Disput-Mediators visited the City of Münster

The Rolandsmauer school-club for the Disput-Mediators made an excursion to the Peace Hall in the city of Münster (one hour south from Osnabrück). In this city hall the catholic ambassadors negotiated the peace contract with the protestant ambassadors in the other city hall of Osnabrück, so we have two "Peace Halls" for the Westphalian Peace from 1648. The peace message was brought to Osnabrück by a horse rider - that´s why nowadays children in Osnabrück celebrate the peace by riding on wooden horses through the city, like you will do this year on October 15th when you all are visiting us in Osnabrück,-))

Rolandsmauer visited the Peace Hall

The last weeks students from the Europe-club visited the city hall of Osnabrück to have a look into the so called "Peace Hall", where the peace agreement for the Westphalian peace was settled in 1648. Look at the golden peace dove at the door. We learned about some memories like coins and the children tour with wooden horses, too.

Sweden visited an armymuseum!

Peace and war in Europe

We´ve been reading about peace and war in Europe during twentieth century. This week we went to an army museum in Stockholm. Our students want to share their experiences with you:

Museum of the Army in Stockholm, Sweden, is mainly based of European war and peace. It's a really big museum that has a lot of unique items, for example a part of a nuclear weapon.

The museum is based on 3 floors and they're really big, they show all kind of weapons that has been used for over one thousand years and much other items for example, Ak 47's which is one of the most produced weapons in the world.

They've got about minium 50 different weapons, everything from parts that are taken from elks to rocket launchers and cannons. It's a really cool place and I got more from it, then what I expected.

It was pretty good at the museum. We had a guide who walked us trough the 1900 wars era. He showed some pretty cool stuff like 50 different weapons and nuclear warheads. We also saw some unique gasmasks and "gas suits" for radioactive protection for children.  

When he finished talking and stuff we were free to go. So of course me and my friends walked into the armory room with different kinds of weapons and uniforms. 

It was a very good museum if you want to know more about the world wars and how the weapons have progress trough the times. The guide talked about the world war 2. It was interesting and it was a lot of stuff that show how the soldiers lived and how people thought about Jews.

And look at our teacher!

History teacher Thomas

Sweden went to Stockholm for a rare day.

Dare to be You!

January 10 some students and three teachers from Aspen went to Stockholm visiting the "Dare to be you" day. It´s an organisation combating exclusion of young people through good examples and positive activities (http://www.vagavadigsjalv.se/) It was an afternoon with good music, a lot of speaches and a lot of thoughts about what is important in life. This organisation organizes camps in summertime on an island on the west coast in Sweden. Some of us really want to go on this camp!

Commitment Courage Care

Looking for Peace - grade 7 - George of Podebrady

We studied the life and work of one of Czech kings, Jiří z Poděbrad - George of Podebrady.

He was elected to be a king after death of Ladislav Habsbursky - some thought  Jiri poisoned the young king, but in was proven that Ladislav had leukaemia.

Jiří tried to create something like European Union - a treaty among all Christian states.
- The member states would promise to settle all differences by peaceful means.
- There was to be a common parliament and other common institutions and supranational insignia.

He sent his courtiers to other kings to promote this idea. The plane didn´t work out then in 15th century.

From pupils´worksheets:

- He doesn´t look like a cool guy, because he is fat, but he was cool. He managed to give to Czech a period of peace and to the Europe a good idea.

- I like that he wasn´t whining about hard life - his parents weren´t married and it was a problem then and some people made fun of him. He didn´t mind and did his best, and ended as the only elected Czech king from Czećh nobility.

- He had to be really good at talking to people, since he managed to keep both catholics and hussites happy.

He proposed peace first to Czech warlords and then to whole Europe. I wonder how he did it that Czech people listened to him and accepted him.

Je suis Charlie

We are shocked and grieving

(Europa-AG Schule an der Rolandsmauer)

Conflicts in Europe - Sweden

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The last weeks the swedish students have been studying some conflicts in history lessons. We have been reading about the world wars, more about that later on, and about some swedish conflicts. Here is a text from two of our students about their thoughts about this conflict.

Ådalen, Sweden, 1931

Conflicts in Swedish history. 

Ådalen 1931, there were a peaceful demonstration. Military ruined it, five killed and five hurt. 

  Today we talked about Swedish history, specifically the topic about Ådalen. There was a rescission and the companies lowered the salary. The workers thought that was unfair and demonstrated. The 14 of may 1931 there was a big demonstration and military had been called in to say that the way was shut down. The soldiers threw smoke-grenades some of the demonstrators got burn marks. 

   When the military noticed that that didn’t work they sent in the cavalry. The cavalry said "Stop in the name of the law". Even if they wanted to stop they couldn’t because the one behind pushed them forward. This caused that the military tried to scare them back but only ended scaring the horses. Because of that they started shooting. 

   Four of the demonstrators got killed and one woman who was just watching. Another five demonstrators got hurt. This  

   This conflict could have resulted in a revolution. A lot of people were angry with the government. But it was solved in a peaceful way. The Swedish model, which includes talking with your opponents and try to find a solution instead of battling each other began to take form.  We will study more conflicts in swedish history, for example the midsummer crisis during the second world war, and see if we can find a pattern of how conflicts can be solved in a peaceful way.