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Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung /
Federal Agency for Civic Education

Location Bonn

Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
Medien- und Kommunikationszentrum Berlin
Stresemannstr. 90
D-10963 Berlin
www.bpb.de

Contact person:
Thorsten Schilling
Head of the media and communications centre Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 25 45 04-0
Fax: +49 (0)30 25 45 04-22
E-Mail: schilling(a)bpb.de



The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb) supports all citizens who are interested to involve themselves with politics. It has the task to promote the understanding of political facts, to empower the consciousness of democracy, and to strengthen the preparedness for political participation. In such a way it is stated through the decree of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Bundesministeriums des Innern), and in such a way it is implemented into practice at the three locations Bonn, Berlin, and Brühl.

In connection with a nation-wide network build from regional centres, educational establishments, and responsible bodies, associations, foundations and communities, the bpb is committed to political education – independently, and in a non-partisan and scientifically balanced manner. It uses different media to make its opportunities more popular. These include books, magazines and brochures, presentations on the internet and CD-ROMs, congresses, workshops and cultural manifestations. Thus it is inviting the most different groups.


 
The media and communications centre Berlin
(Medien- und Kommunikationszentrum Berlin)
'Deutschlandhaus' – the bpb's location in Berlin

Bpb's media and communications centre located at Anhalter Bahnhof evolves all the communication that takes place between politics and society, between East and West, and between media, education, science and culture. It invites for using the entire range of bpb opportunities: Internet, multi-media, publications and manifestations.

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The mediathek for politics and contemporary history
(Mediathek für Politik und Zeitgeschichte)
CD-ROMs offered by the bpb

More and more the bpb favours the information format for its educational work. A mediathek for politics and contemporary history therefore is build up within bpb's media and communications centre in Berlin – a digital and audio-visual information opportunity aiming at the target groups of political education. In near future moving images, sound recordings and photographs will be established and made accessible here.

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Open networks
 

Supported by the mediathek as the provider and addressee of audio-visual content, the bpb wants to build up a network with domestic and media archives from abroad. In order to shape the cooperation with potential partners as transparent and sustainable as possible, the bpb is following the strategic goal of realisation by means of free or open-source software respectively. Interfaces and formats shall be held simple and open in order to make possible a lively exchange of archive materials for educational purposes.

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Vivid pool of materials
 

The mediathek does not consider itself to be simply an archive for collecting and performance. Reflecting its full intention, it wishes to function as a source of materials for new projects of political education. Starting from the mediathek and being framed by cooperation projects, events, e.g. can be recorded digitally, analogous materials can be digitalized, and raw materials can be processed and arranged for new user formats (i.e. DVD).

Political education is interpreted here as the creative experiment from which innovative forms of social communication are developing. Thus, not the archive as such will stand in the foreground, but a lively discussion with the items of its content.

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Target groups and scenarios of usage
 

Whether researching or teaching people, journalists, pupils, students or others who are politically interested: the mediathek's service shall fulfill as far as possible the different demands of usage so that the users will be able to move on their own within the mediathek's wealth of materials. The recovery aiming at determinate information shall be just as possible as a starting point that is guided by intuition or oriented towards topics. On any peculiar occasion, virtual walks around the service opportunities will be evolved for individual focuses.

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Data management
 

A user-friendly Digital Asset Management System, capable to learn, is intended to be used as the mediathek's technical core for the management of digital items. On one part, large amounts of data that are categorised, stored, and retrievable are waiting here for their continued elaboration. On the other part, the employment of the archive materials becomes real by means of the System and thus the interaction between the public and the opportunities in regard of their content.

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