Dear readers,

It has been almost a month since the federal election, and all the excitement that surrounded the election campaign, the ongoing division of social groups, continues unabated, even though the designated new federal government under Merz negotiated an amendment to the Basic Law with the remaining government in the old Bundestag just last week. The question marks in my head about what is happening in politics are not getting any smaller. 

The shock and outrage over the minor interpellation by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on 24 February 2025 regarding financing politically active civil society organisations, was also significant for us. As a member of the „Alliance for Legal Certainty in Political Decision-Making“, we have been observing with concern for some time how politically active NGOs are systematically reported to the tax authorities and discredited. Read more about the background to this below.

As political debates become increasingly polarised, civil society faces a crucial question: how can we make a meaningful contribution to social cohesion?

We see our contribution at the interfaces between organisations, society and politics. Just this January, we published our purpose here, which states, among other things, that „In the face of growing social tensions, resilience, confidence and the courageous clarification of relationships are particularly important to us.“  

This commitment plays just as important a role in our process consulting work as it does in our range of events: strategy development, network building, team resilience, self-efficacy and complexity are our daily companions. With our experience and expertise, we help to ensure that civil society remains stable and capable of action, constantly finding new ways to build bridges that can withstand the current storms. 

On oe-tag 2025 This year, we will also be exploring the interface between organisations and the broad field of politics, history and society. We are delighted that our programme is slowly taking shape and becoming more concrete. On 13 June 2025 in Halle, we want to join you in searching for traces of how West and East German influences shape our personal and professional biographies, experiences of transformation, organisational cultures, and power and rank dynamics influence our interactions within organisations. The line-up will be filling up nicely over the next few weeks. Join us in looking forward to a rich day in beautiful Halle!

Nicola Kriesel