The first lecture of the IUB Children’s University: Why do we have money?

Five minutes before the lecture started, Conrad Naber Lecture Hall was filled by voices and laughter – Nothing special for a university one could argue, except for the fact that the 170 “students” awaiting the lecture were rather young, between 8–13 years old. On February 23, the first of four lectures of the Children's University took place. Two IUB professors, Dr. Anke Hassel, Professor of Sociology and Dr. Wolfgang Pfaffenberger, Professor of Economics tried to answer the question: Why do we have money?

[ Feb 23, 2005]  From the first moment on, Radio Bremen anchor man Andreas Neumann caught the kids attention. Before introducing the professors he asked the children if they knew what a university is. No hesitating at this question: “a university like IUB is a school for grown-ups!”. And what is a professor? Here, answers varied a little: “our neighbour is one“, “someone very educated”, “a teacher”, “someone who does research”.

With the same quick spirit they followed the presentation of the professors. They learned about the different functions of money and that the Federal State Bank of each country rules the amount of money that is in circulation. In the end, Constantin, who had originally brought up the question, was satisfied by the answers provided: “yes, that is okay”. Almost an encomium from a 10 year old!

Due to limited space in the lecture hall, all parents were “sourced out”. Nevertheless they could follow the lecture by a video stream provided in a room next door.

The next Children’s University lecture takes place on March 9. Then, Dr. Klaus Boehnke, Professor of Social Science Methodology and Dr. Chris Welzel, Professor of Political Science will get to the bottom of the question “What is good and what is evil?”.