Under the title "The Wall Must Go! On Old and New Borders," we dedicated ourselves to walls, borders, and barriers of all kinds. Whether physical or psychological, our goal was to overcome walls together, and we succeeded.
Initial barriers were broken down through getting to know one another on the first evening. The topic chosen to introduce the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall provided a starting point for discussion over the next five days.
The topic was explored in greater depth the following day after a keynote address , with participants divided into four groups. The main focus of each group was:
- "Boundless Happiness? Germany 30 Years After the Fall of the Wall"
- “Bridges and Borders – Where is Europe headed?”
- “Exclusion and participation – On the way to an inclusive society?”
- "Between online participation and hate speech – opportunities and limits of the digital society"
The subsequent fishbowl discussion, moderated by Saide Leraillé, took place under the motto "The Wall is gone?!" Our guests Cicek Bacik (spokesperson for Sons and Daughters of Guest Workers), Saraya Gomis (Anti-Discrimination Officer for the State of Berlin), Thembi Wolf (freelance journalist), and Daniel Kubiak (research associate at Humboldt University) discussed personal experiences with walls and borders and the possibility of overcoming them. Participants took the opportunity to contribute their perspectives to the discussion from the designated open spaces and shared questions they had previously raised in thematic groups. In the evening, everyone went together to the Theater Strahl to see the play "#BerlinBerlin – Of Walls and People," which vividly illustrated the impact of the Berlin Wall on the division of Germany and offered a fascinating look back at German-German history.
The topics discussed at the Pentecost Academy continued into the Barcamp dayfor the participants, who were able to exchange ideas in self-designed sessions. In the evening, those with enough energy left went to the Carnival of Cultures, where cultural diversity was celebrated and boundaries were overcome through dance.
The program on the methods day offered practical tips for overcoming barriers. Participants could methodology groups address their personal barrier reduction individually or in a group
- „inclusive project management“,
- „Parkour: Physically overcoming walls“,
- „Theatre of the Oppressed“,
- „Accessible moderation“,
- „Photographic Memories: I'm creating a picture“
- „Graffiti: East-West Gallery“
Some results from the groups, as well as individual talents, were later revealed on the pA Open Stage. These included, for example, self-written texts from the Barcamp session "Writing Workshop" and a piece from the methods group "Theatre of the Oppressed," which dealt with barriers and different possibilities for participation. In the graffiti workshop, we finally got to work on our self-built wall, which mysteriously appeared in different places every morning. (You can see the result and who is responsible for the wall theft here: http://www.pfingstakademie.de/blog/wordpress/2019/06/die-warheit-ueber-die-mauer/)
On the final day of the Pentecost Academy, the "Documentation in the Blog" group presented their results and impressions from the past few days to great applause; these can be found here: www.pfingstakademie.de. The 19th Pentecost Academy concluded with a reflection session and a shared lunch, after which all participants set off again to break down barriers in their respective environments.
We thank all speakers, guests and participants for their participation and exciting contributions and look forward to the next Pentecost Academy 2020!.
Special thanks also go to the staff and actors of the STRAHL Theatre, who extended the play by an extra day for us, thus enabling us to experience an impressive theatre production.
All information about the Pentecost Academy 2019 can be found here: http://www.pfingstakademie.de/