Conference Trip to Augsburg .

Attending a conference sounds always sophisticated, interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, the reality is usually pretty far from that 😊

So, it was this time too. I took part in a conference in Augsburg this weekend. Do not get me wrong, the presentations were very interesting and so were the meetings with colleagues. Although the topic of the conference did not match perfectly to Holocaust education in Germany or Holocaust education in 21st century, the participants were very interested in what we call Unterrichtsmaterial or the Geschichtsunterricht (Holocaust education teaching material and history lessons). They shared my opinion: Holocaust education in Germany must be revisited.

However, the surrounding of the event was not very glamorous.

The flight was already 35 minutes late and was unfortunately packed with fans and supporters of the Oktoberfest in Munich. The ladies were already well filled with champagne shortly after take-off and on landing they were clapping and shouting like there was no tomorrow. I've only ever experienced such conditions on cheap flights with a Turkish airline and not with the German prestige airline. It seemed to me as if the people of Hamburg had just been waiting for the chance to get completely out of line, because that's what you do at the Oktoberfest. The S-Bahn connection from the airport to the main station is still as long and terrible as I remembered it, and when I arrived at the main station I found that the signage was still unclear and that the chaos was perfect due to massive reconstruction measures. I only got my train to Augsburg because it was late - cheers to Deutsche Bahn! Here too: No information, another ICE had been deployed, whether this would also stop at the next stop, namely my destination Augsburg, was unclear to me. At some point I reached my hotel, which unfortunately wasn't within walking distance of the conference venue, the city center or the main train station. Misinformation. This meant even more expenses for cabs and, above all, urgently organizing a telephone number so that the cab could reach me from various places in the city. Unfortunately, the travel chaos didn't stop all weekend.

I sneaked away from the conference on Saturday afternoon to meet this gentleman here when I visited the world-famous Fuggerei in Augsburg.

The Fuggerei - unique in the world for 500 years.

The Fuggerei is the oldest existing social housing complex in the world, a city within a city with 67 buildings and 142 residences as well as a church. Jakob Fugger founded in Fuggerei in his own and his brothers' names in 1521. Approximately 150 needy Augsburg citizens of the Catholic faith live here for an annual base rent of €0.88 and three daily prayers. The Fuggerei with museum, display residence and World War Bunker can be visited on any day (https://www.fugger.de/en/fuggerei).

It was cold and autumnal, but the visit was still very worthwhile.

Although I was actually concerned with sustainability in and from the educational media, the news from the wider world did not stop, of course. As I already wrote in my blog at August 4th, https://www.melaniecarinaschmoll.com/post/staatsr%C3%A4son-reason-of-state  Israelis and Jews cannot rely on the alleged German reason of state. There is a whole thematic special on the failure, especially of the German Foreign Minister https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/meinung/deutschlands-staatsraeson-versagt/.

And while Israel continues to fight for its survival in a multi-front war, the German government is also withholding arms deliveries: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/analysis-opinion/artc-germany-s-arms-embargo-means-it-abandoned-the-jewish-state

To all those who celebrate the holidays I wish:

“Shanah tovah um'tukah”.

I sincerely wish us all peace, health, friends and family… and light in these dark times.