Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony
The Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony, founded in 1975 . V. is a non-profit, non-denominational and non-partisan European education and conference center. It is located in the Bad Bevensen community of Medingen and has set itself the goal of strengthening political and social responsibility among adults and young people.
history
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The old district court was established in 1541 on behalf of the Protestant Duke Ernst "the Confessor" in the course of a dispute with the Catholic monastery in Medingen.
The Duke, a follower of Martin Luther since his studies in Wittenberge , took over the government of the Principality of Braunschweig-Lüneburg in 1521. Soon after, he tried to introduce the new doctrine in his principality.
He urgently needed the rich church and monastery properties in order to rehabilitate the state finances. However, even after the introduction of the Reformation in 1527 , the monasteries, which feared for their existence, offered some fierce resistance, including the Medingen Monastery .
In the course of the dispute, the Duke had a castle-like building built on the only access to the monastery right next to the monastery gate in 1541. An inscription in the porch shows that the “Princely House” was built by Duke Ernst for his wife Sophia von Mecklenburg, in case she survived her husband. However, since Sophia died earlier, the duke gave the house to his daughter Katharina, who moved into it in 1546 and who was buried in the Medingen monastery after her death in 1615.
Not only the historical events of the Reformation make the “Princely House” in Medingen an important cultural monument. Its architecture also offers interesting insights into the style change from Gothic to early Renaissance.
From the end of the 19th century until the 1960s, the Medingen district court was located in the former ducal ducal house.
Like the district court, the district judge's or judge's residence is also a listed building. It was built in the middle of the 18th century at a time when the district court was the seat of the ducal administration and jurisdiction.
Foundation of the institute
The founder
The establishment and development of the Stresemann Institute are shaped by the person of Berthold Finkelstein . As a victim of National Socialist persecution, after 1945 he belonged to a group of politically motivated and responsible people in Europe who thought beyond the nation state. "Reconciliation in Europe" was his vision. He was actively involved in political education from 1953 until his death in 1996.
Berthold Finkelstein was also a co-founder and for many years chairman of the Association of German Educational Institutions and was associated with the first politicians of all parties.
The namesake
Berthold Finkelstein chose the name of the German Foreign Minister (1923 to 1929) Gustav Stresemann with a view to his services to Franco-German understanding and European unification in the period between the world wars.
Gustav Stresemann received the Nobel Peace Prize for his reconciliation work together with his French colleague Aristide Briand in 1926 .
In Germany, however, he was denied appropriate recognition for his foreign policy. He was insulted by many as the “fulfillment politician” of the victorious powers for his understanding policy.
The GSI from 1975 until today
The Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony was founded in 1975, the seminar work initially began without a house. In the summer of 1976 the GSI was entered in the register of associations. In 1977 the old district court in Medingen was bought by the state of Lower Saxony and converted into a conference center.
The work of the Heimvolkshochschule - the official name based on an old Scandinavian tradition - was determined by seminars as part of the educational leave. The educational work was financially supported by the state of Lower Saxony, which was leading in the development of a progressive and family-friendly adult education law to support lifelong learning.
With the decline in funding for adult education by the state of Lower Saxony, it became more difficult to maintain and improve the largely listed and complex-to-maintain property and the guest house from 1977.
Within the seminar structure, seminars or seminar groups have developed into a kind of tradition. The so-called summer academy has been held every summer since 1988. It includes various seminars in the field of music and the visual arts.
The Gustav Stresemann Institute has been certified according to LQW (learner-oriented quality testing in further education) since 2003. LQW is a quality testing procedure recognized beyond the borders of Germany and meets the requirements of the Lower Saxony Adult Education Act.
In 2012, Martin Kaiser took over the post of institute director from Bodo Fröhlich. With the change, the company's orientation in the seminar area became more international than in previous years.
Since 2013, the institute has offered the opportunity to complete a federal voluntary service every year and to get to know the areas of “international and intercultural education” and “public relations and structures of pedagogical adult education”.
In 2016 the Gustav Stresemann Institute celebrated its 40th anniversary. Also in 2016, the GSI started the large cooperation project “Diversity connects”, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior as part of the federal program “Cohesion through participation”. The institute cooperates with the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e. V. Landesverband Niedersachsen and Bremen (JUH) and the THW Youth Bremen / Lower Saxony . The aim is the intercultural opening of the associations and the strengthening of the full-time and voluntary employees in their intercultural competence in order to be able to shape the diversity in our society appropriately.
Program focus
- Political education and learning about democracy
- intercultural competences
- Vocational education
- languages
- Personality and communication
- health
- Culture and creativity
- Self-help and volunteering
Within these focal points, areas such as the daycare seminars, which are partly held in cooperation with the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture , the area of certified training with GfK seminars according to Marshall Rosenberg and the Betzavta seminars, which are carried out in cooperation with the Center for Applied Political Research (CAP ), the area of international youth seminars with cooperation partners in Central, Eastern, Southern and Western Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the USA and the House of English course concept stand out.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ HVHS in Bad Bevensen. Retrieved January 30, 2017 .
- ^ Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony eV | www.adb.de. Retrieved January 30, 2017 .
- ^ Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony - History. Retrieved January 27, 2017 (German).
- ^ Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony - History. Retrieved January 27, 2017 (German).
- ^ Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony - History. Retrieved January 27, 2017 (German).
- ^ Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony eV | www.adb.de. Retrieved January 30, 2017 .
- ↑ International wind in spa town . In: https://www.az-online.de . June 13, 2012 ( az-online.de [accessed January 30, 2017]).
- ↑ Details: Bundesfreiwilligendienst.de. Retrieved January 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Diversity connects . In: Johanniter [live] . December 19, 2016 ( johanniter.de [accessed January 30, 2017]).
- ^ Federal Center for Civic Education: Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony eV (GSI) | Cohesion through participation. Retrieved January 30, 2017 .
- ^ Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture - Our partners - Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony. Accessed January 30, 2017 (German).
- ↑ cooperation partner. Retrieved January 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Sponsors & Cooperation Partners - Our Partners - Gustav Stresemann Institute in Lower Saxony. Accessed January 30, 2017 (German).