– The Abyss Advent Calendar opens doors every day that would otherwise remain closed. In the 12th episode we take a look behind the scenes at the Nuremberg Verein Treffpunkt. Young people are there for anti-aggression training.
Many people are probably familiar with the hot seat. Someone sits on a chair in the middle of a group. The situation is getting tricky. The person in the middle is provoked and abused with expressions. So-called anti-aggression training is often portrayed in film and television in a similar way. It's not uncommon for fights to break out when the person being provoked simply can't take it anymore.
But does this representation correspond to reality? Is this really how these units work?
For our Advent calendar of the true crime podcast “Abysses,” we look behind an otherwise closed door every day in 24 episodes. In the current episode we take a look behind the door of the Nuremberg club Treffpunkt. There, in the Eberhardshof district, social training courses on the subject of conflict take place and this name alone suggests that these offers have little to do with the anti-aggression training that we sometimes know from films.
Michael Nitsch and Sylvia Vogt, both department heads at the Treffpunkt association, explain how these courses work, why aggression doesn't have to be a bad thing and how successful the offers are.
Young people in anti-aggression training: “Nobody wants to live in delinquency in the long term”
A main group of participants are young people who have started a crime. They usually come because they have to, namely on the basis of a court order. Then the ice must first be broken with the young people and their own motivation must arise. Ultimately, as Michael Nitsch emphasizes, everyone has an interest in changing their life for the better: “Nobody wants to live in delinquency in the long term. That means incredible stress for people.”
Sometimes the young people carry a pretty big package that they share with social educators like Nitsch and Vogt. “The young people then open up. And you learn very, very much. Sometimes even so much that you start nibbling on it yourself,” says Nitsch.
Day after day, otherwise closed doors are opened in the Abyss Advent Calendar. The 12th episode of the series is now available wherever podcasts are available.
