Children's and Youth Parliament visited the exhibition "GG20 - fundamental rights are worth talking about!"

The Basic Law celebrates its birthday. It has been 75 years since the Allied victorious powers commissioned the drafting of a constitution at the end of the National Socialist dictatorship. This was to create the basis for democracy and federalism as well as guarantees for individual rights and freedoms. The Basic Law, which was promulgated on May 23, 1949, comprised 146 articles and was only valid as a provisional measure until reunification in 1990. The exhibition "75 Years of the Basic Law, Democracy and Human Rights - Celebrating the Free Basic Order", which has been on display in the town hall for the past four weeks at the invitation of the Offenbach Partnership for Democracy, reminds us of this. "The first 19 articles in the exhibition, which set out people's fundamental rights vis-à-vis the state, are still central. They are the foundation on which social coexistence in Germany is built," explained Paul-Gerhard Weiß, Head of the Department of Public Order, to the members of the Children's and Youth Parliament during a joint tour on the penultimate day of the exhibition on Thursday, June 27. "Human dignity, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly cannot be taken for granted, but are also lessons learned from the years of dictatorship," Weiß continued. Being aware of this and valuing these rights is particularly important in troubled times like these.

Because democracy concerns everyone, the exhibition, which has been adopted by the Evangelical Academy of the Northern Church and its regional centers for democratic culture, is designed to be easily accessible: The 19 fundamental rights are presented in illustrations, with texts in German, English, Arabic and Farsi accompanying the illustrations. "We are delighted that we were able to take over the exhibition "GG20 - the fundamental rights are worth talking about!" and show it in the town hall," emphasizes Daniel Krüger, Head of Department of the Municipal Prevention Office, which is part of the Public Order Office. "Because it conveys legal texts and their meaning in an understandable way, especially to younger people, and raises awareness of the value of our free and democratic basic order, which is generally taken for granted."

The multilingual card game "Play with the basic rights of our democracy", which gives children aged 12 and over the opportunity to learn about basic rights through play, has also been published to accompany the exhibition. Laura Schulz, Head of the Coordination and Specialist Office at the German Red Cross, presented the young Offenbachers' representatives with a few copies at the end of the exhibition visit and combined this with an invitation to the children and young people to submit their own project ideas on the topics of democracy, diversity and the prevention of extremism at any time: "We are open and happy to be able to implement these with you as a partnership for democracy. Funding is available through the Youth Fund." Last year, for example, this made it possible to organize a symposium on criticism of racism with workshops and an educational trip to Büdingen.

The exhibition was funded by the Offenbach am Main Partnership for Democracy as part of the federal "Live Democracy!" program of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the state program "Hessen - active for democracy and against extremism" of the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and Sport. The Partnership for Democracy Offenbach am Main is committed to promoting democracy and countering extremism. It is organized by the DRK Kreisverband Offenbach e.V. on behalf of the City of Offenbach am Main, Municipal Prevention Office (Public Order Office).