Frankfurt am Main, Weimar and Bonn are the places in the history of German democracy where the constitutions of 1849, 1919 and 1949 were written. At the invitation of the Society for the Study of the History of Democracy (GEDG), initial talks on the formation of a network between representatives of the cities took place in Weimar in September 2022. The joint declaration on the Constitutional Cities Network was ceremoniously signed on 19 May 2023 during the "175 Years of St. Paul's Church" celebrations in Frankfurt am Main by the Mayor of Bonn Mike Josef (Frankfurt am Main), Peter Kleine (Weimar) and Dr. Birgit Schneider-Bönninger, Head of the Department of Sport and Culture of the City of Bonn.
The developments of the democracy and freedom movements are among the most important chapters in German history. The aim of the project "Constitutional Cities Frankfurt am Main - Weimar - Bonn" is to make the long democratic constitutional tradition in Germany visible.
The network will give representatives from civil society, academia, politics and culture the opportunity to get to know each other and explore synergy effects for the partnership. There are also plans to expand the network to other German cities and regions in the future.
* Copyright cover picture: © German Bundestag / Sylvia Bohn
Background
The Constitutional Cities Network is organized by the Society for the Study of the History of Democracy (GEDG) and other cooperation partners. The GEDG was founded in January 2021 by committed academics and civil society actors from a close cooperation in the working group "Places of the History of Democracy". The non-profit association, based in Weimar and Mainz, promotes research into the history of democracy and aims to use the resulting findings to shape the culture of remembrance. In addition to the opportunity to become publicly involved in events and to enter into supra-regional cooperation and intensive exchange, the cooperation of the cities and regions sends a strong signal for our democracy and the necessity of dealing with its history.
The cities and the GEDG are united by the knowledge that our democracy and society are confronted with major challenges and how difficult - and necessary - it is to maintain them. The aim of the network is therefore also to actively help shape our democracy on a cultural, political and social level and to actively address the question of which path we want to take in our democracy.
