LitCam - Fußball trifft Kultur – LitCam gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mbH

Experience climate change up close

Incredible natural phenomena, the tropical rainforest and unthinkable environmental disasters – the exhibition “The Fragile Paradise” gave our FtK kids from Duisburg impressive impressions of climate change and its consequences for the environment.

In November 2022, the Duisburg “Fußball trifft Kultur” group made its way to Oberhausen: a visit to the Gasometer was on the agenda. The “Fragile Paradise” exhibition particularly piqued the children’s interest. During the tour, they embarked on a journey through the eventful climate history of our planet. They learned about the animal and plant world through photographs and videos.

The children marveled at the variety of creatures, the natural phenomena and the size of the exhibition. On the other hand, the children saw images that shocked them and made them think. Among other things, the children looked into the nature scenario with VR glasses, experienced the largest rainforest reserve in the world, the Tumucumaque National Park and many animal species in their new habitats.

This made the children aware of the effects of natural phenomena on the climate history of our planet. In addition to raising awareness of the consequences of human intervention in the ecosystem and the severity of climate change, there was also the opportunity to learn about climate protection projects.

All in all, it was an inspiring and successful excursion for the children. Many were pleasantly surprised at how much the gasometer sparked their interest in climate change.

The Wild Bunch as guests in Düsseldorf

A very special highlight awaited the Düsseldorf FtK group this winter – “Die Wilden Kerle” cult author Joachim Masannek paid the children a visit at the Merkur-Spiel-Arena.

After a successful tour of the arena in midsummer of the 2021/22 school year – with a look behind the sacred halls of the players and officials, dressing rooms, press box, training pitches, but also first steps on the Fortuna Düsseldorf pitch and other non-public spaces – there was a reading in the winter of this school year as part of Lese-Kicker 2022 in honour of the young heroes of the Flurstraße community elementary school in Düsseldorf. The meeting point for all “Fußball trifft Kultur” participants was the Bundesliga club’s home ground – the Merkur-Spiel-Arena.

In a good mood and kissed by the midday sun, everyone made their way through the already familiar arena towards the grandstand seats. To be precise, to the VIP seats, what a great atmosphere! Before the official reading began, the audience was treated to an entertaining anecdote about the beginnings of the Wild Bunch, the “real” Wild Bunch. After all, Joachim Masannek is not only the director, screenwriter and children’s book author of the Wild Bunch, but also their coach and father! An internationally renowned story of the young footballers that is actually based on true events.

After the reading, the children were of course allowed to get autographs from the cult author. In summary, it can be said that the children were very enthusiastic about Mr. Masannek’s reading, as he was very entertaining and skillfully involved his audience. The children were able to participate interactively in the story and “help tell” it. In addition to the reading, the children also really enjoyed the book “Die Wilden Kerle – Juli und der geheime Joker”.

The Lese-Kicker 2022 as a guest at FtK Braunschweig

Der Lese-Kicker 2022 zu Gast bei FtK Braunschweig

On Wednesday, November 30, 2022, the Lese-Kicker 2022 stadium tour was a guest at Eintracht Stadium. With an exciting reading and “exclusive” stadium insights, there was plenty on offer for our FtK kids from Braunschweig.

As part of the stadium tour of our nationwide reading promotion project Lese-Kicker 2022 , author Birgit Hasselbusch presented her latest soccer book “Hallo, hej und Marhaba – Freundschaftsspiel mit Doppelpass” to our FtK kids from Diesterwegstraße elementary school – a story about the integrative power of soccer and how it brings children from different backgrounds together. The reading took place in the press room of Eintracht Braunschweig’s stadium – a special atmosphere with enthusiastic children who took part in the reading with a lot of fun and curiosity.

The children were not only wonderfully entertained by the reading. The author also impressed them with her ability to speak backwards and had a few anecdotes from her sports journalism background to tell. An all-round successful event, in which the children also had the opportunity to spend time on the edge of the pitch of the Eintracht stadium with its blue tartan track and so soak up a little stadium atmosphere from a player’s perspective – without the missing loud crowd, of course.

