Dr. Daniela Schwarz, Hans Hemann, Holger Mittelstraß
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Hans Hemann, Holger Mittelstraß and Dr. Daniela Schwarz together look back on 50 years of study and work life at the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences. Together they are active on the board of the university association and have compiled the alumni reports listed here.
Hans Hemann
I completed my studies in the summer of 1973 at the then Organizational Unit (OU) International Agricultural Economics. 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. The dignity and satisfaction with which a farmer I was able to photograph showed me his millet harvest after all his efforts had a great impact on my future work. For family reasons, I returned to Germany and in 1976 took up a position as a seminar assistant at 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 the Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics (JARTS), which I held for 30 years.
Working with international participants led to the founding of the Consortium Göttingen-Kassel-Marburg Alumni Network (CGKM-AlNet), which has existed since 1999. With the restructuring of the department, I was appointed Managing Director of the Tropical Center at Faculty 11 in 2004. In 2006, I also began supporting international student marketing. Seminars, workshops and follow-up contacts led to several stays abroad in Africa, Asia and South America. Working with participants and students for over three decades has been very fulfilling.
I retired in 2010 and have been working on a voluntary basis as Chairman of the Witzenhausen University Association. TheAssociation for Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF) awarded methe Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award(Veronica atsafii H.) in 2014in recognition of my many years of dedication to development-oriented agricultural research - in particular my outstanding commitment to training and inspiring young scientists.
Holger Mittelstrass
Growing up close to the city, I was already interested in outdoor activities and foreign cultures as a child. After school, I spent years working on organic horticultural or agricultural farms (with a journeyman's examination to become a farmer), in the emergency services and a year abroad in South Asia before starting my studies in Witzenhausen in 1987. There I was active in the organic farming working group, and then from 1990 in the working group for the preparation of the organic farming major (SPÖL). I spent most of my lecture-free time on internships (Canary Islands and Kenya) or twice as a dairyman on an alp in Graubünden (a typical Witzenhausen student...).
After graduating, it was all about putting ideals into practice: starting a family, from 1992 preparation and coordination of the SPÖL in the Department of Organic Farming, from 1994-1999 additional employee in the Organic Farming pilot project 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 in Organic Farming, from 2001 implementation of the Bologna reform at the department now as an employee of the Dean's Office and additionally for seven years in the management of the Dreschflegel-Saatgutversandes Witzenhausen. This was followed by responsibility for the accreditation of degree courses, internationalization, student marketing, structural planning, creating mission statements, examination matters, supervising student internships, committee work, occasional stays abroad for curricular reform at universities in Latin America and Asia, organizing conferences and celebrations, etc. - there is never a dull moment at this department! And, of course, not forgetting my own teaching activities, supervising the project groups for the excursion abroad and the Witzenhausen conference, which means exciting new work with young people and personal encounters every time.
Dr. Daniela Schwarz
As a 15-year-old, the "fall of communism" opened up new opportunities for me in every respect - I seized one of them, took part in a student exchange program and spent a year in Central America. I had already been interested in other cultures and languages, but also in issues of justice in access to resources and the protection of nature and the environment. During my studies at the University of Rostock, I completed internships in East and West Africa and wrote my thesis on a GIZ project to combat desertification in Central Asia. This was followed by the Seminar for Rural Development (SLE) in Berlin. I then worked for governmental and non-governmental organizations in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. On my way home on the Trans-Siberian Railway in 2006, I discovered a job advertisement for the international study programs in the dean's office of the 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 the upper reaches of which I grew up in Thuringia. The alternative and international flair in the city and the committed colleagues and students made me feel at home in Germany after my time abroad. Together with BSc students, I initiated and organized the campaign tour "ORGANICagriculTOUR". Our aim was to strengthen the topic of organic agriculture at our partner universities in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and to attract more international students to the postgraduate courses 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 new family. From 2012 to 2016, I worked on a third-party funded project at the Department of Agricultural Engineering, developed a water-saving irrigation method for ridge crops and completed my doctorate in 2019 under Prof. Hensel. I am currently coordinating an international, structured PhD program "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems" in cooperation with the Agricultural University of Georgia (South Caucasus) under the direction of Prof. Ploeger. Organic agriculture, sustainability and regional value creation remain the main focus of my new position at the Ökomodell-Region Nordhessen. I am very much looking forward to contributing my (international) experience here in our region of North Hesse!