foundation Autonomia, evaluation 4,837

Summer school in Bijeljina (jubilee project) 20,000

Dendo vas, promoting education of Roma in Gorce Petrov, Skopje 90,000

Society for anti-Gypsy Research: Study for preparing a project application 3,000

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3. Young people encountering problems between school and working life

Job Central, Weinheim model Youth-Education-Employment 153,810

QualipassDevelopment of a concept to promote „local vocational education policy” and conference on vocational education policy 7,757

Business Start-Up Project (ProFi), Mannheim 66,000

4. Learning democracy and assuming responsibility in school and thecommunity

Learning democracy and responsibility 248,049

Volunteer agencies promote „Learning responsibility“ 6,000

Volunteer centers of Caritas associations 11,200

Long-term study of group-related misanthropy and Weinheim Forum:

Results of the long-term study of representatives from science, politics and practical fields of work 46,218

Center for Democratic Culture 90,154

Learning and living democracy, Volumes I + II 5,444

5. Work for mentally ill persons

Weißenseer Integration Behinderter (WIB e. V.), BerlinFinal conference 5,000

Work Source 1,000

6. Development of local models

Mannheim-Neckarstadt West 198,200

Community management with private supporting organizationsPromotion of language skills and integration: Rucksack and reading centerTransition from school to employment

Youth culture work

Strengthening self-initiative and entrepreneurship

Students from elementary school and Hauptschule learn responsibility with the university

Activation and coordination of all sub-projects of the Intercultural Education Center

Tuzla - Simin Han (jubilee project) 469,008

All-day supervision

Civic foundation

RIOS („Razvoj interaktivnih otvorenih Skola“ – translated: development of interactive open schools)

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Ramle

Trust of Programs: from working with children and mothers to community development 35,014

plus Linden Foundation 20,000

Building up other locations for models 50,000

7. Developing, supporting and disseminating the projects

Coordination in the National Association 73,168

German Children and Youth Foundation 102,798

Amadeu Antonio Foundation 180,350

YEPP - Youth Empowerment Partnership Program 31,929

Youth Cultural Work fund 48,598

Forschungsgruppe Modellprojekte e. V. (FGM)/

Stiftungs- und Fördergemeinschaft Modellprojekte (SFGM) 15,962

8. Miscellaneous

Small projects 49,046

Purpose-oriented projects 145,383

9. Management and project management 831,671

Sum 2003 2,119,247

Sum 2004 1,759,812

Total 3,879,059

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Board of Partners:

Dr. Dr. Peter Bettermann (Chairman)Dr. Hans Otto BräutigamProfessor Dr. Dr. h. c. Peter FrankenbergDr. Hans-Jochen HüchtingProfessor Dr. Jutta Limbach

Dr. Reinhart Freudenberg (Chairman) 1984 to 2003Dieter Freudenberg 1984 to 2002Professor Dr. Herbert Grünewald 1984 to 1998Professor Dr. Heinz Staab 1984 to 1993Dr. Jürgen Zutt 1984 to 1997Dr. Michael Rogowski 1997 to 2003

Board of Trustees:

Andreas FreudenbergDr. Dorothee Freudenberg Dr. Reinhart Freudenberg (Chairman)Bischof Professor Dr. Wolfgang HuberDr. Petra LidschreiberGabriele Müller-TrimbuschDr. Hans-Henning PistorProfessor Dr. Ingo RichterStefanie Wahl

Hermann Freudenberg (Chairman) 1984 to 2003Professor Dr. Caspar Kulenkampff 1988 to 1991Dr. Ruth Leuze 1984 to 1991Dr. Ingrid Mielenz 1991 to 1996Professor Dr. Dieter Sauberzweig 1984 to 2003

Executive director:

Christian Petry

Program managers:

Pia GerberChristel GrünenwaldJasna Jasareviç (Tuzla)Monika Kleck (Tuzla)Christoph LeuchtDr. Anne Sliwka

Administration:

Letizia Allegra (Auszubildende)Vera Djezic (Tuzla)Silke Hirt (Sekretariat)Nicola Hermann (Sekretariat)Andrea Voß-Leib (Finanzen)

Consultants:

Dr. Benita Daublebsky Katarina GehringDr. Teresa JuradoAnetta Kahane Dr. Wilfried KruseFlorian LindemannDr. Helga Reindel Meto SalijevicIda SchildhauerReinhold Weinmann

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Guidelines

1. The Freudenberg Foundation shall promote and initiate projects. It shallconsider itself an operational foundation, but it shall also support externalprojects and initiatives.

