SAGSE 50th Anniversary 1967-2017

Our goal in Queensland is to send as many students learning German to Germany as we can, at the cheapest cost possible. Since the founding of SAGSE 50 years ago, the Queensland Branch has sent more than 2,500 Queensland and German students to each other’s country. The programs aim to give students an insight into a foreign culture and establish friendships between the two countries. Queensland students, by attending a German school with their host brothers and sisters, improve their knowledge of the German language and experience a German winter and life with a German host family during Christmas and New Year. Likewise, German students improve their English, attending a Queensland school and enjoying beaches and sunshine during a Queensland winter that is more like a German summer. The SAGSE Queensland Inc. exchange is available to students in state and private secondary schools at a very reasonable price, providing students with exchange opportunities irrespective of their socio- economic background. SAGSE Qld is voluntarily operated, today mainly by teachers of German whose enthusiasm for the German language and culture drives their desire to send as many students as possible to Germany on exchange, to experience both first hand. Just as other Australian state branches have the supporting organisations GASS-Germany and the Förderkreis für Australischen-Deutschen und Neuseeländischen Schüleraustausch to help with running the exchange in Germany, SAGSE Qld established its own sub-branches to cope with our large number of exchange students. These were established

In 2000 Linda Mains assumed the presidency of SAGSE Qld and soon was confronted with endless additional bureaucratic requirements to ensure the safety of the students. SAGSE Queensland Inc. operates with approval from Education Queensland, within EQ guidelines, to provide the schooling component free of fees for international students and requires all eligible adults to comply with the Queensland Working with Children (Risk Management & Screening) Act 2000 . Even though, today, students receive numerous other offers from many exchange programs, SAGSE is still considered the top program in Queensland for the unique and most memorable experiences at the lowest costs for German language students. SAGSE Queensland Inc. expresses its gratitude and thanks to the late Detlef Kramer, for his immense contribution to the Society – from being a founding member in Melbourne, to becoming NSW President and, from 1984 until his passing in 2016, serving as SAGSE’s Federal President. Detlef gave great guidance and support to the successful operation of SAGSE in all of its Australian states and New Zealand branches. written by Detlef Sulzer and Linda Mains

Vineyard on the steep hills above the Mosel

River near Bernkastel

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by Jürgen Krone of RWE in Essen and Michael Krüger of the Ministry of Education in Hessen.

Shutterstock.com/Richard Semik