Schools in Bonn are increasingly dealing with crime committed by adolescents. In the past year, there has been a sharp increase in crimes targeted at sexual orientation, brutality and crimes against personal freedom, as well as violent crime. This trend can be observed throughout the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and, according to police, is due not only to a change in how things are reported but also to fallout from the pandemic. The city of Bonn is addressing the problem with a school psychology counseling center. "School social workers are noticing an increasing need for violence prevention," says Andrea Schulte of the city's press office.

Headphones pulled off the ears, a student pushed and kicked. That is one report from a schoolyard in Bonn, and it resulted in charges of aggravated assault. Such offenses have increased sharply in the past year, at all Bonn schools and also nationwide. More reports are being filed, also by parents. It’s due in part to technology and crimes being filmed.

Crimes aimed at sexual orientation have increased, there were twelve such crimes last year. Here, too, social change plays a role and police are doing more investigations in this area. As well, sexuality is now a topic of discussion even at younger ages. The internet and smartphones have accelerated this development. Police are seeing more victims between the ages of nine and twelve.

At the presentation of the crime statistics, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul tried to explain why violent crime has increased. The thesis: the pandemic has left its mark. "It changes our children when they hang out at home on their cell phones instead of going to school or sports clubs with their peers. And in the same way, it changes young people who grow up in crisis instead of going out and interacting with others. A lot is lost there," he says.

The school psychology department of the city of Bonn is responsible for supporting schools in crisis situations. In a counseling center, teachers and administrators are taught how to prevent violence in classes, but also in the entire school. To support such projects, the city of Bonn revised its funding guidelines in October of 2022. It is now easier to obtain services for prevention, early detection and intervention when it comes to crime affecting young people.

According to violence researcher Andreas Zick from the University of Bielefeld, violent tendencies from the students' social environment are one reason why children come to school with more aggression. Studies indicate that psychological vulnerabilities have increased as a result of the Covid pandemic. For many young people, the impression has been created "that school and society don't care what they feel, think and do anyway," Zick explains. "Routines have broken away in families. They are important for developmental processes and for a stable personality. There's lower self-worth and fewer plans for the future, partly because of the restrictions on freedom." Also, an aggressive and authoritarian parenting style transfers to the children, he said.

Orig. text: Nicolas Ottersbach

During the time of the Bonn traffic “turnaround”, the fact that someone at the university, of all places, is imposing a parking ban for bicycles in the arcade courtyard seems a bit strange. Especially since there are plenty of cars parked in the courtyard every day, which doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Let's stick with cycling. It is without question good for the climate and helpful in keeping the weather in check (according to statistics the spring was too warm in our region!) and it could help us during the summer holiday time. Unfortunately, due to the Deutsche Bahn construction site, there is no way around the full closure of the A 59 near Vilich. But hey, it's only six weeks.

A coworker across the desk laughs and says that after the game is always before the game. The quote comes from the legendary coach of the (German) national team, Sepp Herberger. He is generally regarded as a soccer philosopher, after all, he is said to have come up with phrases such as "The ball is round.” Aha. You never stop learning. Camouflage, trickery and then surprising triumph - that was Herberger's strategy. So what he's trying to say is: After the summer holidays, we should keep cycling. Because there is no end in sight to the major construction sites in Bonn. Yes, and even more bike paths are supposed to be made. We don't know whether they will also be added on Adenauerallee. At any rate, the SPD is getting really worked up about this issue. By the way, the main focus of the party conference of the Bonn Socialists this Saturday is on public transport. As I said, the climate is heated. Have a nice weekend. And stay cheerful.

Orig. text: Lisa Inhoffen

Visitors to the Deutsches Museum in Bonn set their own beat for the Museum Mile Fest 2023: The music installation by Sonic Robots, which Carl Ahner has set up there, features various percussion instruments that can be made to sound at will via touchscreen. A mechanical musical instrument modeled on the TR-808 drum machine from 1980, but digitally controlled. "This is an interaction between man and machine," explains Ahner.

Visitors to the Deutsches Museum were constantly at the controls, and while they kept creating new rhythms, they could work their way through the relatively new exhibition there, which is especially fun for children: they can have a camera put a different face on a screen, draw pictures on touchscreens for artificial intelligence to make cat pictures from and more. Children can also recreate the results with modeling clay.

One can also meet a robotic dog that Rosalie Köster from the Nuremberg Museum of the Future takes for a walk by remote control. He is popular with children and will hopefully be accompanied on Sunday by his American cohort Spot, whom the Boston police like to call in for sensitive operations. Alex (17) also likes him. "It's a very cool show here in general," he said. "I didn't used to find it that interesting." But it has changed for him because of the new orientation of the museum, which now focuses more on current technology topics. "Especially now that AI is taking off, I think that's good.”

He also thinks it is good and important that there is the festival, which makes it easier to get into museums, and even more so with a shuttle bus, which he uses to visit the Museum Koenig. A mother named Julia likes that there are many interactive things. For her, the festival makes sense "to get people to come to the museum again.”

It is the first Museum Mile Fest after the pandemic, so there are no restrictions and it takes place on two instead of four days. Tanja Löscher of the Deutsches Museum is hoping that the festival will encourage people to visit who normally would not come, and even to entice them to come back on a rainy day. The museum is especially interested in showing off its current transformation, with changing interactive exhibitions on topics of the future.

Orig. text: Stefan Knopp

Translations: ck