18.09.2009 – Cosmos Workplace – The DASA exhibition addresses workplace issues

 

By: Anne Honisch
Photo: Martin Lässig

We spend around a third of our lives in the workplace and it is this third that is presented at the DASA – the German Health & Safety Exhibition (Deutsche Arbeitsschutzausstellung) in Dortmund. Across an area of 13,000 square meters visitors can gain insight into a number of different workplaces. There is a lot to see: A visit between construction sites, screens, machine rollers and canine robots.

D’ya want to learn how to fly?« The boy jumps into the cockpit and waves his buddy over to join him. He follows and takes on the role of co-pilot. They hammer buttons indiscriminately and the instrument panel flashes hysterically from red to yellow to green – are they going to crash? No, the autopilot takes over – a monitor shows the crash pilots what they need to do and the instrument panel settles down. It’s not going to be enough to fly the scheduled flight home but in only a few minutes, the two boys have experienced what it’s like to sit in a cockpit. The helicopter hovers, resplendent at a height of five meters; a flight of stairs leads down to the floor of the exhibition hall. They have made a safe landing. 

Practice is better than theory. Only 20 percent of the knowledge which we require for our work is acquired in formal learning situations; theory is the lesser part. The other 80 percent is acquired informally – from daily practice and experience. It is at this level that the DASA in Dortmund operates: Discover working worlds on your own – enabling personal experiment without preaching – this is the basic principle, together with the demand for better working conditions and extended health & safety for all professions. The curators have placed emphasis on variety. The permanent exhibition revolves around the subjects of human beings / work / technology; temporary exhibitions and events focus on individual aspects in more detail. Currently, the focus is on non-verbal communication – for example, the DASA offers courses and museum guided tours in sign language.

Tunnel Construction in the Cellar 

A group of twelve men stamp into the foyer. The hall is filled with checkered shirts, khaki waistcoats, jeans and trainers. The men work for a beverage supplier. Their work: shifting crates and driving fork-lift trucks. They are here today on a works outing and they have a date with Axel Wegener. His work: museum tours. Mr. Wegener is tall and lean. He shakes the hand of each participant, chats easily and is clearly happy to receive so large an audience. He lives opposite, he explains, and two years ago, simply asked if the DASA needed another museum guide. 

»Entry to the construction site is invited!« encourages the sign. The first point of interest during the tour is the inner courtyard where road work is in process. Diggers, pneumatic drills, machine rollers – models from past decades stand around the construction site and call up memories: »I used to work on that thing, it isn’t half heavy. They have it a lot easier today.« Although »easier« is relative – a pneumatic drill can weigh nearly 30 Kilos. 

The tour leaves the road works and goes underground. In the freight elevator, Axel Wegener explains the modern protective equipment used in civil engineering: an oxygen mask and oxygen tanks on the construction worker’s back mean carrying twelve kilos underground before picking up a single tool. Mr. Wegener knows what he is talking about, he worked in coal-mining for years until he went into early retirement. The men nod curtly; twelve kilos impresses none of them. 

The cellar has been transformed into an underground shaft. It’s dark, it’s cold and it’s damp – the atmosphere is authentic. The lights on the tunnel walls flicker wearily, cable runs across the floor and unidentified equipment stands around. A steel monster lurks at the end of the tunnel: the tunnel drill is one of the greatest developments in underground construction. It cuts through the earth faster and more precisely than human beings have ever been able to do. When it can go no further, detonation is used. In the DASA cellar, this is, of course, only simulated.

First the Oven, then the Hall 

The group prepares to return to ground level; the next workplace awaits them. Buttons, controls, switches, microphones as far as the eye can see. The power station control center is almost ten meters long and looks like an over-dimensional mixing console. At the other end of the control panel stand three girls listening to Simone Weber: »The control center is the power station’s brain. All processes are controlled and coordinated from here.« 

A few minutes later, Ms Weber has answered all queries and takes her leave. She crosses the room to join a family that is standing there alone, looking up at the helicopter hanging from the ceiling. Simone Weber has quite a bit to say about this too; that is why she is here. Together with around 60 colleagues from Dussmann Service she is responsible for the supervision of the exhibition. Her task: to approach visitors and to pass on her knowledge about the DASA and the individual exhibits. »We accompany visitors and encourage them to try out as much as possible. After all, that’s what makes this exhibition special« explains Heike Rottke, the Dussmann Site Manager at the DASA. Of course, staff must acquire all the knowledge that they need first – the conventional way. There is a file for each exhibit containing all necessary information and this must be learned and remembered. Dussmann Service has been in the service of the DASA since January 2008. In addition to supervising the exhibits, staff run reception and the cash desk, provide information and operate the cloakroom and book shop.  

In the meantime, Axel Wegener and the group of men have moved on to the next room. They are tiny next to the huge 250 ton electric steel furnace. This is the largest exhibit and it is so big that the hall had to be built around the furnace. Mr. Wegener is explaining the initial reaction to the new health & safety measures in the steel mills: »When the first protective cabins against noise and heat were introduced, they were not exactly welcomed with open arms. The cabins meant no bonus and that meant leaner pay packets. Safety awareness was not high back then.« The electric steel furnace produces 110 decibels. If visitors want to learn about decibels, they can enter the noise tunnel opposite and experience various dimensions of noise.  

Suddenly, around the next corner the twelve men are confronted with a horror scenario: the dental surgery. »Would someone like to try out the dentist’s chair?« grins Axel Wegener. Silence. »Well then, perhaps we’ll skip the medical department and move on to geriatric care«. The route takes them past the chemistry laboratory, a sound studio and a job center – yes, that is also part of the job world, especially at the moment.

A Look Into Your Own Future 

The advantage of the DASA: It is always topical. The disadvantage of the DASA: It is always topical. The (work) world moves faster than the Federal Institute for Occupational Health & Safety (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin) to which the DASA belongs. Keeping the exhibits and the corresponding information up-to-date is a huge challenge – both logistically and financially.  

In the simulated retirement home, Axel Wegener operates a chairlift and explains: »Regulations define the maximum load to be lifted by staff as 30 Kilos. Geriatric nurses can only laugh.« A quick look into the nursing bathroom and then on to the next exhibit. The men shift uncomfortably in this environment; this might be their own future and they would rather not be introduced to it. Yet. 

Long corridors take them back to the foyer. At the cloakroom, a Dussmann employee is checking in jackets – the next group awaits Axel Wegener. This time, as so often, it’s a school group. When the DASA was opened in connection with EXPO 2000, the curators expected researchers and specialists for labor law and personnel – professionals. But they got a surprise: in addition to experts, the DASA exhibition was discovered by families and schools; today, they make up the majority of the 180,000 visitors who visit the exhibition each year. There are three types of audio tour tailored to the varying interests. 

Axel Wegener’s tour with the group of men took ninety minutes, and yet they viewed only a fraction of the exhibition. The are hundreds of exhibits waiting for visitors in the depths of the museum – spinning wheels, attendance clocks, steam engines, litho presses and a protective suit against heat and cancer from 1941 – made of 100 percent asbestos.  It is time to change shift and Dussmann staff members enter the foyer and join the group of men heading towards the exit. Enough work for today.

 

---

:: back to News & Reports