Last May, AEGEE-Hamburg organised the film event “Moving Europe”, which was directly connected with the Action Agenda. For this reason, they were chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to David Knöner, President of the local, to find out more!

ACT: Congratulations! As we would like to get to know this month’s winner, could you tell us a bit more about your local?
David: AEGEE-Hamburg is a very old association, even older than AEGEE itself [jokingly, ed.]. We had some golden periods in the past, but are currently struggling as the last boards did not care about recruitment anymore. Therefore, our main efforts go into making the antenna visible again and gaining new members. Luckily, we get some awesome support from other antennae, especially Berlin and Groningen.

You have organised the film event “Moving Europe” and a workshop that contributed to the Action Agenda. Can you tell us more about your events?
To be honest, besides some few local events like Moving Europe or two days of AEGEE-Berlin’s SU, there is not that much happening in Hamburg. This is a result of a huge lack of activities and we are working hard to change this.

Why did you decide to organise this workshop and event?
This event takes place annually. Its aim is to get young people interested in European topics in an entertaining way. There are a lot of European events happening here, but they are mostly attended by the same, old people. So we try to do something about that, together with the European Affairs Department of the city and state of Hamburg, Creative Europe Desk Hamburg and varying other youth organisations. This year a lot of big changes are happening in Europe, e.g. nationalist movements, the refugee “crisis”, etc. It is challenging most people’s basic views and opinions on Europe. So we agreed on making the topic as fundamental as possible, and that is European identity. And it was kind of obvious to link this topic to refugees.

What was the result?
Almost all seats in the cinema were taken, but unfortunately the majority of guests weren’t as young as we had wished. We think it is easy to make people happy when you preview an award winning movie and offer free snacks and drinks, so the general happiness indicator was quite sufficient, we would say. We saw a lot of lively discussions during the break and afterwards, so we guess we actually made people think.

Why do you think the Action Agenda is important for the Network, and what would you say to other locals that are thinking about organising something related to the Action Agenda?
Europe needs a strong AEGEE, now more than ever. But AEGEE can only make a change when we work together. We have to actually be one team of 13 000 people. And that is why we have to agree on common goals and measure sets, noted down in the Strategic Plan and the Action Agenda. If every antenna just does what they think is right, we have 170 different, small, irrelevant organisations which do not change a thing.

Do you have any other big plans for the upcoming months?
We are planning a huge recruitment campaign for the start of next semester, including online campaigns, stands, flyers in every important canteen, lecture hall presentations, introduction events, two exchanges and a Local Training Course. If this goes well, we will implement a new local events series and organise a content European event for next year. If not, AEGEE-Hamburg will be closed down.

AEGEE-Hamburg has certainly shown to the Network that it can be an example to other locals. What would you say to other locals that want to be as awesome as you?
We don’t think any local would want to be like us, because the antenna is in existential danger. We would rather like people to see AEGEE-Hamburg’s development in the last years as an example of how not to do it. Because we see a lot of antennae organising some nice events, but that is it. Like AEGEE-Hamburg did. Three years ago, we had a Top-5-SU, even last year we still had a great Network Meeting.

It is always the same, experienced people, sometimes someone new walks in through the door. But more and more people leave and there will come a point where the local is not viable anymore. We were and are pretty close to that point, because the last boards didn’t care about recruitment. So we can only try to remind people that recruitment is the most important thing for any student organisation. We need every local we have to survive, because Europe needs us. Now and in the future! The less we do for it, the more room opens for nationalists.

Which sentence would describe your local and your event?
Trying not to die; trying to still do cool stuff while trying not to die.

Written by the Action Agenda Coordination Committee

AEGEE-Hamburg has lots of experience hosting Network Meetings (NWMs). They did it in 2009, 2012 and they are in the process of organising yet another spring NWM for 2015. A NWM where 25 participants together with AEGEE’s President Paul Smits as well as Network Commissioner Maria Arends will go back to the future, digging into the history of AEGEE over the last 30 years. Before interviewing AEGEE-Hamburg, The AEGEEan interviewed Network Commissioner Maria Arends to hear about the organisation behind the event and what plans she has for the upcoming NWM.

