- Introduction
The oldest grammar school in Brandenburg is going to be closed by the end of the schoolyear 2006/2007.
It was founded in 1694 and devoted to humanistic traditions.
Celebrating the 300th anniversary in 1994 students and teachers thoroughly investigated the schools history.
They examined biographies of former students, who had to leave Germany because of the Nazi regime. They learned about a number of Jewish students of the school, among them Hermann Arndt, who was actively involved in arresting Adolf Eichmann, an SS-criminal.
Thus history beame alive and we were committed not to forget this chapter of German history.
Students and teachers of Friedrichsgymnasium have been cultivating intensive relationships with several schools in Israel, Palestine and Poland.
These relationships have become a constant part of our work and are accompanied by an intensive process of preparation and feed back.
Due to the situation of our school we could not involve younger students any longer but focus on appealing to students from the 10th, 12th, 13th grade from Friedrichsgymnasium as well as from Liebknecht- and Brennergymnasium.
As our school is soon closed our partners ask for future perspectives of the Building Bridges Project.
Additional note:
The concept is discussed with our partners from Israel, Slubice and Gütersloh.
The concept does not refer to the next schoolyear only but to a longer period of time until 2010.
The aim is to create a network within Frankfurt (Oder ) and Brandenburg.
2. Situation
As already mentioned there have been two annual meetings ( one in Israel and one in Germany ) since 1999 which were focusing on different topics.
For 2006/2007 the 14th and 15th meetings are planned.
For a successful continuation it is necessary to enable the teachers being involved in the project to work together at another school. Offering additional lesson would be very helpful.
The project should be supported by the school authority as well as the Ministry of Education.
Until now we have been able to finance the project with the help of different foundations, RAA, Tolerant Brandenburg, the Ministry of Education, private donators, etc. and the payment of the participants themselves.
A longterm planning is difficult as we depend on project competions.
- Aims
Content
In the following years the project should focus on intercultural and interreligious dialogue between the partners.
We should think about a different approach – while focusing on historical dimension befor we should concentrate on perspectives of young people in dialogue.
Due to globalization which offers chances as well as enormous risks people`s social involvement becomes a necessity.
Target Groups
Young people between 13 and 20 with their families, friends, teachers from the different countries
Exchange of volunteers, which can be seen as a concrete result of the project work
2006/2007 there are four volunteers from Friedrichsgymnasium working in Israel
Working with different foundations, organisations and churches in Brandenburg is necessary to have a well-organized network.
Conflicts cannot be avoided completely as we all live in peace and experience the Middle East conflict only temporarily.
Activities that make us aware of things we have in common as well as practical work are especially important.
- Visions , Realization
With the help of the Ministry of Education and the school authority the following visions should be realizable
- two annual meetings with special topics
- monthly chat times in the Internet
- involving the topics into the regular lessons and the curriculum
- focusing on developing the following competences
gaining information, knowledge, insight and applying them in everyday contexts
this includes understanding of arguments, explanations as well as the evaluation of theses, theories etc.
examples: knowing about complexity of globalization
knowing about historical background of international relations
knowing about how to deal and solve conflicts
shaping and organizing the process of learning
this includes the development of media literacy
creating own media
presentation techniques
comminicative skills
social competences
this includes to enable students to interact with others in changinging situations and with different tasks successfully
that means to develop a responsibility for yourself and others, to perceive yourself and others and to realize conflicts and possible ways of dealing with or solving them
attitudes, values, motivations
they all influence the way we act and should be based on self-confidence and self-esteem
this also means participants should be able to determine themselves and to perceive themselves in the process of facing the other/ the unknown but also considering the historical background and thus developing a moral integrity
learning at school and developing one`s personality should be seen as parts of one process
Developing the above skills, abilities and competences should be part of the preparation and feed back process and of the meetings themselves
Participants should take part in highlights of the projectgroup
consider a voluntary year as an alternative and addition to prepare for
their studies
Participants plan a joint work with the theatre group `` Flying Fishes ``
an exchange of students and teachers
exchanging experiences concerning intercultural and interreligous
understanding in Brandenburg
improved embedding of the project into curriculum and daily schoolroutine
- Necessary Partners
In order to succeed we need further partners to join us and support the project and cooperate.
We think of
- the school authority in Frankfurt ( Oder )
- the University Viadrina
- LISUM Brandenburg
- The Jewish community Frankfurt ( Oder )
- LISUM Berlin
- Tolerant Brandenburg
- RAA Brandenburg
- SVV Frankfurt ( Oder )
- Churches in Frankfurt ( Oder )
- Jewish Agency Berlin
- Flying Fishes
- Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienst
- Nes Amin e.V.
- Neue Impulse e. V.
- Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
