Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble (1942 – 2023)
President of the German Bundestag
and patron of MitMachMusik e.V.
„MitMachMusik is an integration method that works without words and brings people together. Music and art build unique bridges for refugees and the children in particular can use it to better process their difficult journey. I am very happy about this wonderful offer, and I have the greatest respect for the voluntary commitment“
Zohre Esmaeli
Model and Entrepreneur
“I support MitMachMusik because I see that something beautiful and unifying is being created here, which negates mutual prejudices. That’s important, especially in times when populist world views make living together difficult”
Günther Jauch
TV presenter
“The great thing about making music is that the universal language of music can be spoken across all geographical borders. At the same time, when we make music, we always meet in a certain place at a certain time, indeed we are rooted in the here and now. These are two perfect conditions for building community beyond our respective origins. And this is exactly what MitMachMusik does!”
Barry Kosky
Director of the Komische Oper Berlin
„I support MitMachMusik because when people make music together, any kind of boundaries that can separate people from each other are literally overcome in a playful way – no matter what skin colour or religion you have or what language you speak. What could be more beautiful?“
Rolf Kühn
Jazz musician and composer
“Making music together makes the refugee a fellow citizen. MitMachMusik makes an important contribution to this.”
Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert
President of the German Bundestag (retired)
“The MitMachMusik project is doing an extraordinary job of using our art to bring new communities together and it is providing some of the most important outreach taking place in this challenging time. I admire what they are doing enormously.”
Sir Simon Rattle
Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra
“I am an enthusiastic supporter of MitMachMusik because making music together brings people together and inspires them so much. It is a remarkable project.”
Sir Donald Runnicles
Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin
“Passing on our love of music, reaching people with it, connecting people – that’s our job. MitMachMusik does exactly that and much more. This is where the world becomes a better place.”
Christine Schäfer
Opera singer
Marie Kogge, born into a Berlin family of musicians in 1966, studied violin at the Berlin University of the Arts from 1986 to 1993 after graduating from the Rudolf Steiner School. She gained her first professional experience as a violinist with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss and the Orchestre Philharmonique Strasbourg in France before returning to Berlin as a freelance musician. There she became co-founder of the chamber music formation Ensemble Incendo Berlin in 2000.
Marie Kogge teaches freelance violin and initiated the school subject “Music in Ensemble” at the Potsdam Waldorf School. For more than ten years, she has led the two school orchestras that emerged from this programme. The concept of MitMachMusik was largely developed from her experiences with her students and making music together.
Imogen Kogge is one of Germany’s most distinguished theatre and film actresses. After studying acting at the Berlin University of the Arts, she had engagements at a number of major German-speaking theatres (including Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Salzburger Festspiele, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Schauspielhaus Bochum and Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus). She has worked with directors such as Claus Peymann, Jérôme Savary, Augusto Fernandes, Peter Stein, Klaus Michael Grüber, Andrea Breth, Luc Bondy and Robert Wilson.
Since the mid-90s, she has also appeared in numerous film and television productions. She appeared, for example, in Nachtgestalten, Schande, Barfuß, Wer wenn nicht wir, Russendisko, Phoenix, Die Bluthochzeit, Requiem, The Zone of Interest and Die Theorie von allem. The Zone of Interest won the Oscar for Best Film in 2024. Among her numerous television roles, her portrayal of Inspector Johanna Herz in the ARD series Polizeiruf 110, for which she received the Adolf Grimme Award, is one of the most notable.
Imogen Kogge has also taught as a guest lecturer at the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Ernst Busch School in Berlin and the University of the Arts in Berlin. In the Netherlands, she staged Handel’s ‘Ariodante’ at the Nationale Reisopera in 2002 and ‘Madame Butterfly’ in 2004.
Jan Feldmann, born and raised in Lüneburg, studied medicine in Berlin and Freiburg i. Br. He works as a general internist in a group practice in Berlin-Kladow/Havelhöhe. The passionate violist and birdwatcher is married and has two children.
