- Democracy education
Democracy – for me, for you, for everyone?
In the beginning of May we started our democracy project in Erfurt. In the first part of the project we dealed with basic issues and raised questions like “What is democracy?”, “Where can we find it?”, “What belongs to it?” “What does freedom of the press, expression and religion mean?”
and “What exactly is the basic law (in German: Grundgesetz) and what’s in it?”
We talked and discussed about all of this. It was super interesting to get to know other people’s views towards the meaning of (german) democracy, especially from those who weren’t born in Germany.
In the end we played the democracy game Quararo. In this game the group needs to make decisions together while using several democratic methods. Again we could learn a lot of new things. Keyword here: systemic consensus building (German: Systemisches Konsensieren).
In the second part of the project we went to the Thuringian Parliament (Thüringer Landtag), in which our guest guide Mrs. Zimmermann gave us a wonderful tour. Here we learned a lot. We could ask questions anytime. Also Mrs. Zimmermann has a very interesting life history too, which she shared with us.
We were allowed to visit a lot of different rooms in the building and even could sit on the seats of the member of the parliament.
All in all it was a very enriching project! In Thuringia (Thüringen) we can still find a lot of challenges but also positive plans for the future, in which we can all participate. Because we are all democracy.