Statement: Against this war / Gegen diesen Krieg

Dear stu­dents,

Dear col­leagues in tea­ching and ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­on,

We are sho­cked by the war that the Rus­si­an Fe­de­ra­ti­on is wa­ging against Ukrai­ne in the midd­le of Eu­ro­pe. We con­demn the vio­lence and bru­ta­li­ty against the life, free­dom and right to self-de­ter­mi­na­ti­on of mil­li­ons of peop­le.

Our sym­pa­thy and so­li­da­ri­ty are with tho­se who are suf­fe­ring – in Ukrai­ne, but also in Rus­sia – and with our stu­dents and col­leagues who fear for their fa­mi­lies and fri­ends. We ad­mi­re the cou­ra­ge of the Ukrai­ni­an peop­le in de­fen­ding their con­vic­tions, but also the cou­ra­ge of many peop­le in Rus­sia and Be­la­rus who are pro­tes­ting against this war. 

I re­peat my re­quest: Do not he­si­ta­te to con­tact us if you need help, are loo­king for so­meo­ne to talk to about your wor­ries and fe­ars, feel alo­ne or un­pro­tec­ted, find yours­elf in a fi­nan­ci­al emer­gen­cy.

• An over­view of the coun­se­ling ser­vices of­fe­red by our uni­ver­si­ty.
   
• We are here for you and will glad­ly put you in touch with other coun­se­ling ser­vices: 
   
  • In­ter­na­tio­nal Of­fice, Ms. Frie­de­ri­ke Kreft, frie­de­ri­ke.kreft@hfmdk-frank­furt.de
     
  • Stu­dent Ser­vices, Ms. Sil­ke Hen­nen, sil­ke.hen­nen@hfmdk-frank­furt.de  

Plea­se also con­tact us if you know of any coope­ra­ti­on part­ners at art col­le­ges in the war zone who need help!

The HfMDK is an open, li­be­ral, de­mo­cra­tic and so­ci­al com­mu­ni­ty. Peop­le with very dif­fe­rent back­grounds of ex­pe­ri­ence are in­vi­ted to en­ga­ge crea­tively with the arts of mu­sic, dance, thea­ter and the cor­re­spon­ding sci­en­ces. We see our uni­ver­si­ty as a place of peace­ful and appre­cia­ti­ve dis­cour­se, di­ver­si­ty and in­te­gra­ti­on. The­re­fo­re, we con­ti­nue to wel­co­me peop­le from all coun­tries of the world!

Art is au­to­no­mous. But it also deals with our world in its com­ple­xi­ties and con­tra­dic­tions. Art does not have to be be­au­ti­ful all the time. Art con­sti­tu­tes an on­go­ing at­tempt to make our rea­li­ties tan­gi­ble for us hu­mans: Through sto­ries, images and sounds, to en­ter into a dia­lo­gue with each other and to over­co­me speech­less­ness.

The­re­fo­re, my ur­gent re­quest: Let us con­ti­nue the con­ver­sa­ti­on with each other.

Best re­gards, for the Pre­si­di­um,

El­mar Ful­da

Pre­si­dent

We also sha­re the pro­noun­ce­ments of the HRK and the DAAD:

https://www.hrk.de/fi­le­ad­min/re­dak­ti­on/hrk/02-Do­ku­men­te/02-02-PM/2022-02-24_HRK-PM_So­li­da­ri­ta­et_Ukrai­ne.pdf

https://www.daad.de/de/der-daad/kom­mu­ni­ka­ti­on-pu­bli­ka­tio­nen/pres­se/pres­se­mit­tei­lun­gen/pres­se­mit­tei­lung-ukrai­ne_24-fe­bru­ar/