DemocracyXChange Summit 2025
Democracy Summit|The Goethe-Institut Toronto is an Arts Partner of the DemocracyXChange Summit
- Language English
Canada’s premier democracy summit returns to Toronto, April 16–18, 2026, with three days of dynamic programming designed to spark ideas, deepen connections, and turn civic imagination into action.
DemocracyXChange 2026 explores the theme “Side By Side: Building an Economy that Serves Democracy”; examining the vital role that people play in shaping democratic and economic systems in our cities and countries alike.
The Goethe-Institut Toronto is co-organising the summit’s side convening on international cultural policy and has invited journalist, author and public thinker Ralph Bollmann from Berlin to participate.
Born in 1969 in Bad Dürkheim, Bollmann studied modern history, political science, and public law in Bologna and at Humboldt University Berlin under Heinrich August Winkler and Bernhard Schlink. He wrote his master’s thesis on German and Italian social democracy before World War I. He then attended the German School of Journalism in Munich. In 1997, he joined the editorial staff of the “tageszeitung” (taz), where he reported on Berlin state politics, edited the feature pages, headed the domestic affairs desk, and finally, as head of the parliamentary bureau, focused primarily on the Chancellor’s policies. He also wrote regularly for the culture section. Since 2011, he has been the economic policy correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin, and since 2017, he has also served as deputy head of the F.A.S. economics desk. Book publications: “In Praise of the Empire: The Fall of Rome and the Future of the West” (2006), “Reform: A German Myth” (2008), “Valkyrie in Detmold: A Journey of Discovery Through the German Provinces” (2011), “The German: Angela Merkel and Us” (2013). Most recently, his bestseller “Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her Time” (2021) was published.
Co-produced by OCAD University, Open Democracy Project and the Dais at TMU,
DemocracyXChange 2026 explores the theme “Side By Side: Building an Economy that Serves Democracy”; examining the vital role that people play in shaping democratic and economic systems in our cities and countries alike.
The Goethe-Institut Toronto is co-organising the summit’s side convening on international cultural policy and has invited journalist, author and public thinker Ralph Bollmann from Berlin to participate.
Born in 1969 in Bad Dürkheim, Bollmann studied modern history, political science, and public law in Bologna and at Humboldt University Berlin under Heinrich August Winkler and Bernhard Schlink. He wrote his master’s thesis on German and Italian social democracy before World War I. He then attended the German School of Journalism in Munich. In 1997, he joined the editorial staff of the “tageszeitung” (taz), where he reported on Berlin state politics, edited the feature pages, headed the domestic affairs desk, and finally, as head of the parliamentary bureau, focused primarily on the Chancellor’s policies. He also wrote regularly for the culture section. Since 2011, he has been the economic policy correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin, and since 2017, he has also served as deputy head of the F.A.S. economics desk. Book publications: “In Praise of the Empire: The Fall of Rome and the Future of the West” (2006), “Reform: A German Myth” (2008), “Valkyrie in Detmold: A Journey of Discovery Through the German Provinces” (2011), “The German: Angela Merkel and Us” (2013). Most recently, his bestseller “Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her Time” (2021) was published.
Co-produced by OCAD University, Open Democracy Project and the Dais at TMU,
