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At the end of July, the technical equipment for BeketovUrbanLab, a new urban planning laboratory, was delivered to Beketov University in Kharkiv (Харківський національний університет міського господарства імені Бекетова). We have been supporting the modernization of the Urban and Space Planning degree program at the Urban Planning Department since April. The laboratory is currently being converted and will be completed over the coming weeks.

The first graduates of the additional training program for stonemasons and restorers at the Ivan Trusch College of Decorative and Applied Art in Lviv, Ukraine have been awarded their Bachelor’s degree certificates.

Our project manager, Dirk Brüggemann-Bulgakow, certified that the graduates are capable of performing stonemasonry and restoration work and underscored the similarity with the German training program. The young sculptors were able to gain many hours of practical experience within the framework of the Intercultural Dialog Project in the stonemasonry workshop of the master craftsmen school in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

The additional program components help graduates learn to work on and restore stone products in addition to their artistic activities as sculptors.  This project aims to train the next generation of  local youth in the skills needed to expertly restore the artistic and architectural monuments in the old town of Lviv, which is a UNESCO cultural heritage site.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions in Ukraine, Moldavia, Russia and Georgia were forced to switch to remote teaching almost overnight. Unfortunately, as in Germany, they are lacking the requisite technical equipment such as computers, laptops, smartphones, fast internet as well as learning and teaching materials for students and teachers. By financing new laptops and textbooks, we are supporting our partners to maintain vocational college classes in spite of quarantine measures.

In the coming years, we aim to bring our experience and the results of our long-standing successful cooperation with the Ural College of Technology and Entrepreneurship in Yekaterinburg (Уральский колледж технологий и предпринимательства) to other vocational colleges in Russia. After about a year of preparation, we signed a contract on the modernization of tiler training with the Beloyarsky Technical College  (Белоярский многопрофильный техникум) and the Ekaterinburg College of Transportation Construction (Екатеринбургский Колледж Транспортного Строительства) during an online conference on May 20, 2020. The project will be implemented with the support of the Ministry of Education and Youth Policy of the Sverdlovsk Oblast under the auspices of the Ural College of Technology and Entrepreneurship.

“The level of education and training that we have jointly created has been recognized by the international community of experts. This is borne out by the results and victories of our graduates at the WorldSkills Championships,” Yuri Biktuganov, the Minister of Education of the Sverdlovsk Oblast underscored. “No pandemic can stop us from continuing our fruitful cooperation,” emphasized Peter Möller, Executive Director of the Eberhard Schöck Foundation.

On May 13, 2020, author and dramatist Rolf Hochhuth passed away in Berlin, Germany at the age of 89. He was the first recipient of our Jacob Grimm Award in 2001.

Rolf Hochhuth was one of the most influential German playwrights of the post-war period. His plays generally revolved around historical events, frequently ones linked to Nazi rule. His works “The Deputy” (1963) and “Lawyers” (1979) triggered political controversy. In the former, he questioned the role of Pope Pius XII. during the Nazi era in view of the Holocaust. In “Lawyers”, he addresses Hans Filbinger’s conduct as a naval judge in 1945 – Hans Filbinger, who later became Prime Minster of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, resigned from his post in 1978 after Hochhuth had made his conduct public. Like few others, Rolf Hochhuth made the art of drama a public affair. In addition to plays, he also authored poems, short stories, novellas, essays and polemic writings.

He was a pugnacious democrat who did not hesitate to speak out – not only on matters of culture. He was a moralist with high, immutable standards. The German language was more than a tool to him, it was a cultural asset that needed to be cultivated, protected and developed.

The Eberhard Schöck Foundation mourns the death of the first recipient of its Jacob Grimm Award. We will cultivate and cherish his memory.