#ChallengingDemocracy - From Helmut Schmidt to today

Monday–Sunday, 11am–7pm, at the Kulturforum Klosterkirche Traunstein, Ludwigstraße 10, 83278 Traunstein

• Güstrow: 3 October 2026 – 10 January 2027, Städtische Galerie Wollhalle, Franz-Parr-Platz 9, 18273 Güstrow
• Mannheim: March–August 2027, MARCHIVUM, Archivplatz 1, 68169 Mannheim-Neckarstadt-West

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The exhibition calendar is updated regularly.

If you’re interested, please email us at wanderausstellung@helmut-schmidt.de

What protects and what threatens our democracy? How socially inclusive and how sustainable is democracy? These are the questions the exhibition poses regarding the past and the future. It takes a biographical look at Schmidt as a key figure in contemporary history, links the historical themes and debates of the 1970s and 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany with current challenges, and asks visitors – and thereby all of us – what contribution we wish to make to the future of democracy.

The exhibition opened on 2 July 2025 #ChallengingDemocracy – From Helmut Schmidt to the Present Day in Worms. Linked to the exhibition’s themes, a panel discussion entitled“Challenge accepted – Between demarcation and openness. A conversation about attitude and responsibility in political discourse’addressed an important challenge of our time: our democracy thrives on open debate and mutual respect. But what should we do when both are deliberately undermined by anti-democratic forces? This challenge is faced not only by those who hold positions of responsibility in political office and are therefore bound by a duty of neutrality. It is a challenge for everyone committed to our democracy: how do we defend it without violating our own rules of discourse?

This was discussed by Ikhlas Chekaik-Chaila, a board member of the Worms Youth Parliament from 2023 to 2025, and the Lord Mayor of Worms, Adolf Kessel, who also officially opened the event. The event was moderated by Dr Meik Woyke, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of the BKHS. Afterwards, a small reception and a curator’s tour of the exhibition provided opportunities for discussion.

The exhibition takes a biographical look at Helmut Schmidt as a key figure in contemporary history and links the themes and debates of the late 1960s to the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany with current debates. Then as now, people are asking themselves: What protects democracy? What threatens democracy? How social is democracy? And how sustainable is democracy anyway?

#ChallengingDemocracy was on display from 3 July to 22 August 2025, Monday to Friday from 10 am to 6 pm, at the Das Wormser Culture and Conference Centre.

Democracy presents us with challenges every day. Preserving it also means making the most of the freedoms and opportunities it offers us all. This applies to many pressing issues: how do we cope with globalisation, digitalisation and climate change? How can we make our lives and economies more sustainable and our society more socially just? And how do we respond to those who offer overly simplistic solutions to these complex problems? Helmut Schmidt was Chancellor during a time of upheaval. Many of the issues that concern us today were already being discussed with great passion 50 years ago.

The Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation invites you on Tuesday, 6 May 2025 at 7 pm to the opening of the touring exhibition #ChallengingDemocracy at the University Library of Osnabrück, also on behalf of the University Library of Osnabrück and the Chair of Contemporary History and Historical Migration Research. You were welcomed by Prof. Dr Kai-Uwe Kühnberger ( Vice-President of the University of Osnabrück) and Dr Meik Woyke (Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of the BKHS). Students from the University of Osnabrück provided fascinating insights into their project on the regional perspective of the exhibition. Dr Magnus Koch (Head of Exhibitions and History at the BKHS) then continued with an introductory talk and an exclusive guided tour of the exhibition, placing it within the context of current debates on democracy.

The exhibition takes a biographical look at Helmut Schmidt as a key figure in contemporary history and links the themes and debates of the late 1960s to the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany with current debates. Then as now, people are asking themselves: What protects democracy? What threatens democracy? How social is democracy? And how sustainable is democracy anyway?

#ChallengingDemocracy was on display at the Osnabrück University Library from 5 May to 21 June 2025, Monday to Friday from 9 am to 10 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 6 pm.

The issue is more relevant than ever and is bringing thousands of people onto the streets in German cities. What protects our democracy, and what threatens it? How social and how sustainable is democracy? These are the questions at the heart of the exhibition “#ChallengingDemocracy – From Helmut Schmidt to the Present Day”. It will be on display in Hanover from 4 March to 17 April 2025.

