Please register for the Presseclub and online by October 20 via DBG.Rhein-Main@debrige.de
Registered Teams-participants will receive login details on October 21.

Biography:
Leigh Turner is a writer based in London. He was UK Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna from September 2016 to September 2021. Leigh‘s previous roles were as HM Consul General Istanbul and Director General for Trade and Investment Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasfus; HM Ambassador in Kyiv, Ukraine; and Director of Overseas Territories in London, responsible for territories including St Helena, the Falklands and Bermuda. He served at the British Embassy in Bonn and Berlin from 1998-2002 and stayed on in Berlin for four years from 2002-2006 as main carer for his children. Leigh grew up in Nigeria, Exeter and Lesotho, before education in Swaziland, Manchester and Cambridge. After hitch-hiking around 27 of the United States in 1979, Leigh had a 42-year diplomatic career, lessons from which he draws in his September 2024 book “Lessons in Diplomacy”. He is the author of three thrillers, including “Blood Summit” (2018), set in Berlin, and two collections of feminist black comedies, ”Seven Hotel Stories” (2020) and “Seven More Hotel Stories (2026). He is also a former writer for the Financial Times. Leigh has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE, UCL, King’s College London, Universities of York, Loughborough, St Andrews and Edinburgh, Strathclyde University, Vienna and Graz Universities, the Free University (VU) Amsterdam, the Danube University Krems and at the DBG in Bonn and Düsseldorf.

Biographical Notes:
Leigh Turner CMG is a retired diplomat and author based in London and Amsterdam. Leigh grew up in Africa and the UK, going on to study in Swaziland, Manchester and Cambridge. After hitch-hiking around 27 of the United States in 1979, Leigh had a 42-year diplomatic career, which he draws on in his 2024 book “Lessons in Diplomacy”. He is also the author of three thrillers, including “Blood Summit” (2018), set in Berlin, and two collections of feminist black comedies, “Seven Hotel Stories” (2020) and “Seven More Hotel Stories” (2026).
He was UK Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the UN in Vienna from 2016 to 2021. Previous roles were: HM Consul General Istanbul and Director General for Trade Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus; HM Ambassador in Kyiv, Ukraine; Director of Overseas Territories in London. He was also based in the British Embassy in Bonn and Berlin from 1998 to 2002.

Leigh will bring copies of “Lessons in Diplomacy” to sign on the night.

Admission is free to members; non-members are requested to make a donation of EUR 10 towards expenses (“Unkostenbeitrag”). Students free.
Out of consideration to the speaker and audience, please do not eat during the talk but either before or afterwards. Please come in good time to order and get your drinks before the talk starts.

The event will be held in English and will be chaired by Rupert Graf Strachwitz, Board Member of the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft.

Please join the event by using this link: (No prior registration required!) https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86053497711?pwd=gxgUxhQ9ePdD8M4KXjyfTVsZkLY02f.1

Helmut K. Anheier is Senior Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School. He served as President of the Hertie School from 2009 to 2018. He is also a member of the faculty at the Luskin School of Public Affairs University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research centers on indicator systems, governance, culture, non-profits and philanthropy and organisational studies. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1986, held a Chair of Sociology at Heidelberg University´s Max Weber, fulle professor at UCLA’s Luskin School, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies, and Centennial Professor at LSE, and Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. He is author of numerous publications, many in leading journals and has received various national and international awards. Before embarking on an academic career, he served as Social Affairs Officer at the United Nations.

Adam Terry became The Future Governance Forum’s Executive Director in July 2026, having served as Deputy Director since the think tank was launched in 2023. He joined FGF from the Labour Party where he was Head of Policy Development, overseeing the party’s democratic policymaking processes and their contribution to manifesto development, and setting up the party’s 2021-23 policy review. He previously worked as Head of Policy in the Shadow Treasury Team and as senior adviser to Anneliese Dodds in both Westminster and the European Parliament. He started his career in the UK civil service, helping to plan the 2012 London Olympics, managing capacity-building programmes with the Afghan government at the British Embassy in Kabul, and serving in the Prime Minister’s Office in 10 Downing Street. He has also worked in both the charity sector and the private sector.

