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Pre­sident of INA gGmbH for many years

In memory of Dr Christa Preissing

© Licht­schwärmer – Christo Libuda

Im­ple­menting in­no­va­tions sus­tainably – The ex­ample of the In­ter­na­tional Academy Berlin

Christa's track as founder

A con­tri­bution to the app­re­ciation ce­remony for Christa Preissing on 26 Sep­tember 2022 from 3–6 p.m. at Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin

by An­gelika Krüger
Founding partner (1996)
Di­rector of the In­stitute for Youth and Com­munity Empowerment

 Video link on Dr Christa Preissing's work

Dear Lisa, dear family members,
Dear friends and com­pa­nions of Christa,

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honour for me to be here today in this setting to pay tribute to Christa's ex­tra­or­di­narily im­portant con­tri­bution to the founding, es­tab­lishment and de­ve­lo­pment of the In­ter­na­tional Academy Berlin – an or­ga­ni­sation in which a wide range of in­no­va­tions are de­ve­loped in va­rious areas of work and im­ple­mented in sus­tainable practice.

There was a deep trace in Christa's work very early on, which turned out to be es­sential for the sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation and in­sti­tu­tio­na­li­sation of the in­no­va­tions she (co-)developed: Christa's track as founder. As she once said about herself:
"I am a founder!"

What was special about Christa as a founder?

One of the central aims of Christa's work was to promote em­powerment pro­cesses in the im­ple­men­tation of the pe­dago­gical concept of the si­tua­tional ap­proach to achieve social in­clusion and active par­ti­ci­pation, espe­cially of children and young people – in the sense of human rights and children's rights – as well as the self-de­ter­mined shaping of living en­vi­ron­ments and quality of life with the clear aim of sus­tainably im­ple­menting cor­re­sponding ch­anges in practice, espe­cially in the edu­cation system from kin­der­garten to university.

These three in­ter­re­lated di­men­sions of her work: concept – content – sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation in con­crete practice, com­bined with her di­verse skills, have made Christa a com­mitted and suc­cessful founder.

It has worked to es­tablish in­sti­tu­tional struc­tures in the 3rd sector that cor­re­spond to the content and ob­jec­tives, tog­ether with com­pa­nions, and to become the or­ga­nisers of practice-re­levant work itself. To build or­ga­ni­sa­tions that are close to practice with all the direct prac­tical pos­si­bi­lities for action with regard to the de­ve­lo­pment and sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation of in­no­va­tions. NGOs that open up certain scope for action, but also have weight in co­ope­ration with po­li­tical de­cision-makers and public sector ad­mi­nis­tra­tions, that can con­vince and are trust­worthy for donors and sponsors.

With this in mind, Christa has in­itiated a number of start-ups that Ludger Pesch has al­ready briefly men­tioned today.

Alt­hough this path was fol­lowed in the 1970s, 80s and 90s The zeit­geist of a growing and streng­thening civil so­ciety It was not an easy path and re­quired clear stra­tegies, a wide range of skills, staying power and a wil­lingness to take risks.

The founding of the In­ter­na­tional Academy Berlin

Christa was en­thu­si­astic about Jürgen Zimmer's in­itiative and im­me­diately got in­volved in the pre­pa­ration of the Es­tab­lishment of a new common in­sti­tu­tional um­brella, a common lo­cation for the Si­tua­tional ap­proach, com­munity edu­cation, social psy­cho­ana­lysis and en­tre­pre­neurship – an um­brella for the dia­logue between these four ap­proaches, for practice-re­levant science, re­search pro­jects, in­no­vative local, na­tional and in­ter­na­tional practice pro­jects, further edu­cation and training, dis­cussion forums for in­ter­di­sci­plinary ex­change and the de­ve­lo­pment of joint work pro­jects, the com­mu­ni­cation of new im­pulses in sci­en­tific dia­logue as well as in public discussion.

Thanks to her good network and her great com­mitment, Christa was in­stru­mental in re­cruiting like-minded people, fri­endly pro­fessors and re­search as­sistants from Freie Uni­ver­sität Berlin as well as in­te­rested col­le­agues and friends from re­levant pro­jects and as­so­cia­tions for the in­itiative and bringing them tog­ether to jointly shape this project in line with the founding idea. the self-image, the overall concept and the legal form – the Common Ground – and ul­ti­m­ately to es­tablish this joint organisation.

In the often very con­tro­versial dis­covery process mo­de­rated by Christa, a circle of more than 10 col­le­agues emerged who were ex­perts in the four sel­ected core con­cepts and were en­thu­si­astic about the idea and willing to par­ti­cipate in the foun­dation, take over shares in the company and con­tribute their areas of work to the new organisation.

On 13 May 1996, the time had come: the In­ter­na­tional Academy for In­no­vative Edu­cation, Psy­chology and Eco­nomics – INA for short – was es­tab­lished as a non-profit li­mited company with 11 share­holders founded.

