Blog post - 04. Jun 2025

It’s June, summer is just around the corner and apprentices from the VW Mosel plant are once again at the old gasometer. For the fourth time this year, 18 trainees took part in the project days. Accompanied by intensive discussions, exciting questions and interested listening, the trainees spent three days focussing on themselves and various social and political issues.

But let’s start at the beginning. As always, the week began with a self-analysis. The focus was on recognising their own values and affiliations and drawing conclusions for their own actions. This was followed by a crash course on fake news and the dangers of AI. As people who naturally use social media and tools such as Chat GPT, the trainees were at home in terms of content.

Tuesday was then all about raising awareness of discrimination. How racism works and what consequences it has for those affected were discussed with the speakers and questions were answered. Many of those present were surprised to realise that participation is not just something that affects “others”, but something that occurs in the daily lives of most trainees.

From everyday racism to the worst forms of racism: The victims, relatives, deeds and consequences of the NSU took up most of Wednesday. During this time, questions were also put to an expert from the 2nd Bundestag Committee of Inquiry. The continuities of right-wing extremist terror in the Federal Republic of Germany were intensively analysed by the trainees.

It is always impressive to see the interest and intellect with which VW trainees deal with these topics. They engage with – for most of them – unfamiliar methods and content and develop an awareness of the problem of inhuman attitudes in society.

Organiser: Alter Gasometer e.V.

This programme is co-financed by tax revenue on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon state parliament.