Flight has many causes

Musical with six schools from the city and district of Osnabrück

Osnabrück, June 1, 2017

When most people hear the word "flight," they probably currently think of the ongoing refugee crisis triggered by the war in Syria. How many other reasons there are to want or need to get away from a situation or place was now shown by 130 children and young people at the musical "One world" in the Osnabrückhalle. On the initiative of the Patsy & Michael Hull Foundation, students from six secondary schools in Osnabrück and Ibbenbüren, as well as from courses at the Hull Dance School, presented a two-hour program. The Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation supported the project with 10,000 euros.

The ideas for the scenes were provided by the children and young people themselves - some of them based on true stories. They revolve around bullying, domestic violence, the end of a love affair - and escape due to war. These scenes focused not only on the Syrian conflict, but also on the flight that occurred in Europe during and after World War II. "This is politics and history education up close. It goes to the heart," Patsy Hull-Krogull had announced at the beginning of the performance, which the schools had worked on in collaboration with the Hull Foundation over the past four months. The topic of flight was dealt with in the history and politics lessons of the participating schools.

During their performance, the young people not only acted in a variety of ways, from comical to sad. They danced, sang and rapped. The cathedral school had brought the idea into play after the inquiry of the Hull Foundation, the topic "escape" not only historically to approach, but to take up current feelings to the topic. The young actors and actresses used diary entries, which were shown on large LED screens, and the sentence "I want to get out of here!", with which the main character left the stage in flight, as a common thread. The Angelaschule took the modern media society for a ride with an alienated story about the expulsion from paradise - in which "God" is female, has blond hair and, clad in a golden glittering dress, formulates a "challenge" for Adam and Eve. The Johannes Kepler Gymnasium from Ibbenbüren presented problems from the everyday coexistence of different cultures, the Thomas Morus School illustrated how stressful work contexts affect the individual and provoke thoughts of escape. And the Ursula School was dedicated to the memories of older Germans who had to leave their homeland at the end of the Second World War. An integrative and an inclusive group also took part in the scenes. The students' performance was complemented by a guest appearance by Syrian flutist Maher Jarir, who himself fled his homeland.

The musical "One world" is part of a comprehensive project of the Patsy & Michael Hull Foundation entitled "One world for all", which also included panel discussions with Lower Saxony's Minister of the Interior Boris Pistorius and Chancellery Minister Peter Altmaier and gave the students the opportunity to deal with flight and integration in various ways - in order to form their own opinions on the subject.