With this project Lese-Kicker LitCam awards a prize to the most appealing children’s and youth book in terms of idea, linguistic realization and graphic design that best succeeds in inspiring people to read about soccer. As part of a Germany-wide reading promotion campaign that accompanies the Lese-Kicker The books are also judged by 100 school classes from all over Germany. This means that Lese-Kicker is not just an award ceremony, but a nationwide reading promotion project in which the children of the participating schools are encouraged to read and engage intensively with the books with the help of teaching materials tailored to the books.

Find out more about Lese-Kicker 2022 here.

Noah Sarenren Bazee visits the children at the Bärenkeller School

Noah Sarenren Bazee besucht die Kinder der Bärenkellerschule

After a first successful and exciting program year, in which the children of Bärenkellerschule were awarded the Fair Play Prize for their particularly fair behavior and their inclusive team line-up at the FtK 2022 final tournament, FtK Augsburg started the new program year full of motivation. The newly appointed FtK program sponsor Noah Sarenren Bazee paid the children a very exciting visit for everyone involved.

“Football inspires and can teach children so much of what they need for life: Team spirit, social skills, commitment and fair play. As a sponsor for “Fußball trifft Kultur”, I want to support the children in their development,” said Noah Sarenren Bazee and listened very carefully to the children’s questions during the class visit. Noah gave exciting insights into his development phases as a professional footballer and taught the children that you should never give up, even in difficult or seemingly hopeless situations.

As most of the FtK kids themselves have a migrant background, they were also interested in whether Noah feels more like a German or a Nigerian. To which Noah replied that he identifies very strongly with both countries, that he leads a happy life here in Germany and hopes to play for the Nigerian national soccer team in the future.

As the Augsburg FtK kids were particularly well prepared for their meeting with Noah, it was not surprising that they confronted Noah with his personal FIFA card from EA SPORTS. He was largely able to confirm that Noah has high scores in the areas of pace and dribbling and rather mediocre scores in the areas of physicality and defense. Noah was very motivated to continue working hard on his potential and supposed weaknesses. This was also the message he wanted to pass on to the children: To be diligent and to give their all to achieve their own goals.

Last but not least, the children gave Noah a copy of the book “Der Himmel über dem Platz”, which was nominated for Lese-Kicker 2022 and which the children were allowed to read themselves as part of FtK. Of course, the children were allowed to have their picture taken with Noah at the end and get an autograph. The children were able to take home their own souvenir of this special day.

FC Augsburg

One year of FtK Augsburg – The video of the final tournament

Ein Jahr FtK Augsburg - Das Video zum Abschlussturnier

The first FtK year in Augsburg is coming to an end – many wonderful memories will remain. The FtK children and supervisors from the Bärenkeller primary and secondary school were accompanied by a professional camera team as part of the program implementation. In addition to the regular range of skills lessons and soccer training, the “FtK” final tournament in Frankfurt was the big highlight of the year, where the children were able to take home a very special prize.

At the final tournament, the group was able to show how much they had improved in terms of soccer and teamwork. Although the sporting competition was too fierce on the day and they were unable to compete at the top, the Augsburg team shone with their particularly fair and empathetic demeanor. The coaches were very proud of the fact that the children internalized the values they had exemplified in their lessons and training and behaved in an exemplary manner towards their opponents and each other. Consequently, the Augsburg FtK group also emerged victorious, deservedly receiving the award for the fairest team in the tournament.

Images: LitCam / Witters / Jörg Halisch

The FtK Group Augsburg sums up a great and exciting “Fußball trifft Kultur” program year and agrees: everyone had a lot of fun and learned a lot!

