{"id":248256,"date":"2025-10-24T17:45:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socius.de\/?p=248256"},"modified":"2026-06-15T13:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:40:35","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socius.de\/en\/story-wurzeln\/historie\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\"><div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_block_row\"><div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><h2><b>How it all began<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It all started with the realisation that non-profit organisations need their own specific type of \"management consultancy\". With this idea<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rudi Piwko<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In 1998, with the support of legendary inventor Prof. Artur Fischer, SOCIUS was established as a non-profit limited liability company. In the early days, the focus was on specific needs such as fundraising and public relations. With the help of the Theodor Heuss Foundation (Hildegard Hamm-Br\u00fccher), the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Mitarbeit Foundation, the first consulting projects were carried out nationally and in Eastern Europe in the early years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together with<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Baier<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Andreas Knoth<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (joined in 2002) and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nicola Kriesel<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kerstin Engelhardt<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (launched in 2005), the range of services was expanded to include more process-oriented topics such as team development and mediation. In 2009, the expanded structure was also given a new legal basis when all consultants became shareholders in the non-profit limited liability company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As things started to get more stable, we thought about setting up more non-profit SOCIUS companies in Hamburg, Cologne, and Munich under the umbrella of the socius cooperative, which was founded in 2010. However, we had overestimated our capabilities with this ambitious plan and, after three years, we had to conclude that the key ingredient of our collaboration, personal collegial contact, cannot be scaled arbitrarily. We remain connected to our former colleagues in a spirit of partnership, but are now focusing on sustainable organic growth within the Berlin team. Since 2005, interns and trainees have repeatedly found a professional home and learning environment here for the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ralph Piotrowski, Josephine Ulrich<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joana Ebbinghaus<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Since 2010, additional colleagues with corresponding additional skills and perspectives have joined the team in subsequent years. At the same time, the handover of management from founder Rudi Piwko to Andreas Knoth and Christian Baier took place under the umbrella of a \u201egenerational change\u201c. A development that - like most of the processes we accompany - is a mixture of respect for history and orientation towards the ability to act in new structures. As a political model of equal co-determination, the SOCIUS cooperative forms the defining compass and framework for the internal organisation of our cooperation. It provides space for further development from the pioneering phase to a model in which all participants assume joint responsibility and creative roles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In slow \u201ebiological\u201c cycles, SOCIUS has developed into a healthy organisation that is consistent with our values, without losing any of its dynamism and agility. The mix of public tenders, independent development processes, and our own and outsourced events and training courses ensures that our activities are balanced in terms of both content and finances. Since mid-2014, we have taken on<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Denise N\u00f6renberg<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> our accounting and seminar administration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2017, Simon Mohn joined the team as a permanent member, representing the next generation, followed by<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Julia Hoffmann<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which became part of SOCIUS in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the need for supportive networks, so in the same year we strengthened our ties with our network of advisors and are delighted to have a community that has grown stronger ever since \u2013 the Nextwerk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This growth is also reflected in our relocations. Every eight years, we moved to new premises: from the shop office in Charlottenburg, which measured 70 square metres, from 1998 to 2006, to the 140-square-metre office floor opposite until 2014. Today, we occupy 220 square metres in a central location on the Landwehr Canal in Kreuzberg, with seminar rooms and a lounge with a wood-burning stove, creating a productive atmosphere for professional exchange and social interaction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We still have a \"desire for development\" and want to grow moderately by one or two more colleagues and explore new fields and forms of work. You can find out more about our own learning experiences and insights in the context of organisational development in our<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SOCIUS brief<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As of 2020<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story-wurzeln"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Historie - SOCIUS Organisationsberatung gGmbH<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/socius.de\/en\/story-roots\/history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Historie - 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