At the forum’s events, which have been held regularly since September 2017, Germany’s federal president engages in discussions with German and international guests from academia, politics, culture, business and civil society.
The forum creates a space for controversial questions and new perspectives, and for an open discussion of the conditions required for liberal democracy to succeed and the challenges it faces.
Launched in September 2017 by Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in cooperation with the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the forum’s events allowed the federal president to engage in regular discussions with German and international experts from academia, politics, culture, business and civil society. The series created a space to pose controversial questions and explore new perspectives, with a focus on an open investigation of the conditions required for liberal democracy to succeed and the challenges it faces. During their talks, the federal president and his guests examined a range of topics: the impact of digitalization, the influence of demographic change on society’s ability to innovate, the crisis affecting representative democracy, the role of religion in social and cultural conflicts, and the question of how much inequality democracy can tolerate.
