VHS political café in the Feldmann Foundation: In tune with the times: This is how political education works

The VHS Politcafé is a relatively new format with changing venues in Mülheim. On October 10th, Peter Leitzen, lecturer and initiator of the offer, was a guest at the Feldmann Foundation for the second time. The Politcafé will continue to be offered there as a common format in the future.
The hall in the Gasthaus Feldmann was well filled thanks to around 50 participants, including a course of around 15 people from the Styrumer Treff language café.
In a short introduction, the head of the Feldmann Foundation, Jan Große-Bremer, first presented the wide range of group activities and events in the meeting place – from line dancing to the history discussion group to the lace making group, from children’s theater to rock concerts to the political café.

Leitzen then took the microphone and opened his half-hour keynote speech with the question that led the evening: How can democracy counter the danger of being infiltrated or even abolished by anti-democratic forces exploiting democratic principles? Such forces must be opposed by a “defensive democracy”, one in which “no tolerance of intolerance” applies, as Leitzen spoke loosely based on Thomas Mann, Karl Popper and other thought leaders.

The lecturer also provided a good basis for discussion by addressing three basic questions: What is the nature of politics? What is the essence of democracy? And what is the importance of elections? His comments on the different electoral systems (majority vs. proportional vs. personalized proportional representation) and models of democratic decision-making (representative/parliamentary vs. direct democracy/“referendum”) provided starting points for the subsequent discussion.
Above all, the diverse contributions made it clear that participation is one of the keys to a more satisfying (and therefore… pacifying!) Politics is. But for this to happen, the conditions must be right, hurdles must be broken down and access created, as the head of the language café was able to convey with her protégés in mind. Unfortunately, politics is also “often difficult to access linguistically, especially for non-native speakers”.
Speaking of prerequisites: Leitzen spoke out vehemently in favor of more political education and, among other things, referred to recent analyzes according to which voting behavior differs strikingly depending on educational qualifications (broken down to the essential interpretation: the worse the access to education, the greater the support for the political right ). The former teacher (and, as such, a professional) found open ears among the participants, similar to his plea for a “culture of praise” that would also be good for political cooperation.

Despite all the variety of requests to speak, it was noticeable that the participants predominantly belonged to the “group” under 30 (but over 18!) or the older generation (over 60). The middle age group (between 30 and 60 years old), on the other hand, was quite sparsely represented. The organizers were very pleased with the number of participants, after all “the second largest since the format existed” (Leitzen).

Heinz-Werner Czeczatka-Simon, who heads District Representative 1 (Dümpten/Styrum), was also among those present. The district mayor made several contributions, for example promoting the district conference as a suitable platform for cross-district exchange. In addition, the local politician, who is close to the citizens, provided a fitting closing statement. Anyone who wants political change should not ask what man can do, but: “What can I again?”

Attending events like the Politcafé with Peter Leitzen can be a good start…