On 3 March, the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation hosted the opening of the touring exhibition #Challenging Democracy at the Volkshochschule Hannover. Following the opening, a reception was held and the curators offered a guided tour of the exhibition.

The exhibition takes a biographical look at Helmut Schmidt as a key figure in contemporary history and links the themes and debates of the late 1960s to the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany with current debates. Then as now, people are asking themselves: What protects democracy? What threatens democracy? How social is democracy? And how sustainable is democracy anyway?

#Challenging Democracy was on display at the VHS from 4 March to 17 April 2025, Monday to Friday from 8 am to 9 pm.

The new touring exhibition #Challenging Democracy – From Helmut Schmidt to the Present Day was launched at Rostock Town Hall with a lecture evening entitled “Debating. Negotiating. Deciding. Helmut Schmidt, Democracy and Us”. The current exhibition by the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation (BKHS) can be seen in the Hanseatic city until 19 November.

Anne-Katrin Bicher, Head of Rostock’s Cultural Affairs Office, welcomed guests in the hall of the historic Town Hall alongside Dr Meik Woyke, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of the BKHS. Woyke, who published his doctoral thesis on the former Mayor of Rostock, Albert Schulz, in 2006, set the scene for the keynote address by Dr Olaf Schulz-Gardyan, who is not only Albert Schulz’s grandson but also a member of the BKHS Board of Trustees. In a “family history perspective”, Schulz-Gardyan highlighted Helmut Schmidt’s connection to Rostock.

The family history is closely interwoven with the city on the River Warnow. Even today, the “Albert Schulz House” – as the Rostock SPD’s headquarters is officially known – serves as a reminder of the city’s famous son, as does a bust in Rostock Town Hall. Schulz, “a Social Democrat through and through”, as described in Dr Meik Woyke’s biography, was a member of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin state parliament from 1921 to 1933. He was arrested several times by the Nazis. After the Second World War, he worked to re-establish the SPD in Rostock. In 1946, he was appointed Lord Mayor of Rostock by the Soviet military administration and confirmed in office in an election that same year. Just one year later, in 1947, he was sentenced to ten years in a labour camp for alleged sabotage. However, he was released after only three months and resumed his duties as Lord Mayor. Albert Schulz remained a staunch opponent of communism, so it came as no surprise that he was removed from all his posts in 1949 and was forced to flee.

Shortly afterwards, he also met Helmut Schmidt in Hamburg. The connection to Rostock came about through Peter Schulz, the son of Albert Schulz and father of Schulz-Gardyan. Peter Schulz, who was First Mayor of Hamburg and President of the Hamburg Parliament, was – as Helmut Schmidt explained – one of his four closest friends.

It was Schulz who brought the former Chancellor to Rostock on more than half a dozen occasions. “Helmut Schmidt is returning to Rostock with the travelling exhibition,” said Schulz-Gardyan. Schmidt had felt a connection to the Hanseatic city and described it as part of his homeland.

And: “He still has a great deal to say to us today – particularly about democracy, for the defence of which he would have been prepared to take to the barricades even in his old age,” said Schulz-Gardyan.

Democracy is not only a constant challenge, but also under serious threat. “We will have to defend it with all our might against its enemies,” he urged his audience.

To conclude the event, Dr Magnus Koch (Head of Exhibitions and History at the BKHS) outlined the historical and contemporary issues at the heart of the exhibition, which were just as relevant in Schmidt’s day as they are today.

Leipzig, 7 October 2024. Democracy is a challenge – every day. The new exhibition #Challenging Democracy – From Helmut Schmidt to the Present Day, organised by the Helmut Schmidt Foundation, was on display at the New Town Hall in Leipzig from 8 to 27 October 2024. The exhibition was officially opened on Monday evening.

The exhibition takes a biographical look at Helmut Schmidt as a key figure in contemporary history and links the themes and debates of the late 1960s to the 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany with current debates. Then as now, people are asking themselves: What protects democracy? What threatens democracy? How social is democracy? And how sustainable is democracy anyway?

