Ludwig
Erhardt Schule, Frankfurt, Germany
Alfred
Wegener Oberschule, Berlin, Germany
Sophie
Charlotte Gymnasium, Berlin, Germany
By
2003, the IBP network of partner schools might have been the largest informal
organization of affiliated secondary schools in the world. The IBP
generally expanded in four ways:
1.
Interest from an
Atlanta Sister Cities Commission committee
2.
Super – Exchange V
participation
3.
Word of mouth from
teachers and parents
4.
Internet searches for
exchange program partners.
German – American Partnership Program (GAPP)
Summary
of German Business Schools Programs
Why do some partner schools meet?
As the network
expanded, the hope of linking up with a German partner school
intensified. Germany, in 1999, had the third largest economy in the world
– with the rise of
China, it is now the fourth. Germany’s size and European Union influence
were the prime reasons for installing a model global business education
program. The NAHS
IBP eyed three German cities:
1.
Frankfurt – important
European banking and transportation center
2.
Berlin – new political
capital of a unified Germany
3.
Nuremberg – twinned
with the City of Atlanta in 1999 with a mission to become a human rights
center.
The
NAHS IBP received invitations from secondary schools in Frankfurt and Berlin to
develop joint program and projects and responded.
The
Ludwig Erhardt Schule (LES), Frankfurt, Germany
Ludwig
Erhardt Schule (LES) starts student run enterprise based on ACTCo model:
My
host teachers, both teachers too – Christa Mueller-Jankowiak, her husband Rudy
Jankowiak, and their daughter – younger son not pictured. They made me
feel like part of the family and took me all over southern Germany. Yes,
that is a North Atlanta baseball cap that Rudy is wearing, a gift of mine to
him.
Visit
to the Romer, historic central district of Frankfurt and where annual Christmas
festival was taking place.
Sharing
classroom learning opportunities with LES teachers and students.
North
Atlanta IBP students visit the LES IBP students’ store Style 119.
Group
photo of combined NAHS students, LES host teachers and students, new friends.
Exchange
Farewell Party held at a historic restaurant in a quaint Frankfurt suburban
city. Dr. Wieland Maennle concludes exchange but speaks of many future
joint projects.
Dr.
Alfred Wegener was a geographer who became famous for formulating the theory of
Continental Drift – that the world was once made up of one big continent –
Pangaea - that broke up and eventually became the six continents of
today. A very nice, small high school located in a residential area of
Berlin was named after him. A group of parents and teachers treid to
establish a global business education program in the school for the purpose of
fighting chronically high unemployment rates in Berlin.
The
Alfred Wegener Oberschule contacted me at the end of 1999 to become partners
and engage in a student exchange. We expressed interest but other
pressing matters kept pushing the joint project back. Finally, at the
beginning of the 2001 – 2002 school year, we scheduled an exchange with North Atlanta
visiting AWO Sept. 27 – Oct. 5, 2001. Seven students were planning to
participate.
But
Sept. 11, 2001 exploded on us and changed the world. Inter-continental
travel appeared problematic and one student after another, five in all, began
dropping out until their were only two left – Pete Driscoll and Kendall
Thrasher. I was concerned too but did not want to again postpone the
exchange – believed that Berlin was safe to travel to and very much wanted to
go and see how architects had stitched East and West Berlin together into a
seamless urban space. I felt that if we had to stay home to feel safe,
then the terrorists had won.
In 1920, Potsdamer Platz was the busiest intersection in Europe,
the heart of old Berlin. During the Cold War, the wall divided this space
up into two armed camps which remained that way until 1989 when they tore the
wall down. Today it is once again a busy intersection and a heart of new
Berlin.
For
two weeks after the terrorist attack, I stayed out of sight of the Principal,
Delphia Bryant. I hired a sub to cover my class, set up teams to cover
the school store and take care of ACTCo business. Pete, Kendall, and I
stealthily tip-toed out of the school to head for the airport. At the
check-in counter, we discovered that Kendall had never acquired a passport – he
could not leave the country and my heart broke for him. So Pete and I
headed off to Berlin to act as a normal exchange group.
