Our Team

When you work with Realitäten Bureau, you benefit from our many years of experience in development cooperation and addiction counselling, our intercultural competence, diverse project experience and a comprehensive understanding of individual counselling. Last but not least, you also benefit from our extensive international experience.
We are happy to answer your questions, provide you with advice and support, or refer you to external experts from our network for your concerns.

Susanne Schardt

Susanne is our founder. After studying cultural anthropology, Susanne worked for the drug department of the city of Frankfurt am Main.
From 1993 to 2001, she was executive director of the European network of "European Cities on Drug Policy (ECDP)".
Her career then took her to the Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Susanne now has over 20 years of experience in project development and consultancy at home and abroad. Her thematic focus is on health and drugs, youth, team management and multi-stakeholder dialogue. Susanne has developed and conducted numerous trainings. Moderating is in her blood: Already during her studies she was a moderator for "Schüler Express" and "Ferienkalender" at ZDF.
Project reviews, consultations and evaluations have taken Susanne Schardt to many countries on all continents.
In her "second life", Susanne is also a jewellery designer with her label "Beaded Sweet Nothings".

Birgit Stanzel

Birgit is our Latin America specialist. She is a Romanist and biologist and studied education for the developing world. While still a student, she completed an exchange programme for bilingual education in Mexico, where she later began her career in development cooperation. In addition to Mexico, Birgit also worked for many years in El Salvador, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala and Venezuela, where she also worked with Susanne.
In 2005, Birgit moved to the Balkans for GIZ, where she supported youth development and participation, youth exchange, peace building, and vocational training in Kosovo and Serbia, advising the development of youth ministries.
Even after her retirement, Birgit continues to be involved in building projects on these issues. Most recently, she was a lecturer at the Colegio de San Louis Potosi in Mexico, where she ran a seminar she developed on project development and management in development work in September 2017.

Patricia Kramarz

Patricia has been a harm reduction expert for many years. After her diploma as a social worker at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Patricia did her Master of Science in International Health at the Charité Berlin (tropEd). She now has more than 20 years of professional experience in the field of Harm Reduction, HIV and drug aid.
In 2007, Patricia's and Susanne's paths crossed for the first time at GIZ, where Patricia worked with Susanne as a consultant in the field of HIV and drugs/harm reduction. There, Patricia was responsible for the public-private partnership project on methadone substitution in Nepal, India, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
From 2011 to 2014, she led the GIZ Harm Reduction Project in Nepal, advising on the establishment of the national opioid substitution programme. 
Since 2016, Patricia works as a freelance consultant in the field of harm reduction and since the end of 2016, she is part of our team.

Michael Tuchert

Michael has been part of the Realitäten Bureau team since 2009. As a qualified social worker, he has been working in drug help for over 20 years and was head of the largest integrated drug help facility in Europe, "EASTSIDE" – a facility of the association "Integrative Drogenhilfe e.V." in Frankfurt am Main - for 15 years. In 1995, he completed an additional training as a REFA organiser with a focus on organisation, data collection, project management in organisational projects, leadership and cooperation, labour law, quality management and organisational investigation. Since 2004, he has also been a social business economist with additional training in "Motivational Interviewing" and "KISS", a behavioural therapy self-management programme for the or the self-determined reduction of the consumption of illegal drugs.

In 2012, Michael left direct work in drug services and has since been a legal guardian of mentally ill people.

Before he started his studies in social work in 1991, Michael worked as a hotel manager in various hotels in Germany and abroad - especially in Asia - where he also gained valuable intercultural experience.

 

Peter Klös

Peter is a social researcher and has been a team member at Realitäten Bureu since 2005. After training as a skilled building construction worker / reinforced concrete builder, Peter studied Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology in Frankfurt, where he also met Susanne.

During his studies, Peter worked on various research projects on intercultural issues and was co-responsible project manager in the research project "Frankfurt from outside" at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology of the University Frankfurt from the winter semester 2003/04 to September 2005.

At MANIFESTA 4, the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Frankfurt am Main, he headed the project "Der aufgearbeitete Ort - Orientierungen im Stadtraum Frankfurt".

In 2004, a lecture tour on the subject of "inter-cultural understanding" took him to the Philippines. From 2005 to 2009, Peter Klös was a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt. He is also the editor of the series "Lebenswelten" published by Paulo Freire Verlag Oldenburg, where, among other things, he has written about his experiences in outpatient care for the elderly.

Jörg Schmidtmann

 Jörg is a qualified social pedagogue (FH) and systemic addiction therapist. He joined our team in 2006 where he works mainly in the areas of addiction counselling at the workplace and preparation for a medical-psychological examination (MPU). From 1992 to 1998, Jörg worked in different areas of drug aid where he was also a colleague of our team member Michael for many years.

Jörg's main focus is the management of assisted living communities for long-term drug users who receive opioid substitution, which he managed first in the facility for assisted individual living "Rotlintstraße" and currently in the facility in “Kriegkstraße” on behalf Integrative Drogenhilfe e.V. in Frankfurt am Main.

Another focus of Jörg's work are MPU preparation courses and trainings, which he has been conducting individually or in the form of weekend seminars for more than 20 years now.

Jörg is also a debt counsellor for drug addicts and a trainer for volunteer addiction counsellorsn.