The AEGEEan: Why did you choose Hamburg as destination for the next NWM?

Maria: AEGEE-Hamburg expressed their interest in organising a Network Meeting right when I started my term already. When I was there during my NetCom trip, it became very clear they were taking the Spring NWM seriously into consideration. I liked the idea right away, as Hamburg is more or less in the centre of the antennae I work for. Actually, it is a bit the same idea as last year: NWM Tartu in the north, NWM København in the south, now Sankt-Peterburg in the north, Hamburg in the south!

Will you follow up on what you did in NWM Sankt Petersburg?

Yes, definitely! In Sankt-Peterburg we exchanged best practices with each other through SWOT analyses, and in Hamburg I want to follow up on this by comparing it to a different method. Furthermore, where last time we had a session about AEGEE’s history, this time we will address the 30th Anniversary and the participants will even have the chance to come up with ideas they can implement in their antennae. Furthermore, as NWM Sankt-Peterburg was after the Agora, it was interesting to discuss the results and see everyone’s point of view. We did a preparation for EPM Burgos as well, and now we will discuss the results during the NWM and prepare for AgorAsturias! And there’s more, but let me not spoil all the fun beforehand.

How are you working with AEGEE-Hamburg to prepare for the event?

Through hundreds of emails and Facebook messages! AEGEE-Hamburg is a really nice antenna, and they have a lot of ideas as well. They came up with the topic of Back to the Future, and after they explained it to me (I still have to watch the movies) I fell in love with it immediately! It is so applicable to every part of the programme: socially AND content-wise!

Have you already been there? Can you recommend people to visit the city?

Even though the distance between my home town and Hamburg is smaller than from my home town to, let’s say, Rotterdam, I’ve been several times to Rotterdam, but last December during my NetCom trip I was in Hamburg for the first time. It was so lovely, really, the city has everything: an old city centre, super modern parts, at that time there were Christmas markets and Glühwein… So how it will be in spring, I have no clue, but yes, I can definitely recommend it, if only for the nice atmosphere there! I’ll have to see next time, but it might become one of my top three favorite cities in northern Europe (at least on the main land).

Who from the CD will join you at the NWM? 

Paul Smits, the President of AEGEE! Last week we’ve already talked about the programme, brainstormed on the content for some sessions, came up with some cool ideas… So I feel confident it is going to be amazing! Fun fact: one of the organisers is also called Paul, so that might cause some funny confusion from time to time.

Why is this NWM interesting for the Network? What will be special about it?

Nordic Network Meetings (if I may call them that way) are always a bit unique. I am the Network Commissioner for the Baltics (including AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg), Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the United Kingdom, so it is very broad and has many different locals. The programme is gonna be cool, the local organisers will be amazing, but the participants… will be simply the best! Another thing that’s unique, is that AEGEE-Hamburg has organised a Spring NWM in 2012, and a Spring NWM in 2009. So, it is also a tri-annual tradition!

The AEGEEan of course also interviewed the President of AEGEE-Hamburg, Saskia Heller, about the upcoming event and the first thing she mentioned was also the NWM experience of AEGEE-Hamburg.

The AEGEEan: Why did you apply to host the NWM?
Saskia: Actually a simple thing called rhythm. We hosted one in 2009, 2012 and 2015 it was just about time again. Additionally, we are not organising a Summer University this summer (please don’t be sad!), so a NWM offered us a new platform to still host an European event.

What is special about the city of Hamburg?
We don’t really want to brag, but we are the second biggest city in Germany (1,7 million inhabitants) and the “gate to the world” due to our harbor. We would describe ourselves as Nordic as we have our big river Elbe, which is the reason that Hamburg has been a free and rich city since centuries. Hamburg is not this little cute town you see on brochures about Germany, but it has its own Hanseatic (red brick stone buildings), industrial (mainly harbor area) and modern (newly build districts like Hafencity/Harbor city) charm.

