Both aim for the net

What do a young footballer who dreams of the perfect game and an IT specialist who raves about resolving server issues have in common? More than you might think. Despite being in very different fields, Leopold Winkler and Constance Fischer feel the same sense of satisfaction when they hit the mark. A conversation about discipline, the willingness to help, and what holds together an entire university town.

How does a day start in which everything goes smoothly?

Leopold Winkler: For me, it usually starts the day before, in the evening. That’s when I write down everything I want to do the next day. And then, on the day when everything’s supposed to go smoothly, I get up early, get myself ready – and, very importantly, have a coffee, that’s a must. After that it depends on what’s on the agenda. Ideally, of course, a bit of exercise – a run or a trip to the gym, that would be fantastic.

Constance Fischer: I guess it starts with my ride into the city center. I live here in Jena, so it's just a ten-minute ride on the Straßenbahn. And I see a lot of people I recognize, both from the Uni and not from the Uni, on my ride. We greet each other, and then it's off to my office. So if the phone doesn't ring in the first five minutes, then it's going to be okay.

Jena is known as a city of short distances. Which place could you find your way to with your eyes closed, and what do you associate with it?

Leopold Winkler: I’d definitely say my school, the Sportgymnasium. I went to school there for nine years and walked that route every day. I have some lovely memories of it – not just of lessons, but also during lunch breaks, when I spent loads of time with my friends, had some good laughs and shared some wonderful moments. It was definitely a great time.

Constance Fischer: Now that we've moved away from the Hauptgebäude – I used to be in the Hauptgebäude – I guess I could go there blindfolded from anywhere. We've since moved across the street into these new buildings, and I'm still exploring how to get there, because we can't go directly to our building, we have to go around. So every once in a while, I try something different. I'd say blindfolded, it's the Hauptgebäude, because I used to go from there to clients and back. It's kind of my home base.

Is there a place that makes you think: ‘That’s unique to Jena’?

Leopold Winkler: I’d definitely say ‘Das Paradies’. It’s a green oasis right in the heart of Jena – it’s absolutely lovely to have so much nature right in the middle of the city. Directly connected to that is the Oberaue, with its many football pitches and the stadium at its heart, the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld. That’s definitely the place I’m most connected to and the one that really stands out.

Constance Fischer: I think Paradise. When you go over to the park there. I haven't been there yet this year since the start of the so I'm missing that. When you go over there that's Jena. To me anyway.

What are you really good at, and what are you perhaps a bit proud of?

Leopold Winkler: Yes, pretty much I’d say I’m quite good at football. And also that which comes with playing football: that through competitive sport you become quite disciplined and quite ambitious. I’d also say I’m fairly good at school – the fact that I’ve managed to combine the two and achieved quite good results, despite playing competitive sport, means that my schoolwork is going well too.

Constance Fischer: The way I deal with people. I'm a people person. Not a lot of IT people are people persons. That's the stereotype anyway, but I like talking to people, I like interacting with people.

When do you get the best feeling – when you ‘score’ something, when something really clicks into place?

Leopold Winkler: In football, it’s definitely when you score a goal. I play in defence, mind you, but that’s brilliant, of course. Or, thinking about defence: especially when you make a successful sliding tackle or celebrate a win with the team. That’s obviously a really incredible moment too.

Constance Fischer: Oh, yes. When you have a customer call you up and they're really upset because the machine isn't working, or they can't get their email to open, something like that. And then you help them and you fix the problem. That's fabulous.

If Jena is selected as a University of Excellence, everyone wins. What are your hopes for the future of this partnership between the city and the university?

Leopold Winkler: Well, that collaboration is definitely stepped up, so that both sides benefit a little more from it. And perhaps – something I’ve picked up a bit from youth sport – that we incorporate this performance-based approach a little more, and in sport perhaps make greater use of support programmes or attract even more talent. And that way, the city and the university can also benefit from that talent and the workforce it brings.

Constance Fischer: You know what would be really nice? The university has the Sommerfest every year – to me it always feels like a spring festival, because it's not really that hot yet. It would be really nice to see more people there, more townspeople, not just university people. I think that would be really cool: to see more of the everyday people come to those events. I think that would help a lot with the relationship too, because then they wouldn't see it as just “those uni people” – they're invited too, and they can come and enjoy it.

I’m part of the university city of Jena because…

Leopold Winkler: … I was born here, I’ve played football for the FCC my whole life, and I’m a Jena native.

Constance Fischer: … I live here, I work here, I play here. I really love this city, I really do, and I love the people. I meet people and they are just so nice. Most of the people I meet here in the city are really nice, and you hear negative things sometimes, like “Germans, they have no sense of humour.” I don't think that's true at all. These stereotypes, I haven't found that. I spent some six very happy years here.