{"id":255099,"date":"2026-07-09T12:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socius.de\/?p=255099"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:42:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:42:25","slug":"a-language-for-what-is-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socius.de\/en\/resilienz-b\/sprache-fuer-das-was-verloren-geht\/","title":{"rendered":"Words for what is lost"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We met up for the SOCIUS workshop on collective grief as early as the beginning of June. Nathalie Rajevi\u0107\u00a0<\/b>and I were surprised and delighted by the response to our invitation; the reaction we\u2019re used to is: \u201cThat\u2019s a really important topic, it\u2019s great that you\u2019re organising this\u201d \u2013 and then perhaps three to five people actually take the time to accept the invitation. This time it was different: a week beforehand, we already had eight registrations, all from people we didn\u2019t know \u2013 people who really wanted to come because of the topic. By 4 June itself, we were fully booked, and one guest even turned up unannounced; naturally, we had a chair for her in our circle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I had invited Nathalie to this laboratory because last autumn she went on a two-month study trip that took her to Canada and Spain, where she was researching how collective grief is dealt with and wanted to take a fresh look at how we deal with it here in Germany from a distance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Combined with my new work in Global Social Witnessing, this quickly gave rise to the idea for a SOCIUS lab.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We began the afternoon with the question:<\/span> What brought you here today? What hope? What longing?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The responses moved us deeply: \u201cGrief is something intimate and painful; opening up to the collective takes courage\u201d \u2013 \u201cGrief is so personal, and urgently requires the involvement of the body when the ability to speak is limited\u201d - \u201cOur project is coming to an end; funding has been withdrawn, and everything we\u2019ve built up \u2013 including our relationships \u2013 will fall apart. Our manager recommended we come here because she thought this would also help us through the grieving process we\u2019re going through.\u201d - \u201cNurseries that are members of the association are closing down without a fuss because there are fewer and fewer children, and parents no longer have the capacity to get involved.\u201d - \u201cI do my job to ensure there are spaces where people are allowed to grapple with difficult emotions. For over 100 years, grief in Germany has primarily been a neglected issue that permeates society and families.\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What a start!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We then turned our attention to <\/span>Breakages and losses<\/b> and Nathalie shared her insights:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We talk a lot about transformation, about change, new beginnings and reorientation. Yet we often forget to talk about what is lost in the process; often, we don\u2019t even have the words to describe it. <\/span>
<\/span>In a civil society that is currently under considerable pressure, it is not grief itself that is lacking, but rather the permission to call it by its name.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nathalie introduced us to words, terms and concepts that are essential when dealing with collective grief:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n