Frithjof Bergmann - founder of New Work - in his last interview before his death on 23rd of may this year: On crises in the car industry and ideas for good "new" work

David Helmboldt, Frithjof Bergmann's friend, informed me on 24 May
that our next meeting via video call could not take place because
Frithjof had just passed away. It's a bit unreal because I've never
shaken his hand before, but - again, it's important for me to say -
I felt a closeness with both Frithjof and David that rarely but
always happens when we meet like-minded people on a mission that is
perhaps the hardest: to change the world for the better for all.
Not just for those in power and money who are more interested in
preserving the current system, but for those who are always abused
by the elite as an excuse to do nothing. Those who knew Frithjof
know how important the human factor was to him in his working life.
How angry it made him that his concept of New Labour was turned
into a hollow phrase by too many. All the more I feel the
responsibility to carry on his legacy and ask people: "What do you
really want to do?" RIP my friend - I cannot put into words how
proud it makes me that you chose me to talk to you. Frithjof was
very aware of what was happening in Germany, he asked me if we were
afraid of poverty and job loss - as we have been for some time in
the US - because we need systemic change. We haven't managed to
make that change, but Frithjof thought it was still possible. He
first established his idea of New Work in the 1980s because of the
beginning crisis of the car manufacturers in the USA. He therefore
founded the Center for New Work in Flint in 1981 and developed a
series of proposals about work as a vocation and as a means of
self-fulfilment, alternating with regular employment and
incorporating self-sufficiency made possible by technology itself.
He has never ceased to be a thought leader for a human-centred
world - starting with "New Work" as a genuine rethinking of the
freedom of each of us. By shifting the focus from the outside to
the inside of the human being, Frithjof shows how freedom can
become a reality in self-development, in parenting, in education
and in shaping a society that stimulates the self rather than
destroying it or making it still and dead. He reminds us that the
"job system" for organising work is only about 200 years old -
since the Industrial Revolution. It has always been problematic and
is now on the verge of collapse, and what comes after, for better
or worse, depends on the decisions made and executed in the current
time. The present time is very similar to the time of his first
approach to change labour. Anticipating the looming catastrophe,
Frithjof Bergmann began to design alternatives to the system of
work - and he is still at it. He began by promoting dialogue about
mitigating the effects of layoffs in times of recession among the
workforce in the car industry and in the community, which is very
familiar to what he is seeing now in Germany. New Work, New Culture
recounts the evolution of his ideas and describes a path that
humanity could follow so that everyone can live a better life. He
reminds us, that the "job system" for organizing work is only
around 200 years old - since the industrial revolution. Always
problematic, it now approaches collapse, and what follows, either
for good or ill, depends on decisions made and executed in current
times. The times right now are very much alike to the times of his
first approach of changing work. Prescient of the looming disaster,
Frithjof Bergmann began to devise alternatives to the job system -
and he is still on it. He started with the fostering of dialogue,
about ameliorating the impacts of layoffs in times of recession,
among the workforce in the auto industry and community, which is
very familiar to what he sees now in Germany. New Work, New Culture
recounts the development of his ideas, and describes one course
which humanity might follow, that all might live better lives. He
is inviting leaders from automotive industry, to rethink work and
come out of the crisis better and stronger - and rehumanized.