Final tournament of “Fußball trifft Kultur” with Ridle Baku, Marcel Reif and Boris Rhein

Abschlussturnier von „Fußball trifft Kultur“ mit Ridle Baku, Marcel Reif und Boris Rhein

Frankfurt, 19.06.2022: At the twelfth final tournament of the nationwide education program “Fußball trifft Kultur” (FtK), around 600 children and young people aged eight to 13 from all over Germany played for the coveted trophies in Frankfurt at the weekend. Guests including national team player and “FtK” ambassador Ridle Baku, commentator legend Marcel Reif and Hesse’s Minister President Boris Rhein joined the children in the excitement. LitCam has been organizing the annual final tournament for all participating children since 2010 – for the fourth time in Frankfurt.

On the pitches of Frankfurt’s Riedstadion, the weekend was all about fun and fair play. On Saturday, 18.06.2022, the children in the U10 age group played out their winner. The team from the Karmeliterschule in Frankfurt was delighted to win the challenge cup. On Sunday, 19.06.2022, the trophy in the U14 age group went to Anne-Frank-Gesamtschule from Dortmund.

Images: LitCam / Witters / Jörg Halisch

The final tournament is the annual highlight of “Fußball trifft Kultur”, which offers the approximately 700 children taking part in the program not only soccer training but also skills training, in particular language development. Training and learning takes place twice a week in two halves at 22 locations across Germany. In addition to the involvement of local professional clubs, the final tournament in particular serves as motivation for the support program. It offers the participating children a goal that they can work towards together as a team and thus experience cohesion, fair play and teamwork at first hand.

In addition to top soccer performances, there were also artistic highlights to marvel at during the final tournament. On Saturday, the program group from Holt Catholic Primary School in Mönchengladbach was named the winner of the FtK Club Challenge. As part of this challenge, the core contents of “Fußball trifft Kultur” – soccer, language and culture – were combined in a playful way. The partner clubs from professional soccer provided the inspiration and motivation. The participating program groups developed a creative presentation of their partner club. The spectrum ranged from specially written songs and self-made stadiums to a presentation of the club’s history in the form of an oversized timeline. The winners from Mönchengladbach impressed with their self-designed paintings of their Borussia, which they presented in a digital vernissage. This group was selected by a prominent jury consisting of Ridle Baku (nationwide FtK ambassador and professional footballer for VfL Wolfsburg), Friederike Behrends (CEO of Deutsche Postcode Lotterie), Franziska Fey (Chairwoman of the DFL Foundation), Tim Gailus (FtK ambassador and KiKA presenter), Silke Mayer (Chairwoman of the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation) and Karin Plötz (Director of LitCam).

The guest list for the past two days was also full of celebrities. Among other things, the participating children were able to enjoy a Q&A session with commentary legend Marcel Reif, who is a trustee of the DFL Foundation. In addition, the national ambassador of “Fußball trifft Kultur”, national player Ridle Baku, visited his FtK children and was on hand to give them advice and support during the tournament on Saturday. On Sunday, Hessian Minister President Boris Rhein presented the trophies to the winners of the U14 tournament.

Images: LitCam / Witters / Jörg Halisch

Ridle Baku, nationwide ambassador of “Fußball trifft Kultur” was impressed by his first meeting with “his” children: “I was very pleased to get to know the “Fußball trifft Kultur” children on site. It was great to see how enthusiastically they took part in the tournament and how much soccer motivates them for an educational program like “Fußball trifft Kultur”.”

Guest of honor Marcel Reif was particularly impressed by the fair interaction between the program groups: “It’s great to see how the power of soccer brings children from different cultures together and how they can experience team spirit, fair play and cohesion during the tournament.”

Hessian Minister President Boris Rhein emphasized the integrative power of soccer: “Sport makes integration possible. That’s the great thing about this tournament: you not only learn to deal with victories, but also to cope with defeats. Soccer shows that everyone gets their chance in life if they are prepared to take it. This also applies to language, learning and academic success. So school and sport have a lot in common.”

