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Since 1998, the Ural College of Technology and Entrepreneurship in Ekaterinburg has carried out projects to modernize individual trades with the support of the Sverdlovsk regional government, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Eberhard Schöck Foundation. 21 years of joint project work connect us with the Yekaterinburg College of Technology and Entrepreneurship. It is currently celebrating its 45th anniversary. Congratulations!

Anniversary video highlighting our activities at the college (in Russian).

Christoph Junghans and his son David offered a one-week seminar on the subject of “Spray painting and historical surfaces” to the instructors of both trades at the Vocational College of Art and Technology No. 5 in Vinnytsia. The furniture parts produced by the carpenters in September were lacquered and sample boards were created in different materials and techniques. The participants practiced using the cup gun for spray painting and made their own paints and glazes. The seminar covered the entire field of craft training today: from traditional techniques and materials to the most modern materials, tools and equipment.

The exchange of experiences between painters and carpenters and the joint solutions to problems broadened the participants’ horizons beyond their own trade. This was a very positive experience for everyone.

In October we are able to celebrate the official opening of the workshop for the modernized painter/restorer trade at our project site in Kharkiv (Regional Vocational Training Center for Construction Technologies of the Kharkiv Region), Ukraine together with the GIZ. The festivities were attended by high-ranking representatives and project partners from politics and business. Anatoly Babichev, the Vice-Governor of the Kharkiv region, and the German Vice-Consul Peter Schmahl from the General Consulate in Donetsk with headquarters in Dnipro congratulated the project team on the successful workshop renovation and emphasized the importance of promoting training in the construction trades for the city of Kharkiv, especially for young people. Special thanks also went to the project sponsors Knauf, Caparol, Storch and Dinova, whose Ukrainian representatives were very pleased with the results of the modernization efforts. The conversion of the workshops and their equipment with materials and tools were led by master painter Andreas Tobias, who works on our behalf. He was also responsible for modernizing the content of the painter profession as well as training the instructors and teachers at the Kharkiv Vocational Training Center.

Foto: Мария Зайцева

In Kassel, Germany, Grammar professor Peter Eisenberg was awarded the Jacob Grimm Award for his research on the German language. The laudatio was given by the co-publisher of the renowned Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper, Jürgen Kaube. “Peter Eisenbergs work inspires us to reflect on the German language”, said Mr. Kaube, adding that Professor Eisenberg also stood for a careful handling of the German language. The Initiative Award was presented to the band Tonbandgerät for their ability to convey the joy of the German language to young people in Germany and abroad with their music and their German lyrics. Eberhard Schöck’s granddaughter Amelie Arndt delivered the laudatio. The Institutions Award went to the German-language newspaper Kaukasische Post. As the only German-language newspaper in the Caucasus region, it serves as an “asset for German foreign relations”, explained jury representative Helmut Glück. Holger Klatte, CEO of the Verein Deutsche Sprache (VDS), presented the laudatio.

Press release (in German)

The stonemasons from Lviv in Western Ukraine have returned home. What they have left behind is their work: Plates for the stair stringers in the newly installed linden-tree-lined boulevard of the historic terrace garden in Kirchheimboladen and steles for the signs in front of the linden trees – all manufactured manually using traditional methods. The three weeks of their stay were filled with workshop activities, an excellent cultural program and encounters with their German peers at the Meisterschule für Handwerker in Kaiserslautern. Back in Lviv, they will return to their studies at the Ivan Trusch College. Ukraine, it is important to note, does not have an apprenticeship training program for stonemasons. Instead, the training is part of the degree program for sculptors. In the Palatinate region of Germany, the pieces they created will now be installed and the need for additional work will be assessed. Next fall, the next phase of this unique partnership with thornconcept and the Stonemasonry Department of the Meisterschule für Handwerker in Kaiserslautern, Germany will be launched. Coverage of the project by the German SWR broadcast station is available here (in German).