Dr. Daniela Schwarz, Hans Hemann, Holger Mittelstraß
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Hans Hemann, Holger Mittelstraß and Dr. Daniela Schwarz together survey 50 years of study and work life at the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences. Together they are active in the board of the university association and have compiled the alumni reports listed here.
Hans Hemann
I graduated from the then Organizational Unit (OU) International Agricultural Economics in the summer of 1973. I then worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as an Agricultural Extension and Rural Youth Officer (Associate Expert) in a project in Burkina Faso. A farmer I was allowed to photograph, with which dignity and satisfaction he showed me his millet harvest after all the efforts, has influenced me very much for my further work. For family reasons, I returned to Germany and in 1976 accepted a position as seminar assistant in the Contact Study Center of the Department of International Agricultural Development, continued by the Institute for Socio-Cultural Studies (ISOS). Three years later I took over the editorship of the journal Der Tropenlandwirt, now Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics (JARTS), which I held for 30 years.
The work with the international participants led to the foundation of the Consortium Göttingen-Kassel-Marburg Alumni Network (CGKM-AlNet), which has existed since 1999. With the restructuring of the department, I was the managing director of the Tropical Center at FB 11 since 2004. In addition, I supported the international student marketing since 2006. Through seminars, workshops, and follow-up contacts, several study abroad programs took place in Africa, Asia, and South America. Working with participants and students for over three decades has been very fulfilling for me.
Since 2010 I am retired and honorary active, so chairman of the university association Witzenhausen e.V.. TheAssociation for Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF) awarded mein 2014 the Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award(Veronica atsafii H.), recognizing my many years of dedication to development-oriented agricultural research - especially the outstanding commitment to training and inspiring young scientists.
Holger Mittelstrass
Growing up close to the city, I was already interested in nature activities and foreign cultures as a child. After school, years of travel followed on organic horticultural or agricultural farms (with journeyman's examination as a farmer), in the rescue service and a year abroad in South Asia, before I began my studies in Witzenhausen in 1987. There I was active in the working group on organic agriculture, then from 1990 in the working group for the preparation of the study focus on organic agriculture (SPÖL). I spent most of my free time on internships (Canary Islands and Kenya) or twice as a dairyman on an alp in Graubünden (a typical Witzenhauser...).
After graduation, it was about the implementation of the ideals: starting a family, from 1992 preparation and coordination of the SPÖL in the Department of Organic Farming, from 1994-1999 additionally employee in the pilot project Organic Farming to accompany the innovative didactic concept now as an employee in the Department of Organic Animal Husbandry, from 1995 preparation of the profile orientation of the department and diploma course Organic Farming, from 2001 implementation of the Bologna reform at the department now as an employee of the Dean's Office and additionally also for seven years in the management of the Dreschflegel-Saatgutversand Witzenhausen. This was followed by responsibility at the department for accreditations of study programs, internationalization, student marketing, structural planning, creation of mission statements, examination matters, supervision of study internships, committee work, occasional stays abroad for curriculum reform at universities in Latin America and Asia, organization of conferences and celebrations, etc. - there is never a dull moment at this department! And of course not to forget the own teaching activities, the supervision of the project groups for the foreign excursion and Witzenhausen conference, which means every time a new exciting work with young people and personal encounters.
Dr. Daniela Schwarz
As a 15-year-old, the "Wende" opened up new opportunities for me in every respect - I seized one of them, took part in a student exchange program and thus spent a year in Central America. I had already been interested in other cultures and languages, but also in questions of justice in access to resources and the protection of nature and the environment. Already during my studies at the University of Rostock, I completed internships in East and West Africa and wrote my diploma thesis in a GIZ project to combat desertification in Central Asia. This was followed by the Seminar for Rural Development (SLE) in Berlin. Afterwards I worked for governmental and non-governmental organizations in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. On my way home by the Trans-Siberian Railway in 2006, I discovered a job advertisement for the international studies programs in the dean's office of FB11 in Witzenhausen.
Two months later, I was here for the first time in the small half-timbered town on the lower reaches of the Werra, on whose upper reaches I grew up in Thuringia. The alternative and international flair in the city as well as the committed colleagues and students let me "arrive" well in Germany after my time abroad. Together with BSc students I initiated and organized the campaign tour "ORGANICagriculTOUR". Our goal was to strengthen the topic of organic agriculture at our partner universities in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and to attract more international students to the advanced degree programs in Witzenhausen. We visited universities in the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey. After an interlude at the International Food Security Center at the University of Hohenheim, I returned to Witzenhausen with my newly established family. From 2012 to 2016, I worked in a third-party funded project at the FG Agricultural Engineering, developed a water-saving irrigation method for perineal crops and received my PhD from Prof. Hensel in 2019. Currently, I am coordinating an international structured PhD program "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems" at the department in cooperation with Agricultural University of Georgia (South Caucasus) under the supervision of Prof. Ploeger. Organic agriculture, sustainability and regional value creation remain the main topics in my new position at the Ökomodell-Region Nordhessen. I am very much looking forward to contributing my (international) experience here in our region in Northern Hesse!