Staff

Richard Roewer has dedicated his professional life to promoting democracy. He spent several years at the Leibniz Institute for Global and Regional Studies in Hamburg and at the University of Oxford researching the emergence of pro-democracy parties in authoritarian state systems and also wrote his doctorate on this topic. Following the guiding principle "theory needs practice", he organised a political education programme for junior politicians, coordinated knowledge transfer events, and advocated on behalf of members of the opposition in Myanmar, where he lived for several years.
 
Richard first learned about the Kreisau-Initiative through the Model International Criminal Court (MICC) programme, for which he worked for several years. Krzyżowa / Kreisau left a lasting impression on him as a "lively place of exchange for young people from Europe, but also as a place for addressing the important questions of our shared history and present". For Richard, the work of the Kreisau-Initiative is not only about providing opportunities for education but about a mutual process of learning that “enables us to strengthen democratic values together with young people". Courage is the central value for Richard, because courage is crucial for finding solutions together.

Elżbieta Kosek studied Economy in Berlin and Media Pedagogy in Rostock. From 2007 to 2012 she worked as a Programme Manager in the International Youth Center in Krzyżowa. In January 2013 she started her work for the Kreisau-Initiative.

Alla Bahlei studied politics in Chernivtsi (Ukraine), Słupsk (Poland), Brno (Czech Republic) and Athens (Greece). Now she is studying Middle- and East European culture and history in Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany. Since December 2022, she has been working as a project coordinator in the Kreisau-Initiative.

Elisabeth Kremer studied German-French studies and European Studies in Germany, France and Denmark. She is a certified teamer of intercultural youth meetings and group-interpreter within the German-French Youth Cooperation. Since May 2018, she has been working as a programme manager in the Kreisau-Initiative.

Sofie Koscholke studied European media culture in Weimar, Germany, and Lyon, France, as well as intercultural communication in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. From 2015 to 2018, she was an educational programmes specialist in the International Youth Meeting Centre in Krzyżowa, Poland, and since September 2022 has been working for the Kreisau-Initiative again in the focal areas of Inclusion and social-ecological transformation.

Kerim Somun he has been working for the Kreisau-Initiative since February 2017. His main focus is the project Model International Criminal Court (MICC). He studied Public Administration at the University of Sarajevo and wrote his bachelor thesis on including youth in decision-making processes. His interests focus mainly on human rights, peace building, transitional justice and youth leadership.

For many years I have been interested in German-Polish relations and cooperation as well as in the history of National Socialism in German-occupied Europe, especially with a focus on the fates in Poland 1939-1945. For this reason, during my studies – Polish as a foreign language and history at the University of Potsdam and at the Uniwersytet Jagielloński in Kraków/Krakow – I completed various activities in German and Polish institutions that deal with the respective culture of remembrance as well as historical-political educational work (including the German Embassy in Warsaw, the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Polish Institute in Berlin). In 2020, I was awarded the "If not for those ten" prize by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for my volunteer work there.

Studying and remembering the fates of the victims of National Socialism is a matter particularly close to my heart. I was further trained as an academic volunteer at the Flossenbürg concentration camp memorial for work at museums and memorials and was allowed to set my own content-related focus on Poland in historical-civil educational work.

I am very happy that I can now co-shape the educational activities of the Kreisau-Initiative and thus be a part of active remembrance and action in Europe.

Malwina Szczypta studied applied linguistics and intercultural communication in Poznan, Poland, Leipzig and Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. She joined the Kreisau-Initiative in August 2018.