Annette Ullrich has been working at the Foundation wannseeFORUM since 2007 as a program manager in the department New Media. In this function she is also part of the nationwide program “Education for Democratic Citizenship with Young People” of the Association of German Educational Organizations (AdB). Together with colleagues from other youth centers Annette Ullrich develops new approaches in the expert group “Digital Media and Democracy” to shape the present and future of digitalization through youth education.

After studying to be a teacher for German and art education, she worked as an assistant teacher in a vocational secondary school in Apulia/Italy. Afterwards she quickly moved into the field of non-formal education. She worked as a research assistant in the program “Learning Culture Competence Development” (ABWF/QUEM). Among other things, the program dealt with non-formal learning in the context of community work, regional and urban development.

Her current work place, the Foundation wannseeFORUM, was founded after World War II by the American military government as a re-education center. In 2019, the Foundation wannseeFORUM  and its team became the first educational institution in the German-speaking world to be awarded the Council of Europe’s Quality Label for Youth Centres (CoE). The label is associated with a European network with the focus on human rights education (HRE).

The current issues Annette Ullrich is working on are digital sovereignty, algorithms and human rights, media systems, debate culture and digital participation. She is very interested in methods and tools for identity formation and for non-verbal forms of expression for different narratives such as photography. The examination of media through one’s own media production is an exciting approach in the Foundation wannseeFORUM to accompany young people on their way to become responsible co-creators of today’s and tomorrow’s smart society.