Report
4th Meeting of “Democrazy and its Endangerments
From 9 to 13 October the 4th Meeting of the Erasmus+ Programme "Democracy and its Endangerments" took place at BG Rein near Graz, Austria. The focus of the meeting lay on the creation of heroism and dealt with children's rights. The former mayor of Graz, Alfred Stingl, brought the latter closer to the project participants, who elaborated the issues in a workshop and creatively implemented them in a collectively designed banner.
As for the topic of heroism the whole group went on a trail search up the Schlossberg in Graz and through the staterooms of Schloss Eggenberg, learning about heroes during the First and Second Republic of Austria. The Austrian students gave talks about ancient heroes in the fields of democracy, sports and mythology, displayed in the Replica collection of the Archaeological Institute at the University of Graz.
A particularly memorable experience was the conversation with Dr. Lucia Heilman, a Jewish woman who has survived the Nazi era. This amazing heroine also agreed on answering questions about her life. During a guided tour through the exhibition "Bertl and Adele - Two Children from Graz during the Holocaust" as well as a walk to the “Stolpersteine”, which are installed in Graz, the participants of the project discussed the treatment of Jews and other ethnic groups during the Nazi regime in Austria.
The international ties of friendship were strengthened during a joint excursion to Western Styria, where we visited the castle of Deutschlandsberg, a Styrian oil mill and a traditional Buschenschank.