I was born in 1949, and that means I am as old, or young, as post-war democratic Germany. Small wonder, then, that my individual path of development and the collective path of (West-) Germany are so closely interwoven. Growing up I had a hard time coming to terms with my Germanness. I suffered and went on to look for different cultural habitats that I might call home – discovering, of course, that these could never really be substitutes for the first.
In hindsight I know that my lack of identification had its upside, too: without it I could never have developed my thinking, my work and my contribution.
It is not just that I could perfect my bilingualism and cultural awareness. Not identifying somehow implies not taking anything for granted, not being attached to what appears to be self-evident.These are excellent conditions if you want to find things out.
In hindsight I am deeply grateful, as part of my outrageously privileged and free-thinking generation, to have followed exactly this path. I feel deeply connected with all of my brothers and sisters, all over the world, who, like me, believe that we can create a better world, and that we all depend on all of us for it.
All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality;
tied in a single garment of destiny…
Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be
Until you are what you ought to be.
You can never be what you ought to be
Until I am what I ought to be.
This is the way the world is made.
I didn´t make it this way, but this is the interrelated structure of reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Facts
2011 - Now
Sole owner of Rainer Molzahn Leadership.
1999 - 2010
Partnership with Elke Schlehuber in developing our ‘Cultural Competence’ approach. This is not just theoretical, but also an array of concrete tools for working with individuals, groups and organisations.
1990 - 1999
Trainer, Consultant and Co-Owner of SKILL GmbH: a shared vision to develop and implement a new culture of learning for people in organisations. These holistic concepts were a source of inspiration for many learners and educators.
1977 - 1990
My extended apprenticeship in matters human, working as a psychologist in a number of institutions – diagnostician, counsellor, therapist.
1976
First apprenticeship with Prof. Anatoli Lipkovitz, the famed and reclusive Jewish Russian American Anthropologist.
