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Daniel Kehlmann (most recent work: “The Director”) is not only a celebrated author. He’s also a shrewd observer of the rampant technological advances that are increasingly determining all our lives. And h… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event My algorithm and me. Markus Gabriel and Daniel Kehlmann on humans in the age of AI

Event data
  • Date: Mon. 23 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: Flora Köln
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Overstimulation leads to overwhelm and anxiety, the faster pace of life leads to chronic tiredness, constant self-observation and self-portrayal lead to depression. At least, these are the theories… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Digital diagnoses: What is driving the increase in mental illness? With Thomas Fuchs and Laura Wiesböck

Event data
  • Date: Mon. 23 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Climate crisis, geopolitical conflicts, social inequality – we live in an era of overload, when old certainties are becoming fragile. Like almost no other, Robert Habeck, philosopher and former f… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Democracy in an emergency. With Robert Habeck and Florian Schroeder

Event data
  • Date: Mon. 23 June 2025
  • Time: 21:00
  • Location: Flora Köln
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

For more than 19 years, Jean Asselborn (born in 1949) served as Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister. He guided important European processes, has had a close-up view of past and present crises in Europe and a… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event What’s next for Europe? With Jean Asselborn

Event data
  • Date: Tue. 24 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

As political tension increases and society becomes more polarized, the debate around freedom becomes more urgent. What notions of individual and societal freedom are in conflict with each other… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Which freedom do we want? Christoph Möllers meets Ulf Poschardt

Event data
  • Date: Tue. 24 June 2025
  • Time: 20:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Sign language interpreting Available
    • Easy Language Available
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

What’s happening in America? No question is more urgent or more alarming. Yet, this worry is not completely new. Back in 1966, during the Vietnam War and the student protests, the magazine “Partisan Rev… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event What’s happening in America? With Claudia Brühwiler, Claus Leggewie and Yascha Mounk

Event data
  • Date: Tue. 24 June 2025
  • Time: 21:00
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

These are polarizing times. Contemporary discourse is accompanied by a new sense that reconciliation is impossible. What helps? Talking, to dismantle prejudice and hate. Saba-Nur Cheema, shaped by… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Together in times of polarization – Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel invite us to a Muslim–Jewish dinner

Event data
  • Date: Wed. 25 June 2025
  • Time: 17:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Sign language interpreting Available
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Glaciers are melting, certain types of work are disappearing, old orders are crumbling. In Loss, Andreas Reckwitz, author of “Society of Singularities” and one of the most influential social the… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Loss – a fundamental problem of modernity. With Andreas Reckwitz

Event data
  • Date: Wed. 25 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Germany’s past reaches painfully into our present. Remembering is important, and later generations still bear responsibility. In Traumaland, author Asal Dardan (“Betrachtungen einer Barbarin” [“Obs… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Traumaland – tracing German’s past and present. With Asal Dardan and Dmitrij Kapitelman

Event data
  • Date: Wed. 25 June 2025
  • Time: 19:30
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Autocrats are coming to power worldwide, the populist far right is gaining strength all over Europe, and in Germany, the AfD has achieved approval ratings that were previously unheard of. It is… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Save democracy – but how? With Philip Manow and Julian Nida-Rümelin

Event data
  • Date: Wed. 25 June 2025
  • Time: 20:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Event is part of the “Night of Ideas” of the Institut français.

Gender-specific violence against women is everywhere – in Germany, in France, and around the world. Feminist debates reflect manifold positions that reveal various perspectives of the body, power and p… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event The feminine revolution – Christina Clemm and Camille Froidevaux-Metterie oppose patriarchal violence

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 17:30
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available
    • French
    • German

Besinnt euch! – so der Titel des Buches, an dem Gerhart Baum noch bis kurz vor seinem Tode gearbeitet hat. Vor dem Niedergang der freiheitlichen Demokratien hat er oft gewarnt. „Es handelt sich nicht meh… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event „Besinnt euch!“ – das letzte Buch von Gerhart Baum. Mit Angelika Nußberger, Martin Stankowski und Therese Hämer

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Grüner Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Sign language interpreting Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Tickets are valid for both events with Herfried Münkler.

The cornerstones of the geopolitical world order have been shaken. While Trump in the White House presses ahead with the breakdown of the West, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues to r… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Power in transition – Nicole Deitelhoff and Herfried Münkler on Germany’s role in a world out of control.

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: Oper Köln
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

“Even tomorrow we might no longer be here!” Nothing in Israel has been the same since October 7, 2023. While sirens screamed in Tel Aviv, the Israeli government waged a war that was killing even more peo… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Pretending it’s normal – life in Israel since October 7, 2023. With Lizzie Doron and Nina Kunzendorf

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available
    • Englisch
    • Deutsch

Tickets are valid for both events with Herfried Münkler.

