PRESS RELEASE "Important and valuable contribution"
Internationaler Demokratiepreis Bonn e.V. on the plans to strengthen Bonn as a place to promote democracy
The Letter of Intent signed today (January 24, 2025), which sets out the key points agreed to date between the federal government and the city and region of Bonn, also includes a passage on strengthening Bonn as a place for democracy education, including by establishing a network of all institutions for democracy education, in particular the authentic places that have brought the Basic Law to life over the decades. Bonn could then be developed into a "collaborative democracy landscape". The federal government has commissioned a corresponding study. The subsequent use of Palais Schaumburg is also to be integrated into this context.
The association Internationaler Demokratiepreis Bonn e.V. (IDP) expressly welcomes this development: "A network for democracy education and the design of Palais Schaumburg as a kind of 'House of Democracy' would be an important and, above all, valuable contribution at a time when our democracy is no longer perceived by many as the greatest good of our coexistence. We must constantly remind ourselves of the importance of democratic structures and, above all, make them tangible," said Professor Dorothee Dzwonnek, Chairwoman of IDP e.V., on Friday following the publication of the letter of intent.
Jürgen Nimptsch, Deputy Chairman of the IDP, is also personally delighted. In 2012, as Lord Mayor, together with the then District Administrator of the Rhein-Sieg district, Fritjof Kühn, he had first called for the Berlin-Bonn Act to be supplemented by a treaty. "What takes a long time can now finally become good," said Nimptsch.
The IDP e.V. has been awarding the Bonn International Democracy Prize since 2009. Since 2024, there has been a cooperation with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Bonn to jointly award the International Prize for Democracy and the Rule of Law in the future.