In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic made us more aware of our vulnerability – as a group, as a community, as citizens of Europe. This insight strengthens our solidarity with each other and our determination to find innovative solutions for challenges. The search for strategies that can promote innovative capacity in Germany and Europe – carried out in connection with the Reinhard Mohn Prize – has become more timely than ever.
Last year, the media increasingly reported on events both here and in the United States that call democratic values and the rule of law into question. Our projects therefore focused on ways to reinforce pluralistic democracy and promote civic engagement. The Citizens’ Dialogues – a forum we developed – brought together people from different communities, including hundreds of Europeans, to deepen the exchange between policy makers, public administrators and individual citizens. The responsibility each of us bears is more important today than ever before. That is something Reinhard Mohn clearly recognized when he made his appeal to courageously “insist on and allow for personal responsibility.”
We invested €74 million in our nonprofit activities last year. Our 2020 Annual Report provides a clear overview of the resources we dedicated to our project work and explains the issues we focused on and how we made a difference.
If you would like more details on individual topics or projects, please do not hesitate to contact one of our experts directly. We would be pleased to hear any ideas or suggestions you might have.