Tutzing – After 31 years as head of housekeeping, the Academy for Political Education said goodbye to Christine Friedrich. Since 1991 you have managed the kitchen, service and cleaning staff.
With her leaves the academy Simone Zschiegner, who was head of accounting for 15 years and most recently deputy chairman of the personnel board. When Christine Friedrich took over housekeeping at the Tutzing Academy for Political Education, the Soviet Union was collapsing, Helmut Kohl was chancellor of the newly reunified Germany, and Manfred Hättich, Ursula Münch’s predecessor, was the second director of the Academy. That was September 1, 1991. The rest of today’s Academy team weren’t even born then. Since then, Friedrich and her team, which has included more than 100 employees over the past 31 years, have prepared rooms and meals for thousands of conference guests and hosted Academy parties and receptions. Academy director Ursula Münch and her colleagues have now said goodbye to the head cleaner when he retires.
Motivation and care for housekeeping in the Tutzing Academy for Political Education
“Without you and your flexibility, dear Ms. Friedrich, many things here at the Academy would not have been possible”, emphasized the director in her parting words. When the head cleaner took over, the weekend lectures in the academy were rather the exception, and even during the week the capacity of the house was not always fully utilised. Tutzing’s academy now holds more than 180 lectures a year and is open two-thirds of the weekends. With the inauguration of the auditorium in 2011, conference speakers discovered its foyer as a venue for receptions and exhibition openings. “But above all, we found that Ms. Friedrich initially seemed concerned about every new idea for an event, but then she almost always said: ‘It will be difficult, but we can do it,'” says Ursula Münch.
This was because Christine Friedrich was always ready to give her best and also demanded a lot from her team in the kitchen, service and housekeeping. At the same time, she is known among her colleagues for her caring nature. In recent decades you have accompanied singles to the doctor, you have negotiated with the immigration office when there were problems with the residence permit, you have looked for a new place to live when someone had to leave their apartment.
Christine Friedrich delivers an established team
In addition, Christine Friedrich has accomplished something that Angela Merkel failed to do during her long tenure, as Academy director Ursula Münch pointed out: She has established a worthy successor in Renate Brunner, who will take over housekeeping management in January. “You are delivering a well-ordered cleaning, a very capable team with a high level of motivation, responsibility and a lot of cohesion. You can and should be proud of that,” said Münch. Friedrich admits that she will miss this team. She will especially remember the breaks together, during which employees with a migration background also spoke about their home countries.”It was a great enrichment for me,” says Friedrich.
In retirement he looks forward to doing nothing and then thinks about what else he would like to do in the future. “Maybe go out to eat with friends more often. It’s still true that I can hardly enjoy it because I always think about all the work for the staff. I hope that will change sooner or later,” she says with a laugh. Until then, she can also try new dishes at home. When she left, her colleagues gave her a cookbook with their favorite recipes.
Simone Zschiegner bids farewell to the Tutzing Academy after 15 years
Together with Christine Friedrich, the Academy greeted Simone Zschiegner. She has been in charge of accounting for the last 15 years, she has managed the director’s secretariat for several years and most recently was vice president of the personnel board.
The Academy for Political Education
The Academy for Political Education in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg is an interdisciplinary forum for science, politics and educational work, a center for political education and a research facility. It deals with current and fundamental topics of national and international politics, constitutional politics, social developments, contemporary history and political philosophy. Founded by the Bavarian state parliament in 1957 as an institution governed by public law, it promotes political education on a non-partisan basis. It is a unique institution in the German educational landscape. The director is the political scientist Prof. Dr. Ursula Munch. (KB)