Linked to the exhibition’s themes, the panel discussion “Challenge accepted! Citizen participation, but how?” addressed the opportunities and challenges of social participation in political decision-making processes in an increasingly complex world.

Bonn, 6 June 2024. “A democracy in which there is no debate is no democracy at all,” Helmut Schmidt once remarked. Although he was from Hamburg, as a Member of the Bundestag, a minister and Chancellor, he shaped the politics of the Federal Republic in Bonn for over three decades. Exactly 50 years ago, Helmut Schmidt succeeded Willy Brandt as Chancellor on the banks of the Rhine. With a new touring exhibition, not only is Schmidt returning to the former federal capital, but so too is the question of how we can meet the challenges facing democracy. “#ChallengingDemocracy – From Helmut Schmidt to the Present Day” is the title of the exhibition, which bridges the gap between history and the present. It was on display at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bonn from 7 June to 30 September.

The exhibition, conceived and produced by the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation (BKHS), portrays Helmut Schmidt as a politician and a man who saw the heart of the political community in the midst of controversial debate and in the search for the best solution for the welfare of as many people as possible, and who, as a committed democrat, courageously faced political challenges.

During a panel discussion entitled “Challenge accepted! – Confronting the enemies of democracy, but how?”, we discussed how democratic culture and the protective mechanisms of the rule of law are coming under pressure in the face of right-wing populist and extremist forces. What specific dangers currently threaten democracy? What means can be used to counter them? How can we strengthen our democracy, and how do we engage with those who are disillusioned with democracy?

We discussed these challenges with Frank Hager (Bielefeld Police Headquarters), Dr Anna-Sophie Heinze (University of Trier), Maria Helmis-Arend (Cologne City Council) and Joachim Kirschstein (Diskutier Mit Mir e.V.). The discussion was moderated by Susan Zare. Martin Schulz (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) and Dr Meik Woyke (Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation) welcomed the attendees and provided the concluding remarks of the evening.

The exhibition #ChallengingDemocracy not only recounts German and international contemporary history, it also encourages its visitors to take an active role, to put themselves in others’ shoes and to engage in discussion with one another. Ultimately, the aim is for visitors to feel part of a democratic process, as people who play a part in deciding on a daily basis how the future of our democracy will unfold. This applies to many pressing questions: How do we cope with globalisation, digitalisation or climate change? How can we make our lives and economies more sustainable and society more socially just? And how do we respond to those who offer overly simplistic answers to these complex problems?

Dear Sir or Madam,
Dear Peer Steinbrück,

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to you here in the German Bundestag, and I do so on behalf of Bundestag President Bärbel Bas. Vice-President Aydan Özoguz was actually due to address you here today. Unfortunately, however, she is unable to attend and has asked me to say a few words of welcome to you. I am delighted that the German Bundestag has been chosen as the first venue for this exhibition. Special thanks go to the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation and its staff, above all Dr Koch. And to the Public Relations Department for organising the event here in the House.

The exhibition tells the story of times of upheaval: the upheaval during the period when Helmut Schmidt was an active politician, and the upheaval we are experiencing today. This exhibition has specific focal points, some of which I would like to highlight. Every generation faces new challenges. Here, we can see the debates that preoccupied citizens in Helmut Schmidt’s time. The focus is on four main themes. Firstly, internal security: in the 1950s and 1960s, the discussion centred on the emergency laws; in the 1970s, on the threat posed by the RAF. Today, democracy is challenged from within by a polarising culture of debate, fake news and extremist groups.

The protection of democracy is the second focus of this exhibition. Democracies around the world are under increasing pressure today. In Helmut Schmidt’s day, there were disputes over rearmament and the Bundeswehr, the ‘citizens in uniform’, and later over the NATO Double-Track Decision. Today, we find ourselves increasingly compelled to protect the democratic system against those who seek to weaken or even abolish it from within or without. o Thirdly, this exhibition focuses on solidarity within our democracy. Germany is a democratic and social federal state – so it is written in the Basic Law.

