Association of educational centers in rural areas
The Association of Educational Centers in Rural Areas (VBLR) eV is a nationwide interest group of 45 rural folk high schools and educational institutions in Catholic, Protestant and agricultural-professional sponsorship. Until 2005 the name was the Association of Rural Folk High Schools in Germany .
Objective and working method
The educational policy objectives of the association are the representation of interests and public relations as well as the exchange of experiences within the framework of a network of the participating further education institutions, which are located in rural areas, i. H. located outside the metropolitan areas. In commissions and project groups set up by the VBLR, a. Centralized federal curricula and seminar concepts for youth and adult education.
The association has the legal form of a registered association with its seat in the "House of Agriculture" in Berlin. The agricultural and political scientist Wulfreiber ( Herrsching ) was the chairman until his death on November 4, 2015 . Successor is Dr. Andreas Quiring (Andreas Hermes Academy, Bonn). The 45 member institutions of the association reach around 500,000 participants in around 22,500 seminars and events every year.
history
In 1951 the folk high schools supported by the Catholic and Protestant Church and the farmers' associations merged to form the “Association of Rural Folk High Schools in Germany”. The aim was to bundle the commitment for the further and further education of the rural population, regardless of the specific interests of the denominational and professional organizations, and after the collapse of National Socialism to provide value-oriented further education on the basis of a democratic and common good-related attitude convey. It was also important to compensate for the infrastructural disadvantages of rural areas compared to urban areas in the further training sector. Even then, continuing education was recognized as an essential prerequisite for the economic success of entire regions and for the participation of the individual in social and political life.
In the Herrschinger Declaration of June 12, 1954, the three southern German folk high schools in Bad Waldsee , Herrsching and Scherzen / Tiengen committed themselves as farmers ' schools and to the farmers' associations and to the association of rural folk high schools in Germany . In the declaration, they accused the denominational schools, especially the Catholic schools, which were organized in the Association of Catholic Rural Adult Education Centers in Germany , of separatism. As a result, there was an agreement and concentration of denominational and professional schools in the Association of Rural Folk High Schools in Germany by 1958 .
Until 1989, the association's activities were limited to what was then the Federal Republic of Germany. With the end of the GDR and after the reestablishment of state unity in 1990, denominational and professional further education institutions emerged in the new federal states, which joined the VBLR.
In 2005 it was renamed to its current name.
Memberships
The association is a member of the following organizations:
- Foundation for the promotion of talented students in German agriculture
- KAW Council of Further Education
literature
- Werner Faber: History of the Association of Rural Folk High Schools in Germany. 2 volumes, Hermannsburg 1991/1994.