Key 20 - AEGEE Europe

The early years:
“We got so much
support”
In the first years of AEGEE's existence, the network grew rapidly.
“It was not so difficult to found an antenna,” remembers
Dorothea Heister-Hovestadt, who started AEGEE-Köln and
AEGEE-Saarbrücken. “Of course, we could not make a promotion
desk and say that we are a network with 17.000 members
in 260 branches. We exaggerated a bit and said we had 10.000
members,” says Dorothea with a smile.
However, the early members didn't often need to exaggerate,
since the message of AEGEE spread easily. “A Europeanminded
organisation that had no national level was something
unique. At that time studying abroad was very bureaucratic,
so we were offering a great way to get to know Europe,
to be European. AEGEE-Europe became a major actor in
setting up the Erasmus programme.”
In Germany, support was also given by student councils, who
offered their rooms and resources, and from university rectors.
In the Netherlands, strong student associations supported
AEGEE – in some antennae the existing associations even
had a statutory right to seats in the board of an AEGEE
branch. “In Saarbrücken, our university president was very
enthusiastic about AEGEE. Once we went to his office to
ask for support, and just after entering the room he said:
where can I sign?”, recalls Dorothea.
AEGEE-Saarbrücken was given an office and use of university
facilities for free. “On the second day of our first
congress Tele-Communicating for Europe in 1989, the
university president improvised a reception, personally
serving us food.” Businesses also supported AEGEE in
great style, according to AEGEE alumnus Dirk Berndsen.
“For one event in Berlin in the 80’s we were lent
ten BMW for the weekend.”
Whenever AEGEE was founded in one place, it usually
did not take long for a new antenna to start in a neighbouring
university city. “A lot of events were then coorganised
by several nearby antennae,” says Dorothea.
The network was also spreading with the help of
friends – and relatives. The Heister family is the most
prominent example in the history of AEGEE. “Three
of my siblings and I were active in AEGEE, and we all
founded antennae,” says Dorothea. Her sister Ursula
established a local in Aachen, her sister Elisabeth
started two in Bonn and Freiburg, and her brother
20th Anniversary
The idea: students for European integration
Johannes, who was general secretary and vice president
of AEGEE-Europe between 1986 and 1988,
founded his own antenna in Kiel.
AEGEE's early development was not very structured.
“In the early years, there was no strategy of trying to
develop AEGEE in specific parts of the network,” says
Dorothea. However, even at this early stage, “regional
responsibles” in the CD were looking after specific parts
of the network – an ever-growing task that was handled
full-time by the Network Commission after 1996.
Although founded in Paris, AEGEE was never really
strong in France. “There were a lot of antennae, that’s
true. However, in many cases these were just one or two
people. That was enough to get into the address book as
an antenna,” explains Dorothea. “In that time the rules
were less strict than today”. She blames the demanding system
of study in France for AEGEE's failure to become
deeply rooted. Only in Paris was AEGEE ever really strong,
thanks to the Grandes Ecoles. “In Paris there were even subantennae
at the different universities,” adds Dirk Berndsen.
Dorothea is afraid that the new bachelor/masters system
now developing across Europe will be bad for AEGEE.
“People will study faster – so they will have less time for
AEGEE. In this respect, we were really lucky to have created
AEGEE in a different time”. Gunnar Erth
Agora Leiden, 1987.
Photo: Portalier
The eye of AEGEE
Philippe Portalier became known as the photographic eye of AEGEE’s early
years. He discovered EGEE in January 1986 in Leiden, during the first simultaneous
seminars “Europe-Students”. As delegate from EGEE-Paris, he participated
in the first Agora at EGEE II in Munich in April 1986. He became
President of EGEE-Paris from June 1986 to June 1987 and led the organisation
of two local events. The first one was "Les premières rencontres de la
pharmacie européenne" in 1986, the other was named "Le marketing politique
en Europe" in 1987. The talented photographer participated in the
European Parliament elections as candidate on the list of IDE in 1989.
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