2. Projects of the Freudenberg Foundation are to be initiated in social areascharacterized by economic, cultural and social disadvantage ordiscrimination, where the negative effects of social development (e.g.technical and industrial progress, bureaucratization, erroneousdevelopments and reduction of social services) are particularly tangible.Therefore, projects involving the direct support of underprivileged margingroups and cultural minorities are to be given priority.

3. However, such projects shall not be limited to social work, rather theyshould encourage civil participation and co-responsibility. In connectionwith cultural minorities, they should promote the development of thegroup’s own cultural identity. These prerequisites are to ensure that theprojects are up-to-date and guarantee implementation on the basis ofexemplary measures.

4. Priority is to be given to decentralized initiatives at the local level.

5. Other organizations, above all local and, if necessary, governmentinstitutions should be asked to participate or cooperate, e.g. throughfoundation initiatives. Cooperation with other foundations shall be a basicobjective.

6. In deciding on the promotion of projects, the Foundation shall givepreference to the following types of projects and measures:- Projects and measures aiming for help to self-help and self-organization,

promoting self-initiative and stimulating voluntary work;- Projects and measures leading to the opening and cooperation of public

and private institutions in the fields of education, vocational education,further education and accompanying social and psychologicalassistance as well as addressing new ideas;

- Projects and measures incorporating international experiences.

7. The Freudenberg Foundation preferentially shall promote projects leadingto transferable organizational models.

8. Above all, the projects should strive for practical effectiveness; however,in this connection they should make use of research results, call in expertadvice and be evaluated.

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Selected publications

Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der RAA: InfoBrief 10: Yeff! Young European FilmForum for cultural diversity. Berlin 2003.

Apitzsch/Halm/Pfeiffer/Riotte/Sack/Sauer/Spindler/Wetzels: Junge Türken alsTäter und Opfer von Gewalt - Tagungsdokumentation. Wissenschaftler(innen)und Expert(innen) aus Verwaltung und Praxis im Gespräch über die Gewalt-belastung junger Migranten türkischer Herkunft. Weinheim, September 2000. ISBN 3-00-007100-8.

Klaus J. Bade/Rainer Münz (Hrsg.): Migrationsreport 2000. Fakten-Analysen-Perspektiven. Campus Verlag Frankfurt/New York, 2000. ISBN 3-593-36328-3.

Klaus J. Bade/Rainer Münz (Hrsg.): Migrationsreport 2002. Fakten-Analysen-Perspektiven. Campus Verlag Frankfurt/New York, 2002. ISBN 3-593-37005-0.

Klaus J. Bade/Michael Bommes/Rainer Münz (Hrsg.): Migrationsreport 2004.Fakten-Analysen- Perspektiven. Campus Verlag. Frankfurt/New York, 2004.

András Bíro, Nicolae Gheorghe, Herbert Heuß, Jennifer Tanaka: „Toward aPakiv European Roma Fund – Income-generating programmes for Roma inCentral and Eastern Europe“. May 1998.

Esser/Jurado/Ligth/Petry/Pieri (Hrsg.): Towards Emerging Ethnic Classes inEurope? Volume 1. Workshop proceedings, project conclucions, integrationand ethnic stratification, ethnic economy and social exclusion. Weinheim,Februar 2000. ISBN 3-00-005690-4.

Aja/Baganha/Diéz/Farina/da Fonseca/Marques/Ruspini (Hrsg.): Volume 2.Southern Europe. Country Reports on Italy, Portugal and Spain. Weinheim,Februar 2000. ISBN 3-00-005691-2.

Haynes/Jurado/Jamin/Kehla/Martiniello/Smith/Wistrich (Hrsg.): Volume 3.Western Europe. Country Reports on Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands andthe United Kingdom. Weinheim, Februar 2000. ISBN 3-00-005692-0.

Teresa Jurado: Easy Scapegoats: Sans Papiers Immigrants in Europe. StateStrategies and Intervention Strategies for the Civil Society. Weinheim,Dezember 2000. ISBN 3-00-007369-8.

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Integration and Immigration

European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC)/EuropeanFoundation Centre (EFC)/ Freudenberg Stiftung: Funding Minorities and Mul-ticulturalism in Europe Funders’ Activities against Racism and for Equality inDiversity. Brüssel, 2001. ISBN 2-930107-13-8.

