Meaning of life

Our time, it seems, is increasingly coming apart at the seams, and Hamlet’s famous phrase “The world is out of joint” also reflects our sentiment. In recent years, we have experienced crises of global proportions at relatively short intervals: populism and pandemics, war and inflation, perhaps most notably climate change. How can we build or maintain stability in times of crisis? Who and what helps us when we are out of balance? What can we do ourselves to be crisis-proof – and to make our contribution to crisis management?

The annual conference gathers philosophers, religious scholars, psychologists, artists, authors and presents case studies to discuss fundamental questions of meaning. Central concepts are: development, discipline, stability, creativity, community and consolation.

Here you can download the current flyer as a PDF file

Notice:

Additionally, on the following day – Sunday, March 26 – the workshop “Shaolin – You don’t have to fight to win” with Bernhard Moestl will take place.
Click here for more information.

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Program overview

10:00 AM – Luise Reddemann
The world as an uncertain place

11:15 AM – Jean-Pierre Wils in conversation with Hans-Bernhard Petermann
At home in the provisional

12:30 AM – Lunch break

2:00 PM – Tim Pröse
The day that changed my life

3:15 PM – Bernhard Moestl
Self-determined into the future

4:30 PM – Jonas Grethlein in conversation with Jakob Köllhofer
Life as a struggle, life as a journey

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10:00 AM – Luise Reddemann

The world as an uncertain place
Crises can cause anxiety, even trigger depression. Particularly affected are people with trauma sequelae, who never feel completely safe anyway and are threatened by the loss of their hard-won resources in exceptional situations. In order to be able to accompany these people well through times of crisis, psychotherapy needs more or different “tools of the trade”. In addition to the practical-clinical view, the lecture will also address the question of what we as a society can learn from times of crisis.

Prof. Dr. Luise Reddemann is a neurologist, psychoanalyst and specialist in psychotherapeutic medicine. She has been dealing with trauma sequelae for a good 50 years.

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11:15 AM – Jean-Pierre Wils in conversation with Hans-Bernhard Petermann

At home in the provisional
We should regard the pandemic as an oath of revelation that relentlessly shows us the dead end we have reached,” says Jean-Pierre Wils. The age of bedtime stories is over, he says, and what we need now is a real repositioning. Making the regions stronger again, re-democratizing public goods such as water, food, electricity, health and basic infrastructures can start a change of direction.

Jean-Pierre Wils is professor of cultural theory of morality, with special regard to religion at Radboud University Nijmegen. The conversation is led by philosopher Dr. Hans-Bernhard Petermann, lecturer at the PH Heidelberg.

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2:00 PM – Tim Pröse

The day that changed my life
Strokes of fate, acts of despair, war – how do people cope when they lose everything? And how do they find their way back to themselves from the deepest crisis? Spiegel bestselling author Tim Pröse accompanied people who have overcome incredible things – well-known people like Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Udo Lindenberg, but above all previously unknown people. There is the young woman who jumped off a bridge in her depression and who now wants to encourage people to live. Or the Holocaust survivor who wants to encourage people to really live through each day.

Tim Pröse, born in Essen in 1970, is an author and journalist based in Munich. He was chief reporter at the Münchner Abendzeitung and editor at Focus.

 

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3:15 PM – Bernhard Moestl

Self-determined into the future
For almost three years, the world has been running in crisis mode, and many people feel like they are fighting for their survival. From the perspective of the Shaolin monk, what matters is not so much what happens, but how we react to events. Those who succeed in controlling their thinking can gain control over their decisions, their actions, their emotions, and their success. Moestl uses practical examples to show why constructive thinking has nothing to do with whitewashing and how we can safeguard our thinking against outside influences.

Bernhard Moestl is a multiple bestselling author, speaker and business coach with a focus on consciousness and leadership.

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4:30 PM – Jonas Grethlein in conversation with Jakob Köllhofer

Life as a struggle, life as a journey
The classics of world literature: a treasure trove of works that stand the test of time. Tested by mankind through the ages, they offer us not only knowledge, but also orientation and help in life. Life as a struggle – Iliad – and life as a journey – Odyssey – with these two works, Homer already offered us two possible interpretations of our existence.

Jonas Grethlein is professor of classical philology at the University of Heidelberg. After being diagnosed with cancer, he took an in-depth look at Homer and the fundamental questions of what it means to be human. In conversation with Jakob Köllhofer, for whom classics have accompanied his life from an early age, he talks about orientation and “strength from the canon” in times of crisis.