From 2008 to 2013, the “ErzählZeit” project was developed under the umbrella of the Erzählkunst e.V. association. Since 2014, it has been continued by the FabulaDrama e.V. association. Numerous members of Erzählkunst e.V. continue to work as professional storytellers in the Berlin project.

The core of the long-term offers of ErzählZeit in primary schools and day-care centres is the artistic teaching of the German language through free oral storytelling. Professional storytellers, usually trained at the University of the Arts, perform international fairy tales and myths and awaken the children’s and pupils’ curiosity about foreign cultures. Poetic storytelling whets the appetite for language and invites people to continue telling stories.

The projects in the schools and day-care centres, some of which last one or two years, include weekly storytelling sessions. The three-step process of telling – listening – telling on enables the children to expand their own language skills through the intensive experience of stories.

The project builds on the experiences of the pilot project “Speechless? A project to promote the language skills of migrant children” (awarded the special prize in the competition Kinder zum Olymp“). Here, oral storytelling was able to promote the language and storytelling skills of primary school children with extraordinary success.

In 2011/12, ErzählZeit was awarded a prize in the competition ‘Ideas for the Education Republic’ because it fulfilled the criteria of educational equity, partnership and close networking, exemplary character and sustainability to a special degree.

Since 2012, ErzählZeit has been institutionally funded by the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Science.

In 2011, the project was extensively evaluated by the Institute for Practice Research and Project Consulting Munich. The evaluation report emphasises the following results:

Storytelling shows a broad and sustainable impact profile

Storytelling supports intercultural education

Storytelling has integrative power

Read more in the Dokumentation ErzählZeit  Since then, ErzählZeit has continuously expanded its basic concept: through library events, ErzählZeit in the yurt, festival days, as well as encounters with other forms of artistic expression in project weeks.
More at www.erzaehlzeit.de