BTU Advent calendar: Door 16

For about 15 years now, the two professors Eike Albrecht and Bachar Ibrahim have been connected not only professionally. The long time friends and their families spend Christmas together.

Prof. Dr. iur. Eike Albrecht, Chair of Public Law, in particular Environmental and Planning Law (with specialization in Civil Law)
Prof. (Univ. Damascus) Dr. agr. Bachar Ibrahim, Chair of Public Law, in particular Environmental and Planning Law (with specialization in Civil Law)

How do you spend Christmas?

Our families usually go together to the monastery church for the Christmas mass. This has been settled for several years now. Afterwards we have dinner at home. With the Albrecht family this is "false salm" (cold roast veal or pork with potato salad, mayonnaise-yoghurt sauce and capers), with the Ibrahim/Nadaf family, since they have been in Germany, they have "Wienerle" with potato salad in addition to Arabic delicacies. Later in the evening we meet to drink one or more glasses of sparkling wine.

Did you get to know each other through work?

We have known each other since 2005/2006, where we met during a project of giz about the introduction of the environmental impact assessment into Syrian environmental law in Damascus. In 2009, we then jointly conducted a DAAD summer school at the University of Damascus; fortunately, the tree planted in the inner courtyard of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at that time is still in existence. Since 2011, the formal cooperation between the University of Damascus and BTU has been in place. Despite all current difficulties, we have both kept it alive with various activities. Since April 2014, Prof. Ibrahim came to BTU via a DAAD-funded guest professorship.

In addition to teaching, we are currently working on two projects: firstly, preparations for a major alumni conference on recycling management, renewable energies, and sustainability at BTU in October 2021 (information about the positive funding decision came today), and secondly, a project within the framework of the dialogue with the Islamic world with the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) on resource efficiency and sustainability.

What does Christmas mean to you?

Christmas is the break between the first and second half of the semester in the winter semester and a wonderful opportunity to take a breather. Usually, Christmas is also the time when you are outdoors more often, either in the snow (now unlikely) or at the Christmas market, which unfortunately is also cancelled this year to our great regret. In addition to the usual things, we would like to see "outgoing" activities become possible again as part of the cooperation with the University of Damascus, because this would mean that the situation in Syria as a whole, and then probably also for the friends and relatives still living there, would have improved considerably. Either way: Merry Christmas!

Eike Albrecht
Bachar Ibrahim

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