Hertie School hosts Innovationsforum 2025 – What Works!

On 24 June 2025, the Hertie School hosted the Innovationsforum 2025 – a one-day conference dedicated to exploring how state action can be made future-proof, effective and democratic in times of growing reform pressure, declining trust and social polarisation.

The event was opened by Prof. Dr Cornelia Woll (President of the Hertie School), Prof. Dr Andrea Römmele (Dean of Executive Education), and Thomas Krüger (President of Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education – bpb). They highlighted that, to respond to the growing urgency of reform, social polarisation, and a loss of trust in the political establishment, we need to forge new alliances and innovative administrative structures, and promote true political participation.

Keynotes, panels and workshops brought together voices from public administration, academia, civil society, and political education to share practical examples and reform ideas from all levels of government. Topics ranged from AI-powered platforms and inclusive administration to citizen participation and inter-ministerial cooperation.

Keynotes and panel stress importance of state resilience and modernisation

In her keynote speech, Barbie Kornelia Haller (Vice President of the German Federal Network Agency) spoke about the measures taken by the agency to overcome the gas supply crisis 2022-2023 and institutional resilience in times of multiple crises. Philipp Amthor, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation, then provided exclusive insights into the newly created ministry, which combines competencies, resources and tasks from several existing ministries.

The keynotes were followed by the panel “How can we make the state more effective again?” with Peer Steinbrück (former German Federal Minister of Finance), Adrian Sonder (Mayor of Freudenstadt and 2018 EMPA graduate) and Julia Borggräfe (Associate Partner at Metaplan). Moderated by Elisabeth Niejahr (Managing Director of the Hertie Foundation), the panellists discussed pragmatic ways to achieve greater impact, implementation capability and strategic thinking in government.

Workshop clusters examine modernisation in key thematic areas

In four parallel workshop clusters, participants explored “what works” in the fields of digitalisation and AI, energy and climate, infrastructure mobility, and demography and migration. One workshop highlighted the inclusion programme of the North Rhine-Westphalian financial administration – a department-wide modernisation project that consistently understands and applies inclusion as a driver of innovation. Another looked at municipal participation using the example of the former citizen participation platform LiquidFriesland.

Concluding events spotlight initiatives to defend and shape democracy

Following the workshops, Bartosz Wieliński (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Wyborcza) gave an impressive keynote speech on the emergence of a strong civil society in Poland – and on democratic resistance to authoritarian tendencies in Europe.

A closing panel delved into perspectives from civil society, administration, academia and education. Under the title “Shaping change, strengthening democracy”, Cemile Giousouf (Deputy President of bpb), Ina Bielenberg (Managing Director of Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten e.V.) and Ekin Deligöz (former Parliamentary State Secretary) discussed new alliances, spaces for self-efficacy and constructive negotiation under the moderation of Helene Bubrowski (Editor-in-Chief of Table.Briefings).

A heartfelt thank you to all speakers, partners and participants for making this day so inspiring and impactful!

The Innovationsforum was organised by Hertie School Executive Education in cooperation with the Hertie Foundation, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), and the Intersectoral School of Governance Baden-Württemberg, with generous support from the Berthold Leibinger Foundation. Media partner: Table.Briefings.

All photos: ©SanyamBajaj