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Europäisches Haus Pappenheim

Stadt Pappenheim
Marktplatz 1
91788 Pappenheim
Tel. ++49 / 9143 / 606-61
ehp(at)pappenheim.de

17.04.16: Big Applause for Students, Standing Ovations for Joachim Grzega

It was the last event at the EHP as a center for politics, cultures and languages. One more time, the room was fully packed.


Under the guidance of EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, students of the university of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt had dealt with the manipulative power of language, analyzing German, French, Spanish, Polish and British newspaper headlines. For this, 3 thematic spots and the EUROLINGUA Museum were built up. The students did not only give presentations, but also tried to include the audience. Anne Würth illustrated the naming of different government heads: Merkel, Obama, Cameron, Hollande, Tsipras, Assad, Putin. Among other things, she mentioned that Putin’s name is the least combined with the first name. One reason could be to avoid feelings of closeness and positiveness, which are often associated with first names. This is supported by the fact that Putin is the only one whose name is connected with negative phrases such as “Evil Putin”. Agnes Giglberger analyzed words that denote the inequal distribution of wealth. When differences are larger, the more emotional notions of “poverty” and “richness” are used. Carolin Schlosser looked at words for migrants. She said that having a refined vocabulary would basically enable refined thinking, but also showed that the words for “migrants” are often connected with geographical adjectives relating to eastern Europe, but not to western Europe. This can slowly make the word be associated with poverty.


In the course of the evening, Joachim Grzega also had a look back at the more than 100 EHP events. For him, the EHP was there to give help for people so that they can better understand the cultural and economic aspects of Europe. Grzega said that we needed such institutions of a new kind of Enlightenment—truly European, based on complex academic research, but presented in a language that is clear to everybody, sometimes with a bit of humor. He underlined the central role of his language teaching concepts: the Basic Global English classes(with a 91-year old being his oldest learner), the LanguageGyms (and his furthest participant, from Flensburg), the Language Emergency Doctor courses (and the many content learners). With these concepts Grzega even made it into Bavarian TV. Furthermore, he was happy about the invitations he had received in many regions of Germany. He also illustrated how he organized conferences to make guests enrich Pappenheim’s downtown life. Finally, he thanked Wilma Vogel and Dr. Bea Klüsener and some local associations for their support. All who had helped to set up the EHP could be proud. In turn, Renate Prusakow (local history association) as well as Martin Stehr and Ludwig Schütz (twin-town association) thanked Grzega for the good cooperation; they very much regretted the end of the EHP. Deeply moved, Mayor Uwe Sinn also looked back at the time with Grzega. He said that Grzega had always fullfilled all of the town council’s demands, had found quick solutions for all challenges and had attracted numerous international top guests to Pappenheim. All this contributed to the supraregional attractivity of Pappenheim. Some people had tears in their eyes, and the visitors gave Grzega standing ovations for his achievements. Despite the melancholic atmosphere in the room, Grzega kept his humor and invited everybody to stay in contact with him. Finally, Grzega presented his latest composition: it combines the phrases for “in peace” in different European languages. And at the end, the audience sang with him.


The Project Team: Joachim Grzega, Agnes Giglberger, Anne Würth, Carolin Schlosser
Station "Migrants"
Station "Inequal Distribution of Wealth"
Station "Government Heads"
Look Back at the EHP Events in Germany and Austria
Grzega + Mayor Uwe Sinn
Renate Prusakow (local history association) + Grzega
Grzega + Martin Stehr und Ludwig Schütz (twin-town association)
Joachim Grzega sings closing song
Standing Ovations for Grzega
Personal Good-byes
Text of Grzega's Peace Song "In Pace"

07/04/16: Manipulation through Language: Last EHP Event with Professor Grzega and His Students

Joachim Grzega, Anne Würth, Carlolin Schlosser, Agnes Giglberger

EHP Director Professor Dr. Joachim Grzega will host an event with students from the university of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt on Friday, April 15, from 6:15 to 7:45 in the evening, entitled “Manipulation through Language in Politics”. As with former events with students, a tour with different thematic stops has been created. At these stops Agnes Giglberger, Carolin Schlosser and Anne Würth will present analyses of newspaper headlines from 5 EU countries: Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Britain. How do journalists write about which foreigners? Which government leader is presented in a positive way, which one in a negative way? How do the newspapers present the unequal distribution of wealth? The choice of words also says something about the way we think. Professor Grzega will supplement the observations of his students. They all want to give citizens a help for a better understanding of the manipulative power of language. The relationship between language and thinking was also part of the EUROLINGUA Museum, which will also be accessible once again.


The evening will be the last event with Joachim Grzega at the EHP. Therefore, he will take a look back at the EHP work and there will be the chance to say good-bye to him.

 

 

 

25/03/16: Town Council Has Decided to Close the EHP

Since its beginning we have kept the EHP Newsletter free from local political fights. We focussed on EHP contents. This changes with this newsletter as the majority of Pappenheim’s town council has decided to close the EHP with 30 April 2016. Viewing the EHP achievements and the fact that financial support of nearly half a million euros was already secured for the next three years—all within previous town council decisions on the future content and the financial frame—the decision came as a surprise.


If you are interested in the offer of the EHP, you can still contact Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, at joachim.grzega(at)ku.de. For other questions concerning the EHP, please contact the mayor of Pappenheim, Uwe Sinn, at +49-9143-606-15.


We thank all supporters of the EHP and would like to say good-bye in a last event in April. More about that in another newsletter.


After the decision of the majority of the town council EHP Director Professor Dr. Joachim Grzega gave a review on the year 2015 and the entire first period of the EHP. We translate part of his speech here:

“In the first half of the year 2015, the majority of the town council made it clear to me that the main goal of the EHP should be the increase of earnings. I had pointed out that this could only be achieved if I were more active outside Pappenheim. The majority of the town council accepted this. The original target of offering politics, culture and languages to approximately the same degree was abandoned. This is why there were fewer events at the EHP itself.

Nonetheless, we managed to offer events at the EHP that drew attraction. Among these was the series of evenings with members of the EU parliament. [....] Mention can also be made of the premiere of a documentary film in our house together with the lively discussion afterwards as well as the quiz evenings every two months, where participants could learn something about history, nature, culture and current political events. A particularly high number of the 2015 visitors came to the afternoon with international researchers, who presented their research in an intelligible way and discussed it with the audience. Of course, there was also a series of events connected to our highly efficient language teaching concepts. They were again presented on the channel Bayerischer Rundfunk. And it is our products from language teaching research that brought most of our earnings. Thus, we were able to make a first plus in 2015, with fundings, donations and fees for our services. I have already mentioned the figure at the last meeting of the town council: 45,770.55 EUR. And this already in the third year of an institution for education and formation!

Let me now give a final report on the 3 years. In 2012, Pappenheim’s city council selected me as director of the Europäisches Haus Pappenheim. The city selected a person whose additional qualifications they could profit from for free. The town council gave me a list of goals for three years. More than once I have already showed the town council that we achieved these goals after only a little over a year, in not even half the time. During the remaining time, I have tried to advance the EHP profile in order to achieve supraregional prominence. For the achievement of the goals, or the period of 3 years and 4 months, the town council had allowed me to use roughly 240,000 EUR of the town’s own financial means. How much did the town really have to pay from 2012 to 2015? The official figures show that it was only about 127,000 EUR. And this figure even includes the cleaning service for the tourist information as well as for the neighboring building including the public toilets. If you only count the cleaning service fees for the EHP proper, then the town had to invest just about 98,000 EUR – not even half of the means that the town council had authorized.

However, I have always tried to think as an overall enterpreneur. I saw this as a duty with respect to the EU, which had invested an enormous sum into this house and was ready to continue the support.

For me, the macroeconomic aspect of my function was important. And this is not only reflected in a figure of the town’s financial means. For me it was important to create something that brings more purchasing power to the town and the region. Many things are called “European”, but we wanted to take this label seriously – through unique features, through a high-qualitative profil: (1) to approach topics in a really European way, (2) to uncover complex relations and to present them in an intelligible way (often humorously), (3) to offer highly efficient language teaching models. It was a profile with unique features as they could be realized by me and my team with our specific personalities: Wilma Vogel, Claudia Sand, Sandra Schweihofer and Bea Klüsener.

For support, I also thank all true friends of the EHP—in the tourist information, in the associations Kunst- und Kulturverein, Städtepartnerschaftsverein, and Heimat- und Geschichtsverein. [....]

Such a project is ideally not only worked on, but “lived” on. Only due to this, even German guests of international fame came to little Pappenheim. And if, thanks to our profile, people from Paris and Rome come to Pappenheim more than once, this shows that we have in part already reached international attractivity with our profile. We have created so many relationships and so much trust in our work that we could even have had half a teacher for free for one year.

Even more important to me was that we explained the complex world in an intelligible way, often decorated with humor. It was important to me that we create something new that would bring a plus to the broad public. I myself was actively involved in over 100 events just in Pappenheim. [...]. For a plus in knowledge and skills. A plus in language skills, in political knowledge—above party lines, only on the basis of observations of economic reality—, a plus in the awareness of common history and values, an awareness for more justice, tolerance and solidarity. For more cooperation rather than competition.

After all, this is what the European Union originally wanted to represent according the Lisbon Treaty. To intensify all this in the years to come, for this we had already secured the financial means from different partners and initiated a numbers of ideas. Also with partners. Unfortunately, the town council has backpedaled. But at least we at the EHP want to carry out a last event in this European sense.”


Here a few articles from the local press (in German):

Weißenburger Tagblatt 1

Weißenburger Tagblatt 2

Der Skribent: Pappenheim aktuell

29.01.16: February Events at the EHP

Due to its success last year, there will be another European Short Film Evening at the EHP, mainly organized by Lisa Strixner from Offene Behindertenarbeit, in cooperation with Kunst- und Kulturverein Pappenheim (KuK) and the EHP. The evening is 19 February, 7 to 9 o’clock. On Sunday 21 February, 7 to 9 o’clock in the evening, there will be the next Europe Pub Quiz.

 

20/01/16: Language and Cultural History with Milk Products

Grzega: milk products and their names

At its most recent event, the EHP combined eating and learning. EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega illustrated how language history and cultural history are often connected. For the first evening in the new series “Linguistic and Cultural History with Taste” he had chosen the topic milk products: Grzega had prepared a plate for each participant as well as a buffet with different milk products: milk, cream, butter, cheese, quark, yoghurt, pudding and ice-cream. In a relaxed style, he gave Europe-wide information on these products. For example: many words for milk products come from words for “fermented milk brought into form”, such as Italian “formaggio” as well as the Slavic “twarog”, which led to the word “quark”. Many popular milk products in Europe originally come from the European south and east. In contrast, the word “pudding” is of English origin, as we can guess from other words ending in “-ing” (“training”, “piercing” etc.). The German word “Butterbrot” (“butter bread”) even entered Russian as a word for ‘bread with butter and something on top of it’. The butter-bread was invented in the 14th century as an easily transportable snack between the two main meals of the day. Grzega also described that many cheese names were originally linked to a place, such as the city of Camembert and the Emmental valley. With growing popularity of these cheese types they were also copied elsewhere and the name was adopted. Camembert was used as a word for every kind of white soft cheese and Emmental for every cheese with holes. This often led to legal disputes and sometimes the protection of names. Grzega also mentioned that EU-subsidized low-price milk products sold to so-called developing countries are a danger for the development of the local milk trade in these countries. At the end, Grzega offered ice-cream such as the one brought to Central Europe as a new product idea from poor farmers in the Dolomites, which is why many ice-cream parlors in Central Europe bear the name “Dolomiti”. The new series has also attracted new visitors to the EHP, who visibly enjoyed the milk products. They hope for a continuation of the series.

 

 

 

02/01/16: Events at the EHP in January

On Sunday, 17 January, 7 to 9 in the evening, there will be another Europe Pub Quiz (if English-speaking guests want to participate, they should tell the EHP in advance). From 15 to 17 January, from 9 to 5 each day, there will be a German course according to the efficient model “Language Emergency Doctor” (“Sprach-Not-Arzt”). Participation fee is 120 EUR; those who do not have the income at the moment can also pay later. Registration deadline is 8 January. A new series will be “Linguistic and Cultural History with Taste”. It combines a culinary offer with a look on the corresponding word-field in European languages and its relation to origin, use, make and economic role? The host is EHP Director Joachim Grzega. The topic of the first session is “Milk Products”. It will take place on 18 January, 6.30 to 8 in the evening.

 

 

 

29/12/15: Essay for more peace, in and with Europe

For the end of the year EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega has written an essay to set all readers thinking. The essay’s title is “More Balance for More Peace—in Language and Economy”. It is available on the EHP website in German and English deals with linguistic and economic EU activities that are an obstacle to peace; it also presents ideas for more peaceful ways.

On this topic, we may also think of Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece “The Great Dictator”. It was published 75 years ago. The final scene is also a call for more peaceful behavior. The protagonist is a Jewish hairdresse who was mixed up with Dictator Hynkel (a parody on Hitler). He is now expected to give a speech for the nation and says the following: “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone—if possible—Jew, Gentile—black man—white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost....The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say—do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed—the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, ....”

 

17/12/15: Publication of Study on Teaching German and Other Eurolinguistic Topics

Joachim Grzega with new Eurolinguistics volume

Joachim Grzega, Director of the EHP and Professor at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, has published a selection of the papers presented at the international Eurolinguistics Conference at the EHP in spring. They are accessible at www.eurolinguistix.com. The authors are from Germany, Austria, Italy and Bulgaria. The papers show the specific advantages of European languages as a field of study and the specific methods required for this. One contribution shows how people in England in the 16th and 17th centuries saw themselves in comparison to Europe—sometimes as a part of Europe, sometimes as something clearly different. Further, it is shown how proper names sometimes become normal words in European languages. Another article illustrates that also Bulgarian, often badly included in Eurolinguistic studies, shows a typical European vocabulary. Moreover, one essay shows that European universities write their English websites more and more in a way that is not only to inform, but also to attract international students. Joachim Grzega himself presents research results on his concept of teaching German to foreigners, a concept which he has developed with two former students from Eichstätt university and which is called “Language Emergency Doctor” (“Sprach-Not-Arzt”). The article shows how a well-reflected system of pictures, teacher talk, pantomiming, exercise types and teacher behavior can make teaching more efficient than in traditional models. At the end there is a memorandum which conference participants wrote on the last day of the conference and which stresses the need for eurolinguistics as an academic field in its own right. For April 2016, the EHP plans its already 4th international Eurolinguistics conference. The general subject is “European languages and societal topics”. The conference website is: http://ehp.pappenheim.de/forschung/eurolinguistics-conference/.

 

 

21/10/15: Updated Teaching Material for the Language Emergency Doctor Method Now Online

An updated version of our teaching material “Sprach-Not-Arzt” for the age group 16+ is now online (http://www.sprach-not-arzt.de)—in two variants: one with enlarged English comments, one with Arabic comments. Apart from some optimizations dialogs for more situations have been included. Consequently, also the guidelines for teachers have been updated. Those who cannot print 136 pages in color can still order the brochures at the EHP. Help for teaching reading skills for the Latin alphabet as well as a new research report are also online. Of course, the EHP continues to offer workshops for teachers and courses for migrants and refugees. The EHP can also be booked for applying the Language Emergency Doctor method to other languages.

 

 

 

09/09/15: EHP Director Grzega Gave Main Talk at International Conference in Innsbruck

Grzega (left) discusses with international linguists at the University of Innsbruck

 

EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega’s work also receives more and more international respect. He was now invited to a linguistics conference at the University of Innsbruck. There he gave a central talk on his work and spoke in front of linguists from many EU countries, Switzerland, Russia, Georgia, South Korea and Japan. In particular, Grzega was asked to illustrate his language teaching concept “Language Emergency Doctor” (“Sprach-Not-Arzt”), since this concept is at present the most efficient method of teaching German to migrants and refugees. At the same time, Grzega illustrated that, also due to our political vocaruly, we do not always see the connection between western politics and the situation in the countries of the refugees and migrants. For more refined thinking he said that it is advantageous that there already are scientifically founded model such as the eco-social market economcy including the Global Marshall Plan. Finally, the main organizor also pointed out Grzega’s own international conferences at the EHP. Grzega took the chance to suggest the Altmühl valley for further conferences.

 

01/08/15: Europe Pub Quiz with International Participants

It was a very active day for the EHP team: from the European Forest Festival (where the EHP team offered a forest quiz) in the first half of the day back to the EHP for a Pub Quiz in the second half of the day. The last Europe Pub Quiz at the EHP was something very special. Beside German participants there were also 25 Russian partipants—members of the choir of the Technical University in Moscow. They were in the region on the invitation by Weißenburg’s entrepreneur Karl Feil, who also contacted the EHP. In order to overcome the language distance, the quiz was a mixture of German, English and Russian. Thanks to the special selection of questions the guests from Moscow learned something about European cultural history, something about language history shown at the EUROLINGUA Museum, something about modern free-trade agreements’ negative consequences for citizens as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, and something about widespread false statements on Greece. The EHP let the Russian guests participate at a reduced fee, and the winning team donated their prize for their trip back. The Moscow choir expressed their thanks musically. The two quiz hosts, EHP Director Joachim Grzega and EHP Ambassador Bea Klüsener, also said good-bye to their audience by singing a multilingual song.


 

 

Wilma Vogel + Joachim Grzega at the Forest Festival
EHP-PubQuiz international

28/07/15: MEP Lochbihler Spoke About Human Rights

Uwe Sinn, Barbara Lochbihler, Joachim Grzega

“This was a dignified closing”, said EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega on the last event in the series with Bavarian members of the EU parliament. This time he and Mayor Uwe Sinn could welcome Barbara Lochbihler. She talked about human rights. In her talk she criticized statements which see the EU only as an economic union or which, for publicity reasons, aim at sounding particularly harsh against non-EU citizens. So far, other regions have valued the EU for its intense activities for human rights. In the world, the EU is seen as a “soft power”. This is why in Lochbihler’s view there should not be a European army. Based on her many journeys, she could draw a lively picture of different conflict regions in the world and the global problems, especially trading with drogues, weapons and humans. The humanitarian crises are the biggest challenge for the EU. Lochbihler advised to analyze very well which aspects should be treated separately and which aspects are linked to each other. With respect to the refugees, she claims that there are too many ideas for securing the borders: there should be more ideas about how we could eliminate the basis for people smugglers. For this, a better Europeanization of border policies would also be necessary. The treatment of refugees was particularly interesting for the EHP guests who also take care of refugees in their free-time. More information on Barbara Lochbihler’s ideas based on her work in the EU committee of human rights are found in a brochure that people can receive from Ms. Lochbihler’s office.

 

13/07/15: The Last EHP Event Before Break: Pub Quiz

Joachim Grzega + Bea Klüsener

As director of the EHP Joachim Grzega says that people can always book special events. But the last public event this summer will be next weekend: the Europe Pub Quiz on Sunday, July 19, from 17:00 to 18:30. As usually, quiz host Joachim Grzega, assisted by EHP Ambassador Bea Klüsener, will ask questions that will predominantly ask for and reveal general principles in Europe. The EHP team hopes that many of their regular guests will show up so that they can also say “thank you” with a little musical performance.

