The honoured personality 2023 of the European Retail Academy is Ivo Andric (1892 -1975) who was born in Travnik/today Bosnia - but also studied in Zagreb, Vienna, Kracow and Graz : he is an example of the pan-Balcan area of higher education in the Habsburg times. In 1961 Andric was honoured by a Nobel Award in Literature for his work as a pioneer of intercultural conflict analysis in context with the permanent clashes between Orient and Occident (Ottoman and Habsburg Empires). Prof.Dr.B.Hallier sees his books as a key for understanding the outbreak of World War I in Sarajewo and still the present frictions at the Balcan, the Middle East and even partly Eurasia due to the fact that never a real holistic peace-treaty between the many ethnic minority groups of those former large Empires was designed. More : YouTube Pan Balcan Initiative: "PanBalkan Initiave"

But Ivo Andric was not only a writer but also a transformer himself: after World War I he became politically active working in the Zagreb National Council uniting Serbs, Croatians and Slowenians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. For Hallier such persons for reconciliation would be needed urgently especially in times of big disruptions like in the twenties of this century. "International cultural education could be the basis for the stabilization of our ethical understanding of a global Civil Society : Ivo Andric's approach is eternally" Hallier said at the appointment of Ivo Andric for the Hall of Fame of the European Retail Academy.

The EU sponsored Ister-project united 15 partners from 8 countries as an Excellence Cluster Research of Universities ans Applied Sciences to rediscover and to document Roman Routes along the Danube River. The Preservation has been kicked off by enlargement of present studies and making them internationally accessable by language-links of the eight partners. Furtheron physical milestones at the places of heritage have been placed in form of towers of concrete or steel or at tables with information-plates for the sightseers. By encluding QR-codes further background by Apps or the Internet of Things is available.

About 80 participants attended the hybrid final Project Conference of this transnational multidisciplinary approach. ERA-President Prof.Dr.B.Hallier and CORP-Director M.Schrenk pointed in that discussion to the potential to use Inster as a tool to multiply its scope of users within the stakeholder community of tourism and regional planners by Revitalization of the traditional trading routes. Both see in such future activities a sustainability and empowerment of the present project results and a win-win-situation between research and business.

"The permant wind of historical changes can be seen by art within the city of Dresden/Germany" Prof.Dr.Hallier stated during his visit in that traditional town. "In the times of August II, being King of Saxionia as well as for some time even King of Poland, Dresden became one of the centers of politics and culture within Central Europe" he explained. "A mosaic with scenes from a procession of the King and aristocrates is still one of the great attractions for sight-seeing for German and international tourists ".

"After World War II the heavily destroyed city became part of East Germany and by this automatically part of Socialism. I visited Dresden in the beginning of 1990 when selected travel for West Germans had been allowed for the first time. My East German counterparts very proudly showed me their headquarter in the modern Socialistic architecture - decorated by a mosaic to honour the fight for their ideas : in the middle also the flag of the Sowjet Union, the big brother within COMECON" Hallier explained his own experience. "I t might be an apercu of history that in the 60ies one of the agents in the KGB-office in Dresden had been Vladimir Putin. - Today the mosaic is a reminder of that Socialistic time" Prof. concluded his excurse about the importance to study and understand history of locations to evaluate the vita of individuals as well as the behaviour of groups within society.

According to Prof.Dr.B.Hallier since about the year 1875 department houses with their big textile assortments and accessoires took over the lead to determine for nearly 100 years the fashion for the urban life-style communities in Europe. In the beginning the windows of the top players down-town have been the anchors of public strolls through the malls in the European capitals and other big cities - as for example the painting of August Macke from 1914 shows.

After World War II the American Way of Life enlarged with key-words like marketing, promotions and events the scope of possibilities to catch the eyes of consumers. In Germany Sabina Wansart prepared for two decades this field of activities for the Kaufhof-Group, one of the big players in the category of department-stores . Her oeuvre is collected by Dr.J. Moch , himself famous for running one of the oldest tailor-and display mannequin - factories with customers globally founded in 1907. He together with Prof.Hallier and two trainees from Finland and Vietnam selected the material for a YouTube Introduction for a time-travel through the period 1970-1990 : see more : YouTube

At her stay for vocational training within the ERA-network Susanne Järvenpää checked three cities along the river Rhine - all belonging to the German county of NRW, but each with a different history and urban revitalizatrion strategy. Bonn was choosen after World War II as a "provisorial capital" of West Germany as it was small and unimportant : ready to hand over its functions again to Berlin after Reunification of Germany. Today it has its charme by its University and the UN campus - and relaxing green bicyle-routes along the river side.

Cologne was once beside Jerusalem, Byzanz/Konstantinopel and Rome the fourth Holy City : the Dom is dominating the city skyline. The Catholic Church is still a big factor in the daily life. Düsseldorf on the other hand is the administration center of all NRW : the Gate of Glass of the regional Government's Prime Minister is significant for the political claim of transparency.