The commitment of Aktion West-Ost for exchange and youth meetings from Central and Eastern Europe goes back to the history of the association. It was founded by the Catholic youth that had to leave their hometowns as refugees as the result of the Second World War. Now these towns are a part of Poland and the Czech Republic. The understanding and reconciliation has already been important to them back to that time.
The Aktion West-Ost history goes back to the year 1951. Up to that point, Catholic Youth has been forced to leave their homes in the former German Eastern territories and Sudetenland as a result of the Second World War, so these people have organized various associations is Western Germany. These associations used to be a part of "Aktion heimatvertriebener katholischer Jugend“ at Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (BDKJ), which has later been named "Aktion katholischer landsmannschaftlicher Jugend im BDKJ". From the very beginning, reconciliation with the people who have found a new home in the expulsion areas has been the important goal of their work.
The umbrella organization „Aktion West-Ost im BDKJ“ got its name in 1971, when the descendants born in the West continued the work of their parents. It was the time when, thanks to the Eastern treaties, the direct contact with the Polish and the Czechoslovakian and traveling to these countries gradually became possible.
The political idea of the members was not to lose the sight of the people behind the Iron Curtain. That’s why Aktion West-Ost and BDKJ decided to maintain the contacts with the Catholic youth also in GDR. In 1987 it has finally become possible to manage the first official educational trip to a country of the Eastern Block. It was a one-week round trip through Northen Poland accompanied by a woman from the state tourism company all the time.
After the turning point in 1989, the work has been recreated fundamentally and developed into a truly partner work. The four member associations, which are still active, found partner groups, with which regular meetings were organized, in their parents‘ home areas. The German-Polish Youth Office and the German-Czech Youth Exchange tandem coordination center also created several funding institutions that facilitated such meetings. Besides, in 1989, a separate legal entity (Aktion West-Ost e.V.) was founded and moved Aktion West-Ost in Ackermann-Gemeinde headquarters in Munich to the Youth house Düsseldorf (Jugendhaus Düsseldorf) (the headquarters of BDKJ).
In 1997, for the first time, a large trilateral youth meeting took place in Pirna near Dresden, where all the member associations with their Polish and Czech partners participated. Since that time, Aktion West-Ost as an umbrella organization would regularly organize youth exchange programs with Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania and since 2014 – with Russian and Ukrainian partners.
Aktion West-Ost reinforced its experiences and their carriers in the form of usable publications such as „Ashes, Sacrament, and Border Traffic“, a guideline for the exchange with Poland appeared in 1994. In 2007, the Eurobridge as a working guideline for the international youth meetings in German, Polish, and Czech languages appeared. Our well-known Eurogames, a collection of games and methods for the international youth projects, have been available since 2014 with a 5th updated edition.
Celebrating the 50th Aktion West-Ost anniversary in 2001, a supporting association was finally founded aiming to support Aktion West-Ost work and cushion the financial risks.
Our logo im transition
1971 (design Christoph Teschner, Gemeinschaft Junges Ermland)
1995 (design Ulrich Bleckmann, Junge Grafschaft)
2007 (redesign Justyna Marciniak)