 

 

 

04/07/15: Member of EU Parliament Barbara Lochbihler Will Come to EHP

MdEP Barbara Lochbihler

On Friday Barbara Lochbihler will be the final guest at the EHP series in which members of the EU parliament talk about their work in the parliamentary committees. EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega is glad to be able to welcome an expert for human rights--especially with respect to the discussion about refugees. Lochbihler has been a member of the EU parliament since 2009. And since this time she has also been sitting in the Committee for Human Rights, from 2011 to 2014 even as the committee’s president. Lochbihler, who has degrees in Social Studies and Political Science, has been engaged in human rights for many years. She led a center for elderly people, was Secretary General of the German section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom as well as of the German section of Amnesty International. She is also a member of boards at the Forum Human Rights, at the German Institute for Human Rights and at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. The event at the EHP will start at 16:30.


 

 

30/06/15: Member of EU Parliament Kerstin Westphal Spoke at the EHP

Kerstin Westphal

 

 

Member of the EU Parliament Kerstin Westphal visited Pappenheim already for the third time. For the first time, however, she talked about her concrete work in the committee for regional development. This committee takes care of the distribution of EU funds down to the regional level. The EHP is one of the projects that benefits from the EU funds. And Kerstin Westphal emphasized that among members of the EU the EHP and its director, Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, are known as a landmark model of basic work for Europe. Educational institutions are important for small towns, she said; if they do not exist, this is often a reason that towns die out. Westphal has also strongly supported the installation of a European delegate for towns, who is supposed to combine the topics of the single EU commissioners especially with respect to small and medium-sized towns. She very emotionally also pointed out the danger for Europe due to the strengthening of right-wing parties. All democratic forces would have to act against this. Europe is good, but needs renovation. For her lively presentation, Kerstin Westphal received a lot of applause from the audience. The next public event at the EHP is again on education: a public conversation with Stefan Schuster, member of the regional parliament, on July 1, 18:00.

25/06/15: EHP for Schools

Joachim Grzega in front of students in Donauwörth
Training for the Peace Tour to Oradour

Invited by teacher Rolf Eckhardt, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega paid visit to the vocational training school in Donauwörth. He shows how you can activate even 40 learners so that they practice English and intercultural communication. Grzega understands English as a truly global tool of communication. This means that a kind of English is taught that is different from traditional English language teaching, where learners should, at the end, talk like an American or like a Brit. With his concept Basic Global English, Grzega has already taught English to primary school kids in a way that was faster than with traditional methods. This was also a contribution to the children’s “Europe competence”. To see English as a global tool of communication does not mean, however, that other languages are less valued. This is why Grzega and Pappenheim’s mayor Uwe Sinn have written a German-French greeting letter for a school project at Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Erlangen. The Erlangen class, together with their teacher Christian Jechnerer, will soon go on a bike tour to Oradour in France—to celebrate 20 years of town twinning between the regions of Limoges and Mittelfranken, but also to commemorate the German SS massacre in Oradour. For this event, all mayors were invited to write a greeting note. This letter has now been picked up by bike at the EHP. More details on the “peace tour to Oradour” at https://asglimoges.wordpress.com. Joachim Grzega’s alternative methods can be tested out at LanguageGym Russian on July 3-4. Schools can also visit the EUROLINGUA Museum at the EHP and get to know European language history in an interactive way.

 

 

 

 

10/06/15: Member of the EU Parliament Kerstin Westphal Will Come to the EHP

Kerstin Westphal

The EHP is not unknown to Kerstin Westphal. She was one of the guest speakers at the opening ceremony in October 2012 and had supported the project already before that. Now she will come to Pappenheim again. Apart from her pedagogical work with mentally handicapped people she gathered experience in regional and local politics for many years before becoming Member of the European Parliament in 2009. As part of her EU work, she is a member of the Committee of Regional Development, whose work will be at the center of the EHP event, on June 19, from 6.30 to 8 in the evening.

 

 

 

 

28/05/15: Radio B5 Presents the Language Crash Courses at the EHP

If language learners’ goal is to acquire central communicative competences for the most important situations, the EHP offers teaching concepts that are highly efficient also from an international academic perspective. Under the heading “Sprachnotfallkoffer” (Language Emergency Box) Radio B5 has presented two of the EHP’s crash course concepts: one-day concept “SprachFitnessStudios” (Language Gyms) for tourists and the three-day concept “Sprach-Not-Arzt” (Language Emergency Doctor) for migrants and refugees. The report can now be downloaded online at:

http://www.br.de/radio/bayern1/sendungen/mittags-in-franken/sprachnotfall-koffer-sprach-kurse-in-pappenheim-100.html

19/05/15: Member of EU Parliament Ertug Made Transport an Interesting Topic

MEP Ismail Ertug

Some may have thought that transportation in the EU is not a very interesting topic. However, Ismail Ertug, Member of the EU Parliament for the Socialists and Democrats and Member of the Committee for Transportation and Tourism, showed the EHP audience how fascinating and central the topic is. How can you guide traffic so that it respects goals of environmental protection and so that it is neither a problem for private persons nor for companies? Ertug showed that infrastructure is particularly important for south-east Germany, because it is the gate to eastern and south-eastern Europe. Infrastructure is not a luxury topic, but very elementary. Ertug also showed how national decisions sometimes violate EU regulations and how decisions by the European Court of Justice would make citizens see the EU as negative instead of those who knew before that their decisions would be against EU law. This would be a particular challenge for EU politicians: they not only have to take into account reason, but also people’s feelings as well as business lobbyists. Ertug stated that the EU is able to make comprises and would deserve to get more competences on issues that are better solved on a European level. However, if citizens’ negative feelings are stronger than the positive feelings, EU claims to get more power would quickly make right-wing extremists appear closer to the people. However, EU parliamentaries are not far away from the common people, but directly among them. After all, this is also proven by the EHP series of monthly evenings with members of the EU parliament.

 

 

04/05/15: Evening with MEP Ismail Ertug and Other Events in May

Ismail Ertug

The EHP program for May covers several topics again. On May 10, there is the next Europe Pub Quiz. From May 14 to 16, there is the next course “Language Emergency Doctor” (“Sprach-Not-Arzt”). On May 17, EHP Director Joachim Grzega and EHP Ambassador Bea Klüsener participate in the opening of the exhibition of selected works by Hélène de Beauvoir, oragnized by Kunst- und Kulturverein Pappenheim.

Already on May 8, however, the EHP will welcome the next Member of the European Parliament: Ismail Ertug. Ertug, MEP since 2009, is a member of the EU parliamentary Committee on Transport and Tourism—this committee’s work will be at the center of the evening. Apart from this, Ertug is a member of Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and publishes articles on a broad range of topics.

 

 

27/04/15: Summary of the 3rd International Eurolinguistics Conference at the EHP

Recently, the EHP hosted its 3rd international Eurolinguistics Conference. Eurolinguistics is the academic field that looks for the common features of European languages. Due to the work of Joachim Grzega and several students of the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the EHP has become a center of Eurolinguistic research. German, Austrian, Italian, Swedish, Bulgarian and Ukrainian – these were the nationalities of the participants who presented their results at the EHP. Since it is important for EHP Director Grzega that research results are also made accessible to a broader public, one section of the conference was reserved for a general audience. Here, results in a language that everyone could understand. This section was created by EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener (Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Pöckl (Innsbruck, already at the EHP for the 3rd time), Dr. Laura Ferrarotti (Rome, already at the EHP for the 2nd time), Prof. Dr. Alwin Fill (Graz). At the end of the public section, Martin Stehr, teacher at the college in Treuchtlingen, briefly presented a project by his students, which he had coordinated together with EHP Director Grzega. A surprisingly large audience had found their way to the EHP for that afternoon and gave a lot of positive feedback for this expert-layperson event. Wolfgang Pöckl from Innsbruck was impressed by the large number of visitors and hoped that the multiple work at the EHP could be continued for many years.

 

 

Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega
Mayor Uwe Sinn
Dr. Bea Klüsener
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Pöckl
Prof. Dr. Alwin Fill
Dr. Laura Ferrarotti
Prof. Dr. Roswitha Fischer
Erhard Steller
Prof. Dr. Sture Ureland
Oxana Oleinichenko
Polina Choparinova
The participants of the 3rd Eurolinguistics Conference at the EHP
The Audience of the Eurolinguistics Afternoon
The "Makers" of the Eurolinguistics Afternoon

24/04/15: MEP Markus Ferber Spoke at the EHP

Markus Ferber + Mayor Uwe Sinn

Paris, London, Pappenheim – this was Markus Ferber’s schedule last week. With him, the EHP could welcome another Member of the European Parliament. Ferber, who has already received international honors for his political activities, is also a member of the EU parliamentary committee of economy and currency. Ferber showed himself well-informed about the work at the EHP and congratulated Director Joachim Grzega and his team. He said that it was the first time that an institution has managed to organize a monthly series with committee reports by various members of the European Parliament. He then gave a very illustrating overview on the history of the bank crisis and explained his own political viewpoints. He particularly spoke in favor of more regulations of the financial sector. He criticized the intransparency of the work by rating agencies. He also said that social aspects would have to play a bigger role again in Europe’s economic system. With respect to the Greece crisis he wished that Greece would soon deal with the problem of tax fraud. He also pointed out that “bitcoins”, the new Internet currency, are a phenomenon whose risks are not yet adequately analyzed and discussed. Some visitors also had very critical views on the free-trade agreement TTIP. Ferber said that the members of the EU parliament would be fully aware of people’s fears and they would also respect the negative experiences with the North American free-trade agreement NAFTA. At the end, there was a lot of applause for Markus Ferber, who had stayed almost one hour longer than planned.

 

 

13/04/15: Member of European Parliament Markus Ferber Will Speak at the EHP

Markus Ferber

On April 17 the EHP continues its series of talks with members of the European Parliament. This time Markus Ferber will speak about his work in the EU parliamentary committee of economy and currency. Ferber has been politically active for over 30 years. He has been a member of the European parliament since 1994. One of his achievements is his active involvement in banning trade with Credit Default Swaps.

07/04/15: International Experts Show Use of Research on European Languages

 

It is already the third time that international linguists meet at the EHP. Joachim Grzega, EHP Director and Professor at the University of Eichstätt, organizes his third conference on Eurolinguistics, that is: the study of the common characteristics of European languages. While it is totally normal in political science and history to study things from a European perspective, the study of language is mostly done from a national approach. Grzega wants to change this and also he also wants to achieve that Eurolinguistic knowledge enters school curricula. For this, the average citizen must see what Eurolinguistics can achieve. Therefore Grzega has reserved a conference section for the general audience, on Saturday, April 11, from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. The experts will briefly present their latest research results in everyday language and discuss their studies with the audience. Among the experts are Professor Wolfgang Pöckl, from Austria, who will be there already for the third time, and Professor Sture Ureland, from Sweden, who founded the first Eurolinguistics Association in 1999. The public event is free. Those who want to participate at the public event or also at the other conference sections are kindly asked to contact the EHP before. The whole conference program is available on the EHP webpages: introduction page > Eurolinguistics Conference 2015 (right column).

 

 

02/04/15: TV Tipp and Review on EHP Evening on EU Work

(1) TV: Political education in the form with many innovative elements – this is what the German program “Die Anstalt” offers. If you are familiar with German, have a look at the latest edition on the EU (and German) policy with regard to Greece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x1-lyzW5PE


(2) An Evening with Member of the European Parliament Albert Deß: After the lively discussion, Albert Deß offered to come to the EHP again. He had spoken on his work in the domains agriculture and regional development. Deß supported a EU policy that leaves enough chances for local variants and does not confront too much bureaucracy on farmers. Nature is very diverse in Europe, so it does not make much sense to set the same conditions and measures for all of Europe. People who decide on such regulations should listen very carefully to people with regular practice in agricultural work. Deß also said that we should not look at developments just on the surface, but carry out detailed analyses. He was glad to hear that such methodological approaches are also practiced at the EHP. In the audience was the Head of the District of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen, Gerhard Wägemann, who congratulated EHP Director Professor Dr. Joachim Grzega and his team for their work. He called the EHP an important institution for the region and hoped it would live on.


(3) An Evening with Member of the European Parliament Maria Noichl: Although gender equality concerns both genders, Maria Noichl’s EHP audience consisted basically of women. As a member of the EU committee for women’s rights and gender equality, Noichl criticized those who would only see employment and economic growth (in a very simplistic und one-sided way). With the many refugees from the African-Arabic cultures, long-solved problems and unknown problems have become daily reality in Europe again, such as women’s mutilation. But there are also originally European problems. Among these is the fact that poverty is “female” in Europe. The solution is not simply, as Noichl said, to transfer them from badly paid social jbs to better-paid jobs through more education, but rather to give everybody the chance to choose the job she wants and to pay for this job adequately. As a teacher, she also saw how teaching material would consolidate traditional gender roles, by giving a number of humorous anecdotes. The audience thanked with a lot of applause. In the audience was the Vice-President of Regional Parliament, Christa Naaß. She said that she has been at the EHP already for many times, since she likes the variation of offers. But this time, she also liked to come here to meet her old friend from her days as a member of the Bavarian parliament.

Happy Easter!

Uwe Sinn (Mayor), Albert Deß, Joachim Grzega, Gerhard Wägemann
Maria Noichl, Christa Naaß

27/03/15: Europe-Pub-Quiz at the EHP Itself

Due to renovations at Pappenheim’s Irish Pub the Europe Quiz Evening on March 29, from 7 to 9 in the evening, will take place at the EHP itself. As usual, Joachim Grzega will include questions where one can apply or learn general principles about Europe. The questions will be taken from the fields of history, geography, music, arts, everyday culture, politics and regional particularities.


 

 

 

 

19/03/15: Member of European Parliament Maria Noichl Will Speak at the EHP

Maria Noichl

As March 8 is the International Women’s Day, many events on gender aspects are currently taking place. The EHP also wants to make a contribution and could win Maria Noichl as guest speaker. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since last year and sits the parliament committee for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. The event is on March 26, 19:00-20:30.

 

 

13/03/15: Member of European Parliament Albert Deß Will Speak at the EHP

Albert Deß

On March 19 the EHP continues its series of talks with members of the European Parliament. This time Albert Deß will speak about his work in the EU parliamentary committee of agriculture. Deß has been politically active since 1963 and has been elected into different political offices since 1978. Since 2004 he has been a member of the European parliament. One of his goals is to strengthen innovation and growth in regional areas.


23/02/15: Freie Wähler Evening with Three Parlamentarians at the EHP

Ulrike Müller, Joachim Grzega, Gabi Schmidt, Johann Häusler

Since she is the only Member of the European Parliament from the Freie Wähler party, she gets invitations from all over Germany. Together with Freie Wähler in Bavaria (southern Germany), she now devided to come the intersection of three Bavarian regions, to the EHP. She was accompanied by two Members of the Bavarian parliament, Gabi Schmidt and Johann Häusler. The evening’s topic was the development of regions and agriculture, which EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega described as the heart of societies. Müller paid compliments to the work at the EHP. She said that such projects are also a challenge because of the bureaucratic work that has to be done. Bureaucratic work would also become bigger and bigger for farmers. This is often not because of the EU, but because of additional regulations in Bavaria. The amount of ecological regulations are a burden particularly for small and medium-sized agricultural family companies. She spoke in favor of sustainability and a healthy mix of organic and conventional agriculture. She also had a very critical view on TTIP at its current stage, which would not bring any benefits to small and medium-sized companies nor regional areas. Finally, Müller stressed that new ideas for regulations should first take into account all consequences before they become laws. Such a principle is common on the local level and should also be the principal at theEuropean level.

 

 

12/02/15: Member of EU Parliament Müller Speaks at the EHP

Ulrike Müller

After the great success of the premiere of the documentary film “Who Is Saving Whom?” (with an audience that discussed for nearly an hour), the next EHP highlight will already be on February 19, 6:30-8:00 in the evening. The EHP will continue its talks with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). This time, Ulrike Müller (Freie Wähler) will come to the EHP. The event is co-organized by the Freie Wähler group of the regional parliament, and their representative Gabi Schmidt will also give a brief speech that evening. Müller, who has been politically active since 1996 (also as vice-mayor), has been MEP since the elections in May 2014. In December 2014, she was also elected Vice-President of the European Democratic Party (EDP). She has also gained important professional expertise in agricultural topics. The focus of her talk will be her work as a member of the committee “agriculture and regional development”.

 

05/02/15: Criticism Against EU Politics: With Film Premiere at the EHP

MEP Buchner (standing right) at the EHP
EU Parachute? Who is saving whom?

Last week the care for peace and social security within the EU was in the center of the talk with MEP Prof. Dr. Klaus Buchner. He criticized several aspects of the EU policies of the big political parties. His talk at the EHP was a kind of premiere since he was the first EHP guest speaker from the ÖDP party. The next premiere will be on 11 Feb, 6:15 in the evening: the EHP will show the documentary film “Who Is Saving Whom?” (in German).The EHP is one of 150 places in 10 countries where this film is shown on that day. The film is an international coproduction by Leslie Franke and Herdolor Loren. The subtitle of the film is “The Crisis as Business Model at the Expense of Democracy and Social Safety”. The film producers will correct the myth that “the Greeks” received 240.000.000.000 EUR of help; the producers illustrate that the money rather went to privates banks, insurance and investment companies. Poor Greeks are poorer now, and rich Greeks even richer. After the 90-min. film, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega will lead a 30-min. discussion. With this event the EHP wants to show that it fully supports the original basic goals of the European Union, but that it has a critical view on certain concrete political measures. The entrance is free. 

 

02/02/15: Visitors Could Feel European Language History

Last Sunday, the EHP opened a museum on the common characteristic features of the EUropean languages. The museum has more than 30 little information spots on letters, sounds, grammar, words and phrases, politeness strategies, language documents, language politics, language teaching and language in literary texts. They were created by the four students Anna-Lena Heimerdinger, Nina Hippler, Sabrina Nerb and Matthias Mugratsch as well as their teacher EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega. They showed that museums can be entertaining and informative without big technological equipment. There were both rather easy and more difficult spots. Guests could decide themselves if they wanted to do a task first or immediately read the solution. There was also a little survey on the name that the museum could have. Most visitors voted for EUROLINGUA. EHP Director Grzega wants to further develop the German-English museum, which aims at creating a feeling of identity. All people interested can visit the museum throughout the next months if they contact the EHP before.

 

 

25/01/15: Interactive Exhibition on Europe’s Languages

Come to the Eurolinguistic Museum and you will see what this mannequin can show about common European language features.

