Friendship Across Borders (Freundschaft über Grenzen) – FAB e.V. was established in October 2003 by Brigitta Maria Magdalena Mahr (Founder) and her husband Dr. Albrecht Mahr (Co-Founder). Both had already been working for many years on new forms of solutions to violent conflicts and had in 2001 initiated the international conference-series “Fields of Conflict – Fields of Knowledge” in this context. For the international conference “Passion and Responsibility – In the Heart of Conflict” www.Internationale-Tagung-Systemaufstellungen.de in 2003, Prof. Dan Bar On of Ben Gurion University in Israel and Prof. Sami Adwan of Betlehem University in Palestine had been invited next to many other high-profile experts from science, psychology and politics. Their engagement and determination to create peace between Israelis and Palestinians deeply impressed Brigitta and Albrecht Mahr. Through this encounter, they developed the intention to make a personal and German contribution to the peace process in the Middle East.

The establishment of FAB e.V. was prompted by the deep shock which Brigitta experienced when she learned about the suicide attack of the lawyer Hanadi Dscharadat from Jenin in the Westbank. The young woman blew herself up on October 4^th 2003 in the restaurant ‘Maxim’ in Haifa. 21 people of different nationality were killed and 51 were injured. She was the sixth female suicide bomber of the second intifada and the second woman who had been recruited by the Islamic Dschihad.

In the same year Brigitta began with the establishment of “Friendship Across Borders – FAB e.V.”. She travelled to the Westbank/Palestine and Israel and she started to learn Hebrew. Brigitta looked for people in Israel, the Palestinian territories and in Germany who wanted to follow a common vision for peace and solidarity. A vision which takes into account the traumatizing consequences of the Holocaust and its effects on the relations between Jews and Arabs.

In the course of the years 2003-2005/06 Brigitta was able to create an Israeli, Palestinian and German group. The first Israeli-Palestinian meeting could take place in March of 2005 in Beit Jala at the school Talitha Kumi in the Westbank. Many small meetings on a national and international level followed. This made it possible to organize a first major international seminar in June of 2006 in Wuerzburg, Germany. This seminar provided the basis for the pilot-project “Let me see through your eyes” which took place in July 2007 in Reimlingen, Germany. The work of FAB continued steadily in spite of the wars, violant clashes and many political obstacles.

In the years between 2008-2010 Brigitta in collaboration with Israelis and Palestinians as well as some German colleagues developed the Peace Carrier Training for students which is offered by FAB e.V. today. Its core idea is to work on the dynamic and the complex of problems between victims and perpetrators. The original conception of the training is of an educational program mainly aimed at young adults. The participants are taught through supervision and life experience to bring mind and heart into accord in order to recognize and develop inner peace as a basis for outer peace. The main key feature is to build compassion for and trust in the enemy resp. the opponent and to give these emotions space to fully unfold.

Brigitta M.M. Mahr was in charge of and established FAB e.V. in the years from 2003-2013. She was born in 1950, married to Dr. Albrecht Mahr, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. They have to two children together. Brigitta is medical technical assistant and a yoga and meditation teacher (recognized by the BDY/EYU, the German and the European Yoga Association). Her teachers were Willigis Jäger (Zen) and Ayya Kheme (Vipassana). Since 2001 Brigitta is attending the Ridhwan training by Hamid Almaas. She is organizer and co-creator of the international conference-series “Fields of Conflicts – Fields of Knowledge” from 2001 to 2011 and she organized a variety of national and international seminars around the theme of “Peace and Reconciliation”. In 2013 Brigitta together with her husband Albrecht Mahr left FAB e.V. in order to focus on different duties and responsibilities.

We want to thank all co-founders of FAB e.V.: Marion Josefs, Gabriele Fonstad, Monika Hörter, Rita Paulus and Jenny Malsch. In particular, we want to thank all those people who financially supported our work in the years 2003-2013.

Dr. med. Albrecht Mahr, born 1943, married to Brigitta Mahr, two children, founding member of “Friendship Across Borders – FAB e.V.” Medical specialist for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, training and control psychoanalyst (DPG, DGPT, DAGG), systemic therapy. Trained in hypnotherapy according to Milton Erickson. Further training in Gestalt therapy, body therapy, music therapy, holotropic breathing. 2001-2004 chairman of ISCA – International Systemic Constellation Association. Teaching therapist of DGfS – Systemic Constellations Association. Head of ISAIL, Institute for Systemic Constellations and Integrative Solutions www.mahrsysteme.de. 2001-2011 founder and chairman of IFPA – International Forum for Political Constellations. Between 2001-2011 initiator and host of the 3^rd to 5^th international conferences on systemic constellations and of the conference-series “Fields of Conflict - Fields of Knowledge” together with Brigitta Mahr.

Seminars on systemic and organizational constellations for self-experience, training and supervision in Germany and internationally (in English and French). Trainer at the Institut Africain pour la Psychologie Intègrale in Kigali, Rwanda for systemic constellations in post-traumatic contexts. Since 2006 trainer in the Unesco – Peace Studies Masters Program of the University of Innsbruck.

Editor of “Konfliktfelder – Wissende Felder. Systemaufstellungen in der Friedens- und Versöhnungsarbeit”, Carl-Auer-Systeme-Verlage, Heidelberg 2003. Zen student of Willigis Jäger. Student of Ayya Khema in the Buddhist Theravada tradition. Since 2012 student in the Diamond Approach, Rihdwan Training according to Hameed Almaas.