Annual Themes

Our anniversary program in 2021 is under the motto “Renewal”. The foundation focuses on the domestic political achievements of the social-liberal coalition in the Brandt era. With various reforms at the beginning of the 1970s, the SPD and FDP pushed ahead with the modernization of the Federal Republic of Germany.

“In a developed society there can only be lasting security through change,” said Willy Brandt in 1969 when explaining his government’s various reform projects. The innovations that came into force in 1971 included: the newly created Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG), the first environmental protection program and the amendment to the law to promote the well-being of employees. In the same year Brandt also publicly used the term “quality of life” for the first time, which combined the humanization of the world of work and the protection of the environment.

In 2021 we will not only remember the reforms and discourses of that time and discuss their long-term effects. We are also grappling with the development of the social democratic parties in Europe over the past 50 years between renewal and decline. Finally, the question of which renewal processes are necessary today for a good future in view of the climate crisis, increasing social division and as a result of the corona pandemic should also be discussed.