Dear Christa, just before covid I was in Berlin and you invited me in a nice restaurant. We were only the two of us and we told stories about our common background in the seventies, the student movement and that strong believe that we as young people could change the world, could make it a better place for the disadvantaged children. You knew I had a special relation with Berlin. We talked about Berlin before the wall fell down. About West-Berlin that was surround by walls but was at the same time a bustling town of liberty and social innovation.

And then our stories moved to the end of the nineties when together with colleagues from 6 countries we started the DECET network around diversity in ECEC. Memories passed of the meetings we had in so many different countries, projects we set up together, brochures and a film we produced on working with ethnic minority children and parents. You were a pioneer in working in context of diversity and I learned so much of you. Although you worked at the university, you were not the kind of otherworldly academic. The programs you developed were always very linked to practice and policy. And you had a great talent to work with people who worked in the daily pedagogical practice. All your experience and knowledge came together in the Berliner Curriculum undoubtedly one of the best curriculums that exist in the world. Every time I will use it or I will refer to it ,I will think of you Christa.  But you were not only a woman full of innovative ideas that were very useful for researchers, policymakers and practitioners, you were also a very nice person to work with and also to drink a glass of wine together and to talk about politics and how we could make a better world of this planet. Christa, you were an exceptional personality and therefore you will survive in beautiful stories and in the texts you published. But for me personally you will have a place in my heart reserved for the most honest engaged and warm persons I met during my live time.