Ten
extremely nice, 16 year old German students hosted Pete and showed him a
terrific time – especially a number of cute girls who liked him. Poor
Pete, it was a hard job but you had to admire the kid how he stepped up to the
plate.
Beatte
Schmitt von Shaik and AWO host leaders welcomed us with a good Berlin brunch at
a famous old restaurant in the eastern sector.
Pete
Driscoll and I are welcomed to AWO by Principal Karl Dinetz and Beatte Schmitt
von Shaik.
Karl
Dinetz, a nice man and fine principal, really believed in the IBP concept for
his school. However, a bloc of teachers felt that the school’s size and
resources were too limited to participate – it was also outside of their job
classification. Karl and Beatte did what they could to establish the
program but after two years were forced to concede to teacher demands.
Regardless, it was a great pleasure to have worked with them on behalf of our
students.
I
stayed in the basement apartment located in this multi-unit building as a guest
of two educators – Mr. and Mrs. Anton Hemsing - the gentleman was a middle
school principal that fed into AWO’s enrollment procedure, the wife a health
and physical education specialist. Berlin can be surprisingly leafy and
is dotted with numerous lakes.
Mr.
and Mrs. Hemsing with their son during a tour of the Brandenburg Gate interior
structure – the gate was being renovated and shored up.
View
from Brandenburg Gate interior looking down at the Unter den Linden, the grand
boulevard connecting the western and eastern sectors.
View
of Sony Plaza interior space that occupies the Potzdamer Platz intersection.
We
toured the bunkers that Hitler and the core Nazi leadership group retreated to
for shelter from the Allied bombing campaigns.
Assembled
at the Farewell Party were most of the ten very nice students who were kind and
supportive to Pete – treated him as if he was an exchange group of ten all by
himself.
Some
of the AWO teachers and host mothers that generously supported the exchange –
German hospitality is exceptional.
Pete
saying good bye to new friend until he helps host a 2002 AWO – LES joint
exchange to Atlanta.
I
returned home to Atlanta and got back to teaching and taking care of ACTCo
business. Mrs. Bryant, the Principal, summoned me to her office for a
conference. “Dr. Heller”, she said; “How many students did you take to
Berlin?”
I
seriously answered; “One ma’am but you can be sure that Pete represented the
school in great fashion, indeed was the measure of ten students himself.”
“Hmmm…one
student and gone for one week…that does not add up to me.”
“Beg
your pardon ma’am, but this exchange was important to our program and the world
wide network of associated schools, it was a very successful exchange by all
objectives stated in the travel request form.”
Mrs.
Bryant started at me incredulously, then inquired; “Was this trip actually
approved by the system?”
Yes
Mrs. Bryant, this trip was approved on Sept. 1, 2001. I understand your
concern about travel at the moment but I assure you that it is in fact safe to
travel again.”
And
left her office to begin preparing for Berlin and Frankfurt to come to Atlanta
March 15 – 23, 2002.
Beatte’s
older son Lars that helped chaperone the exchange was a computer engineer and
produced a web page upon returning home. I selected some of their images
of Atlanta that stayed with them back in Berlin.
I
misplaced the Berlin leg itinerary but scraped together on a single sheet the
Berliners collaborating to host the joint North Atlanta – Montego Bay student
delegation.
Gustav
Heinemann-Oberschule was another Berlin secondary school interested in the IBP
concept. Michael Willis and I both stayed with Beatte and son in her
spacious Berlin lake-side home. Gerlinde Moschin, Sophie Charlotte
Oberscule organizer, helped teenage girls to start their own enterprise –
SCOTYS – that planned to trade with ACTCo and other affiliated student run
enterprises. Dr. Eckart E. Stratenschulte, Director of the Berlin
Academy, provided a seminar on nature of the European Union confederation.
For
more information about the German Business Schools Programs, please access
folders Super-Exchange V, Montego Bay High School, IBP ACTCo Evolution Part 1
and Part 3.