Welcome to wannseeFORUM

Preamble

As an educational and conference center, wannseeFORUM is a meeting place for both young people and adults, and offers a forum for exchange between the generations. Our emancipatory educational mandate from the time of our founding still remains the conceptual basis of our educational work, which not only enables but demands change and transformation over the course of time. As conference venue we are committed to offering our guests a high standard of friendly and professional service.

Profile

wannseeFORUM is not affiliated with any party, religion or interest group – it freely represents the basic democratic values. We stand for openness to the world, diversity, and equal rights for all, irrespective of gender, religion, social and cultural background. Our special profile is based on the combination of political and cultural education.

Buildings, seminar and work rooms and service

Interested groups and organisations can hire our rooms and our conference service. With its heritage-listed country house, the coachman’s house and the modern seminar house Atrium, wannseeFORUM invites its guests to experience seminars and conferences in an exceptional setting. The extensive lakeside grounds with old trees provide a green, leafy setting for conversations and recreation, away from the stress of everyday life.

The two seminar houses have ten seminar rooms of various sizes and offer overnight accommodation for up to 100 guests. The single, double and triple rooms all have their own shower and toilet. The modern conference technology in the seminar rooms can be varied depending on the requirements. In addition there are special rooms for artistic work and a computer lab for multimedia work. The historically restored fireplace hall and the theatre auditorium are ideal for larger groups of up to about 70 people. In the summer, the terraces facing different directions offer space for relaxing or relaxed working.

wannseeFORUM is the perfect place to work away from the stress of everyday life and enjoy culinary delights. wannseeFORUM offers its guests a varied cuisine prepared with fresh ingredients. All meals are served as a buffet and include a vegetarian option. Our house staff provides our guests with professional service. Festive buffets are one of our specialties.

Methods and goals

Our educational offerings are primarily aimed at young people and adults who work with young people. We are specialists with backgrounds in various professional disciplines whose common goal is to inspire and support young people to critically reflect on the world they are living in. In doing so, we take their experiences and interpretation seriously. Accepting each other is a prerequisite for mutual learning processes that lead to new insights. However, we are not content with tepid middle-of-the-road tolerance, but explicitly encourage confrontational forms of work, as long as they remain constructive. The arts and new media help young people to express their views in a way that is comprehensible to others. Apart from expanding their cognitive skills, a deepened insight in the area of social and emotional development is a goal of the seminars.

In seminars for education professionals, we share our experiences in a practice-oriented way based on modern adult education methods. Participants can benefit from artists and applied drama teachers as partners in the teaching-learning process. Further training courses are usually product-oriented, with the goal of a final presentation.

Seminars

Events for young people from Berlin from all types of schools comprise a large part of the courses we offer: seminars for student representatives, school magazine and media seminars for interested students during school time and artistic workshops during school holidays. For young people from all over Germany active in participatory projects, wannseeFORUM has a special attraction. Particularly during school holidays, the house becomes a venue for encounters for young people from all over Europe.

For adults interested in emancipatory education, we offer special further training courses in artistic work and media work with young people. Teachers leave their everyday school routine behind for a while and become artistically active themselves; they enjoy the opportunity to have fun while “recharging their batteries”. wannseeFORUM is ideal for this because of its premises and its interdisciplinary team of course leaders.

Cooperation initiatives

wannseeFORUM cooperates with other organisations in Germany and abroad. As reliable partner, we collaborate in committees and in tandem with other organisations, implement projects and ideas and actively participate in the social discourse on topical issues.

Successful learning – with head, heart and hand and growing with challenges.

Attending a seminar at wannseeFORUM means a week of active learning. Learning not only takes place during the artistic and media workshops and in the plenary sessions, but 24 hours a day.

1. Learning means to learn together and from each other, and to support others in their learning.
2. At the same time, learning means to enter into a critical discourse and to struggle together to find solutions.
3. Learning means to absorb knowledge, information and impulses and to incorporate them into everyday life.
4. Learning means working toward the common goal of the seminar in a small group or with all of the participants.
5. Moreover, learning at wannseeFORUM also means spending leisure time together, learning from each other even outside the seminar sessions, perceiving and accepting differences, and showing each other respect and esteem in all situations.

Part of the successful learning becomes visible at the end of the seminar in a final presentation: Together, the participants have reached their goal. In order to achieve this, motivated and highly qualified seminar leaders guide and support the participants during the entire seminar period. The evaluation of our seminars ensures that successful learning remains a dynamic process.