Ulrike Reinhard

Biography

Born in 1960, Reinhard studied business administration at the University of Mannheim. After graduating, she spent over 10 years investigating new media developments in Italy and the United States. Back in Germany, in 1994 she organized a conference on interactive television, accompanied by her publication Interaktives Fernshen: Kontaktadressen.

Projects

She co-founded DNAdigital, a 2008-2010 initiative in Germany that aimed to foster dialogue between the 'Internet Generation' and business leaders regarding the world of work.

She published and contributed to Reboot_D - Digital Democracy, a 2009 compilation of articles and interviews about the way the internet is shaping and transforming society and politics in Germany.

In 2008 Reinhard set up a project called WeBenin, aiming to help people in one of the poorest countries in West Africa to empower themselves, avoiding the paradigm of rich NGOs giving goods to poor aid recipients.

She founded a skatepark in Janwaar in Madhya Pradesh, called Janwaar Castle, where one of the main rules to use the rink is "no school, no skateboarding," and which encourages girls to use the rink. The rink has had a positive effect in helping to encourage girls to be involved in physical activities and has reduced violence between the Adivasi and Yadev castes in the area. Now children from both castes make friends. Young people in the village also learn English, how to paint, create 3D models, learn life skills, music and dance. In 2016, one of the girls from the village who Reinhard was tutoring in English, was selected to attend school in the United Kingdom. The skatepark is 4,843 square feed and was opened in April of 2015. A short film was made about the park, called The Barefoot Skateboarders. The non-profit organization that Reinhard created to run the skatepark is also called Janwaar Castle.

Publications