Academy Center Sankelmark

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Academy Sankelmark

The Akademiezentrum Sankelmark is an academy for political, historical and cultural education with a conference center in Oeversee - Sankelmark in Schleswig-Holstein . The academy center is formed by the Akademie Sankelmark in the German Border Association e. V., the European Academy Schleswig-Holstein e. V. and the Academia Baltica e. V.

history

prehistory

Plans to build an educational facility on the Sankelmarker See near Oeversee probably existed as early as the Weimar Republic . But it was the Danish minority in the Schleswig region that involuntarily gave the impetus for the establishment of the Sankelmark Academy. In 1947, the Danish School Association leased a two-hectare plot of land on Sankelmarker See in order to build a Højskole on this site . The then district administrator and later Prime Minister Friedrich Wilhelm Lübke opposed this plan, which he saw as part of a Danish “cultural offensive” in the border region. In a campaign speech in 1948, Lübke declared: "I would like to openly admit that we don't want a Danish adult education center on the Sankelmarker See [...]." Lübke questioned the validity of the lease and refused a building permit. In addition, the area at Sankelmarker See was placed under nature protection by the district council in 1950, so that no construction activity was possible. The Danish School Association had previously abandoned its plans and decided in favor of the neighboring municipality of Jarplund as the location of the Højskole.

1952-1955

Regardless of nature conservation, the German Border Association decided to set up a German educational facility at Sankelmarker See. On June 17, 1951, District Administrator Lübke laid the foundation stone for the academy as chairman of the German Border Association. Lübke's idea of ​​a folk high school with a gym and open-air stage was not implemented. Instead, the concept of the librarian Franz Schriewer was put into practice , who campaigned for an academy "for education and training for border issues and border work". Following the example of the Evangelical Academies , conferences with up to three days should take place in Sankelmark. On June 29, 1952, the "Grenzakademie Sankelmark" was opened with a ceremony. The DM 900,000 building was financed by the federal government, the state of Schleswig-Holstein, the German Border Association and donations from public institutions and private individuals. The academy building, made of sand-lime brick and boulders, had a dining room, a conference room, an auditorium and a library with 3,000 volumes when it opened. Ten single and twelve double rooms were available for conference guests. Initially intended showcases with memorabilia from the Battle of Oeversee (1864) were not purchased. 50 employees worked in the Grenzakademie in 1952.

Friedrich Wilhelm Lübke, meanwhile Prime Minister of the State of Schleswig-Holstein , emphasized in his speech at the opening of the Sankelmark Academy: "The work of the Academy must be based on the triad: Draw from history, look to the future and grasp the present". The founding document stated: "The border academy should contribute in free intellectual, political and cultural debate to finding a peaceful and just solution to the Schleswig border question and should also be the bridge to a real understanding between the peoples".

The first director of the Grenzakademie, teacher Johann Heinrich Martens, only served a few months. He left Sankelmark in October 1952. His successor Franz Schriewer headed the academy part-time from 1952 to 1954. During this time, the problems of the border region were the focus of the academy's work. Central terms of the conference were home, fatherland, people and history. The Grenzakademie u. Attempted to achieve the ambitious goal of promoting Germanness in the border region and at the same time enabling dialogue with the Danish neighbors. a. to be fair by the fact that she held German-Scandinavian conferences and advanced training for teachers from Scandinavia at an early stage. Nevertheless, in 1954 an editor of the NWDR judged with a view to Sankelmark: "There has never been a real encounter between members of both ethnic groups there".

1955-1968

With the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations in 1955, traditional German border work became obsolete. Heinz Dähnhardt brought new topics to Sankelmark. He was previously the feature editor of the daily newspaper Die Welt and headed the Grenzakademie from 1954 to 1968. Political and social developments in Germany and Europe increasingly determined the academy's program. This also includes dealing with the National Socialist past. In October 1955, the conference “Unresolved Past” had a pioneering character in this regard. Between 1952 and 1956, 55–75 events were held annually in Sankelmark. 20-25 meetings per year were designed and carried out by the academy's staff, further events with cooperation partners such as the Evangelical Academy Schleswig-Holstein. The main participants were civil servants, teachers and “urban housewives and rural women”.

1968-1988

Political issues determined the academy's program from 1968 onwards. Joachim Oertel, who headed the Akademie Sankelmark from 1968 to 1991, advocated understanding between Germans and their Eastern European neighbors at an early stage. The conference “The German-Polish relationship in the present and future” in March 1971 was followed by numerous events on the past and present of Central and Eastern Europe, from the end of the 1980s increasingly with guests from Poland and the Baltic states . Other focal points were seminars on the German question and the minority congresses taking place in Sankelmark from 1984 onwards. After Denmark joined the European Community in 1973, Oertel arbitrarily changed the name of the academy to "Akademie Sankelmark". This step was only approved retrospectively by the board of the German Border Association. In the 1970s and 1980s worked as lecturers at the academy a. a. the political scientist and sinologist Dietmar Albrecht, later founding director of the Academia Baltica, the SPD member of the state parliament Gert Roßberg and Klaus Matthiesen , from 1973 to 1983 parliamentary group leader of the SPD in the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1982, 30 years after the academy opened, Sankelmark had 6,000 academy guests a year, 10–15% of them from abroad.

