1983 KLARTEXT, Zentrum für Sprache und Kultur e.V. was founded by four women as a non-profit association, who saw this as a way to combine their professional activities as German teachers with the realization of their ideals: self-managed work in a collective, social commitment, high-quality knowledge transfer and teaching according to modern and professional criteria of didactics and methodology.
The following purpose of the association was determined: to “promote education, especially the teaching of languages and culture in the field of adult education”.
These goals of the association were initially implemented in the form of intensive German courses for foreigners in the summer months with an alternative regional studies programme. During the rest of the school year, evening foreign language courses were held for Germans (Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic). The courses took place in two classrooms in the association premises at Schmied-Kochel-Straße 8 in Munich.
1987
It was not until the language association in Mainz approved KLARTEXT as a provider of subsidised German courses for foreign workers in 1987 that a year-round course programme for German as a foreign language was developed, which expanded more and more, so that we rented additional rooms from the Sendlinger Kulturschmiede and the 3. Welt-Café, and in 1990 we moved to new, larger rooms at Heßstraße.
1995
After an economic downturn, the content of the programme was increasingly expanded to include vocational German courses and exam preparation. Foreign language courses were no longer offered due to a lack of demand.
1997
Starting in this year and also in the following years KLARTEXT e.V. was awarded a contract for a measure advertised by the job centre, which consisted primarily in apprenticeship-related assistance (abH) for migrant women, initially for various professions, later only for the hairdressing profession. Thus, the promotion of education was introduced as a new area at KLARTEXT e.V. It was not until 2017 that KLARTEXT said goodbye to this measure, as the implementation conditions had become too unfavourable due to changed tendering modalities.
2002
KLARTEXT started with preparatory courses for the exams that foreign applicants take to gain admission to German universities. This mostly concerned TestDaF and DSH exams.
2003
The association moved to a new, larger and more representative building at Augustenstraße 77, because the premises in Heßstraße were also far from being sufficient.
2005
This was the prerequisite for a major new project: From 2005, the association carried out professional training in an external facility (BaE) in the hairdressing trade on behalf of the job centre and set up its own training salon for this purpose, “Salon Klartext”. Klartext no longer only promoted training, the professional qualification took place in the company’s own premises.
The statutes were changed, the area of professional qualification and integration was added. The name was shortened to “KLARTEXT e.V,”, the addition was expanded to “Centre for Language, Culture, Profession”.
2005 was also an important year for German courses. As part of the new immigration law, state funding for German courses was established and expanded through the introduction of integration courses. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) still manages these courses to this day.
2007
In addition to the general integration courses with normal progression, the support and literacy integration courses were added, which offer the possibility of slow language acquisition and literacy.
KLARTEXT was granted the licence to conduct the language tests of the telc test centre in its own premises and was thus able to ensure that its integration course participants can complete their course with an official language test immediately after completion.
In 2007, KLARTEXT was also granted the contract for work-related German courses financed by the city as part of the Munich Employment and Qualification Programme (MBQ). Initially, these were independent courses; since 2012, individual adults have been integrated into the ongoing German course programme.
2010
KLARTEXT successfully applied for city grants for the implementation of work-related German courses for young refugees, which were also offered as part of the MBQ. The main participants were unaccompanied minor refugees who are not allowed to take part in the integration courses due to their residence status.
2011
KLARTEXT set the course for the approval of other work-oriented language courses: The school was certified in accordance with the Recognition and Admission Ordinance for Continuing Education (AZWV) and carried out German courses for unemployed migrants from 2012 to 2017. The participants redeemed education vouchers from the job centre (Agentur für Arbeit or Jobcenter) or the ARGE as proof of eligibility to participate.
2014
KLARTEXT received a visit from the then Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière, who wanted to get an impression of the progress and success of the integration courses funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The BAMF had suggested KLARTEXT as a contact point for the visit – due to the impressive “power of women”.
2015 & 2016
were two years full of challenges for KLARTEXT. After a large number of refugees reached Munich with the opening of the border in September 2015, a large number, especially young refugees, were accepted into the language courses at KLARTEXT financed by the city of Munich. However, the demand decreased continuously from 2017, so that there are currently no more youth courses.
In 2016, significant developments also took place in the field of work-oriented German courses, as professional language courses administered by the BAMF were introduced as part of the national German language promotion scheme (DeuFöV). KLARTEXT has been approved to conduct these courses and has therefore been able to place more emphasis on the implementation of work-related German courses in recent years. However, the vocational language courses financed through education vouchers from the job centre (Agentur für Arbeit or Jobcenter) expired – the job centre only supports measures for vocational training with a very small proportion of language courses.
2019 & 2020 Since KLARTEXT recently has not had its own measure for external professional training in the hairdressing trade, but only worked as a subcontractor of a bidding consortium with much poorer conditions, and the number of trainees fluctuated greatly and an implementation geared to profitability was hardly possible, the association decided to return this measure to the bidding consortium and focus on the field of German courses.
KLARTEXT is currently expanding its offer to include work-specific German courses, such as specialist language courses for teachers, engineers or health professionals.
At the same time, the school is now offering company partnerships. Companies can book lesson packages and flexibly receive lesson formats tailored to their needs – online, hybrid, blended, on-site – for their employees from all over the world.
By expanding the digitisation of its classrooms with access to the Internet for lecturers and participants, the use of Moodle as a learning platform with an integrated video conference software (BigBlueButton) for online courses and the active training of its teachers in the use of the new digital textbooks from the language publisher Hueber, KLARTEXT stands today for a first-class, state-of-the-art course offer that can be used from locations around the world.