Maksimilijan Konstantinovic has fought a lot in his life. With bullying at school, with the German language, with his weight. Born in Serbia, he fled to the Czech Republic with his family as a child, and ten years later they moved to Germany. “It was difficult to find my way,” says the 23-year-old. People who believed in him helped him – during his school days and afterwards. Which encouraged the nanny to also do the training to become an educator. Konstantinovic has learned: You can always achieve something in life, even if it doesn’t look like it. He wants to pass on this message – especially now, when concerns are growing among many young people.
The war in Ukraine, the high prices in supermarkets, the energy crisis – and Corona is still there. All this puts a strain on young people and increases their worries about the future. Especially for those who don’t have much anyway. Whose families have little money at their disposal, who may even be poor. Who ended up in middle school because the grade point average was not good enough for another school. And who get little support from their parents in everyday life – for whatever reason.
Some of these young people came to the Mathäser cinema on Friday, a total of 700 high school students from seven Munich schools. They are 14, 15 or 16 years old and they came to the cinema with their teachers because the non-profit company “Dein München” invited them to present the “No Limits” program. “Your Munich” has been around since 2014, and says it has already reached 8,200 children and young people with its offers. “No Limits” is intended to help young people to recognize their potential, to develop their own personality, to gain courage for life out there.
Maksimilijan Konstantinovic had to struggle a lot as a youngster. Now he is a role model for others.
(Photo: Ann-Katrin Lang/Portraits of Munich)
Maksimilijan Konstantinovic can also be seen in a video that will be shown in the cinema. At workshops from “Dein München” he learned that you have to value yourself in order to create something. Konstantinovic used to go to middle school on Simmernstrasse. He hardly spoke German, but signed up for the workshop anyway. “Slowly I found out that I’m not as bad as I was always told,” he says. “I have become very courageous through my experiences.” Nobody bullies him anymore.
Ejona and Hamide sit in the audience. They too are former participants – and now ambassadors for the program. “It’s not like at school, where someone stands in front and you think to yourself: When will he finally stop talking,” they explain to the other young people. Actually, she only signed up at the time to be able to go away for a few days, admits Hamide. And in the end it was “really fun”.
There are various programs and projects at the Munich schools, for example by the Society Makes School Foundation or the city’s KIDS project. “Your Munich” is also funded by the city. Since January 2022 there has been the so-called Munich master plan “Young people out of the pandemic” with many small measures in schools, with excursions and workshops. Or, as at the Carl von Linde secondary school, a project on healthy eating or information evenings on media behavior.
The master plan is worth 2.347 million euros, which is used to finance measures in day-care centers and schools. Particularly disadvantaged children and young people should be supported, because as a result of the restrictions during the pandemic, there are learning and development deficits in them in particular. The measures are intended to enable social participation – and nothing less than “secure social peace in Munich”, as stated in a press release from January.
A girl tells us in the cinema foyer that she senses in her family that money is tight – and that heating is expensive. The apartment is colder than last year, she reports. And that her mother thought it would be best if they didn’t heat the room at all and instead left their jackets on. A student says that the 50 euros that his teacher gave him to cook together at school were not enough for the purchase for the first time recently. Another says the croissant he buys every day no longer costs 99 cents, but 1.39 euros. A second girl thinks that her parents now look much more closely to see if what she wants to buy is really necessary.
Children feel the increasing pressure in families
“For many young people it is difficult at the moment to keep hope,” says Rebecca Gutwald, project manager at “Dein München”. Even if some families don’t talk much about existential, economic worries – the children feel the pressure and that weighs on them.
For the past three years, Gutwald has been accompanying students at the middle school on Leipziger Strasse on their way. She looks after the youth ambassadors and she senses the concerns of the young people, hears how negatively they view the world around them. “The years with Corona were difficult,” says Gutwald. “Then everyone briefly hoped things would get better, and then came the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis.”
The worries weigh heavily: Will I have a good life? What else can I afford? After all the school closures and distance learning, can I still graduate from high school? Will the war come to us? “Young people are often accused of being apolitical and uninterested,” says Gutwald. “However, many of our young people are very close to the issues, for example because they take on a lot of responsibility in their families very early on and thus gain insights. They translate for their parents and help them pay the bills.”
Mental health is under attack for many. “We are also looking for advice in the therapeutic area in order to understand: is it puberty, is it the difficult life situation or is it already depression?” The children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are particularly burdened, and there are still many teachers missing at the secondary schools. “Young people also notice that in the atmosphere in the schools,” says Gutwald.
It’s lunchtime, the program is over, the students leave the cinema. The youth ambassadors are in the foyer and hand out registration forms for the workshops. Some address the workshop leader, the graffiti artist, the kickboxer, the skateboarder who just introduced themselves on stage.
Gutwald also introduced himself. From November onwards, she will again accompany a group of 15 young people for a period of eight months, some of them perhaps even longer in individual coaching. Probably some of them will also meet Maksimilijan Konstantinovic. He is a role model, says Gutwald. “He fought his way through in many places, received support from us and did a lot himself.” Young people often want to know how he did it. Konstantinovic tells them. And is proud that it is now he who helps others.