Our Projects

Who we are /​ Project activities
As of November 2020

LibMod stands up for the defense and renewal of the open society. Liberal modernity as such, i.e. the combi­na­tion of indi­vidual freedom, demo­c­ratic republic, cosmopoli­tanism, science-based inno­va­tion and cultural diversity, is facing strong pressure worldwide. Liberal democ­ra­cies are being chal­lenged from within, by populist and anti­de­mo­c­ratic movements and parties, as well as by author­i­tarian regimes such as China and Russia. In times of funda­mental and rapid change – glob­al­iza­tion, digital revo­lu­tion, climate change and worldwide migration – there is a need for cross-partisan reflec­tion about the future of open societies and the inter­na­tional order.

In our view, indi­vidual freedom and social cohesion, personal respon­si­bility and strong public insti­tu­tions, belong together. LibMod wants to provide a meeting place for free thinkers from different political camps, looking for liberal answers to the chal­lenges of our time and promoting political thought in that spirit. The Center for Liberal Modernity (LibMod) was founded in 2017 by Ralf Fücks and Marieluise Beck who have both been engaged in German politics for more than 35 years.

=> More infor­ma­tion on our website: https://libmod.de/en/

Project Overview (selected projects)

Security in Times of Change

The key question of this project is what answers liberal democracy can find to the chal­lenges of rapid change and the resulting inse­cu­rity. We cannot shield ourselves from the great turmoil of our time but rather must take this as a challenge.

The guiding principle for demo­c­ratic politics should not be security by isolation but rather security in times of change. This involves much more than simply adjusting to perceived factual constraints. We have to shape trans­for­ma­tion processes proac­tively and strengthen trust in demo­c­ratic politics’ ability to govern.

As part of this project, a 14-member commis­sion of experts presented the results of their work concerning the key questions of security in times of rapid change, in March 2019. In this report, 55 concrete recom­men­da­tions were made for action in the fields of education and training, social security, internal security and public insti­tu­tions. The report of the Expert Commis­sion can be down­loaded here: www.sicherheitimwandel.de (in German), or parts of the report in English here: https://libmod.de/en/security-in-times-of-change/
Following up on the Commis­sion, we want to look deeper into a number of the proposals made in the report. We started with the basic educa­tional income for lifelong learning this summer. This concept, which puts the financing of contin­uous training on a new basis, is to be developed further. We are currently working on a study to examine what indi­vidual, social and economic effects a basic educa­tional income may develop in the German context. It will be presented in January 2021.

Renewal of Liberalism

LibMod is part of an inter­na­tional discus­sion with liberal-demo­c­ratic think tanks and intel­lec­tuals, including the “Forum 2000” in Prague, the Polish “Kultura Liberalna” and the IDC Herzlyia in Israel. We partic­i­pate in confer­ences and seminars. In October 2020, our first inter­na­tional networking workshop “Rethinking Liber­alism” was held in Berlin as a hybrid offline/​online event. The all-day seminar was attended by scholars and political intel­lec­tuals from 10 countries. We intend to expand these activ­i­ties further in 2021.

As a part of our “Renewal of Liber­alism” project we are also coop­er­ating with “Das Progres­sive Zentrum” to organize the “Chal­lenging Democracy” event series, which examines the chal­lenges that populism and anti-liberal movements pose for democracy. We are also conducting our “Liberal Modernity Salon” in Berlin regularly, to serve as a forum for intel­lec­tual discus­sions across party lines.

Ecolog­ical Modernization

Today’s economy needs too many resources to be sustain­able. How can we “grow smartly” and maintain a liberal way of life without destroying global ecosys­tems? A key to recov­ering the economic dynamic and confi­dence in the ability of demo­c­ratic policies to act, is the ecolog­ical modern­iza­tion of indus­trial society. It links the protec­tion of the planetary ecosys­tems with a new boost in

scien­tific and tech­no­log­ical inno­va­tion. We can tackle climate change, the over­ex­ploita­tion of natural resources, the threat to the oceans and the loss of fertile arable land. At the same time, “zero growth” is neither desirable nor realistic given the needs of billions of people. The answer to the ecolog­ical challenge lies in the decou­pling of economic value added and natural consump­tion. This requires nothing less than a new indus­trial revo­lu­tion that includes a long wave of inno­va­tion, invest­ment and employment.

Part of the project was the publi­ca­tion of an edited volume of the Renewal of the market economy by LibMod Managing Director Ralf Fücks and Thomas Köhler of the Konrad Adenauer Foun­da­tion. In this book, well-known authors discuss the regu­la­tory guide­lines for the ecolog­ical devel­op­ment of the indus­trial society on a market-based foundation.

In coop­er­a­tion with the German aviation industry, we also organize a high-profile series of talks with repre­sen­ta­tives of aviation and parlia­men­tar­ians, members of the govern­ment and scien­tists. The aim is to identify key guide­lines for the future of sustain­able aviation. The project will run until December 2020. We plan to continue this format with other industries.

