SRH Berufsbildungswerk Neckargemünd (also known as Reha Zentrum)
Basically, a business/trade school, which I did attend from 1993 to 1997.
This is about MY personal experiences
I want to share the experiences, lessons, and overall vibe of my time back then.
Some perceived it as mellow or even negative, leading to complaints without recognizing the potential it held.
I do however not share this feelings towards this place, looking back,
those years were transformative and remain the best of my life, for which I am truly grateful.
Some of the details provided here may be different now, due to the passing of time and the fact that i’m writing this 20+ years after being there for the last time.
Back then, this was a different place, the real estate hasn’t changed much, but the business certainly has.
I have no interest in addressing these changes, besides the social impacts and the shift of society as a whole during that time.
My time there had a dual purpose.
First, my previous career in automotive engineering came to a sudden halt due to a serious skin condition (which i still have today) that made me sensitive to humidity changes and certain materials, including oils. I also suffered from severe allergies to scents, making even public transportation a challenge if someone was wearing cologne.
The second reason was my family’s disintegration. The BBW provided me with a personal escape, a solution for me and for the people I left behind. While this may sound harsh, I never attempted to reconnect with my father’s new family, and neither did they, not regretting any of that turning this into a win-win situation; they were able to move on, and I was free to truly embark on my own life journey.
The Location
First of all, this place is MASSIVE!
The picture below doesn’t even begin to outline how this place truly functions as a “Town in a Town.” During my time there, everything you could imagine was available, from housing and entertainment to sports and highly professional healthcare services, including a fully functional hospital.
The complex is embedded in the hill, with only about 70% of the structure visible in the photo, as the rest is semi-underground. Most buildings are connected through hallways on the 4th floor, making “Level 4” the main floor and the heart of the Reha universe.
As a example, i did live in Building 10 on Level 10 while the cafeteria was on Level 4 in Building 1, so all i had to do to get there, is walk out of my room, get the elevator to level 4, walk about 100 meter on that level crossing over/trough 4 other buildings and there we are, in other words, “you never really had to leave this place unless you had to for other reasons” me being a introvert had literally zero problems with that. i even spend the holidays there with a very small group of people consolidated in a single level during that time, it was called the “ferien-wohn-gruppe” where the handful of people stay during holidays where eveyone else left to go back home, i did enjoy being in this place, even during those times where it kinda turned into a ghost town.
Education
I first did “Berufsfindung” wich was pointless in terms of educational value, but provided myself a way to get into the envioment faster, wich was a overall positive, in addition of that, when the actual education started, i already knew the majority of things to know, which made the start pretty easy.
After receiving my diploma, I realized that the experience was never just about fulfilling a requirement. The practical components felt truly immersive, serving as a “hands-on” opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge I had gained in my classes, making it all the more valuable.
People
Many individuals have profoundly influenced my personal growth. Reflecting on experiences from over twenty years ago, I recognize that some may no longer be with us, while others’ names escape my memory. One teacher, a seasoned professional, boldly stated he would learn little from us, which sparked a mix of frustrations and motivation in my classmates. While this approach unsettled many, a few of us embraced the challenge, eager to prove him wrong. I suspect this was his intention all along! His method transformed what could have been a dull physics course into a thrilling pursuit of knowledge, and though I can’t recall his name, I remain deeply grateful for the impact he had on my learning experience.
Another example in the practical field for me was “Mr Prinz” his way of letting things flow naturally gave me/us ways to discover things by ourselfs, and let us test things learned before on a theoretical level, let us close the cycle in some or another way, a specific memory i had was power calculation for transformers, wich i had some issues with personally, so we went down, and actually made the transformers we calculated earlier, moved elements around and physically saw the effects those changes had. we were still in sporadic contact even years after i left.
Noteworthy on the Social end was Aphroditi and Otto, both were Social workers on the same Floor, and had a very positive impact on me personally, provided wisdom and a person of contact at the same time.
basically did part on providing even parental tasks while being our friends as well.
