"Heimat zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft"

"Home", "patrie", "patria", "hembygd" et cetera between the past and the future

Heimat (pronounced [ˈhaɪmat]) is a German word with no English equivalent that denotes the relationship of a human being towards a certain spatial social unit. The term forms a contrast to social alienation and usually carries positive connotations. It is often expressed with terms such as home or homeland. (Definition of Wikipedia)

Another approach to this concept  in French: le mot Heimat

During this meeting, we have discussed  the relationship of "Heimat" between the past, the present age and the future.

 

Topics:

The urban and rural development in the students' community Aspects of landscape changing in Bavaria from rural villages to modern suburbs

 

An exposition with pictures from Sweden, Italy, France and Germany showing these contrasts  has been created.

 

The students have  showed a multimedia presentation about their own ideas of "being at home"

 

Lecture of Dieter Wieland

 

Lecture and workshop of Herbert Pöhnl


 

 

 

 

On Tuesday, the 23th of september, the first day of our international week in Laufen, we, all students of all delegations and our teachers, went on excursion to the Königssee, where we hiked to the Fischunkelalm. Therefor we were accompanied by two competent rangers of the Nationalpark Berchtesgarden, who told us interessting facts about the nationalpark and the traditional alm farming. On our boat trip via St. Bartholomä we heard general facts about the sea and the trompet echoing on the famous wall. When we arrived at the other side of the sea, we started our walk to the Fischunkelalm, where we enjoyed a real bavarian Brotzeit. The swedish teacher used this little break to go for a swim in the cold Obersee. After the sun was comming out, we started back for home.

The evening event:  After a short greeting from the german headmaster and Evelin Köstler from the ANL, we started our theme night  with multimedia-based presentations of all delegations,  in which they showed us their interpretation of the term „Heimat“. Therefor Germans and Swedes presented a selfmade film and the French visualized their „Heimat“ in the form of the four seasons of the year and all sensations. Very impressive was the serie of pictures from the Italians, where they defined „Heimat“ as a thing dependent on the domicile. We heard also a great lecture from author and documentary filmmaker Dieter Wieland, who communicated a awareness of a valuable and beautiful „Heimat“  to his audience. Among other things, he showed pictures, which made clear how our „Heimat“ changed over the years.

Wednesday began with a workshop about „past and future in our ‚Heimat‘“ followed by aphoto exhibition, which Hermann Netz from the ANL curated. Each delegation chose several pictures from the ones they had already took at home and presented them in a creative way.

Afterwards all participants of the project took lunch together in the garden of the Kapuzinerhof and went to Salzburg after that. There we had guided tours through the whole city. In the evening we had a great dinner and everybody was able to have some relaxing time at the ‘Rupertikirtag’ - a public festival – and the day ended with amazing fireworks over the cathedral of Salzburg.

On Thursday, the last day of our international week, all our friends from abroad got a German and Bavarian crash course. After that the author and movie maker Herbert Pöhnl introduced us to his project ‘Hinterbayern-Inside’. Then we went outside to shoot some awesome, spontaneous and funny pictures with Mr. Pöhnl, which especially showed the international friendship.

Back inside Mr. Pöhnl gave us four different pictures, each of them showing the contrast between tradition and modernism. Now all students got the task to split into groups and invent a story to one of the four pictures. Some of the results turned out quite well.

  

Some examples of pictures of H.Pöhnl showing the contrast between traditions and modern times and how this can be important for the definition of homeland:

In the afternoon the students visited the Schönramer Filz – “a moor between the past and the future”. There we had two different guided tours about history of energy extraction through turf after the Second World War and about vegetation and biodiversity in a moor.

(picture: H. Pöhnl)

Dr Ute Künkele answered all the questions the students asked them about  the ecosystem in the Schönramer Filz.

The amazing week ended with a great barbeque party in a cozy barn. We had a large buffet with cake and salad. The students knew how to have fun. We tried different funny dances from all countries and were sitting at the snugly campfire. The whole week was very successful, interesting and first of all funny.

(Traduction: G.Matti)


 

European Multilateral School Partnership


  Partner Institution:

 

This project has been funded with the support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.