Four events in politics, culture and languages were offered by the EHP last weekend. And there will be another big event next Sunday. Often Europeans claim that there is no real feeling of a European identity. An important element for the development of a feeling of identity is language. When you realize this, it is surprising that there are only very few linguists that the common features of European languages. One of these few eurolinguists is EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega. In his work, Grzega presents results of his studies in a way that people do not need special knowledge. With students from the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt he has created a Eurolinguistic Museum which opens for the first time on Febrary 1, from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. Interactive means that visitors can do certain activities by themselves if they wish. The single sections shows trans-European features in different fields: scripts, sounds, grammar, words and phrases, politness, language documents, language teaching, language in literary texts. The students and EHP Director Grzega are available for discussions.

 

 

18/01/15: Member of EU Parliament Buchner Comes to the EHP

Prof. Dr. Klaus Buchner

The EHP has won several German Members of the EU Parliament (MEP) to come to Pappenheim to report and discuss the work of several EU committees. The first MEP is Prof. Dr. Klaus Buchner, who was elected to the EU Parliament last May and is thus the first MEP of the ÖDP (Ecological Democratic Party). Among the central themes of the 73-year old physics professor are the fight against nuclear power and the danger of mobile phone radiation. In his presentation Buchner will focus on the work in the committee on security and defense. The event is on Jan 23 and starts at the EHP at 6:30 in the evening.

 

 

 

07/01/15: Starting the Year with Pub Quiz

The EHP starts the new year with another Irish Pub Quiz on the topic Europe, at mcintosh’s pub, in Pappenheim, Sunday evening, Jan 11, from 7 to 9. Master of Ceremonies Joachim Grzega will not ask many detail questions, but Europe-related questions that can be answered with general principles.


31/12/14: Pictures of the Year 2014

Jan.: Station Day on Shakespeare
Feb.: Basic Global English - also at old age
Mar.: Discussion on pub culture in Europe
Apr.: International conference on Eurolinguistics
May: Joachim Grzega in Donauwörth, Stuttgart, Ansbach
May: Günter Grzega on TTIP and EU economics policy
May: Joachim Grzega: EU political satire
May: Station Day on EU media propaganda
June: International conference on Economics for the Common Good
July: Station Day on EU youth protests
July: MdB Göppel on EU energy politics
Sep.: Marianne Vocke: multilingual puppet theater
Aug./Sep./Oct.: Sprach-Not-Arzt: Visits + TV Report by BR
Nov.: Boris Pulyer: EU inheritance law
Nov.: Europe Quiz at mcintosh's Irish Pub
Dec.: Joachim Grzega: interview by RBB

23/12/14: Thoughts for Christmas

The EHP wishes you a happy Christmas and thanks especially his guests and supporters.

Christmas-time is a time of words and texts that people use as formulas. We use them without asking if the texts fit with what is done in our society, in our house, by ourselves. Pope Francis again encouraged such reflections recently, this time with respect to Bible texts and the behavior in the Vatican.

But we are also invited to such reflections by song texts – such as the ones by the German-speaking chansonnier Udo Jürgens, who unexpectedly died on the fourth Advent Sunday. Not only his “Merci Chérie” became known in many European countries; also internationally popular is “Griechischer Wein” (Engl. “Come Share the Wine”). However, text versions in other languages do often not reveal that the text original tells about experiences of guestworkers. And often we are not listening well enough to what we are singing. Also many of Udo Jürgens's songs that are less wide-spread invite us to critical reflections – on our society, our own lives, on different forms of violence.

Christmas is the feast of peace. This we celebrate, although it is actually the official goal of the EU and the UN to keep peace on principle – not only on certain celebrated days. And yet conflicts and wars attract people – for money, power, resources and maybe still self-fulfilment (which we used to call “price” and “honor”). Even in the 21st century, Europe is not immune against that.

And we like seeing others as the only ones to blame for conflicts and wars. Already 125 years ago, Bertha von Suttner made one of the main figures illustrate that in her novel “Lay Down Your Arms!”. In this novel, Rudolf says to his conversational partner, who has just described other people and nations as aggressive:

What right have you to think other men worse and more unreasonable than you or I ? Now I will tell you a little story: “Before the closed gate of a beautiful garden stood a crowd of men, one thousand and one in number, looking in very longingly. The gatekeeper had orders to let the people in, in case the majority among them wished for admission. He called one of them to him, ‘Tell me only speak honestly do you wish to come in?’ ‘Oh yes, to be sure I do; but the other thousand, I am certain, do not.’ The careful gate-keeper wrote this answer in his notebook. Then he called up a second. He said the same. Again the other entered in the ‘Yes’ column the number 1, and in the ‘No’ column the number 1000. And so it went on up to the last man. Then he added up the figures. The result was one thousand and one ‘Yes’; over a million ‘No’. So the gate remained shut, for the ‘Noes’ had a crushing majority; and that proceeded from the fact that every one considered himself obliged to answer for the others too, instead of for himself only.”


Bertha von Suttner was in contact with Alfred Nobel. Both hated war. Nobel first thought that the best to keep humans from making war is to have especially dangerous weapons. But Bertha convinced him that it is better to have well-informed and loud citizens as well as an international jury to grant peace when conflicts are coming up. After her novel, which sounds a little far way today, but was at that time quickly translated in many languages, she became a leading figure of the peace movement. She gave talks all over Europe. In 1905 she received the Nobel Peace Prize, she died 100 years ago and is today seen on Austria’s 2-EUR coin. One of her quotes: “None of sensible people think it will wash away ink with ink, oil spots with oil. Only blood should be washed repeatedly with blood.” Not only on the feast of peace shall we remember such words.

 

 

 

12/12/14: Papers from the Eurolinguistics Conference Published

Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener with JELiX 11

In April the EHP held the 2nd international conference on Eurolinguistics (= the study of Europe-wide language aspects). A selection of the contributions have now been published. Because of the interdisciplinary character EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega worked with a co-editor: EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener, Assistant Professor for English Literary Studies and European Studies at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. The papers are published as vol. 11 of the academic “Journal for EuroLinguistiX” (www.eurolinguistix.com). Each contribution starts with a summary in English, French and German. At the same time, the EHP is preparing for the next conference in April 2015. Because of the positive feedback, the conference will again include a section for the general public, where the researchers will present their results in a generally intelligible way.

[Translate to english:] 08.12.14: EHP-Leiter Grzega im Radio

EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega was recently interviewed by channel RBB’s Kulturradio. The topic were the Roman roots of Europe, and Grzega explained how Latin has formed and still forms our modern European languages – as language of the church, administration, diplomacy, literature and sciecne. The program can be heard under the following Internet address:

http://www.kulturradio.de/programm/sendungen/141207/gott_und_die_welt_0904.html 

Grzega can be heard between 15´40 and 19´55.

 

 

03/12/14: Language Emergency Doctor Helps Local Refugees

At the Language Emergency Doctor

Pappenheim’s town-council has recently given permission that the refugees living in Pappenheim can participate in a Language Emergency Doctor class (Sprach-Not-Arzt) for free. With a donation by Sparda-Bank München, this was also enabled to the refugees living in neighboring Treuchtlingen. During six half-days EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega now taught, with all his mental and physical power, German to refugees from Syria, Georgie, Armenia and the Ukraine. For Grzega it is very important to practice teaching: With each new course, there are new challenges and ideas to further improve the concept. For finding out about how explanations are understood by participants, it was very useful that Grzega speaks basic Russian and some words in Arabic. The participants liked the activating concept and their powerful teacher. Grzega also allowed honorary teachers to visit his classes. They will continue language training with the refugees now.

 

 

 

 

01/12/14: The New EU Inheritance Law

Boris Pulyer

At the EHP, Notary Boris Pulyer recently informed visitors of the new EU inheritance law. After a cultural introduction by EHP Director Joachim Grzega, Pulyer offered an attractive presentation with many examples. Pulyer had a specific look at cases where the goods to be inherited are spread over several EU countries. With the new EU regulations, there will be a principle change for many countries. In such international cases, the law of that country will be relevant where the dead person had its central place of living. Since there is no clear-cut definition for “central place of living”, this will sometimes mean that a judge would have to decide this question first. Visitors had a lot of questions and Pulyer stayed a long time to answer them.

 

 

28/11/14: Well-Received Europe Quiz in Pappenheim’s Irish Pub

EHP Director Joachim Grzega McIntosh’s Host Hermann Ederle were satisfied with their first Europe quiz at Pappenheim’s Irish Pub and want to offer more such evenings. The idea is that questions do not require detailed facts, but larger principles. At the end of each round, these principles are mentioned. Grzega included some principles in two or all three rounds of questions so that participants could experience progress in learning. In an entertaining way, Grzega thus met his task to provide cultural and political education. There was a lot of positive feedback from the participants, and one enterpreneur even asked Grzega to do such a quiz at her shop. The winner was a team consisting of three generations.

Happy participants ...
... and organizers (Joachim Grzega + Hermann Ederle)

11/11/14: EHP in Münster + Book Tip

This year three highly praised EHP afternoons were organized by student teams from the University of Eichstätt, developed in seminars with EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega and EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener. Grzega and Klüsener base their seminars on the method LdL (Lernen durch Lehren = Learning by Teaching). They have now been invited to tell about their experiences with the EHP projects (especially the biggest challenges for teachers) at a conference at the University of Münster on November 29. The conference deals with the potentials and limits of the LdL method at school and university. It is open to everyone. Those who want to participate have to register by November 15, here:

http://www.uni-muenster.de/Germanistik/tagungen/literatur_mediendidaktik/ldl_tagung/


Apart from Shakespeare and European youth protests, the students also presented analyses of European newspapers on a number of topics. One of the topics was the Ukraine conflict and the relationship between the US, the EU and Russia. This relationship was also a topic these past days. Not only Helmut Kohl, Helmut Schmidt, Hans-Dietrich Genscher und Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev criticized western politicians for their behavior over the past two and a half decades. The manipulation through politicans and media, who see the west always as good and Russia/Putin always as bad, is illustrated in a book by the German journalists Mathias Bröckers and Paul Schreyer: “Wir sind die Guten”. Their result, which they support with numerous official quotes: The conflicts over the past 60 years were not about establishing democracies and human rights, but about power and natural resources. Some include a war strategy from the very beginning, some see it as “ultima ratio” (Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt once called it “ultima non-ratio”). More and more German politicians claim that Germany should show more military commitment. The two authors remind us that this is actually against Art. 26 of the German constitution, where actions against the peace among nations is forbidded. May the EU act in a way that it shows itself worthy of bearing the Nobel Peace Price.

25/10/14: November Program

1a. Language Appetizer Course Czech. 05/11, 18.30 – 21.30h.


1b. First Lesson in „Foreignish“. A humorous evening in easy English with Joachim Grzega. 26/11, 18.30-20.00h.


2. an Irish Pub Quiz on the topic Europe, at mcintosh’s pub, in Pappenheim. Host: Joachim Grzega. 23/11, 19-21h.


3. a presentation on inheriting in Europe and Germany: “Erben und Vererben in Europa und Deutschland –Was ändert sich durch die EU-Erbrechtsverordnung?” with Notary Boris Pulyer and EHP Director Joachim Grzega. 24/11, 18.00-19.30h.

 

 

 

20/10/14: TV Report and Lecture On-Line

At the Language Emergency Doctor

Joachim Grzega is one of the few experts for efficient language teaching concepts for beginners. The TV report on his Language Emergency Doctor has now been broadcast on the German TV channel BR. It is available on-line here:

http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/frankenschau/frankenschau-204.html  or http://br.de/s/1QBp3qX.

He also gives insights into his other two concepts (Basic Global English, LanguageGymns) in his lecture for WBS Training Company. The lecture is also available on-line (in German):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrIribj2TWY or http://www.wbstraining.de/europa/

 

10/10/14: EHP Cooperations

One of the entertaining lectures that EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega held for WBS Training company is now online: www.youtube.com/watch. The title is “Europäisch lernen – ein Sprachschnupperkurs einmal anders”. WBS and EHP also agreed to continue their cooperation in the future.

Another EHP cooperation is already more advanced: the one with lagfa, which coordinates German course for migrants. After two short presentation of the Language Emergency concept at lagfa meetings, the EHP has now organized a two-day seminar that enables teachers of German to get to know the concept in more detail. Furthermore, Grzega underlines that in his view one task of the EHP is to make people in Germany and the EU aware of what can be done to rather avoid that people feel forced to leave their home country.

Finally, Joachim Grzega was invited to present the EHP at the Gesellschaft europäischer Akademien, an overall association of regional institutions for Europe-related political education. The managing board was impressed by the language courses, the cultural offers, the work on language and politics and the idea to have a look at the same political topics in different ways (publications, events including several spots, political satire). One of these topics is the TTIP free trade agreement and its risks for society (democracy, ecology, and economy). It was already dealt with at the EHP several times. Tomorrow will be a European Day of Action. Some citizens will also organize an information spot here in Pappenheim.

 

EHP Director Joachim Grzega and Hanns Christhard Eichhorst (President of Gesellschaft der Europäischen Akademien)

04/10/14: TV Broadcast Postponed

BR informs us that the broadcasting time of the report on our Language Emergency program for refugees and migrants has been postponed. The new time will be announced here in our newsletter.

 

 

01/10/14: EHP on TV

The efficient concept “Language Emergency Doctor” (which was created for migrants and refugees by EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega together with Claudia Sand and Sandra Schweihofer) will be presented on TV: Channel Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), on Sunday Oct 5, in the program “Frankenschau” (program start: 6:00 in the evening). After the broadcast it will be available here:  http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/frankenschau/frankenschau112.html

30/09/14: Puppet Show with Philosophy

Marianne Vocke and her stars

Marianne Vocke moved the audience’s hearts with her puppet shows at the EHP and the Kunst- und Kulturverein Pappenheim. At the EHP she presented “The Giving Tree” in German, English and Italian. It was about the relationship between a tree and a human from his boy age to his old age. Piece after piece, the tree gave fruits, branches and his trunk to support the boy in his life. The play motivated people to reflect on giving and taking in relationships and also on the way we use the environment in a sustainable way. More about Marianne Vocke’s offers at: http://www.puppentheater-vocke.de.

 

There are more special language class offers in October: Basic Global English (EHP), LanguageGym Swedish 1 (VHS Donauwörth), “Dracula and Other Vampires” (VHS Donauwörth), LanguageGyms Spanish 2 and French 2 (VHS Gunzenhausen).

 

 

 

22/09/14: Rhetoric and Economics

EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega has written three contributions on rhetoric and economics for the Internet platform flassbeck-economics. The platform publishes critical analyses and comments on politics and economics. Grzega’s first contribution is now on-line; the other two will appear during the next days. So keep an eye on flassbeck-economics.

 

15/09/14: September Program Dedicated to Languages

Since September 26 is the European Day of Languages, the EHP dedicates its September program to languages:

Sep 19, 09:00 and 13:00: EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega gives a lecture “Europäisch lernen – ein Sprachschnupperkurs einmal anders” at the European Day of WBS Training AG – online, for free, at 9 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon

Sep 25, 18:30-20:30: Multilingual Puppet Play with Marianne Vocke -- “Der freigebige Baum” in German, English and Italian

Sep 26-28, 09:00-17:00: Language Emergency Doctor for adults without prior knowledge of German (at this course, recordings will be made for German television; the fee is only 50 EUR, but participants must give permission that they may be published on TV and the Internet)

Sep 26, 18:00-19:00: Language Station Quiz (if you do the quiz, you will get an EU flag)

Sep 30, 09:00-18:00: Language Emergency Doctor – teacher training seminar

Sep 30: deadline for registering for the next Basic Global English course – more information on-line under “Termine”

In addition, the EHP can now provide teachers with its Language Emergency teaching materials both for the age group 10 to 15 as well as for adults.

15/08/14: Language-Emergency-Doctor Concept Now Also Tested at Secondary School

In order to teach German to migrants and refugees without prior knowledge in a fast way, the EHP has developed the method “Language Emergency Doctor” (“Sprach-Not-Arzt”). The method works with a specific set of pictures and teaching techniques. It has now also been tested at Mittelschule Neuburg an der Donau (compulsory secondary school). Thanks to Teacher Kerstin Zischler, who leads a class with foreigner only, it was possible that EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega and Project Delegate Sandra Schweihofer taught German according to this model to young people from several countries. With this experience, they will now develop a version of the teaching material for the age group 10 to 15, which shall be reary by the start of the new school-year. Materials for adult learners already exist. Anyone interested in them can buy them from the EHP, which also offers seminars to show how teachers can best work with the material. EHP Director Grzega hopes that public authorities will soon recognize the system’s efficency—both educational as well as economical. Furthermore, Grzega thinks that the principles of the Language-Emergency-Doctor system can also be used for teaching other languages to groups of learners of various mother-tongues.

 

 

Sandra Schweihofer and Joachim Grzega taught, thanks to Kerstin Zischler, ...
... German with the Language Emergency Doctor method to youngsters.

31/07/14: Josef Göppel: For Renewable Energies via Regional Trading

MdB Josef Göppel (right) talking to a lively EHP audience

People from the district and the neighboring regions visited the EHP for a lecture by Josef Göppel, member of the German parliament and expert for environmental questions. Already in his introduction, EHP Director Joachim Grzega presented Göppel as someone who is against energy as a pure good at the stock-exchange market, and he reminded the audience that according to the Bavarian Constitution energy supply should not be in the hands of huge private enterprises at all. In his presentation, Göppel strongly spoke in favor of regional trading of renewable energies. Regional renewable energies would require high investments at the beginning, but there would be no fuel costs, no resource shortages, no uncalculable risks and no dependences from crisis regions and huge energy enterprises. As a positive example, Göppel presented the Nürnberg region. Furthermore, he criticized the EU for not having reduced emission credits after technological improvements. He also corrected a few myths: In contrast to the widespread public opinion, energy costs in Germany are lower than the EU average, energy costs are also lower than petrol and heating oil costs. Moreover, due to the lack of risks and subsequent costs, green electricity is more economic than nuclear and fossile energy, so that there should be no direct or indirect subsidies for the classical forms of energy any longer. Finally, Göppel underlined that regional renewable energy would be in the hands of citizens and medium-size companies, while big power stations would be owned by big companies. At the end, Grzega thanked Göppel for sticking to the EHP principles: he had made a complex topic easy to understand by simple words, illustrations and understandable comparisons.

 

 

 

21/07/14: Josef Göppel Speaks on Climate and Energy

MdB Josef Göppel

 

The next guest speaker in the EHP series “Why the EU for This?” will be Josef Göppel, Member of the German Parliament. He will speak on climate protection and energy change at the EHP on July 29, 7 o’clock in the evening.

Among other things, Göppel initiated the concept of the landcare association in Germany. Starting in Göppel’s home region, the idea has now led to 150 landcare associations in Germany. Göppel has also founded the Eurpean network Landcare Europe. He has been a member of the German parliament since 2002 and supports a healthy coordination of economic growth and envirmental policies, both nationally and internationally (for example through his activities at Satoyama, an initiative for the use of land in harmony with nature).

