in the middle
After graduating from high school, people celebrate – mostly with plenty of alcohol. A veritable party mile for high school graduates has developed in Tübingen. The city now relies on supervised celebrations – with social workers.
The first to come are “the violets”. They sit relaxed on the benches in front of the Tübingen Kepler-Gymnasium, all dressed in purple hoodies. “Abi 23” can be read on it. And: “We make the world how we like it.” The high school graduates brought chocolate cake, beer, champagne and other alcoholic beverages. “Today is the math exam, our friends are about to finish, now we’re going to pick them up and want to celebrate,” says Lara. When the door of the high school opens, the girls jump up, cheering, shouting, chocolate cake surround 18-year-old Jan, who is coming from his math exam. He smiles wearily. He felt as if “an elephant had been taken off my shoulders”. Now he wants to celebrate.
Celebrations in the “Uhland”
In recent years, Tübingen’s Uhlandstraße has developed into a hotspot for graduation ceremonies. Three high schools are located here, others are in the immediate vicinity. In addition, the street is not far from the Tübingen train station, so that high school graduates from the surrounding area are also drawn to the Uhland to celebrate. And plenty of it. “The Violets” don’t stay alone for long. Pupils with blue, black, green hoodies arrived in front of the Kepler-Gymnasium in the afternoon, all with Abi slogans and all wildly determined: to celebrate the end of their own written Abitur exams.
“Now we want to celebrate”: Tübingen’s Uhlandstrasse has developed into a hotspot for graduation ceremonies.
Headmistress Ulrike Schönthal watches the hustle and bustle from a window above the canteen. In the meantime, a jukebox is booming loudly, the young people are dancing exuberantly, and alcohol is flowing. It’s a thorn in her side that all of this is happening in front of her school, and in the middle of the week at that. “It’s not that I have anything against partying, but it’s not the moment yet.” The written exams weren’t even over yet, and yet this party was on every day. That doesn’t go together.
In fact, the school year in Baden-Württemberg is far from over, the oral Abitur exams only start after the Pentecost holidays. Nevertheless, there are celebrations in Tübingen, and after almost every written exam. And not always peaceful. Incidents keep happening, a few days ago two security officers were even injured by a 17-year-old.
School teachers hand out water
The city has therefore developed a concept to keep the drunk revelers in check. Eight school teachers accompany the party, do their rounds and offer water to cure a hangover. They are not allowed to intervene, but there are additional officers from the security service and the police. “The social pedagogues are there because there are sometimes situations in which the young people need a contact person,” says Christine Vollmer, head of the sports and school department in the city of Tübingen. “You can call it supervised celebrations. We say we take accompanying measures because we understand that the students want to celebrate.”
In fact, it’s getting crowded in front of the Kepler-Gymnasium, about 250 high school graduates are dancing and drinking. The bottles are piling up, it smells like cannabis. Susanne Kurz and Raphael Schweizer make their way through the boisterous crowd. “Do you need water?” the school social worker asks a high school senior. He agrees, but please with carbonic acid. The young adults seem happy with the service. Too satisfied? “We social pedagogues also ask ourselves whether it makes sense to support this in this way,” says Susanne Kurz. And her colleague Raphael Schweizer adds: “It’s a fine line to manage not to coddle the high school graduates.”
“We social pedagogues also ask ourselves whether it makes sense to support this in this way,” says Susanne Kurz.
Ripe for the “Abisuff”?
In fact, the question arises as to whether high school graduates who have just passed their so-called matriculation examination shouldn’t be mature enough to party without being watched over. “Yes, yes,” says Leon, beer in hand. “By the age when you graduate from high school, you should actually know your drinking limit.” And his buddy Philip, who came all the way from Mössingen, says: “Uhland has had a reputation for years that 14-year-olds start drinking here. And when it comes to Abisuff, everyone is there.”
The “Abisuff” did not escalate that evening. Just a fight, lots of broken bottles and lots of young people who can no longer make it home on their own. For some, the school social workers organize a pick-up service or call the parents. At the end of the evening, the city will draw a positive balance of its “accompanying measures”. And prepare for further missions. Because high school is far from over.