Many wishes for a world worth living in

Pupils design 49 doors with their own theses for the Luther anniversary Osnabrück, August 29, 2017 Church - many people associate this with silence and tranquility. On Osnabrück's Domplatz, however, things are lively and colorful at the 2017 Culture Night. Doors are opened, texts are read aloud, there is laughter and puzzling, and even hammer blows can be heard: Pupils from all types of schools in the city and district of Osnabrück have designed 49 doors to mark the Reformation Year. On the occasion of the Culture Night, they were shown publicly for the first time with the "theses" that the children and young people developed with a view to the world in which they live. For this, they also dealt with Martin Luther's 95 theses, which he is said to have nailed to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg 500 years ago. "At the beginning, the doors were bare, but now we have a colorful picture. I think it's great how you express what's in your heads," Michael Prior says to the students during the presentation. Prior is the managing director of the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation, which funded the "Doors to the Future" project.

"We thought about where we see a need for reformation," says 18-year-old Chiara. Above all, the integration of marginalized groups, but also helpfulness, the role of women in the Catholic Church and celibacy have occupied her and her fellow students from levels 12 and 13 of the Berufsbildende Schulen am Schölerberg. The young people pinned their wishes on slips of paper on their wooden door. They also created a mannequin. It shows that some people do not show their true colors out of insecurity. The mannequin stands in front of the open door to illustrate that it takes courage to take a new path.

"Before the summer vacations, we looked at who Luther is and what he did," says Sigrid from Sutthausen Primary School. After the vacations, her classmates Anton, Justin and Jari explain, they started to design the door: formulating theses, thinking about what the door should look like, and then decorating it with the pieces of wood on which the children wrote their thoughts. "Let's get along and accept each other," "... that no more forests be cut down," and "... let's do more for refugees" are three of the wishes that students from all classes at Sutthausen Elementary School finally tacked onto their door. It shows the Luther rose and the wishes on one side. On the other side is a Luther sketched by a teacher and painted by the children. On the black door of the Alexanderschule from Wallenhorst terror and violence are denounced, behind it the view opens into a colorful future. Classes 4a and 4b of the Borgloh elementary school have designed a door that shows the current situation on one side, with environmental pollution and the exclusion of dark-skinned people. On the other side, you can see what the children would like to see, for example, peaceful coexistence.

The 50 doors were built by the Werkgemeinschaft "Die Brücke" in Bramsche. It offers young people who have not been offered an apprenticeship a course to qualify them and prepare them for their future careers. The 49 doors were designed by children and young people from various types of schools - from elementary schools to vocational schools - in the city and district of Osnabrück.

The project was developed by the supporting association "500 Years of Reformation - Osnabrück Region": "I am touched by what you have put on the doors," says the director Brigitte Neuhaus. The idea for the doors came from Margret Pannen, a teacher at the Erich Maria Remarque secondary school. Her students have designed their thoughts like a chat history on Whatsapp, in which the integration of a refugee in the class is thematized, explain Melina and Tijara (both 14).

The 50th door was still empty at the beginning of the Culture Night. The hammering that resounded across Domplatz was intended to draw attention to the fact that visitors could nail their wishes and theses to it.