Tim Spotowitz studied social pedagogy and cultural management in Germany and the Netherlands. As a music educator and orchestra manager, he has worked with orchestras, ensembles and academies in Amsterdam, Berlin and Potsdam. In 2016, he took over as Head of Cultural Education at the Kammerakademie Potsdam with the programme ‘Music creates perspective’, which was awarded the special prize ‘Culture opens worlds’ by the Minister of State for Culture and Media in 2017. Tim Spotowitz has been head of the Bürgerhaus am Schlaatz community centre since 2019 and develops concepts for integrated cultural, educational and social work for Potsdam’s super-diverse district.
In addition to his main job, he advises cultural and educational initiatives. He is a member of the district council at Schlaatz and the speaker’s council of the neighbourhood and meeting houses in Potsdam, is a jury member for cultural project funding in the state capital and is regularly invited as an expert for socioculture and community arts at universities, on advisory boards and participation committees.
Oleh came to Germany from Ukraine in 2023. He has been passionate about music since his childhood. He completed his music studies at the Zaporizhzhya College. He plays and teaches the flute professionally, but is also passionate about the guitar. He loves to improvise, compose and collaborate with other musicians. In Berlin he plays in the symphony orchestra ‘Collegium Musik in Berlin’. He gives flute lessons in Potsdam.
Anhelina is a composer and writer from Ukraine. In 2022, at the beginning of the war, she came to Berlin and has been studying visual communication at the Berlin University of the Arts since then, specialising in book design and film directing. At the same time, she worked as a singer and pianist in a charity orchestra and a band, where she was able to develop her compositional skills. In 2023, she founded the youth music theatre ‘Ether’, in which she works simultaneously with music and text and with a large ensemble.
She came to MitMachMusik Potsdam via Marie Kogge, where she works with the choir. Teaching, making music and working with children are both a challenge and a fulfilment for her.
Ilona studied Cultural Studies with a specialisation in Management of Cultural and Leisure Activities at the National University of Culture and Arts Kyiv, Ukraine. From 2011 to 2022 she worked in the field of education management and event organisation as well as in marketing/PR. At MitMachMusik Ilona has since 2022 been responsible for communication with Ukrainian participants and their families, organising events and creating communication materials (presentations, flyers and social media posts).
Johannes Kain studied history, art history and general and comparative literature. He is a fully qualified lawyer and certified PR consultant and has several years of experience in German and Austrian agencies and companies, in purely private sectors as well as in the subject areas of culture and politics. Since 2018, he has been supporting MitMachMusik in the areas of public relations and fundraising.
Zsolt Magyar is half Hungarian, half Colombian and grew up in Costa Rica. He first came into contact with music at a young age by playing the piano, later switching to the violin. He received his diploma from the University of Costa Rica and has taught and performed in orchestral programmes all over the world.
Zsolt says: “I believe that we need to be the change we want to see in the world, and what better way to bring about change and inclusion than playing music in the community? I am very happy that I can contribute to a more compassionate and sensitive society through my work with MitMachMusik.”
Holger Marzahn is a trained curative education carer, studied music mediation and music education in social work at the Hoffbauer Berufsakademie Potsdam (later the Clara Hoffbauer Potsdam University of Applied Sciences) and completed his master’s degree in inclusive music education/community music at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
Holger strives to bring music to life for people, to show them how much fun it can be to play music themselves and how much support music can provide in coping with everyday life. He teaches guitar on a freelance basis, gives music and band workshops, organises participatory concerts and performs as a singer-songwriter under the name ‘hollagg’. He has been active in the MitMachMusik music club since September 2024.
Charles was born and grew up in Zwickau. He has played the cello with passion since the age of five. His musical education began at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Zwickau, where he received intensive support over many years. During his time at the conservatory, he was an active member of the youth symphony orchestra and was able to gain valuable experience in ensemble playing and orchestral work.
He is currently studying to become a music teacher specialising in cello at the University of Potsdam. His aim is to further deepen his technical and artistic skills and at the same time acquire pedagogical competences for his future work as a music teacher.
Inna graduated from the state music college in Taganrog, Ukraine, with a degree in violin and a qualification as a teacher and orchestral musician. She played in orchestras, taught children from music schools and gave private violin lessons. She came to Potsdam from Ukraine in 2022 and has played in the Collegium Musicum Potsdam symphony orchestra ever since.
