Germany Meeting Göttingen 2021

In October 2021, the German LCs held their annual IFSA Germany Meeting which was the first IFSA in-person meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic! For four days, 22 participants from five German LCs and LCs from Denmark, Serbia and Estonia met in Göttingen for a fun and exciting weekend.

Besides finally meeting (again) in person and getting to know old and new IFSA members, we had various different activities on the agenda. On the first day, we had a walk through the city center of Göttingen while getting to know each other. The second day was packed with outside activities. After a joined breakfast with self-made porridge, we met with a local district forester for a tour through the forest close to Göttingen. We learned about the various different management strategies applied to the forest area and the current struggles of foresters. In particular in the last few years storms and bark beetle forced an increased harvesting of timber and in order to avoid selling it at low prices it was stored in the forest using different methods. One of them was keeping the wood constantly wet.

After this interesting and informative tour in the forest, we made our way towards the Harz mountains. There we hiked up to the ‘Brocken’ which is the highest peak of Northern Germany at 1142m.

The day ended with our international night, to which everyone brought traditional drinks and food from their home country or region and the one or other song.

The morning of the third day focused on IFSA. After a general presentation about the structure and objectives of IFSA, we divided into small groups and had a brainstorming session on three different topics: LC Activities, Activities between Germany LCs and ideas to get new members in the LCs.

Overall, all participants were excited to finally be able to have an in-person meeting again, meet IFSA friends and enjoy the time outside and – of course – the culinary diversity on the international night.

Authors: Johanna Klapper & Simone Massaro