Nevertheless has not yet grown together completely what actually belongs together. Even for the young generation it is difficult to transfer their centre of life into the other half of Germany. The former Federal President Johannes Rau wanted to knock the inner-German relationships into shape: he initiated the project schulpartnerschaften.de in 2001.

Personal encounters are best suited to strengthen the mutuality between the Germans, and school partnerships are an effective form to meet other students. Goal of the project was to reduce existing prejudices. As many as possible schools should be encouraged to enter into contact with partner schools on the other side of the former inner-German border. Very desired was an active personal and informative exchange. The webportal www.schulpartnerschaften.de offered a service to prepare school partnerships and gave many practical tips for students and teachers.
Schulpartnerschaften.de was supported by many institutions. The DBU promoted another similar project: »Young people investigating the
environment – 100 schools in the dialogue«.

The domain schulpartnerschaften.de was taken over from www.schulen-ans-netz.de. It offers a platform for partnerships involving also schools from outside Germany.