In the high schools (gymnasia) in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the 12th class have an option of a "Seminarcourse". The pupils should work independently on a given subject, supervised by teachers and supported by seniors. The independent work should serve as preparation for learning at the University and in the inter-generative cooperation with the teachers and "grandparents" teamwork should be learned.

And so in the year 2001, 4 pupils (3 young ladies and 1 young man), selected as their subject: Giengen-Sachsenhausen, a village on the East Alb changes

Traces of the first settlers in the South of Sachsenhausen go back to 5500 BC. The first official mention of the village was in 1143 AD, when it was mentioned in connection with the construction of the Anhausen Monastery. In 1972, Sachsenhausen was allocated to the municipality of the town Giengen. In 1945, Sachsenhausen had with its 315 persons the highest number of inhabitants. The inhabitants were originally farmers, today, in 2002, there are still 6 families with farming as their main source of income and 4 part-time farmers, who have other professions as their source of income. In spite of this, Sachsenhausen had maintained its rural atmosphere and became by no means a ghost-town.

The 4 pupils were active in the seminar not only as hobby-historians researching mainly changes of the last 50-60 years, but have specialised their work in 4 focus points and documented their findings with the aid of the new multimedia technology. Communication between the pupils and seniors took place via e-mail.

• The Role of the Farmer
• Associations
• Agriculture
• Land consolidation

Each of the pupils worked independently on one subject, discussed the work with the other pupils, teachers and seniors in plenum and supplemented the texts with pictures and digital film documents. And so with the help of the modern technology a bridge was built between the generations.

Sometimes, there was a possibility to see the original documents in the town archives and interviews were made with the residents of Sachsenhausen. There were also meetings with the Sachsenhausen groups and much more.

The work was followed with interest by the Heidenheimer Zeitung (local newspaper), who published detailed reports.

On the 21st of January 2002, a CD-ROM from the project was officially presented to the lord mayor of Giengen.

We, the seniors of the Senior Academy Heidenheim have participated with great enthusiasm, have especially welcomed the inter-generational work and have found some new friends amongst the pupils.