In recent years, the buzzwords parallel society, parallel justice and clan crime have been the subject of heated public debate. What is behind these terms? And what does current research say about the situation in Germany? Dr. Hatem Elliesie, Deputy Professor of Islamic Law at the Oriental Institute of the University of Leipzig, will address these questions in the Imshäuser Gespräch on 19 April 2024 at 7 pm. We are delighted that Dr. Hatem Elliesie has agreed to offer a workshop on the same topic for police officers from the region in the run-up to the event as part of our police project.

In February and March, the project team was able to conclude many cooperation talks and set dates for seminar days. Over the course of the year, the Eschwege Federal Police Training and Further Training Center, the East Hesse Police Headquarters, the Leipzig Police College and the Hessian University of Applied Sciences for Public Management and Security will come to Imshausen to test the historical-political education concepts developed in the project.

On January 1, 2024, we welcomed Dr. Andreas Strippel to the project team as a new research assistant with a half-time position. Mr. Strippel has extensive experience in historical and political education work with police groups, including from his many years of freelance work at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial and a project at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp Memorial in 2022. Our education officer Magnus Hose has been working 80% of his time as a pedagogical-scientific assistant in the project team since the beginning of the year. Our Executive Director of Studies Malina Emmerink is responsible for coordination and project management. The team was already able to gain initial experience in joint educational work during the trial seminars held in December and is looking forward to working together this year!

After many discussions with potential cooperation partners, we successfully carried out the first trial seminars in the project. In the first and second week of December, multipliers and members of the federal and Hessian state police came to Imshausen to test initial seminar concepts and discuss requirements for the research and education project. The seminars, which received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the participants, included modules on the history and role of the police under National Socialism and after 1945, a visit to our permanent exhibition on Adam von Trott and a unit on resistance within the police force, as well as various exercises and opportunities for discussion on stereotypes and prejudice, discrimination and radicalization in police practice today.We are delighted that the project is now gaining momentum and that the foundation stone has been laid for the expansion of the Imshausen learning and memorial site into a center for professional group-specific education in North Hesse.

In December 2023, the project steering group met for the first time for a half-day exchange in Imshausen. We were able to recruit Christian Diegelmann (East Hesse Police Headquarters), Prof. Dr. Julian Junk (Research Center for Extremism Resilience, HöMS), Timm Rancke and Nora Zado (Democracy Center in the Hesse Advisory Network - Together for Democracy and against Right-Wing Extremism, University of Marbug), Waldemar Regner (Coordination Office for Diversity and Political Education, HöMs), Peter Römer (Villa Ten Hompel) and Florian Stahl (Federal Police Training Center Eschwege). After getting to know each other and an introduction to the idea, concept and structure of the project, the lively discussions among the members showed that there is a great need for critical political education work in German police institutions. The group talked about the advantages and disadvantages of external educational programs for police officers, discussed possible challenges for the project team and the participants of the seminars and explored the relationship between historical education and a critical engagement with the job description and everyday life of police officers today.