1988-2012

From 1988, the state of Schleswig-Holstein reduced its funding for the German Border Association. The problems resulting from this shaped the tenure of the theologian Gerhard Jastram, who was director of the academy from 1991 to 1998. A stabilization of the financial situation only succeeded in the late 1990s during the term of office of the academy director Rainer Pelka. The 1999 move of the European Academy Schleswig-Holstein from Leck to Sankelmark also contributed to strengthening the Sankelmark location. In 2011, Academia Baltica also relocated its office from Lübeck to Sankelmark. Since then, the Akademie Sankelmark, the European Academy Schleswig-Holstein and the Academia Baltica have formed the Akademiezentrum Sankelmark under the direction of the historian Christian Pletzing.

profile

Academy Sankelmark

The Akademie Sankelmark is an adult education institution that offers seminars and conferences on political and cultural topics in the Sønderjylland / Schleswig region, Schleswig-Holstein and the Federal Republic of Germany. It is primarily about political education, the organization of democratic coexistence, history, culture and religion, literature and visual arts and thus about the ethical foundations of our society. The Sankelmark Academy was opened in 1952 in order to "be a place of free intellectual, political and cultural debate [...] to be a bridge to real understanding between peoples" - as stated in the founding document. The academy is sponsored by the non-profit Deutsche Grenzverein e. V., whose members u. a. Counties and municipalities of the Schleswig region are.

European Academy Schleswig-Holstein

The European Academy Schleswig-Holstein offers seminars and conferences on European political and cultural issues. The work rests on two pillars: The Europa-Akademie focuses primarily on the European institutions and politics, culture and everyday life in our European neighbors. The European Academy for Minority Affairs provides information on minority problems and possible solutions to these problems. The European Academy Schleswig-Holstein was founded in 1978. In 1999 she moved from the home folk high school in Leck to Sankelmark. The academy is sponsored by the non-profit association Europäische Akademie Schleswig-Holstein e. V.

Academia Baltica

The tasks and goals of the Academia Baltica, which was founded in Lübeck in 2001, are the understanding with Germany's eastern neighbors, the promotion of partnership-based cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and in East Central Europe, and the communication of European history and culture. The topics of the academy work range from politics and economics, literature and art to bi- and multinational colloquia on recent and recent history to international media cooperation in the Baltic Sea region. Conference reports and monographs are published in the "Colloquia Baltica" series. The academy is supported by the non-profit association Academia Baltica e. V. based in Lübeck. In 2011 the Academia Baltica moved its office to Sankelmark.

The events of the three academies are open to all interested parties and take place in the Akademiezentrum Sankelmark. Since 1952 around 500,000 guests have taken part in events at the two academies in Sankelmark.

building

The main building of the academy, built in 1952, was extended by a north wing at the end of the 1950s. In 1966 the guest house 1 was built next to the main building. Below it was the bunker "Simon" of the Schleswig-Holstein state government. A second government bunker was located in Lindewitt , also near Flensburg. In 1972 a seminar wing with three seminar and conference rooms and a gallery was added to the main building. The guest house 2 was built in 1986, which also significantly enlarged the state government's bunker. A total renovation of the building in 1999 was followed by the addition of a restaurant and kitchen wing in 2004.

Directors

  • Johann Heinrich Martens (1952)
  • Franz Schriewer (1952–1954)
  • Heinz Dähnhardt (1954–1968)
  • Joachim Oertel (1968–1991)
  • Gerhard Jastram (1991–1998)
  • Rainer Pelka (1998-2010)
  • Stefan Vöhringer (acting, 2010)
  • Christian Pletzing (since 2011)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoting from Michael Freund: Looking back, going forward. The establishment of the Akademie Sankelmark in times of border political disputes . Akademie Sankelmark 2002, p. 38.
  2. ↑ Quoting from Michael Freund: Looking back, going forward. The establishment of the Akademie Sankelmark in times of border political disputes . Akademie Sankelmark 2002, p. 41.
  3. ↑ "The flagship of the border region. 60 years of the Sankelmark Academy". In: Flensburger Tageblatt, June 21, 2012.
  4. ^ Government bunker in Oeversee: The cellar of this house was a state secret for years

Web links

Coordinates: 54 ° 43 ′ 1.1 ″  N , 9 ° 26 ′ 20.1 ″  E