Andreas Flitner/Christian Petry/Ingo Richter (Hrsg.): Wege aus der Ausbil-dungskrise. Memorandum des Forums Jugend-Bildung-Arbeit mit Unter-suchungsergebnissen des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschungder Bundesanstalt für Arbeit. Verlag Leske & Budrich, Opladen 1998. ISBN 3-8100-2196-2.

Freudenberg Stiftung/Servicestelle Qualipass: Fachgespräch „Coaching mitJugendlichen durch Freiwillige. 11. - 12. Oktober 2002 in Weinheim.“ April 2003. ISBN 3-00-011439-4.

Peter Kalb/Christian Petry/Karin Sitte (Hrsg.): Jugendarbeit und Schule. Füreine andere Jugendpolitik. 3. Weinheimer Gespräch. Weinheim/Basel 1994.

Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der RAA: InfoBrief 9: Peer Leadership Trainingfür demokratische Bildung und interkulturelle Kompetenz (dt./engl.)

Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, Initiativen für Zivilgesellschaft und DemokratischeKultur: - Initiativen für Zivilgesellschaft und demokratische Kultur

(Mappe mit Faltblättern)- 5 Jahre Amadeu Antonio Stiftung. Stärken. Vernetzen. Fördern. Berlin 2004.

Zentrum für Demokratische Kultur: Bulletin 5. Antisemitismus und Anti-amerikanismus in Deutschland. Klett-Verlag, Berlin/Leipzig 2004.

Peter Kalb/Christian Petry/Karin Sitte (Hrsg.): Werte und Erziehung - KannSchule zur Bindungsfähigkeit beitragen? 4. Weinheimer Gespräch.Weinheim/Basel 1996.

Peter Kalb/Christian Petry/Karin Sitte (Hrsg.): Rechtsextremistische Jugendliche – was tun? 5. Weinheimer Gespräch.Weinheim/Basel 1999.

Anne Sliwka/Peter Kalb/Christian Petry: Durch Verantwortung lernen. Servicelearning: Etwas für andere tun. 6. Weinheimer Gespräch. Beltz Verlag.Weinheim 2004.

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Young People between school and working life

Learning democracy and assuming responsibility

Stefan Gönnheimer/Hartmut Ferenschild/Margret Rasfeld/Anne Sliwka:Verantwortung übernehmen. Kontrovers zu: Leistungslöhne für Lehrkräfte?Pädagogik. 56. Jahrgang, Heft 5. Mai 2004.

Die Täter-Opfer-Falle. Journalisten und Psychoanalytiker im Gespräch überRechtsradikalismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit. 2. Auflage. Weinheim, August 2000.

Wilhelm Heitmeyer (Hrsg.): - Deutsche Zustände. Folge 1. Suhrkamp Verlag. Frankfurt am Main 2002.

ISBN 3-518-12290-8- Deutsche Zustände. Folge 2. Suhrkamp Verlag. Frankfurt am Main 2003.

ISBN 3-51812332-7

Demokratie lernen und leben – Eine Initiative gegen Rechtsextremismus,Rassismus, Antisemitismus, Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Gewalt. Gutachtenund Empfehlungen: - Roland Eckert/Wolfgang Edelstein/Wolfgang Frindte/Hajo Funke/Jan Hof-

mann/ Lothar Krappmann/Wolfgang Melzer/Jörg Neumann/Bernd Wagner:Band I. Probleme – Voraussetzungen – Möglichkeiten. Weinheim, 2001. ISBN 3-935696-01-0.

- Anne Sliwka: Band II. Das anglo-amerikanische Beispiel. Weinheim, 2001. ISBN 3-935696-02-7.

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Imprint

Editorial staff and contents:

Christian Petry, Pia Gerber

in cooperation with:Benita DaublebskyChristel GrünenwaldAnetta KahaneMonika KleckHelga NickichIda SchildhauerEvi ScholzAnne SliwkaBritta KollbergSusanne Felger

Layout:

Silke Hirt

Translation:

Virginia Schildhauer

Graphics and printing:

Jürgen HatzenbühlerDruck + VerlagsService Helmut Haas GmbH

FREUDENBERG STIFTUNG GMBHFreudenbergstr. 2D-69469 WeinheimTel. +49-6201-17498Fax +49-6201-13262info@freudenbergstiftung.dehttp://www.freudenbergstiftung.deWeinheim, June 2004

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