Building Connections: Celebrating Living Traditions and Youth Voices

Table of Contents

• Workshop of Living Traditions: Reviving Heritage i …

• Building Rural Resilience: From Local Challenges t …

• Join the Movement: Empower Youth and Communities w …

Workshop of Living Traditions: Reviving Heritage in Schönberg

Image credits: All Images The ARCH gUG

On 18 October 2025, in celebration of the UNESCO International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage, The ARCH partnered with the Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt¹ and Kreismuseum Osterburg² to host the Werkstatt der lebendigen Traditionen (Workshop of Living Traditions) at the historic Rittergut Schönberg. This long-closed site, once a school and workplace for the local community until the early 1990s, reopened its doors to over 50 attendees, fostering a day of hands-on engagement and heartfelt connections.

The event brought Altmark’s living traditions to life through interactive stations, all prepared and led by dedicated local volunteers. The supporter’s club of the Voluntary Firefighters Schönberg supported the event by serving food and drinks. Participants peeled potatoes by hand for traditional Kartoffelpuffer topped with sugar and cinnamon—a staple of regional cuisine. At the postcard station, guests printed and customised designs featuring Altmark symbols like half-timbered houses, Hanseatic ships, and rhubarb meringue pie, sparking creative reinterpretations of local history.

Hands-on crafts included rope-twisting with expert rope maker Detlef Preetz, where visitors learnt this rare skill whilst chatting about its historical role in the region. Local seniors, including Marianne—a former educator—guided children in embroidery, passing down techniques to crafters as young as 3 years old. The “Cinderella of Schönberg” contest featured traditional wooden clogs, once everyday footwear in the Altmark, adding a playful twist to heritage exploration.

Fun and games rounded out the day: sack-hopping, finger-twist, rubber-band skipping, and a French knitting competition brought laughter and intergenerational bonding. An exhibition of historical embroidery samplers, especially curated by The ARCH and the Heimatmuseum Osterburg, was enriched by personal contributions—one visitor shared her late mother-in-law’s templates, turning the display into a living archive. A musical reading of poems in Altmark-Platt dialect deepened the cultural immersion, whilst Lothar, an 83-year-old former school headteacher at the site, shared anecdotes that bridged past and present.

This event addressed real challenges in the Altmark, a “very rural” region with suboptimal socioeconomic conditions (as classified by the Thünen-Landatlas).

The 2021 Jacobs University Heimatverbundenheitsindex reveals the area’s low scores—61.0 overall and 51.7 in heritage care, far below the national average of ~72—stemming from historical disruptions like post-WWII resettlement, reunification-era unemployment, and ongoing outwards migration.

Yet, through participatory activities, we made ICH tangible and relevant, countering alienation without overt lectures.

Guestbook entries captured the warmth:

“Schön(berg), that you exist. Thanks for the invitation and your commitment” – Grit-Kerstin Schorfe

“Thanks for the beautiful gathering of people, traditions, and warmth!” – Gundrun + Matthias Willenbockel

“Thank you for letting us delight the guests with the Altmark Authors’ Club. There were even the world’s best potato pancakes!” – Astrid Mathis

These words affirm how events like this strengthen community ties and inspire ongoing engagement.

Building Rural Resilience: From Local Challenges to Global Best Practices

Image credits: All Images The ARCH gUG

In rural areas like the Altmark in northern Germany, where social structures such as volunteer fire brigades and clubs thrive but cultural heritage often feels distant, The ARCH’s approach emphasises bottom-up participation. Our FutureCrafters (ZukunftsHandwerker) programme exemplifies this: workshops in woodworking, weaving, and nature-based builds (like dwarf villages from found materials) create diverse communities. Seniors share lifelong skills, parents join in, and volunteers adapt based on feedback, fostering intergenerational bonds and valuing personal stories.

Drawing from the 2020 WIR-Study Heimat_Land_Jugendkultur (coordinated by the Respekt! Stiftung and funded by the ZEIT-Stiftung), we know cultural education can combat youth migration and boredom, building resilience.

The ARCH shares these insights globally through our network of rare crafts experts in over 40 countries, including museums, universities, and initiatives. This creates feedback loops: lessons from the Altmark inform adaptations worldwide, and vice versa.

To further this exchange, we’re excited to announce a virtual round table discussion on Best Practices in Rural Community Building Through Heritage. Scheduled for 15 January 2026 (3–4 PM CET), this session is open to network members, volunteers, educators, and rural stakeholders. We’ll discuss participatory workshops, overcoming low engagement (like Heimatpflege challenges), and scalable models from regions like the Altmark. Register your interest at [email protected] and suggest agenda items—let’s collaborate to create more resilient connections!

Join the Movement: Empower Youth and Communities with YLCA

Complementing our local efforts, Young Living Craft Activists (YLCA)—launched in summer 2024—brings a fresh, youth-driven perspective to ICH. This global movement for ages 16–35 empowers young people to explore and share heritage through diverse lenses, with no rigid definitions. Via @young.living.craft.activists on Instagram, members from 10+ countries post content that highlights personal connections to culture.

Spotlight on contributors:

• Justine focuses on sustainability, with posts like “When Plastic Pollution Threatens Culture” and “ICH & Environmental Conservation Practices” (featuring the Lake District National Park as a best-practice example).

• Arantxa dives into urban and industrial heritage, showing how old industrial sites transform into cultural hubs.

• Charlotte, a craft practitioner, explores techniques from historical roots to modern community-building.

YLCA thrives on democracy: members interpret ICH freely—from Hello Kitty to French cuisine or preserving sites like Neuschwanstein. Community posts delve into themes like traditional foods uniting migrant groups, with users suggesting topics for ongoing dialogue. Lightly moderated by ARCH for balance, it’s a space for youth empowerment:

“At YLCA, we’re bringing people together through the traditions, crafts, and memories that shape who we are.”

Members report a deepened understanding of ICH’s role in their lives, inspiring preservation efforts. We invite students, classes, and teachers to integrate YLCA into projects—contact us to collaborate!

Get Involved: Your Connection Starts Here

Whether through local workshops, global networking, or youth initiatives, The ARCH relies on your passion. Volunteer for FutureCrafters (ZukunftsHandwerker), join the round table, or contribute to YLCA. Share your ICH stories with us for potential features.

Visit thearch.org to connect, donate, or partner—together, we keep rural heritage alive and vibrant.

Stay tuned for winter updates, and thank you for building these connections with us.

Warm regards,
The ARCH Team
thearch.org | [email protected]

Follow us on Instagram:

@the_arch_org, @zukunftshandwerkeraltmark, and @young.living.craft.activists

1  The Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. (LHBSA) is a non-profit umbrella organisation serving as the central association for local heritage and cultural clubs (Heimat- und Kulturvereine) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It focuses on promoting and preserving regional history, culture, and traditions through various activities, including networking among member associations, educational initiatives, and publications such as the Sachsen-Anhalt Journal. The organisation is institutionally supported by the state government of Saxony-Anhalt, and acts as a specialist federation for cultural matters in the region.

2  The Kreismuseum Osterburg is a regional museum located in Osterburg, a town in the Altmark region of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, within the district of Stendal. Established in 1935, it originally occupied exhibition spaces on the upper floor of a former town school, with workspaces on the ground floor by 1938. The museum focuses on local history and cultural artefacts, featuring exhibits such as historical embroidery samplers dating back to 1816, and serves as a repository for regional heritage, often highlighting themes like textile arts and provincial history.