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Allemagne: Guest Guiding Classical Weimar
About the local hosting organizationOpen Houses – rooms open for those who come along. Open Houses – not empty buildings, but places with visible and invisible traces of history, places which have grown and decayed over the centuries, places which were shaped by those people who lived there long ago as well those who left only yesterday – places which will be shaped by those who live there or who come as a guest. Open Houses – rooms which want to be filled with dreams and ideas, with meetings and exchange, by people of different backgrounds, different cultures, different generations and different ideas and visions. The history of Open Houses Network dates back to the mid-1980s, when a group of young people started to restore village churches in East Germany in voluntary work to protect them from decay. The engagement for these buildings united people who enjoyed the freedom these activities provided and who filled these rooms with life again in ways which by far exceed the craftsmen's work done – through exhibitions, concerts, making music together or just sitting by the camp fire. Meanwhile, rooms free of political and ideological pressure are no longer urgently required; however, places have become rare where people can meet without commercial pressure, free of bureaucracy and institutionalism, free of nepotism and the exclusion which it produces. What should be easy – to go somewhere in order to meet people and to work together – has become difficult. The tightrope walk between, on the one hand, public activities in a monetary and functional sense, and the retreat into private life on the other, is very difficult, and it requires a lot of power and permanent efforts to tackle red tape and financial restrictions. Free spaces are less and less understood as common property, and are permanently being cut back. The idea of public property seems to have gone out of fashion, and places of common responsible work have become rare. Open Houses Network tries to create and protect such spaces. In this process, we do not want to be the doers, but be people who have a vision, who want to initiate something, but who also are aware of depending on the co-operation of others. We understand our projects and events as offers – as offers to create space for commitment, for changes, for meetings.
Presentation of the programmeThe complex of Belvedere Orangery and the associated buildings had been restored by Weimar Classic Foundation during the last years and was reopened in 2015. In the former Garden Inspector's House a permanent exhibition prepared by European Heritage Volunteers about European Heritage Volunteers Projects in Europe as well as about UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers Projects worldwide is installed. The exhibition is complemented by videos presenting some of the Heritage Volunteers projects having taken place in Europe during the last years. The volunteers taking part in the Guest Guiding project will be at the place from Tuesday to Friday in the afternoons and on Saturdays and Sundays the whole days – the time when most of the visitors will come. Every Monday is the free day of the volunteer, except during the European Heritage Volunteer project. S/he should be available for the visitors of the exhibition, answering their questions concerning European Heritage Volunteers, UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers in general and the UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers project at Belvedere Park. Own contribution concerning related topics as conservation, heritage management, garden architecture and similar is welcome. The volunteers will work in close cooperation with the Department for Castles, Gardens and Buildings of Weimar Classic Foundation. On the 22.07. the G02 volunteer will have an introduction to become familiar with the European Heritage Volunteers program as well as to get first instructions about guest guiding. From 29.08. – 11.09.2021, the UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers Project in Weimar (therefore see the description of the project H09) will take place. The G02 volunteer will be there during the first week, providing guided tours for the participants. Also, The G02 volunteer will be involved in the activities of the European Heritage Day on September, 8th, by providing guided tours, too. Allowance: the G02 gets 150 € for the whole duration of the project. Additionally, 7 € for food per day and s/he will have a simple bike to get from the accommodation to the working place (ca. 4 km). During the H09 project will be further explained, the volunteer will not receive the food money but partake in the food of the H09 project. The volunteer will be accommodated in a flat, with a sleeping room with bed, simple equipped kitchen and shared bathroom. The participants of this project should be aware that s/he is the only volunteer at the place.
Local accommodationAll costs linked to the project are covered, including food, accommodation, insurance and transportation during the stay at the project. Travel costs to and from the camp place are not covered. Participants should organise their journey to and from the project place by themselves and on their own expenses. Furthermore, participants should bring their own pocket money. ACCOMMODATION In most of Open Houses' camps the volunteers will live at the same places they also work on, what means that they live more or less on a building site. In most of the Heritage Volunteers Projects the accommodation is located in a certain distance to the working site. The accommodation is usually very simple; there are shared rooms with simple beds or mattresses at most of the places. Shower, toilet and kitchen are at the place, but sometimes not in the same building. The equipment is simple but fair. After work, when everybody wants to take a shower, there can be a limit of hot water. FOOD The meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that every participant will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if the participants could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
About the project locationWeimar is a beautiful small city, located in the middle of Germany in the state of Thuringia. It has a huge number of cultural important places; especially the Classical Period made the city, what it is now. By the late 18th century many of the leading writers and thinkers in Germany, such as Goethe, Schiller and Herder, came to Weimar and shaped the cultural life and in the same time the image of the city. Weimar became the cultural centre of Europe at that time. Many painters, composers and philosophers lived in the city during the classical period. Until now you find many creative and inspired people living in Weimar, which were attracted by the great accumulation of cultural spirit. Since 1998 “Classical Weimar” is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Besides Goethe’s House, the City Church and the City Palace, especially the parks and gardens with their impressive landscape architecture and pretty castles are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Classical Weimar”. During the 20th century Weimar became the birthplace of the Modern Movement in architecture and aesthetics. The Bauhaus was developed by merging the Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Arts. It had a profound influence upon developments in art, architecture, design and typography. The “Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau” are listed as UNESCO World Heritage, too. For all this historical important marks and to spread the knowledge of the past, Weimar became in 1999 the European Capital of Culture. Since 2012 European Heritage Volunteers Projects are taking place at the parks and gardens of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Classical Weimar”, as part of the World Heritage Volunteers initiative. The focus of the activities had been all the years at Belvedere Park, where the volunteers uncovered and restored historical paths which had been disappeared for decades. European Heritage Volunteers coordinates the European part of the UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers Initiative as well as organises European Heritage Volunteers projects in Germany and initiates and coordinates European Heritage Volunteers Partner Projects all over Europe.
RequirementsThe volunteer must have a conversational level of German and be interested in engaging with people.
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