Lindau Peace Rooms (Friedens Räume)

Introduction:
Lindau is a historical German town and island on the eastern side of Lake Constance in the province of Bavaria and is home to the Lindau Peace Museum. Founded in 1980, the museum works to introduce the life and work of known and unknown pioneers of peace and bring them more into the realm of public consciousness. The former Lindau Peace Museum, today named "Friedens Räume" (Peace Rooms) was set up in the classical Villa Lindenhof (built 1842-45) and is surrounded by a 19th century English garden.

The location of Lindau city

Mission:
The Lindau Peace Rooms are designed to promote peace and to encourage people to be active. The museum with the motto "more than a museum" serves as a center for intercultural and interfaith exchange, as well as providing the space for individual experiencing and learning.

 
The Lindau Peace Museum tries to show different concepts of peace and their complexity. It believes that peace is not a state, but a process; peace is practical, not theoretical.

 
Therefore, through its exhibitions and art works, the Lindau Peace Museum tries to train peace and conflict resolution skills between people and countries.

Overview:
The Lindau Peace Museum is run by a team of six members, including 1 staff and 5 volunteers. It also has about 50 other volunteers who work in the museum to make sure the museum is always open for visitors. The Lindau Peace Museum hosts different groups of visitors such as school children, educators and tourists.

 
Beside hosting visitors, the Lindau Peace Museum holds different events such as Inter- religious Marathon, Art exhibitions and Music concerts, as well as different movements and projects like “No Weapons from Germany”.

The museum is divided into six interactive and dynamic rooms. Each room with their pedagogical and artistic concept tries to sensitize and educate the visitors by encouraging them to touch the exhibits, to discover them, to think for themselves and to make their decisions. The museum believes that "peace is not a state, but a spiritual competence".

These six spaces are shown below:

The Garden: The garden room, which is located in the entrance of the museum, is available for peace talks, peace games and other related activities. In the Garden, the visitors can see the symbolic seeds of plants such as Peace, Kindness and Equality. (Picture #1)

The Reading Room is dedicated to people - such as Sophie Scholl - who encourage individuals to be peace activists and join peace building organizations. 

A box is provided in which visitors are invited to open its drawers to read more about these peace pioneers. In the last drawer, the visitors will find a mirror to remind them that everybody can be a peace activist. (Pictures #2 & 3)

Picture #1: The Garden

The Reading Room is dedicated to people - such as Sophie Scholl - who encourage individuals to be peace activists and join peace building organizations.
A box is provided in which visitors are invited to open its drawers to read more about these peace pioneers. In the last drawer, the visitors will find a mirror to remind them that everybody can be a peace activist. (Pictures #2 & 3)

Pictures #2 & 3: Reading Room – Introducing Peace Activists

The Decision / Art Room: In the second room visitors are confronted with the question: “Could you love me?” The decision room shows supposed enemy portraits and thus of friends. The exhibition is built on two-sidedness and shows human images. The chosen faces are from different cultures, young and old, pretty and blemished and are exhibited to remind the visitors of their prejudices. (Picture #4)

Picture #4: “Could you love me?”

In this room there are also different types of chairs, each symbolizing different kinds of relationships. (Pictures #13-15)

The Room in Between showcases the situation of children in Germany and indicates that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people. (Pictures # 5-7)

Pictures # 5-7: The Room in Between: Showcasing the Most Common Problems in German Teenagers and Youth such as suicide, Addiction, Sickness, etc.

Workshop Room: Group discussions, seminars and role-play on the subject of conflict resolution take place in the factory room. Visitors from schools and universities learn about the concept of peace and conflict resolution in this room through different educational methods. (Picture # 8)

Picture # 8: Workshop Room: Panel to introduce Women Peace Activists from around the world

The Listening Room: The last room is the listening room and provides acoustic examples of peace and violence. This room is about the role of language and music and tries to show that language and music can make human beings feel either good or bad and different music can express different feelings. (Picture #9)

Picture #9: Listening Room

For more information, please refer to Lindau Peace Rooms website: http://www.friedens-raeume.de (only available in German)

Picture #10: Entrance Door

Pictures # 11- 12: Left picture: Stage to Experience Using Kind Words Right Picture: Stage to Experience Using Hate Words

Pictures #13-15: Art Room: Different Chairs, Symbolizing Different Types of Relationships and their impacts in having a peaceful relationship Picture 13: The position of Leaders of the world Picture 14: The Relationship of the Bosses and Employees Picture 15: The Relationship of people with opposite opinions or people in different situations

Picture #16: Workshop Room: Peace Notes from visitors