What will be the focus of NWM Hamburg?
Our NWM offers several workshops for our all participating local antannae to exchange their experiences as well practices. Additionally we will talk about AEGEE’s 30th anniversary, Democracy in Practice project and other AEGEE related events/current issues. Our thematic informal focus is the 80ies as AEGEE was founded then and we just like to play our old records in public.

Who do you have in the organization team?
Our current board and some additional volunteers, we have two of 2012’s NWM organisers helping this time again.

Why should people come to Hamburg?
You should come if you want to enjoy a cool breeze, you like small & big ships, you want to explore unique corners, you like big cities or you simply love to eat fish.

Is it easy to access your city?
You can easily access Hamburg via our own Airport (as well as Bremen or Berlin). There are national bus lines to connect us with all of Germany. For our railway enthusiasts there are different international trains once a day.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Zaragoza

On the 4th of July our Travel Summer University (TSU) started with 24 participants from 12 different nations, who were eager to find out whether common German stereotypes held true or not. The best way of getting to know a country profound is by crossing it from one side to another, so we started our trip at Lake Constance, which forms the border with Switzerland and then continued all the way to the Baltic Sea.

Let’s start from the very beginning in the city of Constance: some participants were already there to watch the quarter-finals of the football World Cup with us, and others joined later. Surprisingly, the first evening we had Kebab for dinner, instead of the expected German sausages.

The following day, participants had the chance to get to know each other and had their first workshop on cultural differences, held by Julia Fuss. In the evening, we filled our stomachs with a more traditional German dish: Käsespätzle (egg pasta with cheese).  Afterwards we went clubbing, and to cool down from dancing, some took a refreshing midnight-swim in Lake Constance.

With the help of sponsored Red Bull, everyone was able to get up early the next morning – and thanks to the sponsoring of Deutsche Bahn, we departed for Mannheim by train. During the train ride, participants had the chance to establish their first real-life contact with Germans. Equipped with a questionnaire, the participants could find out what Germans consider to be typically “German”, and what they think about the participants’ respective countries. This interaction lead to some interesting encounters. For example, one of the fellow passengers was so inspired by the AEGEE spirit, that she made a spontaneous donation to support our work – very much to the delight of our treasurer, Jan-Christian Fey.

In Mannheim we spent four full days on thematic work about stereotypes in general, and those specific to Germany- but of course there were also a lot of leisure activities.

A highlight was definitely the day trip to the beautiful city of Heidelberg, where we visited, among other sights, the Studentenkarzer, which used to be a prison for misbehaving students decorated with old-style graffiti by the former inmates.

The day in Heidelberg ended with a visit to a karaoke bar, where we had a great time watching amazing performances, such as the one by our main organiser Philipp zu Hohenlohe. Philipp took the challenge of having to interpret Justin Timberlake‘s song Sexy back with dignity and earned himself not just the admiration of the audience, but also a cool hat – which accompanied us from then on. Equally unforgettable was how the so-called Spanish mafia animated everyone to dance Macarena.

A “typical German“ dog

By the way, the participants got a booklet with some German phrases, the most popular ones being Du hast eine sexy Stimme (you have a sexy voice) and Mein Hund hat Durchfall (My dog has diarrhoea). The first one came in quite handy on karaoke night, since we had some really talented singers in our group. The latter did not come in handy in any situation, thankfully, but still we had great fun saying it, and even translating it into other languages.

As for culinary delights, we finally fulfilled the expectation of serving German sausages in Mannheim: we had the typical Bavarian Weißwurst with Brezeland sweet mustard, but of course only after a proper introduction to the many possible ways of eating it. Furthermore, we were very lucky to get some delicious free ice cream at the Italian ice cream parlour Fontanella in Mannheim. “Italian ice cream in Mannheim? Turkish Kebab in Constance? Did the organisers run out of ideas for original German food?” you might think – but the answer is that they did not: they just wanted to raise awareness of the fact that Germany received a lot of immigration from other European countries during the economic miracle of the 1960s.  Therefore, parts of foreign culture were integrated into German culture over time. When we travel, we do it with the expectation of getting to know many new things, but sometimes the greatest surprise is to find something very well-known far away from home.