She has been teaching violin for MitMachMusik regularly since 2023. Inna loves being part of this project where she can help children discover the world of music and experience how music connects us all and makes us grow.
“You can’t make culture with politics, but maybe you can make politics with culture” Theodor Heuss
Paediatrician Peter Hauber has been organising benefit concerts on behalf of IPPNW for 36 years, always to counter the destruction of our earth with a piece of culture. At the end of 2015, the peak of the influx of refugees to Germany, he suggested to the German Music Council that, following the example of “El Sistema”, the hundreds of thousands of children seeking a new home in Germany should be given a perspective through music lessons. For him, this is a way to prevent these children from becoming socially marginalised and thus also a problem for us, “because not only our children, but also these children are our future”. His appeal came to nothing, the German Music Council did not feel responsible. Loosely based on Theodor Heuss, he founded the first “MitMachMusik” in Berlin with his colleague Martin Ross at the end of 2015 and has since organised four benefit concerts for the project. www.ippnw-concerts.de
Begegnungszentrum oskar
Oskar-Meßter-Straße 4-6
14480 Potsdam-Drewitz
Contact: Holger Marzahn
Mail: holgermarzahn@mit-mach-musik.de
Bürgerhaus am Schlaatz
Schilfhof 28
14478 Potsdam
Contact: Tobias Stute
Mail: tobiasstute@mit-mach-musik.de
Kulturhaus Babelsberg
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 135
14482 Potsdam
Contact: Marie Kogge
Mail: mariekogge@mit-mach-musik.de
Rechenzentrum Potsdam
Dortusstraße 46
14467 Potsdam
Contact: Marie Kogge
Mail: mariekogge@mit-mach-musik.de
In 2015, more than 300,000 children and young people fled to Germany. According to the principle “Our children are our future”, it was logical to say: “Refugee children are also our future”, because only if we succeed in integrating these children emotionally, linguistically, culturally and intellectually into our social system can they develop into valuable participants in our society.
In April 2016, committed citizens, including professional musicians, doctors, music teachers and music educators founded the non-profit association “MitMachMusik – ein Weg zur Integration von Flüchtlingskindern e.V.”. In this initiative, musicians make music together with refugee children and young people and thus communicate in a language that everyone understands.
Initially, we only focussed on refugee children, but the scope of our work has gradually expanded. More and more local children and young people from socially deprived families became involved. So that they could find it easier to participate in our society through music as well as the associated experience of their own abilities and active community. Accordingly, we have changed our name to ‘MitMachMusik – ein Weg zur Integration’.
Over the years, we have realised that the framework conditions for the work of our association in Berlin and Brandenburg have increasingly changed. In terms of our student body, target groups and partnerships. In order to meet these different requirements in the best possible way, we have decided to put the association on two independent legs and to founded a separate association for Brandenburg. Since January 2025, there have therefore been two associations: MitMachMusik Berlin and MitMachMusik Brandenburg.
However, MitMachMusik is still first and foremost a group of musicians and music educators, often of international origin, who believe in this idea of communication through music and who use their work, their skills, their experience and their free time to pursue this goal.
Um ihre instrumentalen Fähigkeiten zu entwickeln und dauerhaft am Ensemble-Spiel teilzunehmen, brauchen die Kinder eigene Instrumente. Das eigene Instrument ermöglicht zudem das regelmäßige Üben und Spielen auch außerhalb der MitMachMusik-Unterrichte.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Social Emotional Learning bedeutet:
Self awareness – die Wahrnehmung des eigenen Individuums
Self management – die Verantwortung für sich selbst und die Erreichung der selbstgesteckten Ziele
Social awareness – die Wahrnehmung als Individuum als Teil einer Gruppe
Relationship skills – wie man unterschiedliche Rolle annimmt und Beziehungen aufbaut. Jeder ist wichtig, jeder wird gebraucht!
Mit SEL, vermitteln wir unseren Schülern die Kompetenz, die sie brauchen, um ihr eigener Lehrer zu sein. Eine Fähigkeit, die sie nicht nur für das Erlernen eines Instrumentes benötigen.