Zukunftsfestival 2025: Rethinking democracy
May 20–22 at Leuphana University of Lüneburg
2025-05-19 Eight ideas. One common goal: to design democracy in a more innovative, vibrant, and resilient way.
At the Helmut Schmidt Future Festival 2025 at Leuphana University, over 100 young forward thinkers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will come together to discuss eight ideas for the next society—from social heritage and the shift to the right on social media to the question of how democracy can be reinvented in the digital age.
In cooperation with DIE ZEIT, the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation, and The New Institute, a space for democratic renewal is being created.
The condensed festival results of this search will flow into a joint democracy manifesto, which will be presented on stage at the Thalia Theater Hamburg at the end of the festival.
Participants include
– Marina Weisband, participation pioneer for grassroots democracy
– Astrid Séville, political theorist with an eye for language and power
– Julius van de Laar, campaigner for resonance and reach
– Johannes Hillje, consultant for a European public sphere in the digital age
– Diana Kinnert, publicist between loneliness and engagement
– Yasmine M'Barek, ZEIT journalist with a clear compass for justice and society
Afterwards, the festival will award the Helmut-Schmidt-Zukunftspreis – this year to artist Ólafur Elíasson and choreographer Sasha Waltz.