In Berlin, referendums and petitions for referendums are not only a political issue, they also have societal relevance. That is why, in June 2008, the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin sought to instigate talks with representatives of citizens’ initiatives, political parties and legal experts. This resulted in the creation of a working group with a view to discussing basic options for improving direct-democratic procedures in Berlin. This discussion process led to the drafting of joint recommendations on referendums and petitions for referendums in Berlin. The addressee of these proposals is the Berlin House of Representatives.

Current Members of the Working Group:
Dr. Michael Efler (More Democracy Association), Jürgen Engert (Journalist), Prof. Peter Fissenewert (Lawyer), Dr. Klaus-Martin Groth (Lawyer, Former Judge at the Berlin Administrative Court), Prof. Monika Grütters MdB (CDU), Dr. Volker Hassemer (Stiftung Zukunft Berlin), Prof. Dr. Michael Kloepfer (Humboldt-Universität Berlin), Dr. Andreas Köhler (SPD Parliamentary Group in the Berlin House of Representatives), Dr. Christoph Lehmann (Initiative Pro Reli), Andreas Peter (ICAT e.V.), Jörn Sack (Former legal adviser to the European Commission, freelance writer), Wolfgang Wieland MdB (Alliance ’90 / The Greens).

The Initiative is supported by a high-ranking Advisory Board chaired by Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament. Other members include Hans-Gert Pöttering (MEP, former EP President, Deputy Chairman of the Board), Doris Pack (MEP, Chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education), Dieter Berg (Chairman of the Robert Bosch Stiftung’s Board of Management) and Erhard Busek (Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe). The Advisory Board’s parliamentary cross-party group performs a bridge function between civil-society initiative and the influence of political decision-makers.

The Steering Committee was set up as a communication platform to successfully integrate the project’s main aspects – clean energy in the narrow sense and social and cultural energy in a broader sense – with reference to Berlin. This is where decision-makers and those bearing responsibility meet to exchange ideas and decide where action needs to be taken. At regular meetings, the current status of project work is measured against the agreed project goals in order to make progress transparent, work out what further measures are needed and modify and complement goals.

The members of the “Pure Energy” Steering Committee are:
Olaf Achilles (systaic AG), Günther Bachmann (German Council for Sustainable Development), Klaus J. Beckmann (German Institute of Urban Affairs), Frank Behrendt (Technische Universität Berlin), Wolfgang Branoner (Stobbe Nymoen & Partner consult GbR), Lutz Engelke (Triad Berlin GmbH), Jörg Franzen (Gesobau AG), Manfred Gentz (Zurich Financial Services Ltd), Ansgar Gessner (Triad Berlin GmbH), Volker Hassemer (Stiftung Zukunft Berlin), Barbara John (Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband), Jens Krause (IFHP Congress Office), Rudolf Kujath (SOPHIA Berlin GmbH), Christoph Mojen (ECO Plan), Klaus Pitschke (Vattenfall Europe), Stefan Richter (Triad Berlin GmbH), Rudolf Schäfer (Technische Universität Berlin), Bernhard Schneider (Initiative "A Soul for Europe"), Klaus Töpfer (Stiftung Zukunft Berlin), Siegfried Zhiqiang Wu (Tongji University), Klaus Zillich (Architekturpreis Berlin e.V.).

The Cooperation Conference is designed to stimulate concrete, task-oriented cooperation between policy-makers and civil society in Berlin. This objective is actively supported by the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin and its project partners: the Bürgerstiftung Berlin (Citizens Foundation Berlin), the Berlin Chamber of Small Business and Skilled Crafts (HWK Berlin), the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK Berlin), the Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband (German Social Welfare Federation) Berlin and the Association of Berlin Merchants and Industrialists (VBKI). At the first Cooperation Conference, held on 6 July 2007, concrete agreements were reached with the parliamentary groups in Berlin’s House of Representatives – all of whom were represented by their respective chairpersons – on future cooperation between civil society and policy-makers on issues crucial to the city.

Citizens and Schools and Creativity Cluster are among the work areas that emerged from the 2007 Cooperation Conference.

The Stiftung Zukunft Berlin’s Humboldt-Forum Working Group aims to help make the Humboldt-Forum a platform for intercultural dialogue instead of just a museum. The debate on the future challenges facing the global community will also draw on the Humboldt-Forum’s collections, turning the entire institution into an agora or place of assembly. The Humboldt-Forum Working Group is developing ideas and concepts for this purpose, trying out suitable modi operandi for the Forum, formulating the relevant architectural and spatial requirements and presenting them for discussion – in a variety of event formats – to those officially involved in the Humboldt-Forum as well as to multipliers from the culture, art, architecture, media and political sectors and to the public at large.
Vigorous debate on the Humboldt-Forum as an agora for a networked world is designed to create widespread enthusiasm for the project and make it a quite unique venture.

The members of the Humboldt-Forum Working Group are:

• Eckhardt Barthel: former SPD Bundestag Parliamentary Group Spokesman on Cultural Affairs
• Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer: Professor at the Institute for Music at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
• Klaus Brake: Architect und Town Planner, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Metropolitan Studies of TU Berlin, Head of the Working Group
• Nele Hertling: Vice-President of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
• Thomas Krüger: President of the Federal Agency for Civic Education
• Kerstin Lassnig: urbanprojects berlin, Member of Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche e.V.
• Siegfried Paul: Managing Director mediapool Veranstaltungsservice
• Jürgen Schleicher: former Chancellor of the Universität der Künste
• Christian Schneegass: Head of Department Arts and Society at the Academy of Arts, Berlin
• Bernhard Schneider: Initiative „A Soul for Europe“
• Gereon Sievernich: Director of the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin
• Vera Sturm: Theatre Director
• Herbert Wiesner: Secretary General P.E.N. Zentrum Deutschland

The Sports Metropolis Berlin Working Group is in charge of implementing the Sports Metropolis Berlin project at the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin. With this project, it is actively seeking to strengthen the role of sport in Berlin’s future development. To this end, several scientifically supported projects are in preparation: on the importance of sport in preventive health care, as a means to promote integration and on the role of the media as multipliers to increase the broad impact of what Berlin has to offer in the way of sport.

Current members of the working group are:

Klaus Böger (Former Senator, President of Berlin Regional Sports Association), Werner Gegenbauer (President of Hertha BSC Berlin Football Club), Dr. Volker Hassemer (Stiftung Zukunft Berlin), Sascha Janzen (Anschutz Entertainment Group), Werner Knetsch (TIMES Consulting & Commerce GmbH), Detlef Kornett (Anschutz Entertainment Group), Thomas Mecke (NuonDeutschland GmbH)