HO HO HO
Hello lovelies,

As I'm sitting here in my cozy little shared kitchen looking up at the night sky through the windows hung with fairy lights, I'm enjoying another sip of mulled wine; the best from the tetra pack: Grandma's mulled wine. It brings back memories. Or rather just hazy memories? You know the one: mulled wine. Swei mulled wine. Rei Lühwein...

YES! There was something! Two years ago, I moved to Görlitz and started studying. Just as I was finding my feet and had memorized a few names, my flatmate at the time, Franzi, approached me: You HAVE to throw the Icebreaker party! Do you already have any ideas? What's your team like? Is everyone taking part? What are you planning to do? Will you be in the Maus again? What will your flyer look like? So many questions about this "Icebreaker Party", which I had never heard of before. So I asked around - yes, it's a tradition at the HSZG for the KuMa's first-year students to throw the legendary Icebreaker Party. This is a party that is now held at the beginning of December in the Maus and is organized by the KuMa first-year students. Because learning by doing and all that.

Now I'm going to take a short detour for you and jump back to the present:

In the run-up to this little blog, I did some research: where does the Icebreaker party come from? How did it become a tradition? Has it always been held the way we planned it in 2018, for example? The questions seemed endless and there was no one who could answer them for me. Through friends, friends-of-friends and acquaintances, I came across a clue to help me understand the tradition: Mr. Hummel.

Mr. G. Hummel is a family man, passionate musician, business administration graduate and has been a lecturer for special tasks at the university since 2008. You can listen to him and his snappy remarks in courses such as General Business Administration, Cultural Marketing and Quality Management in Healthcare. In my first year, I overheard a discussion about his outfit: "Fesch" in a suit but with sneakers. His statement at the time: "Nobody sees me standing behind the desk anyway."

For an oral exam where I had to present a festival, I put on one of the festival shirts. His comment: He and his band always dressed extra well to distract from their musical deficits.*
Thank you :)

_{*original quote had to be changed by the editors due to the wording.}

You should know that the KuMa's module catalog includes an optional module: Project Cultural Management. Until a few years ago, this module was also supervised by Mr. Hummel. I say supervised because it is neither a lecture nor a seminar. The module involves designing an event and, in the best case, implementing it. In short: what you actually want to learn in the 6 semesters at the HSZG, you should apply directly in the first semester - but hey, no pressure!

So Mr. Hummel quickly began to teach the students the basics in the module: Project management - what do we want? How do I create a project plan? What does a financial plan include? Where and how can I submit which applications? And when do I set which milestone? All very, very useful knowledge! I didn't want to use his comment that he wasn't the youngest anymore, but unfortunately he doesn't remember the first time he "supervised" an icebreaker party within the module - whether this is due to his age or the mulled wine mentioned above is anyone's guess.

Hummel's memories begin in 2015: "Three important things to consider," he says, counting off on his hand: time, costs and the thing itself - the content (he turns to the window and thinks about whether there was anything else - all good, it's been a while).

Was this really the first Icebreaker party? No. My research takes me back to 2010, when a Facebook event was held. The motto: Dance in green and subtitled "Icebreaker Party 2010", which took place on 09.12.10 at First - the photos there speak for themselves. What would be a major data protection issue today looks like a lot of fun and a successful party back then. The icebreaker party "Hot on ice" also took place the following year on 7.12.11 at First. Then it was quiet for a long time and my research didn't turn up anything else either.

In previous years, the Icebreaker party took place in the well-known student club "Maus". Communicating with the Maus was also a task and a challenge, as was forming a team, developing an idea (Christmas and "Ice" breaking - difficult), designing a flyer, shopping and planning special promotions at the party and managing the budget (which could be applied for from the FSR/STURA etc.). The possibilities seemed endless, but where did you get this information from? As a first-year student, you're still at the very beginning and don't really know how things work. But we are lucky that the university is a manageable place with a manageable number of students. Once you end up at a party in a shared flat, you know half of Görlitz. That's how we divided our team into working groups back then: Someone took care of the communication with the mouse, someone else took care of the applications. One took care of the flyer design, another did a bit of marketing on Facebook. Another procured the DJ and someone else took care of the decoration concept: we all tinkered, set up and dismantled together - so the teamwork was a complete success.

I heard from Mr. Hummel that at the party he first remembered in 2015, they had already pulled out all the stops: mulled wine, a photo corner and a special cocktail. Why didn't we know that when we organized it? Back in 2018, we set up a glitter station, a signature board, a photo booth and associated props. Plus, of course, the obligatory mulled wine stand and an ingenious card get-to-know-you campaign, which involved having to get together as a group of 4 to get a free pepper (sponsoring can be so easy - just ask!). This was also to ensure that the "ice" was broken and that people moved outside their clique. Surprisingly, this worked very well (even though I still feel like I'm sitting on 5000000000 Pfeffis today).

What helped us a lot back then was not so much the module, which was still in different hands in my day, but rather "the blue folder". The class of 2016 had created a folder to record their experiences, adventures, ideas and also failures. For example, the following fail occurred at the Icebreaker Party 2016:

In keeping with the corporate design, black and white admission wristbands were ordered for the "black and white" motto and handed out in advance. Nobody thought that it would be super easy to put them on the scanner and reproduce them.

"Some horsts then came up with the glorious idea of simply copying the wristbands" (Franzi, Wkb16 - thank you! The voice message was divine!)

Of course, the whole thing turned into work for security, who had to check every single ribbon with a tear test in the evening. But you learn from such things and pass on these experiences: nowadays, only colorful ribbons are ordered, which are only handed out at the party location.

Originally, the Icebreaker party was supposed to be thrown by the older KuMa matriculants for the first-year students in October - to break the "ice" between the first-year students - aaahaaa... I wonder what the problem was? Rumor has it, but we don't know exactly. Maybe it was the module catalog, which sends us abroad in the 3rd semester and that would have been another challenge to plan a party where you wouldn't be present yourself. Although it should mean that the event would be perfectly planned if you can make yourself dispensable as the organizer and it also runs without you. Personally, I have to say that it was quite cool to be thrown in at the deep end and "have to" set up a project straight away.

When the KuMa course was redesigned in 2001, this Project Cultural Management module was still compulsory. After lengthy discussions that the students would no longer mainly study, but only plan projects, it was redesigned as optional. Nevertheless, students think up cool concepts throughout the year and put them into practice: From the ZuVi to the COA, which are just such projects. Last year, the Laube was also created within the module. So don't be shy and go for it!

Have a great Christmas as best you can <3

- Rebecca

PS. Many thanks to Mr. Hummel and Franzi for the information