Featured photo: Lilo & Werner
It must have been a while since my better half and I traveled by train to a federal conference. This time we went to the 66th Federal Congress in Halle. The outward journey led via Stuttgart, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Erfurt. The return journey went via Erfurt, Nuremberg and Crailsheim, which makes a real Heilbronner a bit sad. The journey there alone was eventful and I am currently writing these lines on the return journey. This time we already had our reserved seat when we started the journey; an advantage if you start the journey in a slightly larger city.
Our 16th joint federal congress took place in the city of Halle, which was a bit too morbid for my taste, which is probably the direct result of the city having too few inhabitants for its size. Perhaps it is also because the proportion of residents with a migrant background is just under 14%, which is not enough to significantly reduce the city's average age. Halle is still considered the third largest city in the new federal states and is known to most of us because of the attack on the Hall synagogue on October 9, 2019.
As congress veterans, we now organize our own supporting program and were able to end Friday evening at the hotel bar and Saturday evening together Reiner Wichels and Jan-Philipp Scheu in the Schnitzel hostess enjoy. Should you ever stop by there, which I can only warmly recommend to you, then tell the good soul of the house, Claudia Heinemann, best regards from me.
Well fortified and in a good mood, we decided not to end the evening at the bar - the bartender will forgive us for this - but to stop by Lilo & Werner, where there was quite decent live music Neil Young-Interpreters.
The hotel with the congress area was certainly one of the best in the city, the employees there definitely gave their best, but that didn't prevent its gradual decay and only reinforced the overall impression of Halle.
The 66th Federal Congress itself went completely as expected and hardly surprised any of the delegates. This time, however, I noticed more and more - certainly due to the environment - that my better half and I are now among the "older members of the association", with only a few older "dinosaurs" appearing here and there. Because I grew up with the certainty that “tradition consists of always marching at the forefront of progress” (Gerhard von Scharnhorst), the appearance of dinosaurs doesn't make me feel nostalgic at all.
The whole thing was only made worse when I realized that there is hardly any difference between these dinosaurs and our youth association present. We also said goodbye to a “veteran” who, almost two decades ago, I saw as a young bearer of hope; The course of the world has probably become a bit out of round overall.
I see one reason for this, at least as far as our association is concerned, in the fact that as a person you should not be thrown into the association's work - and this should be as high up as possible - but rather you have to grow into the association. I had already earned my merits at the local level for a good 20 years before I even started working at the federal level.
Today it is not uncommon for people to start as young and inexperienced as possible at the highest level of the association, fail there as expected, try to imitate a few dinosaurs (motto: more appearance than reality and don't go their own way) and then go down to the top level Association structures are passed on, where people also just do nonsense.
And so it was a little refreshing that this time we were able to elect one or two new district chairmen to the presidium.
There is an overview of the previous federal congresses of the EUROPA-UNION right here.
