Welcome

LIZ MoHN Foundation

The Liz Mohn Foundation is working on international relations, leadership and business, culture and music, and young people. Our work focuses on continuing and further developing the successful formats initiated by Liz Mohn, as well as the implementation of new ideas and projects..

Liz Mohn Foundation

Who we are

The Liz Mohn Foundation continues the activities of the Liz Mohn Center gGmbH and the Liz Mohn Foundation for Culture and Music within one institution. Liz Mohn, the organization’s founder, and Matthias Meis are the members of the foundation’s Executive Board.

One of Liz Mohn’s and her foundation’s heartfelt concerns is building bridges of understanding across languages and borders in order to bring people of different nations, cultures, professions and positions, as well as from different generations, into contact dialogue.

At the same time, Liz Mohn has always known that for peace, prosperity and progress in the world, we need leaders in a variety of fields – from politics to business to culture – who strengthen social cohesion and who motivate people and inspire them to be creative.

The Liz Mohn Foundation therefore uses its projects to develop people and their talens on while encouraging them to participate in society. One of our core convictions in this regard is that culture and music give people self-confidence and bring them into contact with others, and are therefore very important for each individual’s personal development and for society as a whole.

The Liz Mohn Foundation pursues solely and directly philanthropic activities.  Headquartered in Gütersloh, it is an independent foundation under private law in accordance with Section 1 of the Foundation Act of the State of North Rhine–Westphalia. The supervisory authority that oversees its activities is the Detmold District Government..

Our Founder

Liz Mohn

Liz Mohn represents the fifth generation of Bertelsmann’s founding families.

As the initiator and chairwoman of her foundation, she is committed to ensuring a global transfer of knowledge.

 

“For me, every day is a bridge to the future which I’m keen to cross. Life has given me the great good fortune of being able to make a difference. I would like to give others the same opportunity.

I firmly believe you must attempt the impossible if you want to achieve the possible.”

     

She has pooled the successful activities carried out by the Liz Mohn Center gGmbH and the Liz Mohn Foundation for Culture and Music in order to form the Liz Mohn Foundation.

In addition to continuing the events and projects she has initiated herself, one of her special concerns as a philanthropist is launching new innovative activities that contribute to society and make our world a better, fairer and more peaceful place.

Our projects

Topics

The Liz Mohn Foundation accelerates the global transfer of knowledge based on evidence-driven findings and analysis. It does so in order to

  • promote culture, especially in the field of music, and education;
  • improve the quality of decision-making in politics, business and culture;
  • support decision makers in leading sustainably and responsibly;
  • increase understanding between nations and cultures; and
  • promote young talent from different areas of society.

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Current News

Bürgerfest des Bundespräsidenten 2023

10. September 2025

“A Matter of Honor – I’m In”: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Liz Mohn Foundation at the Federal President’s Citizens’ Festival

“A matter of honor – I’m in”. With this motto, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Elke Büdenbender welcome their guests to this year’s Citizens’ Festival in Berlin. On September 13, the head of state invites guests to the park of Bellevue Palace to honor civic engagement in Germany. The[…]
© Jan Voth

5. September 2025

Liz Mohn Foundation and Bethel launch unique nationwide support project

“What did you do today?” asks Liz Mohn. “A scavenger hunt!” comes the reply from the group of children standing in front of her. During her visit to Bielefeld-Bethel, the founder and chairwoman of the Gütersloh-based Liz Mohn Foundation (LMSt) immediately meets the girls and boys from “Growing together. Working[…]
Foto: Besim Mazhiqi

2. September 2025

The majority of young people wish to engage in society and take on responsibility

The representative survey of 12- to 18-year-olds conducted by the Liz Mohn Foundation demonstrates that children and young people want to contribute to society: Young people are in favor of compulsory service regardless of gender, which is to be completed after school, vocational training, or university.[…]
Salzburger Trilog 2025_Foto

29. August 2025

Salzburg Trilogue discusses competitiveness issues against a backdrop of multiple disruptions

On the initiative of former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and founder Liz Mohn, leading personalities from politics, business, and culture gathered for the 24th time at the Salzburg Trilogue to discuss the crucial issues of our time. This year, the focus was on the tension between necessary change and disruptive[…]
© Peter Adamik

8. July 2025

Schools in dialogue with First Lady Elke Büdenbender and Liz Mohn on new digital projects

The Liz Mohn Foundation’s pilot project ‘Learning from each other!’ focuses on the digital training of teachers through mentoring. The focus is on direct dialogue between experienced teachers and young digital experts. Elke Büdenbender and Liz Mohn, the initiators of the program, have now met with the project participants in[…]
250703_besimmazhiqi-16

7. July 2025

Courage, magic and community: ‘Die Weltenspringer und das Portal der Träume’ inspires at Gütersloh Theatre 

150 pupils from Gütersloh and Bielefeld captivated the audience at Gütersloh Theatre with their latest children’s musical ‘The World Jumpers and the Portal of Dreams’. In three sold-out performances, they demonstrated impressively what can happen when imagination, creativity and team spirit come together. The play was created as part of[…]

Contact

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us!

OUR FOUNDER

Building a bridge of understanding across countries, languages and borders and bringing people from different nations and cultures into dialogue is one of our founder’s heartfelt concerns.
About Liz Mohn

Our topics

Through its various activities, the Liz Mohn Foundation accelerates the global transfer of knowledge.
About Our topics

Our team

The team at the Liz Mohn Foundation is committed to developing innovative and socially responsible solutions that strengthen civic engagement.
About our team