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Chapter 4 54 not confined to teaching, nor to child-rearing. Bollnow’s line of argument applies to all Erziehers , i.e. all those in a pedagogical relationship with children. Therefore we choose to leave the word Erziehung untranslated in the following elaboration of his work. Because our main focus is parents we have chosen to translate Erzieher (child-rearer(s)) as ‘parent(s)’. 18 The theme of his book Existenzphilosophie und Pädagogik is to see existential crises as crucial chances for Erziehung . One form of existential crisis is what he calls a Wagnis , which we translate as taking an existential risk. In this part of the paper we will first explain what Bollnow’s notion of existential risk entails, and compare it to two examples of the current discussions on the discourse of risk. Then we will argue that parenthood, as a part of parents’ striving for a flourishing life for their children, is aptly described in terms of taking an existential risk. Das Wagnis (taking an existential risk) Bollnow distinguishes between three manifestations of taking risk in Erziehung : a try or an attempt ( der Versuch ), a risk ( das Risiko ) and a type of existential risk, or venture ( das Wagnis ). 19 An attempt is when you try something, to see whether it works that way or not. The professional variant of an attempt is an experiment. In principle the outcomes of these attempts are ascertainable, they are ‘knowable’. Bollnow uses the example of a new piece of rope, you can try it out ( der Versuch ), and test to see what kind of weight it holds, what you can use it for, etc. But, you can also just take a risk ( das Risiko ) and use the rope to pull up a cabinet to your new apartment on the sixth floor. Then, you don’t know whether it will work, you’ll just have to wait and see what happens and risk your cabinet. With a venture ( das Wagnis ) on the other hand, in the sense that Bollnow is after, the distinctive element is that you risk yourself . It is an existential risk in the sense that you put yourself on the line, and the outcome is in principle unknowable. 20 A venture is not the same as an ad venture, because a Wagnis is a necessary risk, in the sense that Erziehung is not possible without engaging in it, and it is undertaken out of ‘the highest moral responsibility’. 21 Bollnow sketches the analogy of craftsmanship as a much used way of talking about Erziehung . If a sculptor has failed to create the sculpture she had intended to create, this will often be explained as either a failure of the material, a failure of the skills of the craftsman, or as a strike of (external) fate. In educational discourse, there is a tendency (or desire) to think about failures in 18 Bollnow 1959. 19 Ibid., pp. 135-137. 20 ‘ Wir können den Unterschied vielleicht am besten so bestimmen, daß wir sagen: ich riskiere immer etwas, aber ich wage im letzten mich. Wo ich etwas wage, da setze ich mich zugleich immer mit meiner ganzen Person ein’ , Ibid., p. 137. 21 Ibid., p. 139.