 

 

 

15/07/14: School Classes Used EHP Expertise

Active school classes from Donauwörth ...
... and Treuchtlingen at the EHP

Shortly before the summer holidays, the EHP’s offers for secondary schools were used intensively. Two classes from Donauwörth got introduced to Shakespeare’s world by EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener and her team. Students were involved through various tasks. The visit was initiated by Sandra Schweihofer, teacher in Donauwörth and also EHP appointee for the project “First Aid Language Doctor German”. From Treuchtlingen came Martin Stehr with a class of students working on a project on colloquial expressions for body-parts, e.g. “bean” for “head”. The students had already been introduced to the fascinating world of things and their names in Europe by EHP Direcetor Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega. Now the class came to the EHP to do research with a number of sources. The students aim to bring their results into a humorous publication and present it in February. For this, they also got ideas from Grzega's Language Quiz, which can be done at the EHP at seven spots.

 

 

 

08/07/14: Reports on EHP Language Teaching Concepts in Supraregional Media

Bill Templer has written a positive evaluation of two of our teaching concepts in the latest issue of the E-Newsletter of the Bulgarian English Teachers’ Association: Basic Global English and Language Workout (also known as LanguageGyms at the EHP, the next one being offered for Dutch on July 26/27). The German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has recently informed its readers of our First Aid Language Doctor program (also in its online version).

 

 

07/07/14: Presentation of European Youth Protests Gave Many Impulses

The Project Team "European Youth Protests"
Silke Müller on France
Theresa Knoll on Hungary
Christian Schinko on Spain
Joachim Grzega on Sweden
Bea Klüsener -- Overall Coordination and Summary

The EHP project team “European Youth Protests” was happy about the mixed audience from youth to senior age, some of whom came from the Pappenheim region, but others even from 100 km away. 3 students from Eichstätt University and their advisors, Dr. Bea Klüsener and Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, had prepared 4 information spots that represented all directions of Europe: Silke Müller shed light on the situation in France by discussing the film “La Haine [Hatred]”; Theresa Knoll talked about research on the role young people play for the Hungarian Jobbik party; Christian Schinko analyzed the short documentary film “Die Empörten [The Indignant]” on the young Spaniards demonstrating in a peaceful way to gain media attention; Joachim Grzega showed the Swedish choice of a violent way to get media attention. EHP Ambassador Klüsener gave an introduction and a summary: despite many differences one common thing of all youth protests is the connection to high youth unemployment and high social inequalities. One characteristic feature of the EHP is to analyse complex topics in an academic way, but to present academic results in a way that everyone can understand. The EHP seems to have achieved this once again. Visitors said that the presentations gave them many impulses to reflect on their own views—their views on other countries and cultures, but also on German youth, German media and German job-market politics. EHP Director Grzega underlined that the EHP will continue to offer events where people can train a more careful look at media: how can we see the right facts behind words. According to Grzega, this is essential to find ways of living together in Europe peacefully and justly. The next event, too, will give impulses to reflect on words and cultures. On Friday Prof. Grzega will have a look at Jewish words in European everyday life.

 

 

 

30/06/14: EHP Offers in July

The language branch at the EHP will be covered by a number of LanguageGyms (Spanish, Dutch, French and Italian) and our new concept “First Aid Language Doctor” for people without knowledge in German. The culture domain will be in the center in our Town and Tongue Tour through Treuchtlingen. Political aspects will be dealt with by Dr. Josef Göppel at the end of the month. Already next Sunday we will have one of our thematic tours throughout the entire house—the topic will be “Youth Protests in Recent Europe”. This will be organized by EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener and a group of students. More information is given on our website.

 

 

24/06/14: Youth Protests in Europe

While the youth in Germany as considered as un-political by some observers, there are the strong political youth protests in other European countries. Such youth protests have been the topic for a team of students led by EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener. The results will be presented at the EHP on July 6, from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. As usually, the EHP will respect all four cardinal directions: the west (with the example of France, presented by Silke Müller, through a film), the south (with the example of Spain, presented by Christian Schinko), the east (with the example of Hungary’s Jobbik party, presented by Theresa Knoll), the north (with the example of Sweden, presented by EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega).

 

 

 

23/06/14: Experts in Economy for the Common Good Liked EHP Atmosphere

Volker Jäger (Coordinator of the Research Group), Prof. Dr. Bernd Fittkau and Regina Sörgel ...
... discussing with the audience

To round up their German-Austrian-Swiss conference at the EHP, international experts present the model of the Economy for the Common Good. Some ideas are already implemented by some companies and towns. The experts enjoyed discussing the research results with a common audience and hope to find more companies and towns as supporters of their ideas. The experts have experienced the EHP as a location of alternative ideas and think of meeting again in Pappenheim next year.

 

 

16/06/14: Economy for the Common Good: First Experiences with Ideas for a New Economic Model

 

The EHP presents political ideas that the media only rarely deal with, but which are positively supported by practical experience. One suggestion for a radical reshaping of the economy is the Economy for the Common Good (https://www.ecogood.org/). Here, economic actions aim at contributing to public welfare. The most important aspect is to reduce the consumption of nature, thus the ecological footprint. Profit is no longer be the goal, but only the path to achieve the goals. More details and first experiences with these ideas in companies and towns will be presented by experts in the EHP on 22 June, from 2 to 4 o’clock.

 

 

 

13/06/14: Bavaria’s Former Prime Minister on the Integration of Church and State

Dr. Günther Beckstein [© Wikimedia]

In cooperation with the monastery in Heidenheim the EHP organizes a day on the topic “Church and State – How Much Integration Do We Need?. It will take place on 29 June 2014, 5-7 in the evening, at the monastery in Heidenheim. After a welcome by Dean Klaus Kuhn, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega will first give a brief overview of the interrelations between church and state in different European countries. The main presentation will be given by Dr. Günther Beckstein, the former prime minister of Bavaria. Beckstein studied Law and has been active for the church since his youth. The entry fee is 5 EUR, incl. a vouchure for food and drink. Please register by June 22 at anne.mueller(at)elkb.de or phone no. 0988/275 or ehp(at)pappenheim.de.

 

 

 

03/06/14: Further EHP Cooperations with Other Towns

The EHP intensifies its cooperations with other towns. In May, there were events in Stuttgart and Ansbach. Since May, the EHP offers his Town and Tongue Tour once a month in Treuchtlingen. Next tour: 7 July. At the VHS in Donauwörth there will be English events on June 5 (“First Lesson in ‘Foreignish’”, with EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega) and on June 27 (“Monster or Media Star? Understanding Dracula and Other Vampires”, with EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener). On June 26 there will be the lecture “Church and State – How Much Interdependence Do We Need” at the monastery in Heidenheim.

27/05/14: New Language Program for Migrants and Refugees: The First Aid Language Doctor

Sprach-Not-Arzt-Team: Claudia Sand, Sandra Schweihofer, Joachim Grzega

Small-town areas see the new arrival of migrants and refugees every month, but cannot offer to start a new German language course every month. Moreover, efficient material for German language beginners do still not exist. People from companies, schools and administrative units presented these problems to EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega.

Grzega is a specialist in teaching languages to beginners and therefore started creating a new concept. His project team also consists of Claudia Sand and Sandra Schweihofer. Financial help came from local banks. The new concept, the “First Aid Language Doctor”, teaches learners of different mother-tongues the words and grammar rules necessary for the most important situations in learners’ new life. The concept uses a specific teaching technique and a system of pictures. The pictures indicate words and grammatical information for sentences learners have to construct or the pictures represent information for dialogs. The new method is ultimately based on Grzega’s Language Workout method.

The EHP now offers courses for adult and teenage groups and trainings for teachers of German as a foreign language. The concept can also be applied to other languages. Moreover, the principles of the concept can also be used with children. The development of a variant for children is also the new step in the EHP project. The effect of the concept is also shown in a little video clip on the EHP website

 

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18/05/14: Students Revealed Propaganda Methods Related to EU Topics

Students from the University of Eichstätt received a lot of applause from the EHP visitors for their analyses of media language on several EU-related topics. Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega said that of all elections the EU elections will have most relevance for Europeans’ everyday life and therefore citizens should not leave voting just to economy lobbyists. He hoped that after this EHP afternoon visitors would be more able to look at the real facts behind manipulating words. Julia Grauvogl gave an overview on the student project, in which newspaper headlines from the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany were analyzed. She said that Czech headlines would more often use neutral words, while newspapers from the other coutries would use more manipulative words. The Italian exchange student Michela de Fornasari shed light on the terms for the economic crisis and showed that the facts only allow to see governments debts rather as consequences than as causes of the economic crisis; she also demonstrated that Germany, too, did not stick to the common inflation target. Katharina Marschall checked the percentages of renewable energies in various countries and revealed that, in contrast to what the media suggest, Germany ranks only in the middle. Kristina Wucherer analyzed the fear of demographic changes. She showed that the number of the non-working is not larger than in the 1970s and that the risky old-age provision programs offered by profit-oriented insurance companies is not better than the guaranteed state old-age pensions. Michael Kahoun analyzed the image of Russia and worked out the complexity of the historical role of the Crimea and the Russian perspectives, which are often ignored in the EU newspapers analyzed. Nina Hippler also had a look on the Crimean crisis and showed that speaking of “avoiding war” (rather than “keeping peace”) still evokes the image of war in readers’ minds and therefore makes war appear more “normal” for them—which would be advantageous for the arms industry. She also showed solutions for a more peace-oriented style of communication. Visitors were impressed by the students’ performance, and Grzega, who organizes his seminars according to the method “Learning y Teaching”, was also satisfied. The exposition can still be visited by May 23.

The Media Analysis Team: Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, Katharina Marschall, Nina Hippler, Michela de Fornasari, Julia Grauvogl, Kristina Wucherer, Michael Kahoun
Overview of Project and the Power of Language (Julia Grauvogl)
Topic Economics Crisis (Michela de Fornasari)
Topic Energy Transition (Katharina Marschall)
Topic Demographic Devlopment (Kristina Wucherer)
Topic Russia Image (Michael Kahoun)
Topic War/Peace (Nina Hippler)
Request for Informed Voting (Joachim Grzega)

12/05/14: Students’ Project: How Media Propaganda Manipulates Our Thinking about Europe

Financial expert Günter Grzega on the free-trade agreement and other EU topics
Political satire with Joachim Grzega
How does media propaganda work?

No matter whether we’re aware of it or not: the results of the EU elections will have tremendous impact on our daily life. That’s why everyone should deal with economics and politics at least to a basic degree before going to the elections. Everyone should go because every non-voter automatically supports the result of those who did vote. This is why the EHP has prepared basic information in various ways to reach a broad public. Last week Günter Grzega held a lecture (text in German available online) and Joachim Grzega presented political satire. The next event is an exhibition by students who have analyzed how the economic crisis, the crisis around the Ukraine, energy politics and the demographic change are presented in European newspapers: May 18, 2 to 4 in the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

06/05/14: The EU Lie Detector – Satirical Comments Before the EU Elections

Does the EU Parliament have power, or not? What’s the truth about the bendy banana law? Who pays most for the EU? As EU lie detector Joachim Grzega reveals true, half-true and untrue things about the EU at the EHP on Friday, 9 May, 6 o’clock in the evening.

 

 

01/05/14: Günter Grzega: How to Make Europe’s Future Fair for EVERYONE

Günter Grzega

On May 5 Günter Grzega talks at the EHP on the topic „Eco-Social and for the Common Good – How to Make Europe’s Future Fair for EVERYONE” Günter Grzega is the father of EHP Director Joachim Grzega and has come to know and participated in shaping our economy and society in different ways—not only in our region. He regards occupational and honorary involvement as equal pillars in good democracies. And he has been active this twofold way for his hometown Treuchtlingen on, even when his occupational center was Munich during his time as CEO of Sparda-Bank München. He founded the Sparda branch office in Treuchtlingen. He has been an active member of two associations in his hometown, who also elected him honorary member and honorary president respectively. He is also a dialog partner of economists as a member of Senat der Wirtschaft Deutschland (www.senat-der-wirtschaft.de) and chair of Senats-Institut für gemeinwohlorientierte Politik (IGP) (www.igp-deutschland.de). For several years, he has now been politically active in order to promote the democratic abolition of neoliberal ideology, which he experiences as destructive for our society. Grzega speaks in favor of a change toward a model which enables everyone a fair share of economic activities. He calls this “eco-social market society for the common good”. Grzega will also talk about the planned free trade agreement TTIP between the EU and the US. He warns that this agreement could lead to a loss of power for our parlamentary and legal bodies. Then arbitral courts would speak, but no longer “on behalf of the people”, but “on behalf of the money”.

29/04/14: EHP Offers to Prepare for the EU Elections

Since so many EU regulations have influence on our everyday life, the EU elections can be considered the most important of all elections. Those who don’t go to the elections automatically support those who have gone to elections. To prepare for the elections, the EHP has created and organized a number of offers.


  • 01 May, 13-17h, Treuchtlingen: Information Desks (Fest der Kulturen in Treuchtlingen, Fischergasse, 13-17 Uhr)

  • 05 May, 19-20.30h, EHP: “Ökosozial und gemeinwohlorientiert – Wie man die Zukunft Europas für ALLE fair gestaltet [Eco-Social and for the Common Good: How to Make Europe’s Future Fair for EVERYONE” (Presentation and Discussion with Günter Grzega, President of Senats-Insitut für gemeinwohlorientierte Politik)

  • 05 May to 23 May, EHP: Exihibition to Prepare for the EU Elections 2014

  • 06 May, 19.30-21h, Stuttgart: “Willy Brandt – ein großer Europäer [Willy Brandt – a Great European]” with a view on peace in Europe (Presentation and Exhibition by EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, Stuttgart, Haus Degerloch)

  • 09 May, 18-19.30h, EHP: “Der EU-Lügendetektor – Humorvolle Blicke auf Wahres, Halbwahres und Unwahres über die EU [The EU Lie Detector – Humorous Views on True, Half-True and Un-True Things about the EU]” (Satirical Comments by Joachim Grzega)

  • 18 May, 14-16h, EHP: “Aspekte der EU in der europäischen Meinungsmache [Aspects of the EU in European Propaganda]” (Presentation under the Direction of Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, Listening or Participating)


We would also like to point out the following websites:


27/04/14: The Most Recent EHP Highlights

Shakespeare, the Renaissance author of European importance, was born in April, 450 years ago. This is why many Shakespeare events have started these past days. The EHP, in contrast, has been among the first in Europe to commemorate Shakespeare with a special exhibition since the beginning of the year. We have now closed this exhibition and would like to thank, once again, the students from Eichstätt university who have created this exhibition together with EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener. We could even welcome a couple of visitors who had traveled nearly 600 km to participate in this event. That set a new record. But even this record was now beaten in our LanguageGym Polish last weekend. For this seminar, a participant traveled over 800 km from Flensburg to Pappenheim. He had read about the innovative learning concept at the EHP in the press and wanted to test out the method in preparation for a trip to Poland. He was surprise by what can be achieved within to half-days and wants to come to Pappenheim again for other seminars.

The next cultural events are the Town and Tongue Tour through Treuchtlingen on May 12 and the humorous evening on European music history in Donauwörth on May 19. The next LanguageGyms are French 1 (May 16/17 at VHS Donauwörth) and Hungarian 2 (May 17 at the EHP). Since May is also the month of the EU elections, there will also be several events on political issues, the next one being an information desk at the festival of cultures in Treuchtlingen. Other events related to the EU elections will be announced in the next newsletter.

08/04/14: Second International EHP Conference: Discussion with Academic Colleagues and with Citizens

The 2nd Eurolinguistics Conference at the EHP united contributions from Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Algeria, researchers from different generations, and different disciplines. Participants were impressed by the innovative EHP offers, some of which were illustrated by Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, Claudia Sand and Dr. Bea Klüsener, including student projects. Participants agreed that next year’s topic shall be ideas for implementing a subject “European languages” in university and school curricula. The last section was the presentation of participants’ research results for a general audience. The transfer of expert knowledge for lay persons is one of EHP Director Grzega’s central goals. This included views on the connection between language and political thinking and acting. Grzega underlined that the awareness for the power of the language of journalists, politicians and lobbyists is very important to him.

 

 

Participants of the 2nd EHP Conference

26/03/14: First EHP Offers to Prepare for the EU Elections

The EHP is planning a series of offers to enable citizens to prepare themselves for the EU elections at the end of May. On Sunday, April 6, there will be the public session of the international linguistics conference. As last year, linguists will present their latest research results to a general lay audience. One aspect will be the role of language in politics and the media—also with respect to EU topics. Other topics cover language teaching, seemingly racial terms in older literature and the value when linguists and non-linguists work together.

 


In addition, Joachim Grzega has written an essay entitled “A Different Kind of Europe – in Speaking, Thinking and Acting”. It is now available online in German and in English. In his essay, Grzega shows that words are often an obstacle to see things in different ways. Grzega underlines that word-definitions are not naturally given. We have the power to decide what we mean by “economic success”. Instead of the growth of the Gross Domestic Product, Grzega looks at different countries with regard to some alternative goals: for example, enjoying a long healthy life, having good school education, leading a safe life in freedom and without poverty. At the end, Grzega gives a few ideas for discussions with candidates for the EU parliament.

18/03/14: Language Can Trigger War or Peace--Also in the Crimean Crisis

The East-West Peace effected by Willy Brandt, Helmut Kohl, Mikhail Gorbachev and others is in danger. The reason is that human beings like it easy: "we" and "the others", "good" and "bad", "black" and "white" (without shades of gray). The categorization is subjective. This is also true in the Crimean Crisis. In addition, many think that they need to show that they are stronger than others. The EU sends Russia "warnings", "demands", "threats"--loudly, so that it will appear in EU mass media. But the law of the (assumedly) stronger one is something from earlier centuries. Categorizations into "good" and "bad" (steps in-between) may look nice, but they are not appropriate in international politics and truly critical media. One helpful conversation model would be Non-Violent Communication, as developed by Marshall Rosenberg. The central idea is the strict separation of (1) needs that all humans have in common and (2) strategies to meet these needs. After someone has described which of his opponent's strategies bothers which need, he requests a concrete alternative strategy. With Rosenberg's model, two people cannot only solve conflicts, but also avoid them. The special challenge for politicians is that they do not speak for themselves, but for a group they represent. EU representatives should thus speak for the EU population. This means that they have to know EU treaties and to feel for all(!) humans in the EU. They have to ask themselves which strategies are useful to staisfy people's needs and the EU goals. At the same time, they have to develop a feeling for what the opponent thinks. EU representatives may not see their need for order (according to international treaties) fulfilled when Russian representatives send the military into Crimea. For them, this may represent a violation of international law. But maybe Russian representatives thought that they do meet western conventions since 15 years ago several EU countries bombed Yugoslavia without a UN mandate. EU representatives may not see their need for order (according to the Ukrainian constitution) fulfilled when Russian representatives accept the Crimean declaration of independence and the referendum. But maybe Russian representatives thought that they do meet EU conventions since the EU declared that a parliamentary vote removed Yanukovich although the number of votes required by the constitution was not reached. EU representatives may not see their need for security fulfilled when Russian representatives send military into Crimea. But maybe before that, Russian representatives did not see their need for security fulfilled because the EU's behavior was not agreed on neither in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council nor in the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE). These are assumptions. And the injustice of one party shall not apologize the injustice of another party. But this shall illustrate that a situation can be categorized in different ways. This is why dialogs on equal levels are needed. Especially with respect to (multi-)governmental organizations, not the principle of competition, but the principle of cooperation is important. Non-Violent Communication according to Marshall Rosenberg is a model where each unhappy event is discussed separately. Dialog partners can also find their own communication rules as suggested by the UNESCO chair for peace research at the University of Innsbruck. Dialog partners could also benefit from the experiences of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (founded by Johan Galtung in 1959) and the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (founded in 1966). For the EU elections this means that voters should also check how candidates view the cooperation with non-EU countries and the future of international global peace alliances. At the end, the way of speaking (including the volume of the voice) will be important. This, too, is something that we analyze and present at the EHP.

