A narrow entrance leads to the Paulinenhof courtyard with its bumpy cobblestones. The lush green rear courtyard is located off Berlin’s Sophienstrasse, just a stone’s throw away from the lively bustle of Oranienburger Strasse. But in the evenings the quiet courtyard really comes to life. That’s when school and university students from the city arrive as guests of the Heinz Schwarzkopf Foundation to meet and talk with high-profile experts on Europe from the domains of politics and culture. Here they can debate with “European professionals”, including guests such as former Federal President Roman Herzog, the conductor Daniel Barenboim, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn and the former Israeli Ambassador Avi Primor. The young people gain information about European community politics, integration opportunities or Europe’s responsibility for the Middle East.
The aim of the Heinz Schwarzkopf Foundation “Young Europe” is to inspire young people with the idea of Europe and to introduce them to the significance of the unification process. But how can you stimulate young people’s interest in Europe? “You have to show them that they are being listened to, and that they can start things moving themselves. We’ve developed a whole variety of possibilities in this respect,” explains Director Philipp Scharff. In addition to the series of talks “Europe in the 21st Century” and “Talking about Europe”, the foundation has been offering EU crash courses for school students since 2008. It also organizes political conferences and visits to European embassies, and it awards travel scholarships for which school students from Germany and other European countries can apply.
Jan Ebert, a teacher at the Ernst Abbé School in Berlin’s Neukölln district, which is often publicly viewed as a problem area, is a regular guest along with his students. Many of the high school students who take politics as a special subject or belong to the school’s extracurricular politics work group have a migrant background. “They are often interested in specific topics, such as how Europe is dealing with the Middle-East conflict, or Turkey’s entry into the EU,” the politics teacher says. During the discussions and events they learn that “Europe isn’t a horror scenario, but that they benefit from it themselves”, in contrast to the arguments they may have heard at home.
Wanting to actively do something – this was what initially motivated 27-year-old Tamuna Kekenadze from Georgia to become involved in support of Europe. She brings young people from Georgia, Russia, Germany and other European countries together, and she has networked Georgian youth organizations with their counterparts in other European countries. This is why the foundation awarded her the “2009 Young European of the Year” prize endowed with 5,000 euros. This award enables the prize winners to spend six months as an intern at a European institution, or it helps them to finance a European project. Ms. Kekenadze is currently working as an intern for Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the European Parliament. “What I enjoy there is the chance to learn more about EU politics from many different perspectives,” she says.
Enabling young people to gain different perspectives on the European unification process was also the objective of the organization’s founder Pauline Schwarzkopf. She established the foundation in 1971 in memory of her husband, a well-known businessman. The foundation’s most positive aspect is that it integrates at many levels young people who want to become involved in Europe. For example, the young friends of the foundation make suggestions on whom to invite as guest speakers, and they organize conferences themselves on various subjects, such as “Right-wing extremism in Germany and Europe” in 2008. Young Europeans aged between 14 and 28 can also make nominations for the Schwarzkopf Europe Prize, which was awarded to the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb in 2008.
And, as if the foundation needed any more justification for its subheading “Young Europe”, it also acts as the umbrella organization of the European Youth Parliament that is present in 32 European countries, each of which sends delegates to international sessions. The delegates work out suggestions on current issues, for instance in Stockholm at the end of April 2009 they looked into climate change. The young MPs were welcomed to the city by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, which also shows how seriously young people in Europe can be taken.
