Academy for Political Education

The Academy for Political Education’s mission is to provide people with the tools they need to intervene in socio-political debates and conflicts. We do this by providing background information on socio-political issues, demonstrating and opening up new approaches to politics and political activity.

Our educational offerings range from evening events and all-day workshops to weekend seminars all the way to modular further education, the development of educational materials, as well as handouts for multipliers. The Academy works with an orientation towards target audiences and according to the perspectives and needs that emerge from day-to-day political praxis.

Guiding themes in our work are the critical appreciation of participants, an awareness of hierarchical structures, and the desire to create emancipatory possibilities for participation. People active in Die Linke and in the trade unions belong to our participants just as much as activists from social movements, initiatives, and NGOs do.

Political Further Education

The Academy offers political further education in the form of courses, seminars, workshops, conferences, and discussion events, as well as networks and projects. The spectrum of offerings ranges from the “Campus for World-Changing Praxis” to courses on “the praxis of political education” and educational materials. There are also RLS-wide discussion groups in which anyone can participate.

Municipal Academy

Municipal politics and local engagement not neither powerless nor boring: the Municipal Academy seeks to highlight scopes of action and political room to manoeuvre on various issues  with the publication series Crashkurs Kommune, educational materials, further education options, and events in cooperation with the regional foundations. Crucial to this endeavour is the question of the self-understanding of left-wing municipal politics.

Youth Education

We need our own issues, formats, and conceptions of political youth education that spark curiosity for complex explanatory models and make people excited about getting active and involved!

For this reason, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung’s Youth Education supports and empowers young people and young protagonists around the country who are active in extracurricular youth education (with the exception of student self-organization).

Political theory and praxis are not viewed as separate from one another, but rather as interconnected. Formats and topics are chosen in a way that places the (political) interests of participants front and centre.

Political (youth) education work is concerned not least with the critical appropriation of social reality and becoming aware of the possibilities for collective action therein, in order to initiate one’s own visions of the world and how it could be here and now.

Neo-Nazism and Structures/Ideologies of Discrimination

The focus on Neo-Nazism and Structures/Ideologies of Discrimination at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is housed in the Academy for Political Education.

Here, contemporary debates on right-wing formations, neo-Nazism, right-wing terrorism á la the NSU, “far-right” parties, right-populism, and the infiltration of our society by racist and misanthropic ideologies are discussed, evaluated, and translated into corresponding political education offerings for our target audiences and beyond. We regularly intervene in ongoing debates, providing left-wing viewpoints through our own contributions and accentuations.

The rapid development of a new right-wing citizens’ movement in recent years has caused the thematic field to practically “sprout up”: the political landscape in Germany has changed fundamentally. Racist violence was not all that escalated in the country with the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees in summer 2015, but the right-wing movement diversified rapidly into parliamentary and extra-parliamentary protest.

Our aspiration is to counterpose these misanthropic, racist, and anti-Semitic ideologies and ways of thinking in our society (Germany and Europe) with emancipatory, anti-fascist opportunities for action and education that motivate radical critique.

Political Economy

The thematic area “Political Economy” focuses on the engagement with Karl Marx’s critique of political economy. We have organized Capital reading courses since 2006, the annual Marx Autumn School, as well as offered introductions to the critique of political economy (all-day or weekend seminars by request). In addition, we have developed our own educational material, PolyluxMarx, as an additional support for Capital course teamers and as secondary reading material for studying Capital by yourself.

Socio-Ecological Transformation

Political education in the field Socio-Ecological Transformation ranges from energy and climate policies to mobility, natural resources conflicts, and growth critique all the way to agriculture policy and food sovereignty. This generates many points of connection to other fields of activity in the RLS both at home and abroad, as well as countless connections to political actors in social movements, organizations, and parliaments. Our focus is on the applicability of left-wing alternatives and critical engagement with the shining promises of an allegedly sustainable, renewable capitalism. A particular focus at the moment is the connection between the ecological and social question in debates around a comprehensive energy shift and the transition of our nutrition systems.

Migration

Migration is a thematic field that is heavily contested in society. The RLS seeks to be a point of interface between active migrants, self-organized refugees, anti-racist initiatives, migration researchers, NGOs in the sphere of migration policy, and progressive actors in the political field. It serves as a space for networking, empowerment, exchange, text production, discussion, and political education work.

International Politics

International Politics is a central topic for political education, as prospects for action can only be developed if living and working relations of people as well as political institutions and strategies of the global players are seen in their global interconnectedness. We see our task as creating possibilities for transnational actors to find alternatives to the current global social order and fill international solidarity with new life.

Contact

Role Details
Head of Centre for Social Analysis and Political Education Steffen Kühne
Email: steffen.kuehne@rosalux.org
Phone: +49 30 44310402
Room: 5.01
Deputy Head Centre for Social Analysis and Political Education / Senior Advisor for Neo-Nazism Anika Taschke
Email: anika.taschke@rosalux.org
Phone: +49 3044 310 151
Room: 5.07
Assistance/Contact Centre for Social Analysis and Political Education Cathérine Gosse
Email: catherine.gosse@rosalux.org
Phone: +49 30 44310 219
Room: 5.02
Library Keith Grünewald
Email: keith.gruenewald@rosalux.org
Phone: +49 30 44310 415
Room: 1.04