Page 25 - ChildArt_2021.Q1_Global Creative Leaders

24 CHILDART GLOBAL CREATIVE LEADERS JAN-MAR 2021 25

DIPLOMATIC

DYNAMICS

DR. MICHAEL SCHAEFER

CHAIRMAN, BMW FOUNDATION

BERLIN

In the local newspaper of a small central about it. The auditorium fell quiet. Then students and countries in the quest for a peaceful, just, and Department. I went to the Assembly Hall, and here
Pennsylvania town, he had been introduced and started coming up to him to express their sustainable future. Currently, Michael is chairman we go, Germany had become a respected member.
welcomed as the newly arriving foreign-exchange support and dismay at what had happened. of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. Born That pushed me to go into the Foreign Service. My
student from Germany. But as he walked over the and raised in Germany, he spent many years in first assignment in the German Foreign Service a
parking lot on his first day of high school, a group of “That was a negative experience turned positive the Foreign Service. His work included working few years later was back to the UN in New York.
because I had dared to tell them how I felt. That is
boys greeted him with a “Heil Hitler” salute. extensively on the “Agenda for Peace” under United And I could sit in that seat and represent Germany.
something for young people to learn—you have
The excitement the sixteen-year-old had felt when to dare showing feelings. Sometimes people Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, representing That was really an amazing experience.”
he boarded a Super Constellation propeller-driven hurt you without necessarily meaning to.” Germany in the Human Rights Commission in Human rights has always been an important
plane in Germany to spend a day sightseeing Geneva, negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, and topic for Michael. During his time in Geneva he
in Manhattan before taking a long bus ride to Michael was an excellent soccer player which did serving as the German Ambassador to the People’s negotiated complex and controversial human
a welcoming host family had turned into a not go unnoticed by the football coach. “The coach Republic of China. rights issues. He learned that it is essential to
humiliation that hurt him. asked me to come up to the field and showed me His high school United Nations conference was a try to establish a personal relationship with
an American football. The American football looked
This was summer 1965. The war had ended twenty to me like an egg. And I said, ‘what do you do with foreshadowing of things to come. Also while in high those you negotiate with. This will help one
years earlier, long before any high schooler was that kind of egg?’ And he said, ‘well, you kick it the school, Michael’s class took a trip to New York. understand where the real discrepancies are and
born. “I came from a family which had not been way you kick your soccer ball, and you try to bring They visited the United Nations. “We went into the what is necessary to build a convergence. “I think
part of that past,” says Dr. Michael Schaefer. “I had it between those two poles and above the bar.’ So General Assembly Hall. Of course, all my American it is always possible to find a way to overcome
never before been personally confronted with our I did it, kicking it with the side of my foot. I did it school friends went to sit at the US table. And I differences. If it seems impossible to bridge the
past.” When the school arranged a model United once, I did it ten times, I did it twenty times. And was trying to find Germany’s seat. At the side of gaps that does not mean you have to give up. It
Nations a few weeks later, Michael was selected he said, ‘OK, next Saturday is junior varsity.’ I got the Assembly Hall, there were two observer seats. means that it is a long-term process. It is extremely
to talk about human rights on the stage of the big into the high school team and in two weeks I was in One was the Federal Republic of Germany, which important to keep the personal conviction that it is
auditorium with several hundred students. For three the varsity team. I was the only high school kicker was West Germany—my Germany. The other was possible to find solutions.”
nights he could not sleep because he did not know then who played soccer-style. That was such the German Democratic Republic, which was East Mr. Schaefer has good advice for young people
what to say. When he had been 12 years old, he an experience—I think it made me dare to do Germany. I realized we were not a full member of today. “It is always individual people who change
had played the lead role in a theater production things that I would’ve never dreamt I would be the UN. I said to a friend there that I would love the world—individual people who connect with each
of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince. able to do.” to sit here one day on the seat of Germany being other to build a community of purpose, becoming
From this theater experience he knew he had the a respected member. Ten years later, after I had part of a team. Responsible leadership starts at
courage to speak in front of a group. When he Michael is a bridge builder. He is the kind of bridge finished my law studies, and without really following a young age. Young people can create powerful
was even younger, participating in the Catholic builder that Nelson Mandela described when he this UN avenue, I decided to go into international movements—like Fridays for Future. Join hands to
Boys Organization, he had learned empathy and said, “We are committed to building bridges law. During my dissertation, I was invited for a one- build a community of purpose that will contribute to
responsibility for others. With the influence of these and helping to embrace all of humanity under year internship at the UN in New York, and in 1976, solving the problems the world faces today. Then
one umbrella and move forward in strength and
two experiences, he decided to tell the story of his exactly ten years after I had visited with my class, you will feel that you personally have the power to
greeting on the first day at school and how he felt confidence to a better future.” Michael has spent I was an intern there in the UN Security Council contribute to change.”
his life working to build bridges between people

DR. MICHAEL SCHAEFER DIPLOMATIC DYNAMICS https://icaf.org