As a nationwide cooperation partner, the DFL Foundation has been supporting the integrative education program since 2012. Franziska Fey, CEO of the DFL Foundation, emphasized the central role of the tournament in the project’s success: “The final tournament is the big highlight of “Fußball trifft Kultur” for all the children. It motivates them throughout the school year to work on their language skills, including in remedial lessons. At the tournament, they can now show what they have learned – in terms of soccer, language and social skills. It’s great to see how the groups have grown together and how much fun they have.”

Karin Plötz, Director of LitCam, was delighted with the tournament – especially as the final tournament could finally take place again after a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic: “It was a great tournament. Despite the heat, the kids played with great enthusiasm to win the FtK Cup. The highlight for the kids was the visit from Marcel Reif and Ridle Baku, it will be remembered by everyone as a great event.”

Mini documentary about the Augsburg program group at the FtK final tournament 2022

The “Fußball trifft Kultur” children and supervisors from the Bärenkeller primary and secondary school in Augsburg were accompanied by a professional camera team as part of the educational program. In addition to the regular range of skills lessons and soccer training, the final tournament in Frankfurt was the big highlight of the year, where the children were able to take home a very special prize.

Video: DFL Foundation / CUE Media

The final placings:

U10

1st place: Karmeliterschule, Frankfurt am Main

2nd place: Frauenstraße elementary school, Fürth

3rd place: Erich-Kästner-Schule II, Frankfurt am Main

4th place: Regenbogenschule II, Gelsenkirchen

Fairplay Award: Schule an der Glinder Au, Hamburg

U14

1st place: Anne-Frank-Gesamtschule I, Dortmund

2nd place: Stadtteilschule am Hafen, Hamburg-St. Pauli

3rd place: Mont-Cenis Comprehensive School II, Herne

4th place: Herbert Grillo Comprehensive School, Duisburg

Fairplay Prize: Bärenkeller primary and secondary school, Augsburg

We were there: The #EU BeInclusive Sport Awards 2021

Our educational program “Fußball trifft Kultur” was nominated for the #BeInclusive EU Sport Awards 2021.
Each year, the European Commission presents the awards to programs that use the power of sport to empower socially disadvantaged people.

Together with two other great projects from the International Judo Federation (Hungary) and Politecnico de Milano (Italy), we were nominated for the award in the “Breaking Barriers” category with “Fußball trifft Kultur”.
This category addresses projects and programs that specifically overcome barriers in order to increase diversity of opportunity and enable participation in sport.

The award ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, as an in-person and online event in Brussels’ European Quarter.
We ourselves accepted the personal invitation of the European Commission and attended the event.
Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, finally announced the winners in the evening.
In the end, our Italian co-finalists from the Politecnico di Milano were delighted to receive the winner’s trophy with their outstanding project “GIFT”.
We were also very proud of our shared second place and afterwards had inspiring discussions with inspiring personalities from the nominated project sponsors.

The preliminary phase included short interviews with all finalists.
As part of this, the European Commission writes about “Fußball trifft Kultur”:

Thanks to these doses of inspiration provided by FtK, children from underprivileged areas now feel prouder and more prepared when it comes to learning.
With passion as the main ingredient, “Football meets Culture” has figured out a way to balance education, sport and culture.
These three components of pedagogic advancement are best described by the internal motto, ‘Starts little and develops big’. This is the ultimate goal of FtK: to expand social horizons for children from neglected areas.

Click here for the full website article on “Fußball trifft Kultur” published by the European Commission.

Children’s press conference at VfL Bochum

Many kids dream of meeting a real professional footballer. For the boys and girls from “Fußball trifft Kultur” at the Werner von Siemens School, this dream came true.

On Tuesday, April 28, the children from the Bochum “Fußball trifft Kultur” group went on a short trip to the Vonovia Stadium. The 22 girls and boys had the opportunity to meet their new sponsor in person at a children’s press conference in the Stadtwerke Bochum LOUNGE: Christopher Antwi-Adjei, professional footballer at VfL Bochum, answered the pupils’ questions directly and won their affection in no time at all.

