Celebrating togetherness!

On May 21, 2022, approximately 25 students and staff members from both of our university campuses in Ostritz attended the Peace Festival to walk the “Catwalk for Democracy,” promoting openness to the world and tolerance.

Located roughly halfway between Zittau and Görlitz, the “catwalk” showcased our university’s —openness to the world, education, research, and tolerance—were presented by researchers from the LaNDER³ project as well as students from the “Kleiderschrank 6.0” project team.

Under the heading “TOGETHER—Learning, Teaching, Researching, Living,” research staff and students from technical degree programs came together to demonstrate that they are committed—both professionally and personally—to the values embodied by the Peace Festival. The LaNDER³ project is working on the use of locally grown textile plants in new products. Among other things, in collaboration with “lokal textil,” a piece of flax canvas was created—grown and harvested in Leipzig, the fibers processed in Zittau, and spun and woven in Großschönau.

We, the “Kleiderschrank 6.0” project team, are students in the Social Work degree programme at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. As part of our project study, we are examining the production and consumption chains of clothing in relation to the topics of sustainability, identity, human rights, and environmental protection. In cooperation with “Tierra – Eine Welt e.V.,” we staged a performance titled “Human” on the runway for democracy, openness to the world, and tolerance at the Ostritz Peace Festival on May 21, focusing on our individual characteristics and insecurities. The final formation on our T-shirts—reading “100% Mensch” and “100% Human”—made it clear that beneath every imperfection, every individual story, behind every personal statement, and every unique trait lie unique individuals who, nonetheless, possess equivalence with regard to their status as human beings. The prize money we earned will be donated to FEMNET e.V., a nonprofit women’s rights organization that advocates for the economic, social, and cultural rights of women worldwide, with a particular focus on supporting women in the global garment industry and fighting for the rights of garment workers.

We are grateful for the opportunity to have made an active contribution to democracy, openness to the world, and tolerance in Ostritz, and we look forward to deepening this further as the project progresses—including at the Görlitz street theater festival “ViaThea” or the Long Night of the Sciences.

Photos: Marcel Schröder