Not just for the fun of it

Right place at the right time: whenever Reinhard Waschke found a bit of spare time in his busy professional and private life, VDE was usually there. “And then I just did it,” says the 73-year-old retiree – a phrase he repeats often. When he studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt in the 1970s, there were gaps between lectures. “During those times, I handed out lecture notes for the Electrical Engineering Association – today’s VDE student group – and advised fellow students.” After specializing first in power engineering and then in communications engineering (“That field was more in demand at the time”), Waschke worked for the German federal post office and later for Deutsche Telekom, never turning down a new challenge. IT projects, human resources, public relations, corporate design, brand management: “Whatever new responsibilities I was given, I didn’t want to give them up.”

While working full-time, he remained a VDE member – initially in a passive role, attending excursions and lectures organized by the Cologne regional association. “I was fully focused on my job.” He accepted an invitation to attend a board meeting “without any obligation” – and ended up staying. “That sparked my interest in getting involved.” Over time, Waschke took on more and more organizational tasks. When the VDE Cologne member magazine “Transmitter” was redesigned in 2012, he stepped in. “After all, I had overseen similar processes at Telekom.” Soon afterward, he wrote his first article – “a half-page piece about a soldering course for students at the Deutsches Museum Bonn.” Today he serves as editor-in-chief, commissions authors, and writes many of the reports on excursions, technical events, youth outreach, and association matters. In addition, he co-organizes the “Night of technology” event series in the Lower Rhine region.