The Legal Structure of the Fachhochschule

Good relations are just as valuable as cash in the hand!
 
A competent higher education institute requires a competent legal structure.
So far, this sounds all very abstract and obvious.

In the case of state institutes of higher education, the state plays the role of guarantor, and in the case of church affiliated higher education institutes, the respective regional church, or foundation belonging that church, provides necessary resources and acts as the legal body. Legal organisations are responsible for supporting higher education institutes, and may be societies, foundations or limited companies which provide the necessary finance.

In Ottersberg things function differently.

For quite some time, the previous legal form was a society, namely the Hochschulverein Ottersberg für das soziale Wirken der Kunst e.V., however it assumed this function more or less only on the paper. The exception was the executive committee of the society which acted as governing board and council. It was, therefore, necessary to create a more advantageous legal form which would be particularly beneficial both for the education in general as well as for the students and/or graduates.

The previous society executive committee, Principals and Chief Administrator proposed a non-profit limited company, with institutions, employers and individuals as shareholders.
 
The shareholder’s role was to:
- provide further openings in the fields of art therapy and art pedagogy
- foster work placement programmes and employment
- ensure continuing contacts to specialists
- input even more practice-related experience into the courses offered at the Fachhochschule
 Ottersberg.

The focus was not on money, but rather on networking, mutual consultation and cooperation on artistic projects.

The majority of Ottersberg graduates are employed in hospitals and the health service as well as in the social services which encompass a wide range of activities such as care of handicapped persons and aged people, child and youth work, assistance for drug addicts, prison work, schools and education, and cooperation with doctors on a freelance basis – for more details, see the evaluation the graduate survey from the year 2001.

The concept of a higher education limited company model certainly attracted attention, and the following persons and organisations were obtained as the new shareholders, each representing a particular specialist field:
- Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke, hospitals
- Berneburg - Stiftung, Hannover
- Blaumeier Atelier e.V., painting, theatre, music, masks
- Dr. Albrecht Warning, - central hospital Essen, geriatric medicine
- Bremer Heimstiftung, aged care
- Barbara Narr, Altenwohnstift Lindenriek/Großburgwedel, aged care
- Pädagogisch-Soziales Zentrum Dortmund, youth, aged, handicapped care/pedagogy
- Gallery Kathrin Rabus Bremen, gallery for arts and science
- Kulturbahnhof Bremen-Vegesack, socio-culture
- Elmar Lampson, Dean of the University of Witten-Herdecke, science
- Lebens- und Werkgemeinschaft Dalle/Celle, curative education
- Markus Vahlefeld, Taunus-Filmpoduktionsges., Wiesbaden, performing arts projects/public
 relations work
- Dr. Ulrich Kaiser, Waldorfschule HH-Farmsen, pedagogy
- Siegfried Neumann, Celle, solicitor and notary public
- Hayka Winkelmann, graduate, Göttingen, responsible for the alumni
 
Twelve previous society members involved in transforming the society into a non-profit limited company have also become shareholders, so that currently the company comprises a total of 28 shareholders. The shareholders were not required to invest any share capital; instead they act as trustees of the share capital. In the meantime, the new executive board, mainly comprising representatives of the shareholders, has taken up its duties. The chief executive officer of the new company is Albrecht Lampe, Head of Administration of the Fachhochschule Ottersberg.
 
The first projects involving cooperation have already been initiated.

The Kulturbahnhof Bremen-Vegesack is conducting the planning work for the theatre project “Little Nemo” in Bremen together with the Fachhochschule’s drama department and students of sculpture.

In March this year, a group Ottersberg graduates, including the shareholder Barbara Narr, organised a symposium titled “Kunsttherapie mit Demenzerkrankten” (art therapy with people suffering from dementia).

A previous society member and new shareholder, Horst Schaffarzyk – Diakonisches Werk Friedehorst/Bremen, is currently responsible, together with other graduates, for advising the Fachhochschule on matters relating to the financing of a professorship for “Artistic Co-operation with Handicapped Persons”.

This is our concept. After all, money is not the be-all and end-all.
 
Albrecht Lampe (Head of Administration)