Spring School | Generationen

The Spring School has been held annually since 2024 as an interactive workshop organized by the Agentur für Aufbruch (AfA) Through conversations with local stakeholders, students from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle gain insights into subjective experiences and collective practices in the region. In an interdisciplinary collaboration, Spring School participants transform the portraits they create on-site—of people and the places where they live and work—into a magazine that is presented to the public. The Spring School combines methods of writing and photography.

For this year’s Spring School, we have once again secured interview partners who wish to share their perspectives on upheavals and transformations in the Mansfeld region through conversation. This year, we are focusing on the theme of generations. In doing so, we span several age groups—from the restructuring and decline of industries in the Mansfeld-Südharz district, before and after 1989, into possible futures for which new opportunities often open up, sometimes unintentionally, in the present.

We ask: How do tradition and change intersect? What perspectives unite the generations, and where do the differences lie? What role do experiences play—whether from long ago, today, or not yet had?

Through interviews and photographic explorations, we will familiarize ourselves with different perspectives on the ground. We will speak with older and younger people, as well as with those who work professionally with multiple generations.

To conclude the Spring School, we cordially invite all participants to attend the presentation of the results on Saturday, May 16, 2026, and to engage in conversation with one another. As in previous years, the presentation will take place at Kurt’s Garage, Molmecker Str. 86, in Hettstedt.