Coop Fest at the Millerntor Stadium: A different economy is possible
2025-11-12 Exchange for a new, cooperative economy: On the first anniversary of the Football Cooperative St. Pauli, the Millerntor Stadium became a meeting place for people committed to cooperative, democratic, and resilient economic activity—Charlotte von Wulffen from the Leuphana Social Innovation Community participated in the discussions.
On and between the stages of the Coop Fest, people from a wide variety of fields came together and exchanged ideas on various topics: energy, housing, rural development, digital platforms, business succession, worker cooperatives, and more. The general idea behind the discussions was the same: shaping ownership together, sharing responsibility, and thus making the economy a social project again. Charlotte von Wulffen was particularly impressed by the contributions on rural regions and worker cooperatives: “They make it clear that cooperation is not just a theoretical concept, but can be a real answer to structural challenges.”
Furthermore, cooperative models show that participation and entrepreneurial action reinforce each other. Nevertheless, challenges remain—especially since cooperative financing options have not yet been fully exploited. Formats such as Coop Fest offer a platform for establishing and expanding cooperation in order to overcome existing challenges and generate interfaces between a wide variety of movements.
