It was one of the crisis meetings in September 2015. The crisis management team once again met at the Tübingen District Office to discuss accommodation for the many refugees, recalls Wolfgang Sannwald, Managing Director of tuenews INTERNATIONAL. He attended the meeting in his role as Head of Public Relations at the Tübingen District Office and introduced the idea of a communication platform that could provide refugees with important information.
The birth of tuenews
The department heads present were primarily focused on the practical problems of living together in the collective accommodation facilities and initially reacted with restraint. However, the district administrator at the time, Joachim Walter, liked the idea and commissioned Sannwald to develop a concept. This marked the birth of tuenews INTERNATIONAL. Sannwald and his colleagues in the public relations department were familiar with the problems on the ground, for example in the district sports hall in Tübingen. Almost overnight, accommodation for hundreds of refugees had been created there. Separated by construction fences and tarpaulins, sleeping areas for families and single people from a wide range of cultures were set up in the smallest of spaces. Privacy was nonexistent; there were many points of friction for conflicts and problems.
Closing the communication gap
It quickly became clear to Sannwald: “Communication doesn’t work here.” There was a lack of information, a lack of understanding of the unfamiliar German culture, but also of the cultures of others in the collective accommodation. There were language barriers; hardly anyone spoke English, let alone German. That had to change—this became his guiding principle. The historian with a doctorate and professor of cultural studies understands integration as a social discourse, as a process involving a great deal of exchange. For him, it was clear that refugees had to be actively included in this discourse. Ideally through employment. The potential they bring with them must be used, the now 66-year-old is convinced: “Otherwise, the walls close in on them.” One-euro jobs were one option.
Search for editorial team members quickly successful
So he set out with a small team from his department to look for qualified people who could initially identify topics and, for example, process information for news items. Flyers were distributed, and social workers who offered counseling in the accommodations were approached. Within two weeks, ten refugees were found who wanted to participate. The first meeting took place at the adult education center (Volkshochschule) in Tübingen, which provided the rooms free of charge. Sannwald had specifically obtained PCs from a second-hand store. But they were not needed at all, he recalls today with a smile at his cultural prejudice. The refugees simply used their smartphones or brought their own laptops—and topics for the articles in the editions of tuenews INTERNATIONAL. The newspaper initially consisted of double-sided printed flyers, colorfully mixed in various languages. Arabic and Persian items were added by staff by hand; a Nigerian refugee drove the photocopied DIN A3 sheets to the collective accommodations and posted them there. He had a recognized driver’s license.
The janitor as an unknown figure
The first issue appeared on December 1, 2015. Three Syrians on the team placed enormous importance on this date, Sannwald recalls. To this day, he does not know why, but suspects a certain numerological symbolism. One of the first articles dealt with the janitor. Many refugees experienced his overriding importance in the accommodations, where he ensured order but was also often the first point of contact in refugees’ everyday lives. Yellow trash bags, waste separation, how the ticket machine of Deutsche Bahn works, where to find shops selling food from home—these were topics brought in by the refugees. Information from the Tübingen District Office also needed to reach people: for example, on residence rights, where one is allowed to travel, or where to obtain which documents …
Service orientation central at tuenews
The service orientation of tuenews INTERNATIONAL remains particularly important to Managing Director Sannwald to this day—as does value-neutral reporting. Even though cultural topics from the refugees’ countries of origin have increased. Soon, however, the weekly flyer format was no longer sufficient. Multi-page wall newspapers were posted in the accommodations. Monthly magazine issues followed. Radio programs were produced at Wüste Welle in Tübingen. By now, the focus is on online and social media.
Sannwald remains editor-in-chief
Next year, Wolfgang Sannwald will retire. He will leave the Tübingen District Office after 36 years. Incidentally, the district office has never determined content at tuenews INTERNATIONAL, even though the district largely covers the costs. Sannwald emphasizes the “great” support from the district council and the district administrator. At the same time, he insists that the volunteer authors and journalist coaches contribute most of the topics and that it is up to them what they make of them. Until 2022, the association KulturGUT in the Tübingen district was the sponsoring organization. Since then, Sannwald has been the voluntary managing director of a non-profit entrepreneurial company. He wants to continue contributing his experience as managing director and editor-in-chief on a voluntary basis even after officially entering retirement—just like the other journalist coaches. He is motivated by the concrete integration discourse that tuenews INTERNATIONAL fosters, with immediate benefits for individual people and an impact on society.
By Bernhard Kirschner
tun25121703