The children quickly lost all their shyness and learned in the exciting Q&A session, for example, how Antwi-Adjei found his way into professional soccer or how he prepares for matches. They also learned a lot about Jimmy’s eating habits, taste in music and hobbies. Conversely, the new project sponsor was also very interested in the pupils’ habits. In the end, of course, every photo request was fulfilled and the group agreed that they were already looking forward to further highlights with the new project sponsor. VfL Bochum has certainly gained a few new fans now and the children were able to gain inspiration for the rest of the FtK-ClubChallenge 2022 many exciting impulses.

In addition to Christopher Antwi-Adjei, Gizem Killic, VfL player and coach of the project, remains the sponsor of “Fußball trifft Kultur”.

“Fußball trifft Kultur” turns 15 years old

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of “Fußball trifft Kultur” together with our friends and supporters.
We are taking this as an opportunity to look back on the success story in a short flashback.

Together, more than 250 of our teachers and coaches have been able to support over 3,600 children on their educational journey.
The special thing about “Fußball trifft Kultur” was its socially sustainable focus from the very beginning: firstly, our program participants take part in the program for two years.
Over this period, the children receive over 17,000 minutes of support through our triad of language, soccer and culture.
Secondly, the program does not provide selective impulses, but supports the children in the groundbreaking two years before and after the transition from primary to secondary school.

Although “Fußball trifft Kultur” has already been running for 15 years and has always served a great need, the program has never been as relevant as it is today in the wake of the continuous and increasing educational shortcomings in Germany – “Fußball trifft Kultur” makes a targeted contribution to compensating for the everyday building blocks of children and young people that have been significantly lost or neglected even during the pandemic.
The holistic approach to school improvement, exercise and social interaction offers children a toolbox for their further personal development.

The overarching goal of “Fußball trifft Kultur” will always remain to make an important post for more educational equality and equal opportunities in Germany.
Many thanks to all our partners who support us on this journey!

© Header: DFL Foundation / Guido Kirchner; 2010: Thorsten Wagner; 2012: Andreas Schröder; 2013: Nadine Rupp; 2015: DFL Foundation; 2018, 2019: DFL Foundation / Guido Kirchner; 2020: DFL Foundation / Thorsten Wagner; 2014, 2021, 2022: LitCam / Witters / Jörg Halisch

European U21 champion new ambassador for “Fußball trifft Kultur”

Initiated by LitCam gGmbH in 2007 and funded by the DFL Foundation since 2012, the integrative education program aims to use enthusiasm for soccer as a learning motivation to give children from disadvantaged neighborhoods access to language and culture.
At 20 locations across Germany, 32 program groups with children in grades 3 to 6 are supported in cooperation with local professional football clubs.
Participants receive 45 minutes of soccer training and 45 minutes of remedial lessons twice a week for at least one school year, usually with a focus on language development.
In addition, cultural events encourage a change of perspective.

Ridle Baku is delighted to be able to actively support this approach in the future as a nationwide ambassador for “Fußball trifft Kultur”:

“I want to help children who might have a harder time. When Karin Plötz from “Fußball trifft Kultur” approached me with the idea of supporting the program as an ambassador, I was immediately enthusiastic.
Combining the social power of soccer with remedial teaching – I think that’s great.
I would like to help as much as I can.”

In his role as ambassador for the program, Ridle Baku will act in particular as a role model for the children.
He will also be involved in shaping the content of the program.
As soon as the current Corona rules allow, he would like to support the program groups in the schools and the big “Fußball trifft Kultur” final tournament on site.
It is particularly important to him to promote soccer as a unifying, integrative element:

“Football has a unifying power. When you go out onto the pitch, it doesn’t matter where you come from. All that matters is the common goal. You have to learn to integrate into a group and deal with defeat. I think you learn a lot of social skills in team sports that also help you a lot off the pitch.”

To the interview with Ridle Baku

Copyright photo: Adidas