Otto Stender

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Otto Stender in mid-March 2018

Otto Stender (born December 4, 1936 in Uelzen ) is a German bookseller and initiative founder of the Federal Mentor Association - Die Leselernhelfer .

Life

Otto Stender 2012

Otto Stender developed his passion for books as a schoolboy, initially by reading the adventures of the heroic novel Tom Sawyer . Otto Stender has a twin brother who is a bookseller in Coppenbrügge . After graduating from school, Otto Stender trained as a bookseller in Hanover from 1954. During the following years of traveling , Stender met his future wife, with whom he founded their first bookstore and his family in 1959 in Hanover.

Otto Stender (far right) with young trainers during the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015

In 1987 Stender took over the Georgsbuchhandlung . He was the first to initiate monthly readings in Hanover , conducted by authors such as Günter Grass , Siegfried Lenz , WG Sebald , Doris Dörrie , Hilde Domin , Gabriele Wohmann and many more. Stender's events were known throughout the city under the umbrella term "Red Sofa".

In 1997 Stender had to relocate the Georgsbuchhandlung to Karmarschstrasse 27 in Hanover due to rent increases and finally to give it up completely in 1999 due to bankruptcy . He continued his bookselling work temporarily at Marienstraße 77 under the name Buchhandlung Stender .

As a horse lover, Otto Stender often spent his free time at riding stables , where he kept getting to know young girls who “could only read poorly and hardly knew any books”. These experiences led Stender to consider how to convey the joy of reading to young people through personal commitment and support, so to speak as a “ mentor ”. Based on the results of the first PISA study , Otto Stender found “Hanover's answer to PISA”, the Mentor - Die Leselernhelfer association founded in 2003 together with others .

Through the Federal Association of Associations, founded in 2008 and headed by Otto Stender as chairman and whose president he became, the reading , language and writing skills of thousands of disadvantaged schoolchildren, children and young people under 16 years of age have been improved on a voluntary basis . For many young people, including those with a migration background , the educational opportunities , the chances on the job market and the participation in a social urban society could be improved.

In 2014, the Federal Association of Mentors and Reading Helpers was awarded the German Language Initiative Prize.

Otto Stender also closed his bookstore in 2014 and donated the unsold books to the fair Kauf store in Hanover. After receiving the Leinestern, an award for volunteers in Hanover, Otto Stender gave a speech during a gala in September 2017 about how " the origins and the failure of educational policy " depend on young people:

"They haven't learned to read properly because people only watch TV at home or because too little German is spoken in migrant families, and they get the maximum sentence for this: life."

Federal Assembly

In the election of the German Federal President in 2009 by the Federal Assembly on May 23, 2009 Otto Stender was one of 1244 voters for the Social Democratic Party of Germany to decide between Joachim Gauck and Christian Wulff .

Honors

Otto Stender has received several awards for his exceptional commitment to promoting reading and learning:

literature

  • Stephan-Thomas Klose: Arousing the desire to read. A social task. Last year the association "Mentor Reading Helpers" celebrated its 10th anniversary. The visionary founder Otto Stender has been a household name in Hanover for decades as a literary bookseller , in Gerd Gießler, Anja Christina Lohmann (Red.): Centaur. Your customer magazine from Rossmann , published by Dirk Rossmann GmbH, issue 6/2014 July / August, Munich: Journal International, 2014, pp. 8-14; as a PDF document from rossmann.de

Web links

Commons : Otto Stender  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Hugo Thielen : Georgsbuchhandlung. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 214; limited preview in Google Book search
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Stephan-Thomas Klose: Arousing the desire to read. A social task. Last year the association "Mentor Reading Helpers" celebrated its 10th anniversary. The visionary founder Otto Stender has been a household name in Hanover for decades as a literary bookseller , in Gerd Gießler, Anja Christina Lohmann (Red.): Centaur. Your customer magazine from Rossmann , published by Dirk Rossmann GmbH, issue 6/2014 July / August, Munich: Journal International, 2014, pp. 8-14; also as a PDF document from rossmann.de , last accessed on March 12, 2018
  3. ↑ Heiner and Otto Stender (70) , Book Market, December 4, 2006
  4. ↑ The special WBNachrichten-Video with Heiner Stender about Günter Grass: A muted drum roll for the courageous drummer among the post-war authors, weserbergland-nachrichten.de,
  5. ↑ a b c d e o.V. : Award / city plaque awarded to seven people ... , article on the hannover.de website from June 19, 2014; online in the Internet Archive
  6. ^ A b Helmut Glück, Walter Krämer, Eberhard Schöck (eds.), Kristin Bischoff, Stephanie Wichert (ed.), Felicitas Schöck, Simone Schöck, Margret Schaaf, Huguette Morin-Hauser: Kulturpreis Deutsche Sprache 2014. Speeches and speeches , Paderborn : IFB-Verlag Deutsche Sprache GmbH, 2014, ISBN 978-3-942409-42-1 , passim ; as a PDF document from the website kulturpreis-deutsche-sprache.de , last accessed on March 12, 2018
  7. ^ Off for bookstore in Marienstraße: Mr. Stender gives up , haz.de, March 11, 2014
  8. ↑ a b Conrad von Meding: Ehrenamtspreis / These are the Leinestern winners ... , article with picture gallery on the page of the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from September 23, 2017, updated on September 26, 2018, last accessed on March 12, 2018
  9. ↑ Reinhard Urschel: Federal Assembly / With the power of 1244 votes ... , article from June 29, 2010 (updated on the same day at 10:38 p.m.) on the pages of the Göttinger Tageblatt and the Eichsfelder Tageblatt , last accessed on March 12th 2018
  10. ^ Announcement of the awards from March 1, 2012 , bundespraesident.de, March 1, 2012
  11. ↑ Otto Stender receives first learning award, waz.de, October 8, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Stender, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookseller and founder of Mentor - Die Leselernhelfer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Uelzen