Berlin is European Volunteering Capital 2021!

By Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin

With this wonderful news, dear readers, I would like to set the scene for a topic very close to my heart – the voluntary activities of people dedicated to helping others in their free time and, in this way, making Berlin a livable city, an appealing and open metropolis, and a place that is home to nearly four million Berliners.

It is the volunteers who constitute the soul of Berlin as the European Volunteering Capital – something we can all be proud of. Their commitment is vital in supporting social cohesion in our society. It strengthens a sense of community, creates a feeling of solidarity, and fills our society with life. What’s more, it is the very heart of our democratic society, since democracy lives from cooperating, joining in, participation and discussions. And it also lives from an encouragement to others to contribute their own notions and ideas.

When people feel responsible for democracy, for their city and their milieu, we all profit – and hardly any other time has shown that as clearly as during the Covid-19 pandemic. Without the support of neighbours and friends, this situation would be immeasurably more difficult for many people – whether it is a question of shopping, taking the dog for a walk, or going to the local pharmacy. And with no one there at times just to exchange a kind word as well, how much lonelier would many people be? Such gestures of humanity and human contact are incredibly important, especially in a city like Berlin where countless people live alone, and they help to cope with these difficult days.

The food banks have many volunteers helping to distribute food to the needy.

I am very grateful to see, despite the constraints over so many months, so many volunteers ready to roll up their sleeves and lend a hand wherever help is needed. In this process, their creativity is truly impressive – and evident, for instance, at the Berliner Tafel food banks. When the rooms hosting free food distribution had to close, volunteers were immediately on hand to organise cargo bikes to deliver the food to the needy. Here, the creative activities in many residential quarters are another example, with residents called on across the city to join the “neighbourhood challenge”. Others set up their sewing machines and spontaneously supplied entire apartment blocks with simple face masks. And then there were some sending handwritten postcards of greetings to older people in care facilities, giving them a real moment of joy. There are many, many more initiatives which could be mentioned as well. We could all see this huge wave of willingness to help from Berliners only too ready to volunteer and join in – and it shows just how strong our society is when it really matters.

Behind the many wonderful activities, there are the faces of individual people who have accomplished something quite remarkable in the coronavirus crisis. Many of their portraits can be seen on Bürgeraktiv, our citizens’ action platform. Not only do these portraits illustrate the diversity of activities, but also the diversity of volunteers – old and young, newcomers and old-established residents, people from diverse backgrounds, different faiths, and cultural traditions. Their commitment and dedication is as diverse and colourful as Berlin itself.

In particular, I am glad they also include many who, not so long ago, arrived here themselves as refugees. After the traumatic experiences of fleeing their homes, they have found confidence and courage in our city, want to give back something to society, and are now actively helping their own neighbourhoods. The GoVolunteer initiative, with its team of people with and without refugee backgrounds, is presently running a campaign to heighten awareness of these activities and commitment. To motivate others, it is also telling the volunteers’ own stories – people like Semih from Syria, who goes shopping for older people, or Sandi, who sewed innumerable face masks, or Osama, a volunteer interpreter in hospitals. They and their stories stand as exemplary for the many other refugees who are also numbered among those making our city into the Volunteering Capital.

The coronavirus pandemic not only brought out the best sides of Berlin’s population, but also showed where we have to do more to support volunteers. Over the last months, many associations have experienced major
difficulties due, for example, to members resigning. This leaves a shortage of volunteers and undermines an association’s ability to fund its activities as well – a situation not only wearing, but also making it more difficult to work for a good cause. Here, the Berlin Senate was quick to provide help for associations and volunteer organisations and will be continuing this programme of support.

In the pandemic, it was also good to be able to fall back on structures already in place, such as our volunteer agencies, which the Berlin Senate now funds in all Berlin’s boroughs. Together with the Stadtteilzentren (city district centres), these could be further evolved into borough coordination offices for volunteers during the pandemic. In this way, they could also set up a joint phone hotline, first and foremost providing help for those without internet access.

Other actors in volunteering services also found creative solutions for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. For instance, the Berlin Volunteer Exchange, an annual event promoting the volunteer activities of associations and organisations, quickly switched to a digital format. As a virtual meeting, the Berlin Foundation Day (Stiftungstag), a forum we provide for non-profit foundations, also met with considerable resonance. In times of crisis, it is also important to offer volunteers a forum where they can meet and exchange views.

The Covid-19 pandemic not only shows us how much we depend on volunteers particularly in such difficult times, but also how much good we have already achieved through the volunteering structures in Berlin. We want to build on this basis, further improving the conditions to support the dedication and commitment of volunteers in future. In Berlin’s Volunteering Strategy 2020–2025, we have brought together a raft of measures which we will now further develop. The aim is to make it even easier for people to join in volunteering activities, to dismantle barriers, and address all groups in Berlin’s population. Volunteering and civic activism need spaces and a framework of support, as well as funding and well organised structures. Working together with many civil society initiatives and actors, we have now planned and drafted a strategy to achieve just this. Here too, it is important to realise social engagement cannot happen over people’s heads, but only together with them.