11.03.14: Lively Discussion on Pub Culture in Bavaria and Europe (Kopie 1)

The EHP had invited to discuss the topic “the dying of pubs” with a European view. Kerstin Westphal, Member of the European Parliament, had agreed to discuss this topic with EHP visitors. Unfortunately, she could not keep the appointment due to a car breakdown. Therefore, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega created a presentation, based on information from studies, newspaper reports, a Spanish short film and personal communication from Pappenheim’s twin-town Coussac-Bonneval. As basic causes for changes in gastronomic culture, he mentioned legal conditions and changes in costumer behavior. He also presented solutions, which triggered a lively discussion. One basic idea for gastronomy was that it is possible with relatively little costs to offer a regional variation of dishes for several target-groups. This offer should respect customers with allergies and the growing number of vegetarians. One visitor reminded the audience that vegetarian dishes were the original dishes of the region. Municipalities, on the other hand, could be supportive through a just coordination of the work of pubs and the club-houses. The EU, finally, should see that regulations guarantee equal chances and do not put larger companies and club-houses in a better position than small gastronomic business. This is also the request that Grzega will forward to Westphal, who has already agreed to come to Pappenheim in about four weeks.

 

 

27/02/14: The Dying of Inns from a Bavarian and European Perspective

Kerstin Westphal, Member of the European Parlament

Many people fear the death of Bavarian tavern culture. What is the situation in Bavaria and Europe? How do others cope with this? The EHP invites all people interested to a discussion with Kerstin Westphal, member of the European Parliament, on March 10. Ms. Westphal is a member of the Committee on Regional Development and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

25/02/14: Inclusion with European Short Films

European short films--for laughters and thoughts

The topic inclusion, that is the equal living together of people with and without disabilities, is one of the major goals of the European Union. The association Offene Behindertenarbeit (OBA), coordinated by Lisa Strixner, is always in search of adequate events to bring people with and without disabilities together. Such an event was now offered at the EHP, in cooperation with Kunst- und Kulturverein Pappenheim (KuK): an evening on the topic “European Short Film”. The marketing had been done by Christa Seuberth and Uschi Kreißl from KuK, OBA had taken care of drinks and snacks. One of the major competences of the EHP is to present larger topics in short and generally intelligible way. Therefore, Claudia Sand, Vice-Director of the EHP, opened the event with explanations on the history of the short film in Europe. While films under 30 minutes were normal 100 years ago, the cinema audience more and more asked for longer film stories. Short films continued to be normal on TV into the 1960s. From the 1960s to the 1980s there was a number of European children series, structured into single stories (Pan Tau and Pippi Longstocking). Today TV series consist of stories that last more than one episode and are interwoven. The EHP visitors saw 9 films from various European countries, among them the Oscar winner Balance.

 

 

 

17/02/14: European Short Film Evening at the EHP

Together with the organisation for inclusive work with handicapped and non-handicapped people (Offene Behindertenarbeit) and the Kunst- und Kulturverein, the EHP organizes a European short film evening on Friday, 21 Feb 2014. The event begins at 7 o’clock in the evening. After an overview of the history of short films in Europe, a number of short films from different European countries will be presented. The films last between 2 and 10 minutes. Food and drinks will be offered, too. There will be no fee for watching the films.

 

 

07/02/14: Learning English at 91 ... Thanks to EHP Offer

Joachim Grzega and his successful English students: Roland Dengler, Hans Navratil, Marion Maderholz, Erika Pfeiffer

Pappenheim’s Honorary Citizen Hans Navratil has successfully completed a course “Basic Global English” ... at age 91. After 16 units he and the other participants are now able to use simple, but effective communicative strategies to talk about personal and frequent things and experiences, get along in typical tourist situations and emergency situations. Course instructor Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega was happy that at the end the participants had proven that people from 55 to 91 can learn a foreign language as well as younger people. Of course, nobody speaks like a native speaker after 16 units. But this is not even the goal, as Grzega underlines. His concept aims at making learners able to be successful in basic situations world-wide. For that, a sufficiently large number of words and communication strategies is needed. The next course in Basic Global English will start in March. Apart from that the EHP offers courses in Advance Global English, French, Italien, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian in March and April.

 

 

05/02/14: Presentation of the EHP in the European region of the Saarland

EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega has presented the EHP’s work at the University of Saarbrücken in the Saarland, invited by Prof. Dr. Claudia Polzin-Haumann and Dr. Christina Reissner (the coordinators of the Eurocom project for the promotion of multilingual reading comprehension skills). The Saarland is located in a truly European region. Here, many common activities between Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium and France take place. Grzega presented his innovative concepts for teaching languages and teaching academic knowledge. Researchers in the audience congratulated Grzega and the town of Pappenheim on the Europäisches Haus and its work. Even ideas for cooperations were developed. Students were also interested in getting training at the EHP.

28/01/14: Language Weekends at the EHP

The EHP has determined 07/08 March, 28/29 March and 25/26 April as their language weekends.

Offer:

  • continuation of the LanguageGyms in French, Spanish and Italian (1 half-day each)
  • Global English for advanced learners (1 half-day)
  • beginners’ LanguageGyms in Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Swedish and Dutch (2 half-days each).


People interested in the courses should e-mail their time preferences by 31 January (ehp(at)pappenheim.de). The ultimate schedule will be announced by Feb 07.

26/01/14: Shakespeare Day Attracted a Broad Audience

For some there was no seat any more: the EHP was packed on its Shakespeare Day. Two guests have even come from 600 km to visit the interactive Shakespeare exhibition through the EHP and the town-hall. In a short scene with EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener first explained that even 450 years after his birth Shakespeare’s traces are visible in music, film, literature and everyday life.

 

Afterwards, students presented their self-selected topics in German and English in the different rooms. Isabel Haller answered questions on the world at Shakespeare’s times. Sebastian Kaffka gave visitors a quiz on Shakespeare quotes known all over Europe and explained why especially Hamlet is such a central source for popular quotes. Julia Pichler introduced the poem type called sonnet and explained that the first part addresses a young man, while in the second part a “dark lady” is in the center. Katharina Schneider and Lisa Fürbacher presented the different cultural forms of love in the tragedy Romeo and Juliet and had visitors classify text passages into these love-categories. Kathrin Uebler illustrated the complexity of the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream by having visitors represent single scenes as some form of “frozen theater scene”. EHP Assistant Wilma Vogel took care of the refreshments during the breaks between two stops.

 

Pappenheim’s Mayor Uwe Sinn and the many other guests coming from various parts of south-eastern and northern Germany were deeply impressed by the both educating and entertaining presentations by the students and the EHP team. Klüsener and Grzega, too, were very satisfied with their students: for them they had shown that they were not only able to get to know an academic topic, but also to present it to a very mixed audience in a linguistically and optically appealing way. The students, in turn, thanked their mentors for the chance to do this project.

 

 

450 Years of Shakespeare
Joachim Grzega, Julia Pichler, Katharina Schneider, Isabel Haller, Lisa Fürbacher, Kathrin Uebler, Sebastian Kaffka, Bea Klüsener
The World at Shakespeare's Times
Europe-Wide Shakespeare Quotes
Shakespeare's Poems
"Romeo and Juliet"
"A Midsummer Night's Drea,"
Mayor Sinn (extreme left) and a big supraregional EHP audience

15/01/14: Shakespeare's Heritage -- Easily Explained

As commonly known by now, the EHP wants to make complex topics easily accessible to a general audience. This covers not only languages and politics, but also literature. 450 years ago a Europe-wide known author was born: William Shakespeare. His life-time was a long time ago, but his works are still read and played. Some things from his works have entered modern films and books, some phrases have entered everyday language. The EHP wants to illustrate Shakespeare's times and works in an easy way.

 

This time EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega will get help from EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener and a team of students from the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. They have prepared an exhibition that will cover the following topics: Europe-wide Shakespeare quotes, Shakespeare's poems, different forms of love in the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" and the comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream".


The students will present their exhibition on Sunday, January 26, from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. The exhibition can also be visited apart from this event, until April 3.

 

EHP Ambassador Bea Klüsener and Her Student Team

08/01/14: Events in January

Next Saturday the EHP will start its Integration Series “How I Found My Pappen-Home”. People with roots in different European countries will talk about how they became integrated in Pappenheim. The series will be started by the restaurant owner Raffaele “Raffi” Luisi.


A big event will take place on Sunday, January 26, from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener and her students have prepared an exhibition on 450 years of Shakes. The exhibition will be spread through the entire house. Visitors can simply and watch and listen and participate actively. There will be a German and an English version. Topics will be the European world at Shakespeare’s times, Shakespeare quotes known all over Europe, poems by Shakespeare, the tragedy Romeo and Juliet, and the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream.



04/01/04: Essay Preparing for the European Elections 2014

As a preparation for the upcoming EU parliamentary elections, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega has written an essay with the title “Ein anderes Europa – im Sprechen, Denken und Handeln” [“A Different Kind of Europe – in Speaking, Thinking and Acting”].

Grzega shows that words and phrases are often an obstacle to see things and their larger context in a clear way: words trigger emotions. Grzega also underlines that word-definitions are not naturally given, which allows us to define, by ourselves, what we mean by “economic success”.

Instead of the growth of the Gross Domestic Product, Grzega has a look at some alternative goals: being a good partner as a state, enjoying a long healthy life, having good school education, leading a safe life in freedom and without poverty. The essay analyzes how well the EU states do in these respect and discusses possible ways to be more successful. Grzega highlights models that have already proven to be successful in the past. On the one hand, the Western European Economic and Social Order from the 1950s to the 1970s has brought wealth to everyone and has even mastered two international oil crises. On the other hand, a number of studies has shown: the more moderate income differences, the higher the general wealth and the lower the necessity for state interventions. Grzega presents results of analyses, without overburdening the essay with figures. Taking into account these results and the failures of the model of the past 30 years, Grzega speaks against a lean, malnourished state, and promotes a healthy, well-formed, strong state.

At the end, Grzega gives a few ideas for discussions with candidates for the EU parliament. As of yet, there is only a German version of the essay. An English version will be published in a few weeks. Prints of the essay can be sent as spiral bindings at cost price.

02/01/04: New EHP Vice Director

Claudia Sand

The EHP has a new staff member: Claudia Sand is the new EHP Vice Director. She was raised in Ellingen and Weißenburg. After an au-pair stay in the UK she studied English and Spanish Philology in Eichstätt and Almería. For her B.A. thesis she analyzed swearwords in several European languages. Currently, she is completing her M.A. studies. She has already been involved in the EHP LanguageGyms and will make her experience in teaching German as a foreign language frutiful for the development of the EHP’s innovative language project for migrants and refugees.

 

 

23/12/13: Retrospect in Pictures 2013

This is our 65th and last newsletter of the year 2013. The EHP wishes everyone a merry Christmas and a good start into the new year. We thank all you have supported us, especially our renowned guest speakers and those who have become regular guests in our house. We are looking back at many interesting events. And we are looking forward to an exciting year with the EU elections.

 

 

February: Seminar for Senefelder-Schule on Right-Wing Extremist Language in Europe
February/March: the first LanguageGyms -- meanwhile they are also exported to other places
April VIP: Dr. Ingo Friedrich, former Vice President of the EU Parliament -- "My Europe Photo Album"
April: Eurolinguistics Conference with contributions from 6 nations and a final event for the general public
April VIP: Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck, former Chief Economist at the UN and author of www.flassbeck-economics.de -- "Europe Laterally Thought"
May: EHP Director Grzega visits Dr. Wolfgang Burtscher, Vice Director General at the European Commission
May VIP: Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. Franz Josef Radermacher, member of the Club of Rome, co-founder of the Eco-Social Market Economy, international consultant of governments -- "Europa Laterally Thought"
June: Humorous Music History with EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega
July: Short Visit from Josef Göppel, member of the German parliament
July VIP: Christa Naaß, member of the Bavarian parliament -- "Expellees? Why the EU?"
July VIP: Günter Gloser, member of the German parliament and former State Minister for Europe -- "My Europe Photo Album"
August: Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener open "Pappenheim live and without boundaries"
September: event for handicapped people
September: European Day of Jewish History at the EHP
September: EHP Director Prof. Dr. Grzega as main speaker at the Language Day of VHS Donauwörth
Golden October: with Bea Klüsener, organizor Eva-Maria Päckert-Iberl and Joachim Grzega
November: EHP Director Joachim Grzega as guest speaker at Kunst- und Kulturverein Pappenheim, with organizor Raily Gräfin von der Recke
November: Humorous and astonishing linguistic knowledge: European Language Fun Lessons with Joachim Grzega
December: Exhibition on "100th Anniversary Willy Brandt"
December: EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener on Frankenstein

17/12/13: EHP Conference Papers Attract Further Scholars (Kopie 2)

Last April, the EHP held its first international conference on Eurolinguistics, the discipline that analyzes the commonalities among European languages. Recently, EHP director could edit the conference papers. In order to make them easily accessible to a broad audience, Grzega has published them as vol. 10 of his Journal for EuroLinguistiX, published online at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Each article begins with a summary in English, French and German. At the same, the EHP is preparing for the next conference in April 2014. Some participants from the last conference – from Austria, France and Italy – have already announced that they will come to Pappenheim again next April . But the conference papers have also attracted new scholars: registrations have also come from Japan and Algeria. Due to the positive feedback last April, next year’s conference will also end with a public event: here participants will present their reseach results in a generally understandable way and take questions from the general audience.

 

 

16/12/13: Political EHP Forum Founded

Recently a group of citizens founded the Political EHP Forum. First, the forum looked back at the events with the internationally renowned economists Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck and Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. Franz Josef Radermacher. The former regularly comments events in political economics on www.flassbeck-economics.de; the latter has just recently published, as Vice President of Eco-Social Forum Europe the essay “Von der Vision zur Realität” (“From Vision to Reality”) in the book “Zukunft als Auftrag: Die Welt gehört unseren Kindern” (“Future as Mission: The World Belongs to Our Children”). The participants of the Political EHP Forum have decided to write a collection of recommendations to the members of the EU parliament (MEPs). They will work on different problems individually or in small teams. The solutions developed will first be discussed within the circle and then be presented to the general public. At the end, the presentations will be provided with summaries in German and English and be sent to the MEPs in July 2014. The authors will get a certificate as “EHP Acitive Citizen”. Citizens interested in participating can still do so by suggesting a concrete topic to EHP director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega under grzega(at)pappenheim.de.

 

 

10/12/13: Dr. Bea Klüsener Corrects Frankenstein Myths

 

That Europeans think of an ugly evil monster, this is due to Hollywood. That EHP visitors know better now, this is due Dr. Bea Klüsener. She corrected several general views on Frankenstein. First, many have forgotten that Frankenstein is not the name of the monster, but the name of the creator of the monster. Second, many have forgotten that Frankenstein is originally not a Hollywood invention, but the theme of a British 19th-century novel written by Mary Shelley. She showed how later adaptations of the story in movies, TV series and books often reduced the many aspects in Frankenstein, for example that the monster looks bad, but that it also shows sympathetic sides. Furthermore, the book discusses the question what scientists are allowed to do. EHP Ambassador Bea Klüsener illustrated all this with the help of quotations, pictures, video clips, books and games. Visitors thanked her with a lot of applause.

 

 

 

 

In front of an attentive audience ...
... Dr. Bea Klüsener explains the Frankenstein theme from its multi-aspectual original ...
... to its simplified interpretation in comics ...
... and games

03/12/13: Dr. Bea Klüsener Is Now EHP Ambassador

EHP Ambassador Dr. Bea Klüsener

Due to her many honorary activities for the EHP Dr. Bea Klüsener has now been appointed as EHP Ambassador by Pappenheim’s 1st Mayor Uwe Sinn. EHP Ambassadors give one event per year, support the EHP in on-going projects and popularize the EHP’s work in their supraregional network. Bea Klüsener studied English, Philosophy and Communication Studies in Essen and received additional qualification in German as a Foreign Language. Since 2007, she has been working in the fields of English and European Studies at the university of Eichstätt, where she also received her doctor’s degree for her study on the evil in 19th-century English novels. For January 2014, she and her students are currently preparing an event on the occasion of Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Next Monday evening, Dec 9, 6:30h. she will give a lecture on Frankenstein at the EHP.

 

 

 

 

02.12.13: Willy Brandt Starts New Series “Great Europeans”

In the series “Great Europeans” EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega aims at presenting personalities that have become important for European identity. He opened the series with a presentation and exhibition on a man that would have celebrated his 100th birthday this month: Willy Brandt. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former German chancellor is often connected with the term “Neue Ostpolitik” (new eastern politics). Grzega showed that the term is misleading, because Brandt—who tried to fight against Hitler by setting up an exile task force in Norway—was a truly European person. During his exile years (first in Oslo, later in Stockholm) Brandt developed a multicultural personality. As mayor of West-Berlin, later as Minister of Foreign Affairs, then as German Chancellor, he not only tried to set up a new policy of good neighborhood with eastern countries, but also promoted the western extension of the European Community (EC). 1973 the UK, Ireland and Denmark became members of the EC. Brandt always spoke in favor of a fully European solution with an institution directly elected by the people. After the presentation with photos and brief video clips, the visitors were offered an exhibition: photos, information tables, newspaper extracts, a video, books by and about Brandt, and a list of quotations from 7 decades. From 7 decades were also the visitors of this event.

 

 

 

 

EHP-Leiter Grzega presents Willy Brandt ...
... in front of multigenerational audience ...
... with photos, information tables, ...
... books and videos

27/11/13: Political Events in Early December

Willy Brandt - a greaet European

The next EHP events are the opening of the series “Great Europeans” in the form of an exhibition on Willy Brandt on the occasion of his 100th birthday (Dec 1), which is to show that Brandt did more for Europe than strengthen bonds to the east, as well as a discussion forum looking back on the VIP events with Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck and Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher (Dec 2). Prof. Radermacher was just given an honorary doctor’s degree from the University of Thessaloniki.

