Appendix

Many thanks to the 14 individuals who participated in interviews for this research. Those who have chosen to participate publicly are included in this list. Affiliation is given only for identification. Views of the interviewees reflect their own opinions, not those of their employers or organizations:

Residents

Quentin Kügler, former speaker of the Jugendparlament, current member of the Southwest Stadtbezirksbeirat with the Green Party, and a volunteer with Stiftung Ecken Wecken
Barbara Baumgärtel, former member of the Bürgerverein Waldstraßenviertel, e.V.
Mohammad Okasha, current member of the Migrantenbeirat and organizer
Jörg Reichert, volunteer with OK Lab Leipzig
Christian Bollert, head of media relations with Wir Sind Der Osten
Antar Keith, affiliated with various political groups supporting human rights
Dieter Rink, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Deputy Head of the Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology
Thorsten Mehnert, board member of Stiftung Ecken Wecken (Wake Up Corners Foundation)
Ralf Elässer, civic engagement expert and owner of Civixx

City Officials

Karsten Gerkens, former leader of the Housing and Urban Development Department
Stefan Heinig, former leader of the City Development Department

Politicians

Franziska Riekewald, city councilmember, LINKE
Kristina Weyh, city councilmember, Grüne

The German constitution establishes a model of government with three levels: local (cities and counties), state, and federal. Article 28 specifically gives municipalities “the right to regulate all local affairs,” including granting “financial autonomy” and the right to set and collect local taxes.¹ Some tasks are delegated to the municipal government with strict rules about their execution (such as social benefits, public safety, ID laws), and others are mandated tasks without instructions, which gives city governments the ability to implement them as they see fit (such as fire brigades or schools). Finally, voluntary tasks give city governments the ability to regulate local community issues, such as sports facilities.²

As in the United States, city administration, and city council are the most important authorities at the municipal level. Their distribution of power varies by state. In Saxony, and in Leipzig, the mayor leads both the city administration and the city council. Citizens elect city council members and the mayor. Council members are elected by citizens every five years through a proportional representation system that awards parties seats based on the number of votes they receive. After the most recent elections in May 2019, the council includes the CDU (13 seats), The Left (15 seats), the SPD (nine seats), the Greens (15 seats), the AfD (11 seats), the FDP (three seats), the Pirate Party (one seat), WVL (one seat), and The Party (two seats), for 70 total council members.³ The city council then appoints supporting committees, who work on specific issue areas.⁴ While the mayor leads the city council, the council does have some control over the administration, such as managing “the execution, implementation, and compliance with its decisions.”⁵

The current mayor, Burkhard Jung, is a member of the center-left SPD and has been in his position since 2006. Saxony has particularly strong mayors, in part because of their seven year terms and also because they have the highest quorum for impeachment of all 16 German states (requiring 50 percent of the electorate to support a referendum).⁶ In leading the city administration, the mayor oversees 10 departments, ranging from City Planning Office to the Department of Migration and Integration.⁷

Full descriptions of the City of Leipzig's programs and infrastructure for civic engagement discussed in this report are included below.

City Council

Citizens can engage in this traditional form of representative democracy by electing council members and bringing issues to their attention once they are in office. However, the Leipzig city council is unique in its use of more direct forms of engagement within this governing institution:

• Youth Parliament (JuPa): Since 2015, the Youth Parliament has existed to represent the interests of the city’s young population. This body is made up of 20 young Leipzig residents, who must be between 14–21 years old and are elected through an online election by other residents in the same age range who have lived in Leipzig for at least three months. Young residents can communicate directly with the youth parliament, attend meetings, and participate in JuPa working groups,⁸ which discuss culture, free time, and urban development, as well as organization public relations.⁹ Members from the youth parliament then join the City Council’s Youth Advisory Council, which is also attended by city council members. JuPa members, as well as young residents, can submit motions to the youth parliament. From there, motions are considered by the youth council, and then passed to the full city council, where it goes through other committees, receives a financial and legal review from the administration, and then can be voted on by the city council. The youth parliament receives support from two city employees, one who helps with “content-related questions” and collaboration, and another who manages organizational tasks. JuPa representatives serve two-year terms. The first JuPa electoral term began in 2015.¹⁰ Members of the youth parliament receive a monthly allowance (as of 2018, 26.20 euros/month for members of the youth parliament, 26.20 euros/month for members of the youth council, and an additional 31.44 euros per youth council meeting). The youth parliament itself has an annual budget of 5,000 euros.¹¹ This body is the only one of its kind in Saxony. There are other youth parliaments in other Saxon and German cities, but they operate as a more limited committee. For example, these parliaments cannot submit motions to the full city council.¹²
• Subject Area Advisory Councils: In addition to the youth council, the city council has 11 total advisory bodies, specializing on drugs, equality, children and families, migrants, psychiatry, seniors, disability, animal welfare, crime prevention, allotment gardens, and conservation. These boards advise the council on decisions pertaining to their subject area and are made up of residents with expertise on this topic,¹³ as well as members of the city council.¹⁴ Regulations for the advisory councils may vary. For example, 16 members of the Migrant Council are residents of Leipzig with migration backgrounds. Some are appointed by the city and others are directly elected by other residents with similar backgrounds who are at least 18 years old and have lived in Leipzig for at least three months. These councils also have the right to submit motions to the city council.¹⁵ However, they do not have their own funding or dedicated budget.¹⁶
• Neighborhood Councils: In addition to representation through the city council, the City of Leipzig also includes neighborhood councils. The 10 Stadtbezirksbeiräte and 14 Ortschaftsräte act as advisory councils for the neighborhoods and incorporated municipalities of Leipzig, respectively.¹⁷
  • Stadtbezirksbeiräte: The neighborhood councils include 11 members who are appointed by the city council after each election. This process means that many members belong to specific parties, but residents who are not official party members may still be appointed by party representatives in the city council. City residents must be at least 18 years old, an EU citizen, and live in the district to qualify for membership of a council. The city council must consult the neighborhood councils before making a final decision on issues that would impact that district. Additionally, city council committees must review any information submitted by neighborhood councils about their district (“Wichtige Angelegenheiten”).¹⁸ Finally, the councils receive 50,000 euros in funding from the city each year to carry out projects.¹⁹
  • Ortschaftsräte: During state municipal reforms, 14 municipalities officially became part of the City of Leipzig. Today, their corresponding municipality councils grant these areas extra political power so that they can “retain their public weight” and “preserve their public identity.” The members of these councils are elected and advise on issues from the Leipzig city council that will impact their municipality. They can also make legal decisions about some local issues, and specially elected representatives can speak at city council assemblies, among other powers.²⁰ Each year, the councils receive funding from the City of Leipzig of six euros per inhabitant.²¹

City Administration

Within the administration, the City of Leipzig supports several other avenues to engagement:

• Stadtbüro: The “city office” was originally established in 1998 to “develop new forms of civic involvement and stimulate the dialogue between the city council, the administration, the citizens, and their associations.” A founding principle of the office is to use this position as intermediary and moderator to understand residents’ perspectives on public issues in early phases of projects.²² Today, the Stadtbüro still provides a “city platform for citizen participation and civic engagement,” and acts as “a link to the city administration.” This is a physical office in the city, which often displays, “among other things, exhibitions on urban planning and urban development projects for local democracy, organizes events such as informal participation opportunities, cooperates closely with the volunteer agency, and also publishes information on formal participation procedures for urban planning.”²³ The office is open for residents to visit five days a week to share feedback or request help.²⁴
• City Initiatives:
  • Leipzig weiter denken: This effort began in 2012 with support from the federal government²⁵ to discuss “questions about the future of urban development with the general public”²⁶ using tools like future series, online dialogues, and workshops. In 2014, Mayor Jung decided to institutionalize it as an “umbrella brand for a new culture of participation.”²⁷ Now, the coordination office “Leipzig Thinking Further” initiative is an ongoing effort to build civic engagement into the traditional administrative process of the city. Officially, LWD falls under the urban development department and often works on issues related to that topic. Additionally, “the office also advises other participation procedures from other departments.”²⁸ For example, a city department may come to the LWD team for help hosting a representative neighborhood focus group to discuss the details of building a new school.²⁹ They also provide training to other city employees on topics such as moderating,³⁰ and give “advice on promoting volunteering.”³¹ In addition to their work with the Stadtbüro, the LWD office also monitors the city newspaper to make suggestions to the administration about potential areas for engagement based on residents’ priorities.³² As described in the announcement of civic engagement guidelines in 2012, the “public participation coordinator” (Bürgerbeteiligungskoordination) plays a “quality assurance” role, and “acts as an interface between the administration, politics, and citizens by mediating, advising, controlling, and moderating.”³³
  • Time-Specific Initiatives: Occasionally, the city “supports the promotion of local democracy with specific initiatives,”³⁴ such as the Jahr der Demokratie. The Jahr der Demokratie (Year of Democracy) was an effort to “promote mutual dialogue and strengthen local democracy.”
  • Quartiersmanagement: Quartiersmanagements are only located in neighborhoods with “a strong demand for social stabilization.”³⁵ These neighborhood-specific groups are also formed in partnership between nonprofits or associations and city departments. The city and department are responsible for tasks and financing, and the association hires a district moderator who acts as a “contact person” for residents to collaborate with. Like the Stadtbezirksbeiräte and Ortschaftsräte, Quartiersmanagement (neighborhood management) groups act as “mediators”³⁶ between the administration and its constituents, but the Quartiersmanagement groups are more affiliated with city departments instead of the city council. For some groups, this includes a council (Quartiersrat). In one neighborhood, these are elected positions open to any citizens who live or work in the district and are over 18 years old.³⁷ Unique to the Quartieresmanagement groups is a focus on developing residents’ ability to identify problems and become part of the solution. With this aim, they work on issues ranging from urban development to local economic policy, all closely tailored to the specific neighborhood.³⁸ Like the Stadtbezirksbeiräte, the Quartiersmanagement groups receive financial support from the city, but are independent.³⁹
  • Participatory Budgeting: In February 2021, the Leipzig city council voted to approve a participatory budgeting program starting with the budget for 2023/2024. Residents as young as 14 may propose projects for funding from the Stadtbezirksbeiräte.⁴⁰ Outside of this new process, citizens also have the ability to give input on the annual budget for the city, based on Section 76(1) of the Saxon municipal code. Citizen objections are then recorded on the City website.⁴¹
  • Civic Engagement List: Since the end of 2017, based on a city council resolution,”⁴² the city has regularly published a list of current civic engagement projects on its website so that residents who are interested in participating can find that information [details from the Wie Weiter PDF].
• Individual Initiatives:
• City Funding: In addition to funding given to the Stadtbezirksbeiräte and Ortschaftsräte, residents and associations may receive city funding for civic engagement and community-related projects⁴³ through specialist funding guidelines.⁴⁴ To name a few, projects may be related to efforts like promoting engagement in the city and neighborhood (efforts like citizen forums) and collaboration with city projects, as well as individual efforts like the publication of local newspapers, nature conservation, and preserving neighborhood history.⁴⁵
• Citizen Recognition: The city also has a variety of awards and honors for engaged residents, such as the Golden Badge of Honor and the Certificate of Honor; events recognizing volunteers; and area-specific awards, such as the Sports Club of the Year.⁴⁶