In my view, one thing is especially crucial – we must not only promote volunteering and social engagement across its full spectrum and in all its diversity, but also spotlight and publicly acknowledge its importance. Volunteers willingly give their time and energy for others and hence for our city as a whole – something we should not forget!

Volunteers gather to help on a clean-up day in Friedrichshain park.

Over the last years, we have set up a series of awards designed precisely to highlight the commitment and dedication of volunteers. For our “Berlin says thank you” day of action, we invite several hundred volunteers to join us for breakfast in the Rotes Rathaus, while many cultural and leisure facilities also offer volunteers free entry. In a similar spirit, the #FARBENBEKENNEN Award honours volunteers with a refugee background, while the Berlin Business Prize pays tribute to the contribution of companies and their employees to our society. As this all shows, the Berlin Senate sees civil society involvement and commitment as vitally important.

I am very glad our capital city is today home to innumerable civil society organisations and initiatives, including around 26,500 associations and nearly 1,000 foundations with legal capacity under civil law. Many of these serve non-profit goals. In addition to civil society organisations steeped in tradition – foundations, societies, and associations – and the various forms of voluntary work organised by the state, a dynamic start-up culture has also developed in the sector serving public welfare.

At the heart of this engagement lies a defining vision of a free, democratic, and self-confident society, which also takes up and defends its rights to participation and involvement. My impression is that when it comes to demanding their democratic rights, people here are ready to raise their voices faster than anywhere else in Germany – and that is a good thing. It not only strengthens our democracy but also, at the same time, the individual’s responsibility for society and the common good. As the Berlin Senate, we support this in many ways, for instance, with the new centres for civic participation in the boroughs or through funding model projects to try out new methods to increase public civic involvement.

In my view, civic activism against discrimination, anti-Semitism and racism is especially important. I observe the growing anti-democratic movement in Germany and Europe with considerable concern. We cannot afford to be passive and withdraw into the private sphere. On the contrary, we need people who are courageous and ready to take a stance to decisively oppose hatred and prejudice. I am very glad that we can regularly see how people take to the streets to protest against anti-democratic forces, anti-Semitism and racism, just as they have done in cases of attacks against members of our Jewish communities. Time and again, people of all ages, beliefs and ethnicities have taken to the streets to protest against such attacks. Many on these demonstrations have been marked by their experiences in the GDR, and some even by life under the Nazi dictatorship. The Berlin Senate regards this civic activism for democracy as very important and we are supporting it in a variety of ways.

But we are also seeking to encourage civic participation in everyday life, fostering a culture of protest which is also in evidence when people are attacked or discriminated against on the street, at work, or in the pub around the corner. Here, since awareness and information are key prerequisites, we are supporting civil society groups engaged in just these areas. Raising the awareness of children and young people at schools and in youth clubs to ways of dealing with prejudices and empowering them with arguments against anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination is extremely valuable work, since it strengthens these young people’s commitment to freedom and democracy. With our State Plan to Combat Anti-Semitism, we support this important work in many different ways.

Governing Mayor Michael Müller with Inge Deutschkron (left) and Margot Friedländer at the ceremony awarding them the freedom of the city

Similarly, we also actively promote a vibrant culture of remembrance and learning from history. In this regard, nothing can replace the voices of our contemporary witnesses, such as Margot Friedländer and Inge Deutschkron, who we are honoured to number among those who have been given the freedom of the city.

Their impressive accounts of their experiences not only bring home to young people the myriad aspects of Jewish life in pre-1933 Germany, but also what happens when too few are ready to fight for democracy, freedom, the rule of law and, indeed, for humanity. Their stories also inspire some to look for forgotten signs of Jewish life in their own neighbourhoods. This often results in a firm resolve to actively support a culture of remembrance – something which benefits us all. The Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) are a special form of commemoration. These small square bronze plates on Berlin’s pavements in front of apartment blocks commemorate the deported and murdered Jews who once lived there. We support these voluntary activities by local neighbourhood initiatives by inviting them every year to the Rotes Rathaus to meet and engage in an exchange of views.

School students help to clean the Stolpersteine in Neukölln.

On 5 December 2020, the Italian city of Padua officially passed the European Volunteering Capital baton on to us. With a digital event on 18 February, we then gave the signal to launch the European Year of Volunteering 2021. I am looking forward to an exciting year characterised by a vibrant civil society which will prove an inspiration far beyond Berlin’s borders.