How can young people be inspired by international politics? The impressive answer from this year’s “Zeitenwende on tour” dialogue event in Gütersloh: if young people are taken seriously, given a platform for their questions and experiences and thus enabled to have an open exchange, they will engage in lively discussions about global conflicts and their impact on their everyday lives despite differing opinions.
On Monday afternoon, 23 June, four schools from Gütersloh, Rietberg and Paderborn and around 150 young people took part in the third Townhall Conference organized by the Liz Mohn Foundation and the Munich Security Conference at the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s premises in Gütersloh.
In her welcoming address, Liz Mohn, Chairwoman of the Board of the foundation named after her, explained to the students the importance of transnational exchange and an interest in international contexts: “In our divided world, we need to get to know each other again and bring cultures and religions closer together. Right now we need to build bridges, not walls.”
This year, the discussion focused on the difficult situation in two countries: Ukraine and Syria. However, recent developments in Iran also prompted questions. As in the previous year, TV host Nina Moghaddam moderated the dialogue event and, right at the start, drew a connection between the attacks in Iran and her personal life: “Every evening, I write to my family there to find out if my relatives are okay. In the morning, I check my phone for replies as soon as I wake up.”
The ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine was clearly on the minds of the young people on stage and in the audience. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matwijtschuk gave an impressive live account from Kyiv of the Russian bombing of the Ukrainian capital the previous night.
Security expert Nico Lange then discussed Germany’s role in the Ukraine war and the confusing situation in Syria after years of civil war with four students from Gütersloh, Rietberg, and Paderborn on stage. The stage design of “Zeitenwende on tour” in arena format, with the audience seated all around, contributed to the dynamic nature of the conversation.
For three young people on stage, the current world situation became a very personal confrontation with world politics: Arash Azimi gave an emotional account of his escape from Afghanistan as a young boy with his family. Vladyslava Matiss left Ukraine in 2022 and, after arriving in Germany, founded an association to connect young people who, like her, come from Ukraine. Moaiad Habboub came to Germany from Syria nine years ago. He wanted to avoid being drafted into the Syrian army under dictator Assad. After fleeing across Turkey and the Balkan route, he has been living in Germany since 2015, now has a German passport, and is a dual student at the Bertelsmann-Berufskolleg. Liz Mohn particularly praised the achievements of these young people: “I have great respect for what these young people have achieved in Germany in just a few years.”
The town hall discussion became particularly interesting when the students shared controversial opinions with the plenary, such as whether Germany should continue to support Ukraine or whether the young people themselves would take up arms in the event of a defense. The thematic overlaps between the various conflicts also created some memorable moments: “For me, the Russian attack on Ukraine was a very emotional moment,” Moaiad Habboub told the young people present, “because I had fled the war in Syria to safety in Germany. And suddenly there was war in Europe. I couldn’t sleep properly for days.”
After the 90-minute dialogue event, the exchange was not over yet: the students in the audience continued their lively discussions with experts from the Bertelsmann Stiftung at themed tables in the foyer and took the opportunity to ask questions that hadn’t been covered in the discussion.
The Liz Mohn Foundation held the “Zeitenwende on tour” conference for the third time this year in Gütersloh in cooperation with the Munich Security Conference, this time with students from the Friedrich-Spee-Gesamtschule Paderborn, the Richard-von-Weizsäcker-Gesamtschule Rietberg, the Evangelisch Stiftisches Gymnasium and the Bertelsmann Berufskolleg in Gütersloh.
The Munich Security Conference series has been touring Germany since 2022, enabling citizens across the country to engage in open discussion about current German security policy. The unique feature in Gütersloh is the age of the audience: here, the town hall event is aimed explicitly and exclusively at school students, giving young people a voice in this format.