But every era has its own debates about how this state should be organised. The economic and financial crisis, rising inflation during Helmut Schmidt’s
chancellorship presented many people with financial challenges. And today, too, we are once again debating solidarity. Finally, this exhibition focuses on the field of energy policy. Then as now, the issue was the realisation of how dangerous dependence on foreign energy sources can be.
The oil crises of the 1970s brought cars to a standstill on Sundays and the demand for new nuclear power stations became urgent.

Dear Mr Kubicki,
Ladies and gentlemen,
and I would also like to extend a special welcome to Uwe Plachetka, who headed Helmut Schmidt’s office from 1986 to 2001,

[Opening with a story about your personal encounters with Helmut Schmidt, which illustrates how much he valued lively debate.]

The travelling exhibition “#Challenging Democracy”, developed by the Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation, addresses this very issue. It portrays Schmidt as a politician and a man who saw the heart of the political community (or, as he himself liked to say, the ‘res publica’) in controversial debate and in the search for the best solution for the good of as many people as possible, and who, in his final speech to the German Bundestag in 1986 (admittedly still in Bonn at the time), called for a “passion for practical reason” in dealing with political issues.

The exhibition focuses on the numerous social controversies, particularly during Schmidt’s chancellorship, which often remind us of the present day. Even back then, for instance, the question was which energy sources the Federal Republic should rely on to protect itself from dependencies (at that time on Arab oil). And even then, the federal governments under Willy Brandt and later Helmut Schmidt focused on the ‘diversification’ of energy sources: In addition to oil, Russian gas, domestic coal and nuclear power were to ensure energy security – though, as with other contentious issues of the time, this had to be communicated to the public in a democracy in other words, government action had to be made plausible – and, conversely, civil society no longer demanded merely information, but increasingly a say in decision-making. It is precisely this negotiation between politics and society, and the roles of different institutions and groups, that the travelling exhibition examines. In addition to energy policy, the exhibition addresses other areas that were of particular significance at the time and in which Schmidt possessed particular expertise:

• economic and financial policy (such as the fierce social debates over the fair distribution of financial burdens in the face of severe economic crises, particularly in the late 1970s),
• in the field of security policy (the dispute over the deployment of nuclear missiles in the Federal Republic in the wake of the NATO Double-Track Decision, and thus the concerns of a growing section of the population on the one hand, and Schmidt’s insistence on credible deterrence on the other),
• and finally, in the field of ‘internal security’, the defence of democracy against its terrorist enemies, or the question of how the rule of law could hold its ground in the event of a domestic emergency – (here, in the 1960s, there were major concerns among the ‘extra-parliamentary opposition’, which feared a return to authoritarian conditions).

Yet our exhibition “#Challenging Democracy” does not merely recount German and international contemporary history; it challenges its visitors to take an active role themselves, to put themselves in others’ shoes and to engage in discussion with one another. Ultimately, the aim is for visitors to feel part of a democratic process, as people who play a part in deciding on a daily basis how the future of our democracy will unfold, and as individuals who therefore also bear a shared responsibility for how and under what conditions we wish to live together in the future.

Furthermore, the exhibition commemorates Helmut Schmidt the man, his personality and character:

• a lifetime – spanning almost a century – full of profound upheavals and turning points,
• his remarkable life’s work in politics and journalism, as a minister, Federal Chancellor and SPD parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, as a public intellectual and sought-after interlocutor, as editor of Die Zeit, and as the author of countless books, essays, speeches and articles
• at the same time, the exhibition offers a glimpse behind the scenes of political staging and explores facets and images of Schmidt’s personality that continue to resonate today.

“Challenging Democracy – From Helmut Schmidt to the Present Day” offers a glimpse into the past and encourages reflection on the present. The exhibition calls on us all to take on the current challenges facing democracy, to defend its values, to make use of opportunities and freedoms, and thus to shape the future together.

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to the exhibition team led by Magnus Koch (Felix Kern, Lisa Querner, Merle Strunk and Johannes Zechner, as well as all other staff members of the Foundation involved), and also to the Bundestag team led by Mr Nicolas Papke and, of course, to the House itself, for allowing us to be guests here for three weeks.

I wish you and all of us a wonderful opening evening with stimulating discussions on the current state of the world and memories of Helmut Schmidt.

Thank you very much