Who are we and what motivated us to found a Rotary Club with the theme Living Democracy?

We are 12 women and 12 men from the Hochtaunus district, Berlin and Munich and founded the first theme club in District 1820 in April 2025. Some of us were already Rotarians, other friends are new members. Couples and family members can also become a member of our club. The youngest is in his early 30s, the oldest 81 years old. Since our establishment, we have already received a number of inquiries from people interested in joining.

We do not want to remain inactive in the face of the increase in right-wing populist to right-wing extremist, anti-democratic discourse, the multitude of hate and false information in public and online. Our democracy is in danger of being destroyed if it also loses support in society.

What do we stand for?

We want to actively counteract these worrying developments in order to not only protect our democracy, but also bring it to life by standing up for it as part of this democracy and promoting its protection. We therefore want to strengthen our democracy through education and the teaching of democratic values such as human dignity, freedom, tolerance, respect and inclusion.

How do we do this?

We want to engage courageously and resolutely. We see important content in confronting enemies of democracy, teaching lessons from German history and the fight against forgetting, and strengthening the exercise of human and civil rights. We want to promote this content with different target and age groups. So not only children / young people / young voters, but also adults and older people. We take a hands-on approach and seek direct dialogue, but we also want to promote and strengthen the work of the numerous civil society organizations and associations.

What is special about our theme club?

We maintain a friendly atmosphere like many other clubs, but work together in a networked and sometimes decentralized manner across several locations in order to achieve our goals. Our meetings take place at different locations, always hybrid. We communicate and work together digitally to a large extent. We promote projects “agilely” in small “task teams”.

What do we offer, what do we want?

We seek and offer networking and contacts around the topic of protecting democracy and understand this as a contribution to living democracy. This is not only a challenge, but also a great opportunity to realize Rotary goals and ideals. Protecting democracy is our contribution to “service above self”.

We look forward to many contacts and like-minded people along the way.