As part of this topic we are also engaged in the discus­sion about climate change and democracy to consider this subject from a less technical perspec­tive. The question is what liberal answers we can give to climate change without resorting to author­i­tarian measures such as bans. We are conducting discus­sions on that question in different formats, e.g. at the Forum 2000, together with the German Agency for Civic Engage­ment, at our Salon Liberale Moderne etc.

O[s]tklick

The initia­tive “o[s]tklick — demokratisch antworten” (literal trans­la­tion: eastklick — answering demo­c­ra­t­i­cally) supports german reset­tlers from Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union in the promotion of demo­c­ratic discourse in Social Media and instant messenger services. By doing so, it encour­ages coun­ter­speech to illiberal and far-right populist propa­ganda targeted at the community.

o[s]tklick is a play on words. In German, the [s] allows it to be read as “klick from the East”, whereas the absence of the [s] turns it into the russian equiv­a­lent to answer, resonance or echo.

Starting point of the project are video inter­views. These are built on the diversity of the community and personal life stories, covering topics such as democracy, discrim­i­na­tion, equality of oppor­tu­nity and migration. These and other contents are promoted/​distributed? via social media. In addition to the online activ­i­ties, o[s]tklick offers workshops on freedom of speech, disin­for­ma­tion and strate­gies against populist discourse.

The project is funded for 2,5 years by the Robert Bosch Foun­da­tion and by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community.

Analyzing Adver­saries

The “Liberal Democracy and Its Adver­saries” project examines the history of anti-liberal thought from the Weimar Republic to the present day and discusses its impor­tance for analyzing and dealing with the opponents of the open society today. The aim is to provide material to citizens’ initia­tives, schools and other insti­tu­tions, indi­vid­uals and orga­ni­za­tions in the field of civic education and also to jour­nal­ists to support their inves­ti­ga­tion of anti-demo­c­ratic forces.

Critical analyses of 16 influ­en­tial anti-liberal thinkers and their ideas are posted on the website www.gegneranalyse. de and subse­quen­tially published as an anthology “Das alte Denken den Neuen Rechten” (“The Old Thinking of the New Right” Frankfurt 2020, all in German).

In 2021, we want to focus on the new coali­tions between the alter­na­tive and middle-class milieu and right-wing actors and alter­na­tive media driving the anti-Covid-19 protests in Germany.

Inter­na­tional Projects 

Russia

Russia has been high on LibMod’s agenda since we started in 2017. Our aim is to deepen dialogue with those in favour of a modern, liberal society. We have two confer­ence formats that regularly bring together experts from Russia and many other countries — the Yury-Schmidt-Confer­ence looks at human rights, while “Russia and the West” is all about foreign policy towards Russia. More details about our Russia-related work can be found on www.russlandverstehen.eu (German), our website devoted to under­standing Russia.

Ukraine

LibMod runs several Ukraine-related pro­jects, making the centre the largest Ukrai­nian initia­tive (by the number of pro­jects, areas of inter­ven­tion and human resour­ces invol­ved) among German non-profit orga­ni­za­tions. Our work includes parlia­men­tary consul­ta­tions with the Verkhovna Rada, expert discus­sions and EU policy briefings. You can find an English-language overview about our Ukraine-related projects on www.ukraineverstehen.de, our website devoted on all things Ukrainian. The German-language site offers regular updates on the state of reforms, and on human rights in Eastern Ukraine and on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Commem­o­ra­tion of the Holocaust

Our remem­brance projects aim to reveal the largely unknown fate of the Jewish popu­la­tion in Ukraine during World War II. In 2021, we laid the foun­da­tion for a new memorial at the site of the 1941 Odesa massacre. More on this project, which is funded by the German Society for Inter­na­tional Coop­er­a­tion (GIZ) can be read here (in German).

Eastern Part­ner­ship 2.0

Launched in October 2019, this project brings inno­v­a­tive ideas and policy recom­men­da­tions from the eastern part­ner­ship countries to Berlin. This provides experts and NGOs from Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia with a platform to work together to develop recom­men­da­tions for action to be taken by Germany and the EU. The project is supported by the Open Society Foun­da­tions and was prolonged in 2021. Read more about it at Eastern Part­ner­ship Plus.

Climate Change and Economic Modern­iza­tion in Russia
Is there a future beyond oil, gas & coal for Russia and how to get there?

The Russian lead­er­ship continues to rely on oil, gas and coal as the economic backbone of the political system that has developed since Putin came to power. This fossil-fuel-based model is increas­ingly conflicting with the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and stands in the way of a general modern­iza­tion and diver­si­fi­ca­tion of the Russian economy. The project’s purpose is to promote and broaden the modern­iza­tion discourse in Russia against the backdrop of climate change and to develop scenarios of change towards an ecolog­ical modern­iza­tion of the Russian economy.