A popular university is established in a village of 800 inhabitants, "such an opportunity to enrich one’s

A small association has just opened a popular university in Wittersdorf (Haut-Rhin), a small village of 800 inhabitants. There is no shortage of language, leisure and well-being courses. And the delighted beneficiaries are asking for more.

On the grass, well in the shade sheltered by a wall, half a dozen ladies are learning the ancestral discipline of Qi Gong. The movements are ample, and the faces are serene. “This energetic practice evolved with traditional Chinese medicineexplains the teacher, Pascale Martz. The course is divided into different periods: posture of presence to refocus, rest the mind. Then joint warm-up. We move on to the static posture to concentrate the energy in the hollow of the pelvis, before circulating it (…) And we finish with a little standing meditation.”

Annette Kielwasser has been coming regularly since the beginning, and for her, it was a discovery. “I said to myself: Great, Wittersdorf offers this kind of thing, go for it Annette!she smiled. And now we see each other every Wednesday. It is a joy for the soul, it is soothing and pleasant. A break from this crazy world.”

“We’re really lucky that there are new activities like this here in Sundgauconfirms her neighbor Sandra Simet. Because it is often difficult to find places where we can practice sporting or other activities. So we’re happy.”

Passionate about Qi gong, Pascale Martz recently trained to be able to transmit it as well. When she learned that a popular university was going to open in this small village, she immediately applied, because this local project echoes her own values. “My goal is to provide well-being to others, she explains. So I try to bring this activity as close as possible to people in the villages, so that they don’t need to go to town.”

The new popular university is called the Thalb, named after the Thalbach stream, which runs alongside the land. It occupies the former premises of the intercommunal media library, long disused. In addition to weekly well-being activities (Qi gong, Hatha yoga and library therapy), it offers various art and leisure workshops (collective music, theater, visual arts, radio, linocut, photography, knitting, genealogy…) as well as language courses (German, English, sign language and Alsatian).

Annick Baldenweck regularly attends this last course. “I lived in Inland France for a long time, and even though Alsatian is my mother tongue, I lost a lot, she says. I came to learn how to speak it correctly again. I already express myself more fluently, and I’ve learned lots of new words that I didn’t know.”

“I learned a lot of things in a friendly atmosphere, vocabulary and grammar, adds her neighbor at the table, Marie Pflieger. And I live 500 meters from here. To be able, in a village of 800 inhabitants, to take advantage of such an opportunity to enrich one’s culture is extraordinary.”

The Thalb is supported by the Culture et Solidarité association, which covers three municipalities: Wittersdorf, Emlingen (300 inhabitants) and Obermorschwiller (400 inhabitants), for a total of around 1,500 people. From 2011, the association began to offer one-off events, exhibitions, outings and conferences, on a wide variety of themes.

Then, in 2022, the idea arose of creating a friendly place, allowing everyone to access culture, knowledge and well-being through regular activities. But above all to encourage living together in this small Hundsbach valley far from large cities, located around twenty kilometers from Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), and around thirty from Basel (Switzerland) and Belfort.

The project was a bit crazy. But if we ask Marcel Zimmermann, the founding president of Thalb, about his objectives, he becomes inexhaustible. “It’s simple! It’s a university for everyone, young and old, believers or not, French-speaking or half-French-speaking, farmers or teachers, he exclaims. Because everyone can learn and give their opinion. Today people have problems collaborating and talking to each other. But when we talk, we always find solutions.”

However, he recognizes that between the 2000 euros budget with which the association started in 2011, and the 290,000 euros spent over the last seven years, “necessary to put everything together”, we had to impose ourselves. And, above all, “fight to reduce the prejudices of appearance and what people will say, so that people look at us and consider us.”

“In France, there are three kinds of people, he explains with his corrosive humor. The super-intelligent ones who live in Paris, the very intelligent ones in the city, and us, the country folk, who are only intelligent. And that’s our real fight: for city dwellers and important people to change the way they see us.”

The big boost came when the CAF (Family Allowance Fund) recognized this rural university project as an EVS (social living space), a local structure making it possible to strengthen social ties and neighborhood solidarity. The 27,000 euros of annual funding from CAF made it possible to hire a coordinating director, and to offer diversified courses with paid teachers.

The courses were offered according to the wishes of the inhabitants, collected in spring 2025 using questionnaires distributed in the 12 small villages of the valley. But some answers came from much further afield. And during this first year, nearly 400 people have already participated in one or another activity.

In the evening, the Thalb also hosts conferences or signing sessions. “So we come with the friends, to tend the barspecifies Paulette Zimmermann, one of the twenty active volunteers of the association. This place must be warm and friendly.” And every Wednesday afternoon, the premises are transformed into intergenerational games rooms, where parents, grandparents and children come to play board games together.

“There are lots of games that I didn’t know, and that I need to learn”recognizes Paulette Zimmermann. Eliott comes “every two weeks. I like it, because there’s table football, he explains. Sometimes I come alone, play with grandpa, and sometimes there are organized things.”

Outside, children have a water fight, while a dozen pétanque players sit on their specially designed field. Initially, they thought of creating their own association. But ultimately, for reasons of simplicity, they too were included in the list of activities proposed by the Thalb.

For the next school year, the courses offered will be renewed, and others such as a writing workshop, floral arranging and dance, will be added. And at the same time, the Culture and Solidarity association continues to set up other long-term projects, such as a shared garden, and the path for all, from Berentzwiller to Altkirch, the inauguration of which is planned for fall 2027.