So that's the end of my journey: I'm standing on a flight of stairs in the middle of nowhere in Kassel, surrounded by green meadows.

To find this quirky place, I followed a blue line on the ground across Kassel, then up the stairs and now I'm looking down.

The goal of the exercise?

Broadening horizons!

A friend recently told me about the walk science from Kassel and I was immediately all ears.

Thanks to Corona boredom, I am a master at walking.

Why not look at the whole thing from a scientific perspective?

In addition, there are no lectures in the summer and that means: finally having the time to deal with things other than the narrow limits of your own subject.

Apart from the hunt for credit points and awesome internships, studying means just that: learning for the sake of learning.

It is by no means useless.

Ideas and impulses emerge from which everyone can benefit.

Educated minds can find answers to the questions and problems of our complex present.

Getting smart takes time.

Students should get it.

My old mantra.

No sooner said than done: I'm going to Kassel to explore the science of walking.

Walk science is an example of why university thinking is worthwhile.

And it is an example of sophisticated self-marketing, because unfortunately it has little to do with walking.

The title is catchy, attracts attention and leads you on the wrong track.

Once there, you realize what the discipline is all about.

This in turn has something to do with the walker itself and is not so bad.

Promenadology is to be understood as a school of perception - especially for urban planning.

She tries to think of urban planning from the smallest unit: the pedestrian.

She reflects on the role of the individual in his environment.

Something that works from the side

Why do our cities look the way they do?

How can pedestrians and drivers coexist peacefully?

And why is landscape actually beautiful?

The discipline deals with such questions.

In order to find answers, walk science also uses artistic methods.

It was founded by the sociologist Lucius Burckhardt and his wife Annemarie in the 1970s.

Burckhardt went for a walk with his Kassel students and then had them paint their perceptions with watercolours.

He also strolled through Kassel with a windshield in hand to show the dominance of the car in the city.

You can think of that as terrible nonsense and condemn it as a waste of public money, but you can also be inspired by the questions and the approach.

The place where we live affects us all.

And it's no secret that art, with its peculiar perception, promotes knowledge.

It is important to emphasize that Promenadology has never seen itself as a subject in its own right, and there is no chair for it.

Its founder Lucius Burckhardt called it a "minor subject" - something that works from the side.

With her ideas, she wants to inspire people in their thoughts and actions.

Since the death of Lucius Burckhardt, Martin Schmitz has taken care of the young discipline.

Now a professor in Kassel himself, Schmitz was once a student at Burckhardt.

Schmitz publishes books on the subject, takes care of translations, gives lectures and organizes promenadology seminars that are attended by students from various subjects.

With all that he has plenty of work, says Schmitz, one is interested in promenadology.

Semester break as it should be

Interest is timely.

In view of climate change, increasing population numbers or changing social structures, cities have to reinvent themselves.

Architecture is the reflection of their needs.

But what exactly do they look like?

Of course, promenadology doesn't have a tray with answers at hand, but it can offer a toolbox that can help you get one step closer to the solution.

In Kassel, the founder of Promenadology is a minor celebrity, in front of the university there is Burckhardt-Platz, where students repair their bicycles.

And as part of this year's Documenta fifteen, the artist Markus Ambach created the "Monument to Lucius Burckhardt": the airplane stairs in the meadow.

One of the few German artists at this year's Documenta is creating a staircase for Burckhardt.

I stand on it, look down and ask myself what the point is?

It is clear that without stairs I would not have been able to look at this meadow from above.

And that is exactly what makes the school of perception of promenadology so special.

She wants to offer a different perspective on things that surround us every day and that we take for granted.

Through the viewing platform of the stairs at Kassel Airport, the meadow becomes a kind of painting that we can look at.

In doing so, we start to think.

And as you know, it's always worth it.

As I descend the stairs and stand in the meadow, I tell myself that this is semester break as it should be: a space to think and learn.

Let's see what I'll do for the next vacation.

But now it's time to go back to the university in Mannheim.

With the wide meadow in mind.

Leon Igel

(26 years old) is studying German and Business Administration at the University of Mannheim for a master's degree. He is less concerned with Goethe and more with Christoph Schlingensief.

When that gets too much for him, he drives to his parents' house and chop wood.

Or bake bread.

Thanks to Corona, he can now too.