To implement these different engagement efforts, the city often uses combinations of the following tools: Bürgerforum, Bürgerplattform, Bürgerversammlung, Zukunftswerkstatt, Repräsentative Befragung/Bürgerpanel, Online-Kommunikation, etc.⁴⁷

Based on city documents from 2012, when considering specific goals, conducting needs analyses, and considering potential solutions, the city uses a range of potential engagement tools, including but not limited to the following:

1. To develop project contents, the city may use:

• Information sessions
• "Future workshops"
• General workshops

2. To create a reliable picture of citizen opinions, the city may use:

• Information sessions
• Representative surveys or citizens' panels
• Citizens' assemblies or forums
• Online communication

3. To address conflicts or diverging citizen interests, the city may use:

• Information sessions
• Round table discussions
• Meditation

Another tool used in this phase are commissions, which may be used to address specific issues, such as renaming city streets to replace racist historical figures or names. Commissions with “knowledgeable citizens” may give input to the city council.⁴⁸

Later, during the decision-making phase, the city consults with the district councils (Stadtbezirksbeirat and Ortschaftsrates) and city council to consider different arguments and communicate feedback to the public. At this stage, civic engagement may be used for different purposes:

1. To incorporate public participation in the decision-making: The administration provides information and results from civic engagement “as a basis and orientation for further action and decision-making.”

2. To communicate feedback to the public, the city may use:

• Information sessions, potentially with the local media
• Citizens' forums
• Citizens' platforms
• Citizens' assemblies

Finally, to provide citizen participation for the project implementation phase, the city may also use project groups.⁴⁹

Outside of the city government, Leipzig also includes formal and informal infrastructures for engagement, such as citizen initiatives (Bürgerinitiativen), political parties, and citizen-organized demonstrations.

Of the citizen groups, Vereine (associations) are the most formal and the most powerful. Compared to organizations in the United States, Vereine is most like nonprofits, which may have some staff,⁵⁰ but are largely run by volunteers. In Leipzig, these groups focus on the quality of life and urban development issues such as green spaces, parking and traffic, and historic buildings. They may also mobilize around local priorities, such as keeping a neighborhood library open. Some have been around for decades, and most of the older ones were established in 1989 during the peaceful revolution (called “Wendekinder,” or “children of the time of political change”).⁵¹ They’re typically run by volunteers, who engage with other associations, organize neighborhood projects, publish district newspapers, hold festivals, and aim to influence city government. To accomplish their goals, Vereine may use tools including petitions, informational meetings, on-site inspections, and letters to administrators, city council members, or advisory group representatives. Between each other, the Vereine also compete for “committed members, sponsorship money, and financial and other forms of support from the city.”⁵²