There were five in­sti­tutes was founded as the ope­ra­tional basis for the areas of work con­tri­buted and ma­naged by the founding partners:

  • In­stitute for the Si­tua­tional Ap­proach (ISTA), which was set up and ma­naged by Christa and Christine Lipp-Peetz in col­la­bo­ration with Rita Ha­berkorn, Elke Heller and Ludger Pesch.
    All their work pro­jects and years of ex­pe­rience in the im­ple­men­tation and further de­ve­lo­pment of the si­tua­tional ap­proach found a new ope­ra­tional basis here. The si­tua­tional ap­proach is the guiding basic idea for the entire INA.
  • In­stitute for School and In­no­vation, from Ulrike Becker in col­la­bo­ration with Hartwig Henke and ma­naged.
  • In­stitute for Psy­cho­social Pro­cesses and Care, later Office for Psy­cho­social Pro­cesses (OPSI), Ma­nagement: David Becker and Stephan Becker
  • Studio for En­tre­pre­neurship, Ma­nagement: Günter Faltin
  • And the company I founded In­stitute for Com­munity Edu­cation (ICE), since 2001 In­stitute for Youth and Com­munity Em­powerment
    It was based on my many years of com­munity edu­cation work in Germany and in­ter­na­tio­nally, which was closely linked to the si­tua­tional approach.

A sixth led by Jürgen Zimmer Work area was the Shaul B. Ro­binsohn re­search with a focus on: Cur­ri­culum re­search and de­ve­lo­pment, te­acher and edu­cator training and com­pa­rative edu­ca­tional science.

 
At the same time, the con­crete de­ve­lo­pment work for the joint or­ga­ni­sation began. In the in­itial phase, the ma­nagement was in the hands of Christa, David Becker and myself – the so-called 'ma­nagement team'. Exe­cutive Com­mittee.
 

Christa in­itially worked alongside Jürgen Zimmer, the Pre­sident of the INA, as a Vice Pre­sident, Deputy Pre­sident and de­si­gnated suc­cessor to the Pre­sident and after his re­ti­rement in 2017 Pre­sident from the outset a leading and re­spon­sible role in the overall organisation.

In the course of the 26 years since its foun­dation INA has con­tinued to de­velop or­ga­ni­sa­tio­nally thanks to the de­di­cated work of the Board of Di­rectors with its va­rious members and pro­fes­sional ma­nagement and ad­mi­nis­tration, and after ex­panding to 20 in­sti­tutes in the me­antime, it now has a Core group of 10 suc­cessfully ope­rating in­sti­tutes sta­bi­lised in terms of content. (see appendix)

One of many ex­amples of the suc­cessful work of our in­sti­tutes in terms of the sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation of in­no­va­tions is the Berlin Kita In­stitute for Quality De­ve­lo­pment (BeKi):

In 2008, Christa, tog­ether with Hen­riette Heim­gärtner, took part in a Europe-wide tender for a quality in­stitute for early childhood edu­cation or­ga­nised by the Berlin Senate De­partment re­spon­sible for youth. The con­tract was awarded to INA and led to the es­tab­lishment of BeKi within INA, which was com­mis­sioned by the Senate Ad­mi­nis­tration to im­plement the Berlin edu­cation pro­gramme and provide on­going sci­en­tific support for the im­ple­men­tation pro­cesses.
The Berlin edu­cation pro­gramme was de­ve­loped under the lea­dership of Christa by a working group at the INA with staff from the In­stitute for the Si­tua­tional Ap­proach (ISTA).

In this start-up, the three di­men­sions I men­tioned at the be­ginning that have made Christa a suc­cessful founder – concept – content – sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation in con­crete practice – become very clear.

In summary, we can say that by joining forces and thanks to Christa's out­standing con­tri­bu­tions, we have ul­ti­m­ately suc­ceeded in building an or­ga­ni­sation with a high level of con­ceptual and sub­stantive ex­pertise, a re­co­g­nised re­pu­tation and with suc­cessful and sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation of in­no­va­tions in practice in the re­spective areas of work and as an overall or­ga­ni­sation, de­spite the many challenges.

An or­ga­ni­sation that has met with a po­sitive re­sponse and great in­terest among ex­perts and in the re­spective fields of practice in Germany and abroad, and which is trusted by re­levant donors – donors and sponsors not only in Germany but also in Europe, the USA and other countries, in­cluding large foun­da­tions, the Eu­ropean Com­mission and local and na­tional public donors.
With the INA – the common um­brella – we have thus suc­ceeded in creating better framework con­di­tions and a sta­bi­lising and per­spec­tively re­levant basis for the work of the in­di­vidual in­sti­tutes and the sus­tainable im­ple­men­tation of innovations.

What was Christa's special contribution?

Christa has the Foun­dation, set-up and de­ve­lo­pment process the INA with its per­sonal and pro­fes­sional com­pe­tences She has ad­mi­rably mo­de­rated and shaped the company – with her clear vision, her inner compass, her in­te­grity, her many years of work based on the si­tua­tional ap­proach, her content-re­lated and stra­tegic ex­pertise, her re­mar­kable ability to engage in dia­logue and her wil­lingness and ability to bring tog­ether dif­ferent in­te­rests and con­vic­tions to form a common whole, with her de­ter­mi­nation, per­se­verance and stamina, but also with her humour and a good me­asure of down-to-earthness and her eye for reality.