 

 

 

14/11/13: Funny Language Peculiarities

Funny sounds -- Joachim Grzega presenting his first Language Fun Lesson

The EHP has started a new series: European Language Fun Lessons. EHP Director Joachim Grzega puts entertainment fully in the center (even there may be an occasional learning effect for the individual visitor). Sometimes the audience can even vote on possible answers to a question. Grzega also includes musical elements. The first part was dedicated to sounds. The next two lessons (Nov 18 and Nov 25) deal with grammar and vocabulary. New prior knowledge is needed for enjoying the Language Fun Lessons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

13/11/13: Presentation of EHP to Language Students at the University of Würzburg

Joachim Grzega at the University of Würzburg

In two guest seminar lessons at the University of Würzburg, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega presented some EHP projects to students of English. Grzega particularly underlined his goal to have happy learners. In the center was Grzega’s language teaching concept “Basic Global English”, which is currently taught at the EHP. Grzega said that in his current course he has his oldest student. He is 91 and gets along well with the method. Grzega said that he can already formulate humorous remarks in English, after only 5 lessons.

 

 

 

10/11/13: European Language Fun Lessons – A New Series of Humorous Science

Entertainment in the foreground, information as a side effect. EHP Director Joachim Grzega has created a series of three humorous lectures on aspects of European languages: sounds, grammar and words. The lectures will take place on Nov 11, 18 and 25, from 18:30 to 20:00.

09/11/13: Review on Conflicts across Cultures

Joachim Grzega

Over the past weeks, Raily Gräfin von der Recke has been organizing lectures on the topic “Communication and Conflicts” for Kunst- und Kulturverein Pappenheim. Yesterday the guest lecturer was EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, speaking about “Conflicts across Cultures”. He presented two basic types of cultures: on the one hand, cultures where the important aspects of discussions consist of objective, neutral, relevant facts; on the other hand, cultures where body-language as well as feelings, status and origin of the conversational partners are also important in discussions. The first type is represented by many western and central European countries; the second type by countries east and south of this area. He also illustrated how words can trigger different associations. Different cultures expect different things when they call someone a “friend”. The liver is not only a body-part, but a symbol for the place of emotions in Turkey, comparable to what the heart is in Germany. If a business appointment is set for 8 o’clock, who can come 30 minutes later!? Answer: for example, South Italians and Poles. Who can come 30 minutes late!? Answer: Nobody, because 30 minutes is not “late” in South Italy and Poland. Grzega used several of such examples and related them to contexts in administration, doctor’s offices, schools, companies, dealing and hiring contexts. He also gave general communicative principles for conflict situations. For Grzega, the combination of “education” and “entertainment” is very important. That evening, education was in the foreground. The next 3 Monday evenings Grzega will focus entirely on entertaining the audience with his Language Fun Lectures.

 

 

26/10/13: First Successful Cooperation between EHP and VHS Gunzenhausen

EHP-Leiter Prof. Grzega bei einer SprachFitness-Pause an der VHS Gunzenhausen

In February, the EHP started the testing of a new language teaching concept by Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, in cooperation with two students and the company ASEcoLi. The courses were offered under the name “SprachFitnessStudio” (“LanguageGym”). Although not all data have been analyzed yet, the concept has reached a level where it can also be offered externally. The director of the Volkshochschule (adult education center) in Gunzenhausen, Dagmar Wombacher-Hohlheimer, had personally participated in one of the LanguageGyms at the EHP and suggested to offer the concept also in Gunzenhausen. Spanish and French were now taught there according to the new method. Since participants’ feedback was very positive, Wombacher-Hohlheimer and Grzega want to continue the cooperation.

 

 

23/10/13: Additional Offers English, Italian, Spanish

  • Sa., 09/11, 08.30-12.30 – LanguageGym Italian Part 4
  • Sa., 09/11, 13.30-17.30 – Global English (Intermediate)
  • Sa., 30/11, 08.30-12.30 – LanguageGym Spanish Part 3

21/10/13: EHP at Goldener Oktober

Event Organizor Eva-Maria Päckert-Iberl (center) with Bea Klüsener and Joachim Grzega (Photo: PP)

Last Friday Pappenheim celebrated “Goldener Oktober” (Golden October). The by now traditional event, organized by Eva-Maria Päckert-Iberl, offered open shops and a number of entertaining performances. Among others, András from Pappenheim’s Hungarian twin-town Iszkaszentgyörgy showed high-quality dances, alone and together with town councillor Anette Pappler. The EHP was represented as well: Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener sang their “Europe Songs”, and at the tourist information a quiz was offered next to an EHP exhibition. Participants could win vouchers for the upcoming EHP evening events (European LanguageFun-Lectures on Nov 11, 18 and 25 and a presentation on Frankenstein on Dec 09). The winners were Annemarie Kattinger (3 vouchers), Sylvia Stengl (2 vouchers) und Inge Dannhäuser-Gehring (1 voucher).

 

 

08/10/13: Upcoming Events

The German EHP flyer for Quarter 4 is online under “Current Events”. Additional offers are listed under “Termine/Veranstaltungen”.

 

 

02/10/13: Political, Didactic, Cultural and Historical Aspects of European Languages

The last three EHP events were dedicated to different aspects of language. On the European Day of Languages EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega presented various models for EU language policy. His own recommendation is a policy which enables each EU citizen to learn his mother tongue, a foreign language and Global English. By Global English Grzega means a type of English where people do not just learn the communicative strategies of a Brit or an American, but words and strategies that function world-wide. However, Grzega also underlined that the acquisition of competences in the mother tongue should not be underestimated – especially concerning the understanding of marketing, political and medical language. In a small test Grzega showed his audience the traps of the use of percentages in medical texts. Furthermore, Grzega encouraged the audience to learn basic skills also in other languages and to not be afraid of imperfect skills. Even these maybe helpful in other countries. Then Grzega did a multilingual quiz with a quote from the 70-year old book “The Little Prince”. Afterwards, people could look through foreign language Asterix volumes, consult Grzega’s own books and participate in a short lesson in Hungarian according to Grzega’s Language Workout method.

Last Saturday the EHP was a guest at the business fair in Monheim for a combination of languages and music: Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener presented Europe songs. Finally, on Sunday the EHP remembered the European Day of Jewish History. Apart from an exhibition and a book presentation by Renate Prusakow and Stephan Reuthner, there was a talk by Joachim Grzega on the linguistic Jewish traces in Europe, Germany and Pappenheim. He first presented some basic terms often confused in everyday language: “Jews”, “Israelites” and “Israelis” are all different things. Similarly, “Hebrew” is not “Yiddish”. Hebrew is a Semitic language, related to Arabic. Yiddish is an offspring of German, a language separation that is the result of a social separation. Both languages are written in the Hebrew alphabet. Grzega also pointed out that many Hebraisms and Yiddisms in German have a negative touch because they came into the German general language through the language of criminals. He compared this originally group-specific word-use to today’s Anglicisms that started as words specific to youth language before becoming general knowledge.

European Day of Jewish History at the EHP: (from left) Town Archivist Stephan Reuthner, EHP Director Joachim Grzega, District Delegee for Local History Julia Krieger, Local History Association President Renate Prusakow, Town Archivist Hans Navratil, Mayor Uwe Sinn

25/09/13: Gunzenhausen’s Twin-Town Isle Visited EHP

Guests from Isle with their Gunzenhausen hosts incl. Mayor Federschmidt (2nd row, 1st from left)

In France’s Limousin region, the EHP is gradually known also outside Pappenheim’s twin-town Coussac-Bonneval. Recently, a delegation from Isle with their hosts from Gunzenhausen (including Mayor Joachim Federschmidt) came to Pappenheim. The group was impressed by the EHP and discussed possible cooperations. Afterwards, the group went shopping in Pappenheim’s small shops and visited the fortress. Thanks to such visits the EHP can gradually enlarge its network.

 

 

 

 

23/09/13: Work with Handicapped People Discussed at the EHP

Grzega presents the EHP in the traditional costume of twin-town Coussac-Bonneval.

About 20 handicapped people and tutors got an insight into the work of the EHP by Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega. Grzega talked about the birth of the EHP and the cooperation with Pappenheim’s twin towns and various institutions. Then he touched the topics national costumes, musical history and word-and-thing history. In the following discussion participants agreed that the basic EHP offer in languages, cultures and politics would also be interesting for people with learning disabilities. EHP Director Grzega said that this target group would be something new for him. But he said that he is willing to take the chance to contribute something to the EU’s goal of inclusion.


Grzega likes developing and testing new teaching methods. The event at the EHP this coming Thursday (18.30h) gives an insight into his ideas of teaching in a foreign language and in the mother tongue as well as into the method of his LanguageGyms.

 

 

18/09/13: Next EHP Events

21/09: EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega gives two lectures at Donauwörth’s Language Information Day—11:30h “Sprachen, das Tor zur Welt – auch wenn es quietscht” [“Languages, the gate to the world—even if it’s creaking”], 14.00h “Die Muttersprache beim Fremdsprachenlernen sinnvoll einsetzen” [“Using the native language in foreign language teaching in a sensible way”] (this includes a presentation of Grzega’s Basic Global English [BGE] and the EHP’s LanguageGym concept).


26/09, European Day of Languages: Joachim Grzega presents his goals for Europe-wide language teaching (for both the mother tongue and foreign languages). There will also be the chance to participate in a language teaching experiment.


28/09: “Europe Songs with Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener” at the business festival in Monheim.


29/09: “European Day of Jewish History” at the EHP (general management: Pappenheim’s Heimat- und Geschichtsverein), including a lecture by Joachim Grzega on Jewish linguistic traces in Pappenheim, Germany and Europe and the presentation of a booklet by Stephan Reuthner, Renate Prusakow and Hans Navratil.

 

02/10: Start of next "Basic Global English" course.

 

 

13/09/13: Which Economic Policies Helped Countries To Become Big—Economic History through Comics

Another book recommendation to prepare for elections: In his book Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work) in Words and Pictures (ISBN 978-0-810988-39-2), Michael Goodwin presents the history of economy in the form of a comic book. His focus is on the US, but there is a number of hints on developments in Europe, too. The book especially helps us—depending on our age—to remember or to understand for the first time which political economic concepts made European democracies big after World War 2 until the late 1970s / early 1980s (and the US nation from the 1930s until the 1960s/1970s). It thus highlights in particular the solidarity-based achievements of the state and the union of states and the positive effects of debts, deficits and similarly termed investments. The book can be understood as a serious warning against the idea to generally prevent governmental investments through debts. The central idea is, again, the solidarity within a state and within a union of states like Europe. The book can be read within relatively short time. Extracts and additional information are available on http://www.economixcomix.com.

 

 

 

09/09/13 EHP Director Grzega in the Ladin Weekly Newspaper

From Usc di Ladins No. 34/2013, p. 2

Due to his experience in the Dolomites EHP Director Joachim Grzega has written a letter to the editor of the Ladin weekly paper Usc di Ladins. Here is the English translation:


Pablo Palfrader complaints in the Usc di Ladins 33/2013 that there is no Ladin version in the brochure on the Südtirol-Pass. Maybe this is also a “problem” of the role that the Ladins themselves give to their language. Maybe the majority of Ladins want to use Ladin only among themselves. An example: My fiancée and I speak only some Ladin, of course with an accent and with mistakes. But we have tried to use Ladin at the hotel, in inns, in institutes and in shops during our stay in the Badia Valley this week. However: nobody answered back in Ladin. Some obviously didn’t know the language, the others simply replied in German, without further reaction. Only twice was someone ready to talk to us in Ladin, after our second Ladin sentence. A pity! Maybe it would be could for the consideration of Ladin if the Ladins used it at least at the beginning of a conversation with a tourist. This would be another sign of a “Europe of Regions”.

 

 

 

06/09/13: Joachim Grzega on Deutschland-Radio

EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega was interviewed by Deutschland-Radio for a series on more effective studying at universities. The topics was the model Lernen durch Lehren (LdL), which also plays a central role at the EHP. The interview is relatively short for the presentation of a model (6 min) so that only a few aspects can be dealt with. It is available here:

http://ondemand-mp3.dradio.de/file/dradio/2013/09/03/dradiowissen_tutorenunterricht_geht_20130903_550d0858.mp3


More on LdL at http://www.ldl.de or in the book LdL für Pepe, Pfeiffer und die Pauker

05/09/13: Registering for Eurolinguistics Conference and for Basic Global English

All researchers dealing with Europe are invited to register, by Sep 15, for the next Eurolinguistics Conference at the EHP from 4 to 6 April 2014 with a paper proposal. The general topic is “Interdisciplinary Eurolinguistics”. Just like the 1st conference, the 2nd conference will also end with an event for the general public.


Sep 15 is also the deadline for the next Basic Global English course, which will take place each Wednesday evening from October on.

 

02/09/13: Europe Topics at the German TV Duel

At yesterday’s TV chancellor candidate duel on ARD, ZDF, RTL and Pro7 journalists limited the topic Europe basically only to the so-called “rescue packages for Greece”. The formulations were the traditional ones: they did not at all shed light on possible errors committed by Germany before the crisis, from which something could be learned for the future. Similar things can be observed for Austria. However, the way we treat Europe is central to the lives of people in the single nations and regions. Therefore, it is important to compare ideas for living together in Europe: ideas by political parties, by academic experts in the mass media and by academic experts outside the mass media. Regarding the latter, let me repeat my book and internet hints::


  • Flassbeck, Heiner: Zehn Mythen der Krise. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2012.

  • Flassbeck, Heiner, u.a.: Handelt Jetzt! -- Das globale Manifest zur Rettung der Wirtschaft. Frankfurt (Main): Westend 2013. (Vor allem das letzte Kapitel).

  • Menasse, Robert: Der europäische Landbote – Die Wut der Bürger und der Friede Europas. Wien: Paul Zsolnay 2012.

  • BEIGEWUM [Beirat für gesellschafts-, wirtschafts- und umweltpolitische Alternativen]: Mythen des Sparens – Antizyklische Alternativen zur Schuldenbremse. Hamburg: VSA 2013. (http://www.beigewum.at/)

  • Zeise, Lucas: Euroland wird abgebrannt – Profiteure, Opfer, Alternativen. Köln: PapyRossa 2012. (esp. Ch. 7).

01/09/13: EHP at the Donau Ries Exhibition

LAG Regional Manager Eckmeier + EHP Director Grzega

Until tomorrow, September 2, 18:00, the EHP is presented at the Donau Ries exposition in Donauwörth as one of the projects co-funded through the European LEADER program by LAG Monheimer Alb. Visitors can meet EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega and LAG Regional Manager Friedrich Eckmeier in Hall B of the Exhibition Area tomorrow afternoon.

 


29.08.13: Wahl-O-Mat (Elect-O-Mat): Party Programs and Europe

The following sites enable a comparison of one’s own opinions and party programs for the upcoming national elections in Germany and Austria, including aspects of European relevance.

22/08/13: Basic Global English – New Free Downloads

Good news for primary schools and adult training institutes: Thanks to the cooperation between the EHP and the Academy for SocioEconomic Linguistics (www.asecoli.com) it is now possible to offer further learning material for our concept Basic Global English for free:


  • (1) for primary schools Hello World! Learner Materials (teachers or schools only need Hello World! Teacher Handbook via booktrade, BoD publishing house or the Academy for SocioEconomic Linguistics)
  • (2) for adult groups the coursebook Welcome, Global Players, which includes a large number of teaching hints for teachers (hints for learners are currently only available in German).


Download at:

http://www.basicglobalenglish.com

or

http://ehp.pappenheim.de/en/offer/

 

 

19/08/13: Internet Tipps Recommendations for Upcoming Elections

As already said last week, there will be the national and two regional elections in Germany in September. Since the main media focus primarily on how candidates represent national interests, here are a few book recommendations on what are European interests and how politicans have represented these interests so far. This seems particularly important at a time where it seems to become fashionable to question solidarities (between Europeans and between Germans). The links [all in German] include alternative views to what is commonly presented in mainstream media, enable a comparison of electoral programs and give an overview on how members of the parliaments voted on European issues in the last period:


 

12/08/13: Book Recommendations for Upcoming Elections

In September there will be the national and two regional elections in Germany. Since the main media focus primarily on how candidates represent national interests, here are a few book recommendations on what are European interests and how politicans have represented these interests so far. The books [all in German] include alternative views to what is commonly presented in mainstream media.

  • Flassbeck, Heiner: Zehn Mythen der Krise. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2012.

  • Flassbeck, Heiner, u.a.: Handelt Jetzt! -- Das globale Manifest zur Rettung der Wirtschaft. Frankfurt (Main): Westend 2013. (Particularly the last chapter).

  • Menasse, Robert: Der europäische Landbote – Die Wut der Bürger und der Friede Europas. Wien: Paul Zsolnay 2012.

  • BEIGEWUM [Beirat für gesellschafts-, wirtschafts- und umweltpolitische Alternativen]: Mythen des Sparens – Antizyklische Alternativen zur Schuldenbremse. Hamburg: VSA 2013.

  • Zeise, Lucas: Euroland wird abgebrannt – Profiteure, Opfer, Alternativen. Köln: PapyRossa 2012. (Particularly Chapter 7).

  • Stiglitz, Joseph: Der Preis der Ungleichheit – Wie die Spaltung der Gesellschaft unsere Zukunft bedroht. München: Siedler 2012. (Focus on the EU: 279, 289-291, 303, 307-308, 329-331, 363; elsewhere, examples are from the US and the rest of the world).

05/08/13: EHP Presentation with Music and Exhibition

Europa-Songs with a sense of humor: Bea Klüsener + Joachim Grzega
Exhibition by 4th-grade children
EHP Director Grzega + Assistant Wilma Enser invite visitors to their quiz

For last Friday Werbegemeinschaft Pappenheim (association of local companies) had organized the event “Pappenheim live und grenzenlos” [Pappenheim live and without boundaries]. The EHP opened the event with “Europe Songs”.

Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener began with “Volare” and a medley of other songs from past Eurovision Song Contests. With Franz Lehár’s “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” Joachim Grzega sang the first Europe-wide song that became popular even in the US. In contrast, Bea Klüsener presented two early US songs that became a hit in Europe: Disney’s “Some Day My Prince Will Come” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. The songs included passages in different European languages. Then Joachim Grzega presented a composition by himself, which illustrated the sentence “I am John, and you?” in different European languages. The performance was ended by a humoristic medley of popular songs on different places around the world and the phrase “Thank you” in different European langauges sung to the melody of Bert Kaempfert’s “Dankeschön”.

Afterwards, people could visit an exhibition of posters that showed how teacher Eva Beringer's children from the local primary school see European countries.

 

Furthermore, the EHP opened the door to its library and presented its past activities. Visitors could also participate in a quiz. The winners of an EHP USB stick were Julia Hönig, Margaretha Habermeyer and – from France – Patrice Fougère.

