Impressions from the Conference “Zukunft Jetzt” in Berlin (May 16-18, 2019)

The ‘Zukunft Jetzt’ conference is an annual German-language conference for trainees, students and young professionals in anthroposophic curative education and social therapy. It was initiated by German and Swiss educational centers and has been held under the auspices of the Council since 2019.

The first conference ‘Zukunft Jetzt’ under the new sponsorship of the Council at the Emil Molt Academy in Berlin has just come to an end. For the participants it was again, already for the fifth time, a wonderful opportunity to reflect on professional action and experience in special situations under the heading of “power” and to deal with this challenge in their daily work as young professionals.

Particularly important was a contribution from Fine Freudenberg, the contact person for abuse prevention at the Kaspar Hauser Foundation in Berlin. With a high practical relevance and clear concepts, it was able to present the work of the centers for abuse prevention. Here it became clear that there are already some structures and contact possibilities for everyone which should be used.

In addition, the program was very much in tune with the city of Berlin. A visit to the Hamburger Bahnhof was offered with an observation of a photograph by Andreas Mühe, with the question: how can an image observation be connected with social work? Can we strengthen the capacities of perception by looking at art? When we look at artworks together, it can have a certain resemblance to a case discussion, but on a more objective level. That can be a training method.

On the subject of institutional violence, places of state terror could be visited, such as the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the memorial to “Aktion T4” (the Nazi government’s ‘euthanasia’ program in Germany from 1939 to 1945), as well as the Hohenschönhausen memorial as a place of secret detention by the Stasi during the GDR era.

The program was supplemented with artistic experiences and discussion groups, and in the evening the international metropolis was used for “chilling out in the park” and similar amusements.

We are curious to see where and with which topic the initiative group is preparing the next conference and look forward to it.

Contact person of the initiative group:

Annette Pichler, Rudolf Steiner Seminar Bad Boll