Having an Alsterwasser (beer with lemonade) in the river Alster.

Of course, we did not spend the whole TSU eating, but we also did some challenging sport activities like waterskiing. I think the best way of describing the experience of wearing a wet suit for the first time in your life is the following anonymous quotation from one of our participants “I feel like Superman, but it’s a little tight in some parts!”

However, there is one crucial thing for a German TSU I haven’t mentioned yet. Yeah, it’s beer. So of course the visit to the traditional regional brewery Eichbaum was obligatory. German beer made a lasting impression on the beer-drinking habits of our participants. This even led to some serious reintegration problems after returning home. One of the first messages that reached us after the TSU was the following: “I just drank one beer yesterday, it was s***: I was used to yours!”

Last but not least, we had the European Night in Mannheim, including many delicious dishes and drinks such as the extraordinary Hungarian Letscho. Followed the next day by the suggestion that from now on, the Hungarians should always cook for us. As I was part of the cooking team myself, I would have felt personally offended if I did not have to admit that it was really incredibly tasty… The German sherbet powder “Ahoi Brause” mixed with Vodka was also very much enjoyed, and shall from now on be known under the name of “shake your head”.

Can you tell the German organisers from the participants?

Since participants took over the German values of discipline and punctuality, we managed to be on time for the train to Cologne, even after a tough European Night. Right next to the famous cathedral we enjoyed some pizza, but on the way to the gym, it turned out that although Germans like to plan everything, there is one thing which is unplannable for them – the weather: unfortunately, we were accompanied by a thunderstorm, and everyone became soaking wet.

Next day we had an interesting discussion with professor Elvert from the faculty of European history, and afterwards a cool role-play organised by Thomas Leszke. Although Thomas only joined us for a small part of the trip, our ladies were very impressed by him. If you are reading this Thomas, I would like to let you know that you gained quite some votes in the category of sexiest man.

As we continued our trip further north, even the unplannable weather helped us to break German stereotypes: the normally rough and rainy city of Hamburg welcomed us with bright sunshine. Our first evening in Hamburg was also the last evening of the World Cup. We watched the finals in the Hofbräuhaus, a restaurant inspired by the famous original in Munich. Drinking the typical Bavarian Weißbier in the capital of Northern Germany is a good way of breaking regional German stereotypes.

It was a lot of fun to see that our international group was the one supporting the German team with more noise than the rest of the crowd. Being in Germany when the German national team won the World Cup was definitely a unique experience. In the end, even the big football sceptics like me could not help but feel the magic of the moment. Afterwards we went to the Reeperbahn – the famous party street of Hamburg – to celebrate becoming Football World Champions. Watching football inspired us to do some sports ourselves, so we went for a bicycle rally to discover the city, and chilled out afterwards at the beach of the river Elbe. The next day we went for a canoe-tour on the canals of Hamburg. During the guided tour through the harbour city – a new district of Hamburg – participants could see German punctuality and planning in practice: the centrepiece of this district is the not yet finished, but already famous opera house Elbphilharmonie, which was due to have opened years ago.

Italian ice cream in Mannheim.

On the last day of our TSU, we went to Lübeck, which used to be a member of the former trading union Hanse just like Hamburg. Saskia Heller guided the group around and briefed them about this together with many other facts. In the end there was the possibility to taste the famous Niederegger marzipan – or due to the good weather – the ice cream version thereof. Ice cream weather also means beach weather, so we headed straight to Lübeck-Travemünde and enjoyed a swim in the Baltic Sea: a great end for a great event.

As for the title of the TSU, I leave it up to the readers and more importantly to the participants to decide which German stereotypes they would consider broken, and which proved to be true for them. But no matter what your decision may be: I would like to take this chance to thank all the participants and organisers for being part of this event and turning it into an unforgettable experience!

Written by Sarah Kalkowska, AEGEE-Hamburg

Fotos by Philipp zu Hohenlohe