Additionally i developed a good connection to the “Freizeit Management” (i can’t remember the proper name, neither the name of the Manager that did give me the reign, even iam very grateful about this happend and the trust given to me) it went as far as having permanent access to a number of locations, including the “Club Line” the “Mediathek” and a few others. which i never broke and did my best to “manage things to the best of my abilities” this led to me learning to understand how trust and responsibilities actually work. and led to me going independent shortly after my first and only employment after completing my time in the BBW. until this day i remember times that provided key insights to things i still do today.
At its core, my experience interacting with others was incredibly positive. Yes, there were a few difficult people, but they were few and far between,
just a handful compared to the hundreds of employees I had the pleasure of interacting with.
Living
The institution had multiple buildings dedicated to living, where the whole floor was designed like a community, with single and multi rooms, common spaces, kitchen, balkony and so on. basically you walk out of the elevator straight into the common area, greatly added to the connectivity and the general vibe that you never really leave the place, regardless of where you are and what you are doing.
of course, we being moreless still teenagers added our own “flairs”
Money
This is one of the stranger parts as i work with money (as a commodity) for the majority of my life, but for some reason, i can not recall how money worked in this place, it was never a key position, sure there was no money coming from relatives, and the tuition itself was paid by the “Arbeitsamt”, i’m not entirely sure if there was some petty cash granted or not, the bottom line here is, that the experience did not leave a financial taste with it. wich is a good thing, nevertheless i really would like to know how this did work back then.
Lessons to bring home
Indirect Trust / Paying it forward
as a example, i had a 1-1 Key which essentially allowed me to unlock any and all doors within the whole BBW, this key was not really given to me officially, i can’t even recall the circumstances how i got it, i’m quite sure this was a accident that never got corrected. but i never abused this privileges in any way, i do remember a moment while i was accessing a service area with a few peoples in preparation for a upcomming event i helped to organise, one of the persons that was with me helping noticed that i used a single key to open all those doors we went trough to get to the place we are supposed to go, i just washed that off by saying somethings like “its a service key so we can get the stuff to the target location faster” somethings like that, that was a powerful moment, as at this point had this key for at least a year already, i even used it to get into my own room at the time. it tought me to cheerish permissions given and respect other peoples, privacy and other things.
In January 2019 i wrote a manual for new Staff members of a Non-profit organisation i manage writing somethings like “having access does not permit theft” or somethings like that, making it clear that the status the people gain will grant them certain permissions, and made them remember not to abuse them, this led me to remember this privilege i had back then, even i did not really officially gained it, this was a clear accident, sure i did somethings wrong by not correcting this, somethigs i would not do again today, but i was a teenager at the time and the power to be able to unlock any door was massive, and cheering the responsibilities that came with it made me understand certain things.
I returned the key when i left the BBW also “by accident” as well, adding it to a bunch of other Keys returned so it will get sorted in properly, in the process of leaving, returning it back into the place it belong.
Until today i tend to use the position i’m in for good, in some scenarios i simply expect a certain set of permissions to be granted, not for the sake of control but for the sake of “getting things done” with as little as possible stones in the way. i’m still practicing this today in my personal and professional life (of course there are some limitations to this, as society has dramatically changed since then) plus i had some VERY expensive pitfalls (one of those actually bankrupted one of the companies i created) still overall the way of doing certain things in a non-stickler kind of way do smooth things down, making things progress faster and lets you as a person in charge quickly see how people are really wired. so overall no regrets.
Future
In reflection to my gratitude to the services provided, the unforgettable time i had, i do feel a strong need to give back, i even would seriously consider a honorary assignment (without compensation) just for the chance to be able to go back to the place that gave me so much, share the wisdom i have gathered in the decades that came after it.
Thank you.
Footnotes
- i’m quite sure not recalling eveythig in great detail and sure left out some key informations or even peoples, this is not intended, and only caused due the large amount of time that has passed, the lack of digital documentaries
(as a mishap when i moved to asia caused me to lose almost everything digital i left behind) - Iam pretty bad in maintaining personal relationships, as a result i have lost most contacts to people i know and loved in that time, this is also not intended. i’m still working on this personal treat of mine.
- most images were provided by Mario Möller (a good friend of mine and comrade in the BBW in 1996)