 

 

02/08/13: Upcoming EHP Program

Today is the last chance to register for the EHP vacation program for children (Europa-Quiz 13.30-15.00) and teenagers (Ort- und Wort-Wanderung 11.00-12.00, Europa-Quiz 15.30-17.00).


Tomorrow, August 3, the EHP participates in the event “Pappenheim live und grenzenlos”. From 17.00 to 17.39 Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener present Europe songs. Afterwards, inside the EHP, visitors can read posters created by primary school children on different European countries. Moreover, the EHP will give insight into its past activities. The EHP library will be open as well and provide visitors with information material on Europe. There will also be an EHP quiz (prize: 3x USB stick).

30/07/13: Joachim Grzega Discusses Economic Crisis with 80 Students

Recently, EHP Director Joachim Grzega gave a guest lecture at the Evangelisches Bildungs- und Tagungszentrum Pappenheim (EBZ), which had organized a seminar on the economic crisis for teenagers. About 80 students were present.

Grzega described parallels between the economic crisis in the 1920s and the present one, explained the principles of Western Europe’s post-1945 model promoting prosperity for everybody, illustrated fundamental economic relations and the disregard of this knowledge in the past 30 years. The supporters of the Neoliberal model finally had to resort to the state as a savior, against their own principle. Therefore, their strict model can be classified as a failure. Grzega saw the abortion of solidarities as a danger for peace in Europe—not only the abortion of solidarities between Europeans, but also among Germans. Grzega also revealed rhetoric manipulations in the economic discourse.

On the basis of macronomic findings, Grzega finally suggested a re-orientation to the West-European model that was abolished, without any sound economic reason, from the late 1970’s onward. This model includes a more balanced distribution of income and wealth, the respect of ecological aspects and international rules for the financial market. Moreover, he advised students to refuse one-sided learning material and to consume not only the most wide-spread mass media.

The teenagers were well informed and discussed a lot. Grzega was shocked, though, when one student told him that it is not possible for a single student to refuse one-sided material; he tried and is now classified as querulous...

 

25/07/13: : World Politician Günter Gloser Talks About European Experience

Günter Gloser talked about his European experience and complimented the EHP's work.

Protocolarily, he was the highest speaker at an EHP evening event so far: Germany’s former State Minister for European Affairs, Günter Gloser. With the help of pictures and press articles, he talked about his nearly 20-year long work in the German parliament.

At the beginning, due to quotas, he could not become a member of the committee that he felt competent for, but this gave him the chance to get new expertise in the field of international politics. The highlight of his career was the appointment as State Minister for European Affairs. For a long time, his knowledge on North Africa and the Middle East went unnoticed. This changed with the Arab Spring. Gloser pointed out Jordan’s enormous successful acceptance of refugees. Germany and Europe could learn from that.

Gloser illustrated how he was awarded the officer’s rank of the French Legion of Honor in 2009. Furthermore, it became very obvious that it is important for him to pass on knowledge and information to younger people (from 2003 on with a European newsletter, then from 2009 on with a European summer academy). Gloser said that many rumors about silly plans in the EU administration turn out to be untrue. He made clear that the EU administration and parliament are usually unjustly criticized. After all, it is mostly the heads of states and their national ministers that influence EU politics. The higher you go in the EU hierarchy, the rarer is the openness toward Europe. Therefore, his wish is that in the near future we will see more people thinking in a pan-European way, such as Jean-Claude Juncker and Jean Asselborn from Luxembourg.

At the end, he described the European House Pappenheim as a unique institution, complimend EHP director Joachim Grzega on his work and said that he would like to stay in contact with the EHP after his parliamentary career, which ends this year.

 

 

18.07.13: Former Minister for Europe Günter Gloser Comes to the EHP

Former Minister for European Affairs Günter Gloser

On July 23, there will be another event in the series “My European Photo-Album” ("Mein Europa-Fotoalbum") -- this time with Günter Gloser. From 2005 to 2008, Gloser was State Minister for Europe at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The lawyer has already been a member of the German parliament since 1994. Morevoer, Gloser is member of the Europa-Union. For his merits Gloser received national and international awards: 2006 the medal for special merits for Bavaria in a united Europe, 2009 the Order of the Bavaria, Grand Cross of the Order of Portugal and the Officer rank of the French Legion of Honor.

Gloser already supported the EHP with a written contribution to the opening ceremony and book gifts. EHP Director Joachim Grzega is happy that Gloser will also come to the EHP for a lecture now.

17/07/13: EHP Presentation by Prof. Radermacher Now Online

 

Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher’s EHP lecture is now available at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EANDQhKvmNY&hd=1.

 

 

 

 

16/07/13: Christa Naaß, Member of the Regional Parliament, Connected Expellee Politics and Europe

Joachim Grzega and Christa Naaß

 

Recently, Christa Naaß, Member of the Regional Parliament, talked about German expellees after World War II. EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega wanted to deal with a topic that, at first sight, is not a topic at the European level. But before Naaß’s presentation he encouraged the audience to keep in mind current European issues and to think in analogies. Christa Naaß, herself a child of expellees, described history with the help of stories and quotations. She pointed out the Social-Democrat activities in the reconciliation process between Germany and the East, particularly the policy by Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt. Naaß said that history had and has to be “un-lied” on both sides. She reported model-like examples where young people in Poland and the Czech Republic carried out research on German history, not rarely finding out that most cultural traces are lost.

In the discussion afterwards, people talked about their own experience and activities in the reconciliation between Germans, Poles and Czechs. A neutral view on history, so the audience seemed to agree, is probably impossible. Everyone will look at it through his own glasses, but one can from time to time try to put on somebody else’s glasses. Furthermore, the question was raised which consequences can be drawn for the current situation. Is the crisis some sort of economic war that endangers cultural diversity and that forces people to look for survival away from their home?

 

 

 

 

 

10/07/13: Josef Göppel, Member of the German Parliament, visited the EHP

MP Göppel (r.) getting informed by EHP Director Grzega (1st left) and Mayor Sinn (center) about the educational activities in Pappenheim

Member of the German Parliament Josef Göppel paid a visit to the EHP. He had already been at the EHP ceremony. EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega gave Josef Göppel an insight into what has been achieved so far at the EHP, but he also pointed out some frame conditions that would make the establishment of such a regional institution in a small-town not always easy: thinking in districts, the principle of co-financing (which required a vast number of hours for finding further funds) and the equal treatment of large and small towns in evaluating their project proposals. Göppel complimented Grzega on his work and said that he would raise the necessary awareness for these things in his circles.

 

 

 

 

08/07/13: Christa Naaß, Member of the Bavarian Parliament, Soon at the EHP

MdL Christa Naaß

On July 15, Christa Naaß, member of the Regional Parliament, will open the new series “Why the EU for This?”. The idea of this new series is to present a topic that, at first sight, has nothing to do with the EU, but where the presentation and the discussion should show that there is in fact a link to European topics and that there are aspects of this special topic that could be useful for a European-wide problem. The first topic is “expellees/Heimatvertriebene”. Christa Naaß has gained experience in this topic as a member of various committees on aspects of expellees/Heimatvertriebene.

05/07/13: New Section on EHP Website

Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher, who was our guest star on May 29, has sent the EHP and its visitors a text (in German) that summarizes once again his view on the world’s situation today. We have taken this as a motivation to start a new section “Publication” on the EHP website.

 

 

04/07/13: Tomorrow sign-up deadline for July LanguageGyms

To all those interested in languages: Tomorrow is the sign-up deadline for the LanguageGyms in July (Russian, Polish, Swedish).

The rest of our program in July/August/September is available on our website (www.ehp-online.eu) under “On-going Activities” and “Events”.


26/06/13: Joachim Grzega’s Humorous and Informative View on Europe’s Musical History

With "Brother John" through the musical eras
View on the history of the orchestra
Grzega "conducts" his audience through musical recordings

Yesterday the director of Europäisches Haus Pappenheim, Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, gave a humorous and informative overview on Europe’s musical history from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The aim was that at the end visitors are more able to classify music that they hear into the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Post-Romantic and Modern period. Grzega shed light on the development of the orchestra, the history of the major and minor scale, and the evolution of typical patterns in compositions of various epochs. To illustrate this, Grzega played self-written versions of “Are you sleeping, Brother John?”. From time to time, the visitors were to classify recordings themselves. Grzega also connected musical history with linguistic and general history. The microphone, for instance, changed singing techniques. At the end, Grzega presented such different techniques when singing Franz Lehár's “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” (“Yours is My Heart Alone”). The EHP program for the next quarter is now available under “On-Going Activities” at www.ehp-online.eu.

 

 

 

 

16/06/13: LanguageGyms Now Also with External Trainers

In March the EHP started the research project “LanguageGyms” (“SprachFitnessStudios”), where people get to know, in a one-day seminar, phrases for the most important situations during private trips to a foreign country. With each new seminar, the method is being improved. In the seminars held so far, participants asked for a continuation of the seminar. In order to manage this, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega will now try to work with external language trainers. For the first time, a student led a part of yesterday’s Spanish LanguageGym. The student also analyzes this teaching concept in her M.A. thesis. The next LanguageGym will be on Saturday: Hungarian for absolute beginners—particularly an offer for the communities in our region that have partnerships with a Hungarian municipality. Seats are still available, but people have to register by 18 June, 8:00 a.m. (ehp(at)pappenheim.de).

 

02/06/13: Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher impresses EHP visitors

Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher impressed the EHP audience
The proud hosts, Mayor Uwe Sinn and EHP Director Joachim Grzega, with their guest star: Prof. Dr. Dr. Radermacher

The EHP’s guest star at the latest evening in the series “Europe Laterally Thought” was Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher, member of the elitarian Club of Rome, advisor of regional and national governments, and one of the fathers of Eco-Social Market Economy. Eco-Social Market Economy further develops Social Market Economy in order to match economic and ecological goals by making environmental protection an economic process. The evening began in an unusual way. According to the principles of the educational concept “Learning by Teaching” (LdL) those visitors that had also participated in a preparatory seminar by EHP director Prof Dr. Joachim Grzega summarized what they considered central in this idea and formulated a few questions. Then Radermacher explained his work and ideas in a rhetorically remarkable way. He described the basically positive effects of a market economy, and pointed out the search for overcoming negative effects without producing other negative effects. In particular, he criticized the lack of a true world democracy where one human being would have one vote. Many Europeans, who represent a minority in the world, are in favor of that as long as the results would represent their wishes. International papers signed by governments such as the UN Millennium Goals are often only words, but at least non-governmental activities can refer to them. Radermacher thinks that it is more likely that we do not achieve these goals and a chance in market economy, but that this does not mean that there is no hope. He pointed out that one important thing is to become aware of the link between language and thought and also referred to the studies by EHP director Grzega. Re-thinking is easier when you do not simply negate existing political metaphors, but introduce new metaphors. Grzega thanked Radermacher and mentioned his publications with the Global Marshall Plan Initiative. Several visitors stayed quite a while to discuss Radermacher’s ideas.


The next EHP events are on Tuesday: the Town-and-Tongue Tour and the Quiz Evening.

25/05/13: New Book on the Analysis of European Languages by Joachim Grzega

Joachim Grzega and his new publications

EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega has published two new books. While his last year’s book Europas Sprachen und Kulturen im Wandel der Zeit was written for a general audience, the new books are for more limited audiences. One, entitled Studies in Europragmatics, is for other linguists and presents methodological ideas for a new branch in the contrastive study of European languages, also called Eurolinguistics. This new branch is about typical uses of words and phrases by European politicians, journalists, internet users and people in general. The other book introduces students to the field of Eurolinguistics and gives an overview of the most important publications. With 57 pages it is comparatively small, but this also shows that Eurolinguistics is still a very untouched field. The EHP will help to work on this field more in depth. At EHP events, the topic of language use also plays a role—including political events like the one with the international economist Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher on May 29.

17/05/13: World Language and World Economy

World Language Spanish
World Economist Prof. Dr. Dr. Radermacher

 

We would like to remind readers of our next two events. Seats are still available.

  • LanguageGym Spanish: Saturday, 25 May, 8:30-17:00. Instructor: Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega
  • Europe Laterally Thought: Wednesday, 29 May, 18:30-20:00: Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher, member of the Club of Rome, one of the fathers of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative and Eco-Social Market Economy, consultant of governments, member of the Germany’s national UNESCO committee.

 

 

15/05/13: EHP-Director Grzega at the European Commission

EHP-Director Prof. Dr. Grzega with Dr. Burtscher, Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Research Section

Apart from his lecture and seminar concepts, Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega has developed a number or research ideas over the past months. Now he is in search of financial resources. He therefore went to Brussels recently to discuss different funding opportunities. Apart from employees from the citizens' programs, he met with the Vice Deputy Director General of the European Commission’s Research Section, Dr. Wolfgang Burtscher. He commented on where the best chances would be for Pappenheim’s small research and education center, in competition with big universities and enterprises. On the ground of these meetings, Grzega has started to select project programs and to transfer his ideas into concrete applications.

09/05/13: Europe Week at the EHP – End

The EHP activities in Europe Week end with adding the publication of an English version to Joachim Grzega’s essay on the relation between language and economic thinking.

 

 

 

05/05/13: European Week at the EHP

In memory of the two European Days (May 5 for Council of Europe, May 9 for European Union), the EHP has a few offers. May 5: publication of an essay on the correlation between language and economic thinking by EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega (in German). May 6: a seminar preparing for the event with Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher. May 7: a European town-and-tongue tour through Pappenheim and an EHP quiz evening. May 8: a chance to observe the Basic Global English course for a few minutes. May 9: publication of the English version of Joachim Grzega’s essay.

 

 

 

30/04/13: Member of the Club of Rome at the EHP

Prof. Dr. Dr. Radermacher

The next guest speaker in the series “Europe Laterally Thought” will be Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher. Currently professor at the University of Ulm, Radermacher holds Ph.D.s in mathematics and economics. He is one of the fathers of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative and eco-social market economy, which brings together economic and ecological goals by practicing environmental protection through the means of market economy. Rader Radermacher is a globally renowned expert in this field and has received a number of honors. He was, among other things, a member of the EU’s Information Society Forums and of the academic board of the Expo 2000. Furthermore, he was consultant of the regional governments of Baden-Württemberg and Carinthia. Since 1997 he has been serving as a consultant to Germany’s government in various functions. 2002 Radermacher became a member of the Club of Rome, a globally acknowledged board of selected economists, enterpreneurs, researchers and other personalities of public life. Since 2005 he has been a member of the German national UNESCO committee Lebens. He received the Planetary Consciousness Prize by the Club of Budapest and the Vision Award by the Global Economic Network. Radermacher has published over 300 academic works. The main event takes place on May 29. The preparatory seminar with Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega will be on May 6.

 

 

10/04/13: Former Chief Economist for the UN at the EHP

Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck

Soon the EHP starts another series “Europe – laterally thought”. A lateral thinker presents his alternative societal concept for Europe—with particular reference to small-town/rural countries. In a preceding workshop, participants already read some ideas of the lateral thinker and prepare in-depth questions. The first guest will be Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck, former Chief Economist at the UN organization UNCTAD. He is an expert on the current financial global crisis and offers analyses and comments on economic and social politics on his website www.flassbeck-economics.de. The main event with Prof. Flassbeck will be on April 26 (18:30). The preceding workshop with EHP director Prof. Grzega will be on April 16 (18:30). People interested are asked to sign up for the event(s).

 

09/04/13: Entertaining Evening with the Former Vice-President of the European Parliament

Mayor Joachim Federschmidt (Gunzenhausen), Mayor Uwe Sinn (Pappenheim), Ingo Friedrich, EHP director Joachim Grzega, Lord Mayor Jürgen Schröppel (Weißenburg), Former Mayor Peter Krauß (Pappenheim)

The evening with Dr. Ingo Friedrich in the fully packed EHP hall was definitely succesful. Even a number of mayors were present. Here the report in the Weißenburger Tagblatt:

www.nordbayern.de/region/weissenburg/mein-europa-fotoalbum-1.2814960

 

 

 

08/04/13: Successful International Eurolinguistics Conference – Also for the General Public

Last weekend the EHP hosted its first international conference of linguists. On Friday EHP director Joachim Grzega gave an overview of the activities of the EHP. Saturday was the day for the contributions by the international academic guests from 5 European countries. Considering the small political will to support research on the relationship between language, thought and identity in European languages and cultures, Sture Ureland, retired professor at the University of Mannheim and one of the early propagators of eurolinguistics considered the EHP an important institution and wished Grzega, whom he identified as the only one in his generation who studies European languages so extensively, a lot of power. For Sunday, Grzega had planned an unusual idea. The researchers that stayed until the afternoon had to present their results in a style that was also intelligible to a general audience. The meeting with a general audience, who was extremely willing to discuss, and the presentation of student projects (supervised by Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener) was the end of the successful audience. Various ideas for future cooperations with the EHP have already been developed.

 

 

 

5 professors discussing with citizens: Laura Ferrarotti (Rome), Jacques François (Paris+Caen), Joachim Grzega (EHP+Eichstätt), Ernst Kretschmer (Modena), Wolfgang Pöckl (Innsbruck)
Visitors looking at student projects
Prof. Dr. Sture Ureland (Mannheim; President of the Eurolinguistic Association)
Dr. Christina Reissner + Prof. Dr. Claudia Polzin-Haumann (Saarbrücken)
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Pöckl (Innsbruck)
Prof. Dr. Jacques François (Paris+Caen)
Prof. Dr. Ernst Kretschmer (Modena)
Prof. Dr. Laura Ferrarotti (Rome)
Prof. Dr. Manuela Ciprì + Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Gaetano Castorina (Rome, President of Eurolinguistica-Sud)

The EHP has participated in the Spring Event of Pappenheim’s Gewerbeverein (Business Association) and created a European Easter Quiz. It is available through April 4 in most of Pappenheim’s shops (together with some information that will make finding the answers easier). Good luck! Here once again a reminder of our next 3 sign-up deadlines:


  • 01/04: for the vampire seminar Monster oder Medienstar? Dracula und andere Vampire verstehen lernen, with book and film extracts from Europe’s past and present (instructor: Bea Klüsener; date: 13.04.)

  • 03/04: for the event Mein Europa-Foto-Album with Dr. Ingo Friedrich (former Vice President of the EU Parliament) – Dr. Friedrich talks about symbols of identity for Europeans, especially the euro (date: 04.04.)

  • 06/04: for the event Sprachforschung allgemein verständlich gemacht – at the end of a conference linguists from 5 countries will try to present their research results in an understandable style


Happy Easter!

 

 

 

25/03/13: Recent LanguageGym + Hints on Further Events

Our second LanguageGym (this time on Italian) seems to have gone well. At any rate, this time, too, participants asked for a second course. At the end, participants filled out a questionnaire which will serve a student in her analysis of the EHP method. Our Italian LanguageGym was the last event in Quarter 1/2013. In Quarter 2/2013 other languages will be offered according to EHP method and there will also be further EHP Quiz Evenings. We would like to point out that – except for the quiz evenings – it is necessary to sign up for our events in advance. Here is the chronological order of sign-up deadlines in April:


  • 01/04: for the vampire seminar Monster oder Medienstar? Dracula und andere Vampire verstehen lernen, with book and film extracts from Europe’s past and present (instructor: Bea Klüsener; date: 13.04.)