As Vice Pre­sident and later as Pre­sident Christa, tog­ether with the other vice pre­si­dents, has INA's self-image – ours common ground – as the basis of our joint work, con­stantly re­flecting on it and de­ve­loping it further with all those in­volved, as well as spe­ci­fying the content ex­pertise and profile of the or­ga­ni­sation as a whole.
Christa was always at work in all In­sti­tutes in­te­rested and willing to advise and support the in­stitute di­rectors and em­ployees and to find joint so­lu­tions in the event of con­flict; to re­present the INA in­ter­na­tio­nally and to strengthen the trust of the sponsors in the in­di­vidual areas of work th­rough her pre­sence and con­tri­bu­tions, e.g. at in­stitute events. She was often the Re­pre­sen­tativethat Face of INAwhere it was im­portant beyond the in­di­vidual institute.

It is worth noting that for Christa the founding process did not end with the actual founding of the or­ga­ni­sation, but con­tinued in the process of setting up and de­ve­loping it. Christa took on re­spon­si­bility from the very be­ginning and th­roughout the entire process. Re­spon­si­bility for the overall or­ga­ni­sation and for the work in two large in­sti­tutes.…. and Christa ac­com­panied us for a while on a future-ori­en­tated path together!

For a number of years now, INA has been in­volved in a lengthy dia­logue process – which Christa sup­ported and mo­de­rated during her time as Pre­sident. Re­mo­delling processa Or­ga­ni­sa­tional de­ve­lo­pment processto overcome chal­lenges and struc­tural pro­blems together.

The fol­lowing ele­ments of this re­or­ga­ni­sation have al­ready been im­ple­mented or are under development:

– Ab­olition of the ma­jority share­holder prin­ciple and the role of the President;

– Re­dis­tri­bution of share­holder shares to curr­ently 18 share­holders, thereby streng­thening joint ow­nership, re­spon­si­bility and par­ti­ci­pation on a broader basis;

– In­tro­duction of a col­legial ma­nagement structurewhich is per­formed by the ex­tended Exe­cutive Board (curr­ently 5 members) and the Ma­naging Di­rector and is sup­ple­mented by re­gular In­stitute Di­rector conferences.

In this forward-looking process is the guiding prin­ciple of "Unity of content and form" which was coined by Christa and some col­le­agues many years ago. This means that the goals, values and content of the work are re­flected as a con­sistent prin­ciple in the or­ga­ni­sa­tional structure as well as in the working me­thods and be­ha­viour of those in­volved – at best, they run like a common thread th­rough all areas of the or­ga­ni­sation. The or­ga­ni­sation as a whole re­presents and re­flects the goals, values and content of the work.

We will con­tinue on this path!

Fi­nally, my fa­rewell greeting to Christa

Dear Christa, it is a com­pletely un­ex­pected, much too early and in­fi­nitely sad fa­rewell, but you will live on in our con­vic­tions, our work, our in­itia­tives and pro­jects with all the di­men­sions of your per­so­nality and your life's work that we have tried to honour today. We will follow in your foot­steps and in our shared foot­steps into the future, in­itiating new de­ve­lo­p­ments, re­fining our ap­proaches and con­ti­nuously working on the sus­taina­bility of our in­no­va­tions in practice. You will live on in these in­no­va­tions and in this practice. You will be in our hearts and in our work.

Fa­rewell, dear friend and unique col­league and com­panion! Thank you!

Ap­pendix

INA IN­STITUTE

  • Berlin Kita In­stitute for Quality De­ve­lo­pment (BeKi)ID Milena Lauer / Martina Castello
  • In­stitute for the Si­tua­tional Ap­proach (ISTA)ID Katrin Macha
  • In­stitute for Youth and Com­munity Em­powerment (IYCE) / YEPP EUROPEID An­gelika Krüger / Jochen Schell
  • In­stitute for Me­diative Com­mu­ni­cation and Di­versity Com­pe­tence (IMK)ID Doris Klap­penbach-Lentz / Nicole Berse-Schaks
  • In­stitute for Qua­li­tative Re­search (IQF), ID Katja Mruck / Günter Mey / Rubina Vock
  • In­stitute for In­ter­na­tional Urban Re­search (In­Urban), ID Mat­thias Kracht
  • In­stitute He­ritage Studies (IHS), ID Marie-Theres Albert
  • In­stitute for In­no­vation Transfer and Project Ma­nagement (IFI), ID Yihong Hu
  • In­stitute Or­ga­ni­sation and Ma­nagement (IOM), ID Thomas Koditek
  • Paulo Freire In­stitute (PFI), ID Sophie Kotanyi

Sep­tember 2022

  • In­ter­na­tional Academy Berlin for In­no­vative Pe­dagogy, Psy­chology and Eco­nomics gGmbH (INA)
    Nas­sauische Strasse 5
    10717 Berlin
  • +49 (0)30 57701098–0
  • info@​inaberlin.​org

Further in­for­mation

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