Stimulating ideas for the future of Saarland

01.03.07 | Category: General

According to the papers, German solar technology is becoming more and more of an export hit. The solar technology trade is said to be expecting an increase in turnover of over 50 per cent for foreign trade in 2007, to more than €1500m. That is nothing short of a sensation. Another sensation is the Loremo. That is the name of the low-profile speedster built by a small Munich company. It has a fuel consumption of 188 mpg and a top speed of 100 mph, and costs no more than €11,000!
These are headlines which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. And above all, they make one thing clear: making an active effort to help shape the future calls for courage and capability. Last Wednesday, 25 capable people came together in the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks. The scene: the ore shed. Where until 1986 the dense raw material of the once flourishing ironworks was stored, a much more lightweight treasure was now to be brought to the surface: ideas and suggestions for the future of Saarland.

The name of this project is the idea laboratory, a project to which the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks has issued invitations for several successive dates. The inaugural event at the beginning of February, with 50 senior officials from Saarland's ministries, exceeded all expectations.
The team comprised 25 participants who 'represent to us the aspect of industry and commerce', as Meinrad Maria Grewenig put it in his welcome speech. The Director-General of the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks chose his words carefully. Those invited included not only men and women of action such as entrepreneurs and the self-employed, but also unemployed people as representatives of the downside of the economic process. 
The aim is to integrate the whole of Saarland's society. This can be seen from the way in which the future workshops which are still to take place have been put together. The teams which will be involved in those workshops include people recruited from the worlds of art and culture, innovation and research and, last but not least, from an environment to which the organisers refer in their programme notes as the school of the future. And finally, the team from the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks will be taking part in a future workshop themselves, together with a team from the town of Völklingen.

The results will be integrated into the project 'Genius I. The mission: discover, research, invent', to be exhibited by the World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks from May 13th 2007.
The special charm of this Völklingen 'idea laboratory' lies in the fact that each of the groups invited will approach the task set before them in a completely different way. The only thing that remains the same is the starting-point. Anyone daring to look ahead must begin by gaining a foothold on the stony ground of actuality. And he must also be prepared to tread unfamiliar ground.
'We're going to prepare a wonderful dish for you,' Prof. Anja Grothe promised the 25 expectant participants right at the outset. Ms. Grothe, a Professor of Environmental Management from Berlin, together with her colleague Dr. Matthias Teller, proved to be a skilful presenter at the second Völklingen future workshop. She simply reversed the golden rule of cooking - 'Too many cooks spoil the broth': the more cooks, the better the future cocktail.
The first thing on the agenda was a drawing exercise. The participants were asked to capture on paper the images which went through their head when they thought about the future. More than a few of them just stared cluelessly at the blank sheet in front of them. 'So we're not allowed to write anything. Is that right?' they asked, confused. Most of them, however, followed the instructions and got well and truly involved when the pictures were presented afterwards.



Now the team had got warmed up and the work could begin. What's not working out in Saarland? What's missing? What needs to change? These were the questions thrown up at the beginning of the workshop. At the end, the large notice board was jam-packed with catchwords. 'There is great potential for change', commented Matthias Teller objectively. 
Work was done on that in the period that followed – with increasing enthusiasm. It was a case of sorting out, from the points of criticism raised thus far, what was desirable and what not, giving the imagination free rein while doing so. Thought was given to subjects such as the sad state of education, the decay of values, dissatisfaction with politicians, loss of culture and the rather modest image of Saarland as a region in its own right. In somewhat less than two hours, the participants took all these negative concepts and moulded them without exception into exciting 'Utopias'. For example, there was talk of new kinds of citizens' participation in the form of weekly polls carried out by televoting. 

Saarland advanced to become the 'heartland of Europe' and an experimental area for alternative designs for living, which included some kibbutz-like structures. Against the backdrop of the current discussion on education, a design for a continuous mentor system arose, from kindergarten all the way up to college. Another suggestion was aimed at the creation of a Super-Ministry of Culture. One particularly innovative working-group, presenting its results in the form of a talk show, announced in newspaper headline style: 'Saarland decides to dismiss government and be managed as public limited company.' 
All crazy ideas? Like the car that does 188 mpg or the booming German solar technology industry? We cannot do without these 'Utopias', because they show us the way forward. Plenty of steps have already been taken toward their being implemented. Take solar energy, for example: in this field particularly, Saarland already has a good deal to offer. That applies especially to the solar power station at Saarbrücken Airport, which is among the largest of its kind in Germany. 

Starting from that point, the Völklingen idea laboratory team developed the idea of a test track for solar-powered vehicles along the Saar. Saarland's Ministry of Trade and Industry would be responsible. And the prognosis for implementation of the project? Two years. 
Neither did the participants display a lack of the necessary will to put things into practice in other respects. For example, they finished by testing several of their designs as to their feasibility. 'Saarland AG' was not among them. However, most of the participants were able to imagine regular citizens' polls by televoting being carried out as early as the coming year, at least at community level. Saarland's Department of Statistics was cited as the authority most likely to carry out such polls. 
At the end, some participants found that the results were a little on the thin side, saying that they would have liked to get more out of the event. Others found themselves wondering why Saarland, in the face of so many sparkling ideas and so much potential, had not long since manoeuvred itself into a much better position. Both these reactions are expressions of the same enthusiasm. The Völklingen idea laboratory is, it seems, on the right track. The fact that it has already produced tangible results at all is a great success. However, its real value lies in the very fact that it exists: as a social platform on which the future of Saarland can be discussed and shaped. Where else is that to be found? (Lorenz Töpperwien)

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