  • 03/04: for the event Mein Europa-Foto-Album with Dr. Ingo Friedrich (former Vice President of the EU Parliament) – Dr. Friedrich talks about symbols of identity for Europeans, especially the euro (date: 04.04.)

  • 06/04: for the event Sprachforschung allgemein verständlich gemacht – at the end of a conference linguists from 5 countries will try to present their research results in an understandable style

  • 08/04: for the Town and Tongue Tour through Pappenheim on 09/04 (mit Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega)

  • 14/04: for the preparatory meeting on 16/04 for the evening with Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck

  • 25/04: for the event Europa quergedacht with Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck (former State Secretary and Chief Economist at the UN organiziation UNCTAD) (date: 26/04).


More information on our webpages under Events.

 

 

 

08/03/13: Overview on the Program in 2/2013

The EHP will offer the following events from April to June 2013:

 

(1) culture: a seminar on vampires with Bea Klüsener (Univ. of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt); an evening on musical history with Joachim Grzega

 

(2) language/communication: more LanguageGyms + the presentation of results of a linguistic conference in layperson language

 

(3) politics: evenings with VIPs, namely Dr. Ingo Friedrich (former Vice-President of the EU Parliament), Prof. Dr. Heiner Flassbeck (former Chief-Economist at the UN organization UNCTAD), Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz Josef Radermacher (member of the Club of Rome, one of the leading figures in the Global Marshall Plan Initative).

 

 

 

01/03/13: Successful Start of a New Language Concept

Participants requesting--in French--the necessary equipment for lunch

 

Joachim Grzega has conceived a new language teaching method, which he calls “Language Workout”. For the first time, the concept has now been used with an adult learner group at a day-long seminar called “SprachFitnessStudio Französisch” (“LanguageGym French”). In contrast to mainstream language teaching, Grzega very consciously uses learners’ mother-tongue (in a way that it is the foreign language learner’s friend). The concept consists of two main exercise types: the translation of sentences (with growing complexity) and question-answer exchanges in the foreign language. According to the model Lernen durch Lehren (Learning by Teaching), learners also had to introduce new words themselves. Although the recording of the seminar still needs to be analyzed, Grzega’s first impression is that, despite the need to change some details, the overall effect of the method can be described as positive. This seemed to be the learner group’s impression, too, since it called for a further seminar. Mouth-to-mouth propaganda also encouraged other people to sign up for the next LanguageGym on March 23 (Italian).

 

 

 

25/02/13: Achieving Awareness for the Rhetoric of Right-Extremist Parties in Europe

EHP Director Joachim Grzega and Vice-Principal Martin Stehr

For the project day of his students at Senefelder-Schule Martin Stehr had organized a visit to the Europäisches Haus Pappenheim. There, EHP Director Joachim Grzega introduced the teenagers into the power of language on thought and the characteristics of political rhetoric with a special focus on right-wenig extremists’ rhetorics in different parts of Europe. Grzega had prepared a number of activities for the students in order to raise their awareness of the manipulative power of language. At the end of the seminar, students also discussed on how and why we should react to right-wing populist utterances—the reactions will predominantly those who are listening silently and who are still in search of answers for society and for themselves.

 

 

08/02/13: New Offers in February and March

After the installation of the kitchen, the EHP offers a new language course concept. It is called "SprachFitnessStudio" (LanguageGym). Within one day beginners train language structures in a research-based system for important situations (including personally relevant vocabulary). During lunch, learners get information on a foreign culture related to the language. The first LanguageGym will be dedicated to French, the second to Italian. A second offer is Joachim Grzega's Basic Global English – 16 weekly lessons in the morning or in the evening. The third offer is the EHP Quiz Evening. The idea is developed from the Irish pub quiz. In three rounds, teams of up ot 4 people have to answer questions from the three thematic fields of the EHP: political issues, culture in the past and present, language and communication. For further information, see "Events".

23/01/13: Linguistic Conference at the EHP

From April 5 to 7, the EHP will host a linguistic conference. The topics to be dealt with are the meaning of words and the associated thoughts as well as communicative customs. What do they look like in different European languages? How did they develop? How can such differences be dealt with in language learning processes? Such differences mostly go unnoticed and have quite often already lead to misunderstandings. This is why EHP director Grzega has selected this hardly studied field within Eurolinguistics. At the event, some student projects will be presented, too. Furthermore, there will be a public final event on April 7, 14.00h: “Eurolinguistic Research – Made Generally Intelligible”. Here, major results will be presented and discussed.

 

 

22/01/13: A Note on 50 Years of the Élysée Treaty

Today Germany and France celebrate 50 years of the Élysée Treaty, which triggered numerous partnerships between towns and between schools. It was certainly an important component to enhance peace and friendship in the center of Europe. From France’s perspective the treaty also aimed at strengthening Europe opposite the US: Especially the EHP, though, which takes the concept of a “European perspective” very seriously, we should not run the risk of dividing Europe in first-class countries (especially Germany and France) and second-class countries. The European idea needs at best all countries in which citizens adhere to European values – from all directions and cultural regions. Nevertheless, a treaty that is only signed between two countries can serve as a model for more international treaties. Therefore: Congratulations!

14/01/13: DFG acknowledges EHP as a research institute

The EHP has now been acknowledged as a research institute by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the largest institution for the promotion of research in Germany. The EHP is now permitted to apply for a number of programs that are basically only open to universities.

31/12/12: 2012 in Retrospect

The EHP looks back on 2012 and thanks all who have helped in establishing the EHP. To all readers and EHP friends all the best for 2013! We are looking forward to your next visit!

19.09.: Visit of Günter Gloser, member of the national parliament
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - Klaus Bucka & Stadtkapelle Pappenheim
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - dancers from Iszkaszentgyörgy
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - Christa Seuberth & Primary School Choir
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - Bea Klüsener & Joachim Grzega as Hosts
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - Mayor Uwe Sinn
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - Bavarian Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann
06.10.: Opening Ceremony - Kerstin Westphal, Member of the European Parliament
06./07.10.: Opening: course demonstration with Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega
06./07.10.: Opening: organization assistants Susanne Huschik, Wilma Enser, Andrea Bickel, Christa Link
07.10.: Opening: tombola with Joachim Grzega, Bea Klüsener, Uwe Sinn
18.11: inauguration with Dean Wolfgang Popp and Reverend Jürgen Poppe
24.11.: first Seminar "Self-Teaching Languages"
01.12.: "Foreignish for Beginners" with Joachim Grzega: entertainment + education
08.12.: Celebrating 30 Years of LdL - Joachim Grzega & Bea Klüsener
08.12.: Celebrating 30 Years of LdL - Renate Gegner & Prof. Dr. Jean-Pol Martin

10/12/12: 30 Years of LdL

The central teaching concept at the EHP will be LdL – which is short for “Lernen durch Lehren” (German for “learning by teaching”). Here, learners get as many teaching tasks as possible. They are supposed to teach attractively, activating co-learners to a high degree. 30 years ago, LdL creator Jean-Pol Martin, a retired professor from the University of Eichstätt (Germany), had published his first article on this model. For the anniversary EHP director Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener, Assistant Professor at the University of Eichstätt, have published a new reference book: “LdL für Pepe, Pfeiffer und die Pauker”. Grzega and Klüsener have a many-year long experience with LdL in several European countries, with learners from childhood to old age. The anniversary and the publication were now celebrated at the EHP. Grzega and Klüsener presented the model in a musical and cabaretistic, but also serious way. LdL creator Jean-Pol Martin also held a speech, complimenting the two authors for their typical LdL characteristics: empathetic, social, unaggressive, and creative. In addition, Grzega and Klüsener as well as Renate Gegner, one of the early LdL teachers, had prepared an LdL exibition.


For a preview of the book, see

www.epubli.de/shop/buch/LdL-f%C3%BCr-Pepe-Pfeiffer-und-die-Pauker-Joachim-Grzega-Bea-Kl%C3%BCsener-9783844237832/21159

Bea Klüsener + Joachim Grzega
Renate Gegner + Jean-Pol Martin

04/12/12: Humorous Language and Culture Trip

Under the title “Ausländisch für Anfänger” (‘Foreignish for Beginners’), Joachim Grzega took his audience on a two-hour trip through the world of politeness formulae. The audience were presented differences between Germans and other European as well as between European and non-Europeans in a humorous way. Grzega even combined the history of musical instruments and the history of communication. For this, he included songs on his vibraphone. In addition, participants had to solve quizzes. This way, Grzega tried to achieve that people not only feel entertained, but also learn something. The final point was the song “White Christmas” whose verses Grzega sang in various European languages.


The next EHP event: Saturday, 8 Dec, 15:00-18:00: Celebration “30 Years of LdL” (= Lernen durch Lehren / Learning by Teaching) – views on the didactic concept LdL incl. presentation of the book “LdL für Pepe, Pfeiffer und die Pauker” by Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener; speech by LdL inventor Jean-Pol Martin.

Joachim Grzega: Entertainment + Education

26/11/12: Successful Start of EHP Events

Last Saturday saw the first seminar at the EHP. EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega showed how to self-teach languages effectively and efficiently. He first tried to focus on differences between languages in general by raising participants’ awareness for German and its dialects. Then participants had to analyze certain aspects of their target language by themselves. Participants also got a chance to try out certain learning techniques. The feedback by the participants was positive.


The next EHP events:

 

Saturday, 1 Dec, 16:00-18:00: Lecture “Ausländisch für Anfänger” -- Linguistic Edutainment with Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega


Saturday, 8 Dec, 15:00-18:00: Celebration “30 Years of LdL” (= Lernen durch Lehren / Learning by Teaching) – views on the didactic concept LdL incl. presentation of the book “LdL für Pepe, Pfeiffer und die Pauker” by Joachim Grzega and Bea Klüsener; speech by LdL inventor Jean-Pol Martin



Feel free to distribute the attached flyer.

Seminar "Language Self-Teaching"

11/11/12: Events in November and December

The next events at the EHP are:


Sunday, 18 November, 19:30: Oecumenic Blessing by Dean Popp and Reverend Poppe


Saturday, 24 November, 09:00-16:30: Seminar “Self-Teaching Languages” -- wiht Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega


Saturday, 1 December, 16:00-18:00: Lecture “Ausländisch für Anfänger” -- Linguistic Edutainment with Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega


Saturday, 8 December, 15:00-18:00: Celebration “30 Years of LdL” (= Lernen durch Lehren / Learning by Teaching) – views on the didactic concept LdL incl. book presentation, with Joachim Grzega, Bea Klüsener and Jean-Pol Martin


Feel free to distribute the attached flyer.

22/10/12: Questionnaire at the 6-Nation Meeting

For the final event of the 6-nation meeting – after the town-twinning festivities for Pappenheim, Coussac-Bonneval and Iszkaszentgyörgy and the EHP opening ceremony – EHP Director Joachim Grzega had developed a questionnaire.

The questionnaire aimed at finding out if the participants thought that specific political challenges need local, national or European solutions. The domains (relating to small-town areas) were

(1)   animal farming

(2)   co-existence of humans and nature

(3)   constructing energy-saving houses

(4)   mastering the financial crisis.

On the average, the participants thought that a mixture of local, national and European solutions is necessary. European solutions were particularly favored with Domains 2, 3 and 4 – but also local solutions were considered appropriate with Domain 2.

In addition, all participant groups agreed that exchange between a small town from one European country and a small town from another European country is important to get ideas for one’s own problems.

 

At the end, participants were asked to say if they think that

(A) a European small town is like a big town in that same country

(B)  a European small town is like a small town in another European country

 

The participant groups said rather No to Statement A and rather Yes to Statement B.

 

Although the results are statistically not significant, they nevertheless indicate that further international exchanges between citizens from small towns make sense and should serve to develop and discuss politically practicable solutions.

 

Participants’ answers were categorized according to nation, sex and age. Some, in part surprising, results are listed her

* The French supported European solutions more than national solutions in all domains.

* The Germans, Hungarians and Romanians said Yes to both Statement A and B (a bit more strongly to B).

* The Germans, Hungarians and Romanians said Yes to both Statement A and B (a bit more strongly to B).

* Men never supported European solutions more than national or local solutions.

* Men agreed with Statement A and with Statement B.

* Young participants (under 30) did not much support local solutions with Domains 1 and 4.

* Young participants strongly agreed with Statement B and disagreed with Statement A.

 

The EHP says Thanks to all questionnaire participants. For the EHP, the results support the concept to deal with small-town and rural areas in a European perspective, to organize further exchanges and to develop and discuss politically practicable solutions.

Here once again the links to reports on the EHP opening ceremony:

http://www.pappenheim-aktuell.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2384&Itemid=159

http://www.joachim-grzega.de/Stadtzeitung_EHP.pdf.

15/10/12: Report on EHP Opening

Here's the report on the EHP opening in the Stadtzeitung:

http://www.joachim-grzega.de/Stadtzeitung_EHP.pdf

12/10/12: Nobel Peace Prize for the EU

At the EHP opening ceremony Bea Klüsener and Joachim Grzega sang “Oh right at the EHP we’re gonna build Europe, and this means promoting peace...”. Today the European Union has received the Nobel Peace Prize. Congratulations from the EHP!

08/10/12: Press Release on Opening Ceremony

Here is the report on our opening ceremony in “Der Skribent”:

http://www.pappenheim-aktuell.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2384&Itemid=159

23/09/12: Innovative Hungarian Lessons for the First Encounter

While skills in French are relatively widespread in Germany, Hungarian is a hardly studied language here. Due to the partnership between Pappenheim and Iszkaszentgyörgy, to be officially started at the weekend of the EHP opening, the EHP is therefore offering learning material developed by EHP Director Joachim Grzega (in cooperation with ASEcoLi and the University of Eichstätt), for the first encounters with Hungarians. The innovative study concept was already tested by students. It consists of a little textbook and 99 audio files that are freely downloadable via the website.

20/09/12: MdB Gloser at the EHP

Since his agenda will not allow him to attend the official EHP opening ceremony, Günter Gloser, Member of the German Parliament and former Minister of State for Europe, came to Pappenheim for a specific visit yesterday. He inspected the construction site and had EHP-Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega and Mayor Uwe Sinn provide him with ample information on the concept of the EHP. He paid respect to the small-town of Pappenheim for its courage to carry out such a big project, showed himself impressed by the goals of the EHP, gave valuable advice for their implementation and offered further cooperation. Moreover, Gloser wants to donate part of his library to the EHP. Apart from the press, 2nd mayor Friedrich Obernöder and vice district administrator Peter Krauß were also present.

Mayor Sinn, MdB Gloser, EHP Director Grzega

05/09/12: VIP Politicians at the EHP Opening Ceremony

The program for the EHP opening on Saturday, Oct 6, and Sunday, Oct 7, is practically set. On the one hand, there will be a “Europe” quiz for adults and children (award ceremony in front of the EHP, Sunday at 16.30). On the other hand, there will be a welcome offer to introduce to the areas of the EHP: a European town and tongue tour through Pappenheim, a sequence of alternative language learning and a presentation of language in politics and economics. Each element will be 15 to 20 minutes. This program will be offered various times. On Sunday it will be in German, at 10.45, 13.15 and 15.15. Since we expect international guests from at least 6 nations, the offer will be carried out in simple English on Saturday, at 16.15 and 17.30. The opening ceremony proper will be in front of the EHP (Marktplatz) on October 6 at 14.00. A number of VIP politicians have accepted the invitation, among them Josef Göppel, member of the German parliament, and Christa Naaß, member of the Bavarian parliament. As guest speakers we could win Bavarian Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann and Member of the European Parliament Kerstin Westphal.

 

23/08/12: EHP in "Pappenheimer Skribent"

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Prusakow, the EHP is now also present at the online journal "Pappenheimer Skribent".

21/08/12: European Town Project Becomes More Concrete

The European project that Joachim Grzega has developed becomes more concrete. Meanwhile it has received the Latin-English project name “Verbum Intellegere Pro Europa - Awareness of Word-Associations For the Benefit of Europe” -- brief: VIP-EU. Grzega and Mayor Uwe Sinn could now discuss the project with Andrea Nagy, a teacher from the Hungarian town of Iszkaszentgyörgy. She announced that she would be willing to actively assist in the preparatory and main phase of the project in her home town. A few hours before the official opening of the EHP on October 6, Iszkaszentgyörgy and Pappenheim will start their official twin-town partnership.

03/08/12: Preparations for a project among European munipalities

On the basis of prior contrastive language studies the EHP aims at carrying out a European project in which citizens are to develop sensitivity for the fact that words with equal sense do not always trigger the same thoughts and emotions. In a second step participants shall then try to find answers for societal questions – with differences in basic attitudes no longer playing a major obstacle. The exchange shall be both on-line and on-site. We want to take the label “European” very seriously and have all major geographical-cultural areas represented. The EHP is the center. Thanks to existing contacts we could quickly win cities from the European west (France), south (Italy), and east (Hungary) as project partners. Recently, Mayor Uwe Sinn could bring two representatives from the Finnish town of Savukoski into contact with EHP director Joachim Grzega. Kaisa Aikioniemi-Stenberg and Pertti Stenberg liked the idea and said they would strongly recommend their municipality’s participation to the town council.

 

 

26/07/12: EHP supplements its services

The EHP has enlarged its services: For schools it now offers, on the one hand, academic support in carrying out projects on topics that are European in the EHP sense (especially COMENIUS projects). On the other hand, it offers a course ELITE Competences (Europa-, Lern-, Internet-, Team- und Expertenkompetenzen). For  companies and public institutions the EHP offers company- and institution-related studies for improving intercultural communication with a focus on Europe.

25/07/12: New EHP staff member

The EHP welcomes its new assistant – Wilma Enser. Ms. Enser is an expert in customer care and event organizing.

13/07/12: The EHP at the EU Parliament

The Town of Pappenheim with its EHP was recently invited to Brussels by Kerstin Westphal, Member of the European Parliament (MEPs). Mayor Sinn, EHP Director Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega, EHP initiator Helmut Selzer, trip organizor Ludwig Schütz and a delegation of the town of Pappenheim (including several college students) now visited Brussels on July 11 and 12. Apart from information visits at the European Office of the Bavarian Local Authorities, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Bosch Company the delegation met with Kerstin Westphal and two other MEPs, Norbert Neuser and Ismail Ertug, and discussed the ideas of the EHP. Grzega had selected the guiding questions so that both sides could benefit from the meeting: How can MEPs support the EHP? But also: How can the EHP support MEPs in their work? The MEPs were impressed by the EHP concept, gave valuable advice and offered their cooperation.

 

 

10/07/12: Joachim Grzega Director of the EHP - website goes on-line

Mayor Uwe Sinn appointed Prof. Dr. Joachim Grzega Director of the EHP. One of his first activities: he set up the first version of the EHP website.