With rescue dogs in action

• This year’s Day of Appreciation aims to make voluntary work in Germany visible and to recognise it.
• As part of a volunteering series, several committed colleagues from Team Yellow introduce themselves and explain what drives them and which experiences they bring into their work at the Bank.
• Christine Rademacher, Head of Structured Finance, has been volunteering since 2020 as a dog handler in a German Red Cross (DRK) rescue dog unit, using her dogs to search for missing people, often at night and in cooperation with other relief organisations.
• This time intensive volunteering role gives her balance, time in nature and a great deal of appreciation. She brings her experiences into everyday life at the Bank and values teamwork highly.

The series begins with Christine Rademacher, Head of Structured Finance in the Corporate Clients segment. In her "other life", she is a member of a German Red Cross rescue dog unit in the Reinbek local branch.

Christine, what exactly do you do in your voluntary role?
Since January 2020, I have been spending around ten hours a week as a dog handler, training and deploying my two dogs to search for people. When we receive an alert from the police in Schleswig-Holstein, we head out. In concrete terms, this means: we search for missing people in rough terrain in fields and woodland. We operate as part of the unit – together with other relief organisations such as the fire brigade or the German Life Saving Association (DLRG).

This very often happens at night – and usually throughout the night. Our task is to search our assigned area, which is quite large in terms of surface, thoroughly and to report everything back to the operations command.

How do you balance these time intensive deployments with your responsibilities at the Bank?
It’s not always easy – and everything stands and falls with the support of my family, who always show understanding for my passion. On top of the deployments, there is further training and public relations work. Each year we have between 20 and 40 deployments. But I am happy to do all of this, because I do it out of conviction. The appreciation and support I experience in my voluntary work more than compensate for any time involved. And alongside my work at the Bank, it is the ideal counterbalance for me: lots of time in nature and plenty of exercise in the fresh air.

What shapes you in your volunteering that also gives added value to the Bank?
Quite clearly, the team performance – I experience this both in deployments and at the Bank. In my role in the dog unit, everyone takes on very different tasks, sometimes as a helper, sometimes as a dog handler, and in close cooperation with other relief organisations. We all have to be able to rely on each other. Only then can we achieve the best possible results. In our case, that means: finding the missing person! It doesn’t matter which team or organisation ultimately reports “Person found”. Together, we are proud of the outcome.

In my work I am constantly reminded how important cooperation in a team is. It has to do with trust, responsibility and reliability. I repeatedly take this experience of team spirit with me into my professional everyday life.

Are there also difficult moments in your voluntary work?
Of course, because this is literally about human lives – and therefore about speed. And no deployment is the same; there are always new challenges. What affects me most, though, is when we arrive too late and can no longer find a person alive. In such cases, we receive support from within our own group, from the relief organisation and from professionals such as psychologists. This helps us to process what we have experienced.

What would you wish for your voluntary work?
I am genuinely convinced of what I do and (usually) I am happy to get up when the pager goes off. That’s because I receive a lot of appreciation for this work – and I am convinced that I am doing something “good”. However, I would like even more support for carrying out my voluntary work, such as greater visibility for the rescue dog unit. And of course, more people who are willing to take on a voluntary role for society. Because that, too, contributes to a strong democracy.

Many thanks for the interview!