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ofEast Tinç
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shut down
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Matthias Schulze-Böing, Head of the Job Center and Office for Statistics, Integration and Employment Promotion, is retiring.
Matthias Schulze-Böing reaches into a small box and fishes out a red top. “This is our mascot,” he says, and with one swift movement skillfully turns it onto the large table in the middle of his office. Shortly afterwards, the so-called spinning top jumps onto its thin wooden head and continues to rotate. “They fit in with the way we approach things here,” explains the head of the municipal job center Mainarbeit and the Office for Statistics, Integration and Employment Promotion. Support people well until they help themselves and “stand on their own two feet”.
This principle will continue to apply when Schulze-Böing retires at the end of the year. After 32 years in the service of the city of Offenbach, it’s over, even if the city’s doctorate in political science will be retained “on a small scale”. In what form is not yet clear. In addition, the 66-year-old will accept a teaching position at the University of Fulda. “For me, work was never a burden that I had to recover from,” he says. “It was always a bit of life fulfillment.”
Migration, integration, unemployment and the social situation of the city are really not the easiest issues. “Mr. Schulze-Böing has always taken his role as a clever and prudent consultant and as someone who warns of undesirable developments at an early stage,” says City Councilor Sabine Groß (Greens).
He has published dozens of scientific publications and plans to continue doing so in the future. As the spokesman for the Federal Job Center Network and a member of the EU Committee for Social Affairs and Employment, Schulze-Böing’s expertise and opinion were respected and valued beyond the city of Offenbach. Even if he made himself unpopular with benefit recipients in defending Hartz-IV, he always backed up his statements with facts and figures. “I have always seen myself as an advisor to politics,” says Schulze-Böing, who has worked under the CDU, SPD and Greens.
“In the old social welfare times, Offenbach was at the top with Bremerhaven and Gelsenkirchen across Germany,” says Schulze-Böing. At the turn of the year Offenbach had the lowest level of benefit recipients since the data was available – and that with a rapidly growing population. “But we are still a city that has more problems than others,” says Schulze-Böing, who was born north of Idstein in the Taunus.
He studied sociology, economics and philosophy in Frankfurt and worked as a research assistant in Marburg and Osnabrück before he started as head of the employment promotion department in Offenbach in 1988. In 1995 he became head of the city’s office for employment promotion, statistics and integration. He has been running the Mainarbeit job center since 2005. With this new construction in the reign of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD), apart from the legal framework, little was given, “so that we could design a lot ourselves. That was extremely exciting, ”says Schulze-Böing.
For him, Offenbach is a city of diversity, but it is not yet balanced. In the 1990s and 2000s in particular, there were some imbalances in the neighborhoods. Although this process has progressed well, it is not yet complete. “We still have a high poverty rate, the highest in Hesse and the highest unemployment rate, although it has gotten better,” says Schulze-Böing. The financial crisis, but also the influx of many Bulgarians and Romanians between 2012 and 2014 caused setbacks. Great strides had been made on child poverty. “Offenbach was always the sad front runner”, says Schulze-Böing. Now you have reached midfield. Especially among the migrants there are many who would advance and earn better. These people would have to be offered a perspective, otherwise they would move away from Offenbach.
“The job center is part of urban society and part of making this city fit for the future,” emphasizes Schulze-Böing. It’s not just about job placement, but also supporting families with educational issues, with housing issues, a job center can make a difference. “We cannot turn the world off its hinges and we always need the other factors,” he emphasizes.
He always compares it to the picture of wanting to climb a descending escalator. “Everyone knows it works, but if you stop to make yourself comfortable, it goes down again,” says Schulze-Böing. That’s why you have to run to stay in the same position. “If you want to improve, you have to run very quickly,” he explains.
Schulze-Böing wants to be quick now, especially on the racing bike, for which he usually didn’t find much time. The classical guitar will now also enjoy a little more attention. Of course, he will continue to observe urban development in Offenbach at close range.
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