A week in Europe – students from Greece and Ireland visit the Open School

 

It was the third international project meeting of the current Erasmus project at the Open School in Babenhausen. After joint working weeks in Thessaloniki and Lisbon, it was the turn of the small town in southern Hesse in mid-March, which welcomed thirteen students from Thessaloniki and the Irish partner school in Buncrana. The project, which is funded by the European Commission, deals with various aspects of the partners' cultural heritage. In Babenhausen, the focus was on how to deal with relics from the past. A local example was the conversion of the historic barracks site in Babenhausen, which the young people explored together with the town historian Joachim Heizmann. Project coordinator Andreas Murmann explained how the consequences of war are dealt with in Frankfurt's “new” old town. The ninth-graders from Babenhausen introduced their guests to the dark period of German history and explained the history of the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich during a tour. Heike Vogel had worked on this with her group and had already used it for an action week organised by the year group to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. The English-language Action Bounds developed by the Erasmus project groups were also used for the first time. 

 With the appropriate app, these city rallies can also be used by interested citizens. Based on texts by European thinkers, the young people developed ideas on a common European identity and presented the results in an exhibition that accompanied the Open School's spring concert. The guests had also rehearsed intensively during the week and contributed to the concert with performances. Greek dances, Irish songs, Irish dancing and a dance drama about a pirate queen were part of the varied programme.

And the Irish encore was also impressive. For the choreography to a song from the musical ‘Legally Blonde’, which the students from Buncrana had rehearsed last autumn, the guests spontaneously recruited some of their hosts. At the farewell party that followed, it became clear once again how close the bonds between the students become during such a week-long encounter. Anticipation for the final meeting in Ireland is growing. Six students from the Open School will travel to Buncrana in May.

Visting rebuilt history - one way to preserve our past is reconstruction.