In many countries, civil society organisations (CSOs) are facing growing attacks on their legitimacy. Autocrats and populists accuse them of being ‘enemies of the people’ or ‘tools of hidden elites’, and have used these arguments to justify new laws and policies which restrict vital freedoms of free speech, free assembly and the right to protest, thus shrinking the space in which civil society is able to exist.
Worryingly, this no longer seems to be the preserve of autocrats. We are increasingly seeing more moderate politicians follow the same path. Where once these figures might have recognised, or even championed, the role CSOs play within a healthy democracy in standing up on issues and speaking truth to power; some of them now choose instead to see civil society as a threat to their own power, and to echo populist narratives which undermine its legitimacy.
Against this challenging backdrop, it is vital to understand what lies behind attacks on civil society legitimacy, how they are being propagated, and what we can do to counter them.

In this timely event, we will hear insights and perspectives from a panel of global experts, including:

• Catherine Anite, human rights lawyer, Uganda
• Marwa el-Daly, American University Cairo, Egypt
• Rhodri Davies, Why Philanthropy Matters, United Kingdom
• Benjamin Gidron, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
• Mark Sidel, University of Wisconsin-Madison and International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), United States
• Rupert Graf Strachwitz, Maecenata Foundation, Germany

The session will be chaired by Ansgar Gessner from the Maecenata Foundation and will be recorded.
There will also be the opportunity for participants to ask questions and to join the discussion.
If you are interested, then please sign up using the link below. You are also welcome to share this invitation more widely in your networks.

Registration link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/n2p8o3

Ausgehend von seinem neuen Buch Braver New World – Mutig in die Zukunft spricht der britische Autor und Publizist John Kampfner mit Dominic Fritz, Bürgermeister von Timișoara in Rumänien, über Europas Fähigkeit zur Erneuerung. Im Mittelpunkt stehen politische Gestaltungskraft, demokratische Resilienz und die Frage, wie europäische Gesellschaften Zuversicht entwickeln können, ohne bestehende Herausforderungen auszublenden.

Das Gespräch verbindet eine britische Außenperspektive auf Europa mit den politischen Erfahrungen einer europäischen Stadt, die für gesellschaftlichen Wandel, grenzüberschreitende Identität und demokratische Erneuerung steht.

John Kampfner ist Journalist, Autor und Kommentator. Er war viele Jahre deutscher Auslandskorrespondent in Bonn, Ost-Berlin und Moskau und berichtete über den Mauerfall und den Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion von beiden Seiten des Eisernen Vorhangs. Er schrieb und kommentierte u. a. für den SPIEGEL, die Financial Times sowie BBC und war Chefredakteur für das Magazin The New Statesman. John Kampfner spricht fließend Englisch, Deutsch und Russisch und tritt häufig auf Konferenzen und als Experte in zahlreichen Medien auf. Er lebt in London und Berlin.

Dominic Fritz ist deutsch-rumänischer Politiker und Bürgermeister der rumänischen Stadt Timișoara. Er studierte Politik- und Verwaltungswissenschaften in Konstanz, Paris und York und arbeitete anschließend für die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit in internationalen Entwicklungs- und Friedensprojekten. Später leitete er das Büro des ehemaligen Bundespräsidenten Horst Köhler. Seit dem 30. Oktober 2020 ist Dominic Fritz Bürgermeister von Timișoara. Im Juni 2024 wurde er für eine zweite Amtszeit wiedergewählt. Seit dem 21. Juni 2025 ist er zudem Vorsitzender der rumänischen Reformpartei Uniunea Salvați România. Dominic Fritz spricht fließend Deutsch, Rumänisch, Englisch und Französisch.

Die Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft veranstaltet den Abend gemeinsam mit der Europäischen Akademie Berlin. Ein Grußwort von Dr. Rupert Graf Strachwitz, Vorstandsmitglied der Deutsch-Britischen Gesellschaft eröffnet die Veranstaltung. Die Moderation übernimmt Manuel Knapp, Studienleiter an der Europäischen Akademie Berlin. Im Anschluss laden wir zu einem persönlichen Austausch ein.

Bitte melden Sie sich zur Teilnahme hier an.