Events
27 May, 2008
_Office Warming at Das Progressive Zentrum
Katarina
Niewiedzial, the executive director, started the evening by going through the Progressive Zentrum's timeline - from the first idea of setting up a thinktank, to its inception and current projects.
She was followed by Dr. Tobias Dürr, the chairman, who gave a speech (in German) lamenting the present predominance of regressive political forces in Germany. Faced with a fast changing environment, he went on to argue for the necessity of targeting new challenges - climate and demographic change, inequality, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, food shortage - with equally new answers.
In this process, the
Progressive Zentrum aims to establish itself as an institution that produces, gathers and disseminates such innovative ideas to both politicians and the public. It does not seek to act in opposition to existing structures but is eager to cooperate - whereever possible - with like-minded thinkers and practitioners.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder, University of Kassel and member of the advisory council, finished the official part by stressing the surplus of marketing and the lack of substantial ideas in politics as well as the established political parties' structural inhibitions to reform themselves. Therefore, external input is more vital today than ever before - input from thinktanks like the Progressive Zentrum.