On June 27, Cologne Opera will present the debut performance of the grand opera, “The Last Days of Mankind” by Philippe Manoury, adapted from Karl Kraus’ play. In this megalomaniac drama, Kraus tells the s… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event The Great War – The First World War as the “last days of mankind”. With Herfried Münkler and Kai Hinrich Müller

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 20:00
  • Location: Oper Köln
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

It seems to have been decided that space is the next frontier for humans to conquer. Realistic plans are being made for people to travel to Mars, the moon’s resources are set to be exploited in the n… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event All aboard for outer space! Humanity’s next frontier. With Sibylle Anderl, Stephan Hobe and Hans Königsmann

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 20:30
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

When we are confronted with illness or death, we often face overwhelming alternatives. In her book Living and Dying, Alena Buyx, medical ethicist and former chair of the German Ethics Council,… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event A guide for the big questions – Alena Buyx and Norbert Kron on ethical decisions in the face of life and death

Event data
  • Date: Thu. 26 June 2025
  • Time: 21:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Grüner Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Pandemic, crises, war, personal troubles – many people feel uncertain and powerless. In times of emotional crises, people often turn to what they know: helpful values, culture and religious p… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event How the soul finds peace again. With Paraskevi Mavrogiorgou-Juckel and Georg Juckel

Event data
  • Date: Fri. 27 June 2025
  • Time: 17:30
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Sign language interpreting Available
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Digitalization isn’t just changing how we work – it is reaching deep into our private lives, affecting family, childhood and education. With AI in the classroom and debates on screen use at the din… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Garden or engine room of humanity? – The future of education in the digital age. With Peter Sloterdijk

Event data
  • Date: Fri. 27 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Wieviel Teilhabe sollte und darf eine freie Gesellschaft ermöglichen? Welche Diskursräume wollen wir in unserer Demokratie öffnen? Fest steht: Wir müssen sprechen. Aber wie und mit wem? Rolf Müt… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Brauchen wir eine Brandmauer? Rolf Mützenich und Frauke Rostalski über politische Grenzen und gesellschaftliche Diskursräume

Event data
  • Date: Fri. 27 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Event will be recorded for TV. No late entry possible!

Liberal democracy is under pressure in many countries; people are becoming more skeptical about democratic processes. And many citizens are getting increasingly angry. Do we need to rescue our… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event “Sternstunde Philosophie” show on 3sat: Democracy in crisis – are the people always right? With Barbara Bleisch, Jagoda Marinić, Oliver Zimmer and Jonas Lüscher

Event data
  • Date: Fri. 27 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: Altes Pfandhaus
  • Accessibility

“Only a few people are as good at explaining societal developments and background as sociologist and author Aladin El-Mafaalani” (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg). El-Mafaalani has been conducting res… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Children – a minority without protection. With Aladin El-Mafaalani

Event data
  • Date: Fri. 27 June 2025
  • Time: 20:00
  • Location: Brunosaal
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

One rainy September day, philosopher Knut Ebeling embarks on a Vipassana meditation. He wants to find peace, stop the flow of thoughts and overcome depression. It is not his first meditation and,… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event The War in the Head: Meditating with Bataille. With Knut Ebeling

Event data
  • Date: Fri. 27 June 2025
  • Time: 20:30
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Live-Radiosendung auf WDR 5. 10-18 Uhr.

Die berühmte Inschrift am Eingang des antiken Tempels von Delphi, der Kultstätte, an der das Orakel befragt wurde, erinnert uns bis heute an die Bedeutung von Selbstreflexion. Der Appell, sich selbst z… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event WDR 5 Philosophie spezial – Denken, das ansteckt „Erkenne dich selbst“ – wofür wir verantwortlich sind Mit u.a. Aleida Assmann, Susanne Boshammer, Kersten Reich, Gert Scobel, Volker Sommer, Daniel Strassberg, und Eva Weber-Guskar

Event data

We have become used to everything turning out all right in the end. But what if this long-held belief does not apply to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine? Imagine that Russia wins the war – and… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event What if Russia wins? A scenario by Carlo Masala

Event data
  • Date: Sat. 28 June 2025
  • Time: 16:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Over the last fifty years, China has become a global power. Yet here in Germany, we still know little about the discourse, debates and developments in the country. Time for a transcontinental… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event What keeps societies together? With Xu Jilin, Daniel Leese and Andreas Voßkuhle

Event data
  • Date: Sat. 28 June 2025
  • Time: 17:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

As Germany’s next chancellor, Friedrich Merz faces huge challenges. The success of the far-right AfD party is threatening to blow up the political middle ground, while Trump’s re-election and Rus… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Last chance for democracy? Robin Alexander takes a look at the inner workings of power

Event data
  • Date: Sat. 28 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Freedom – it is considered non-negotiable, a cornerstone of our democracy, a promise of the modern age. But what if the freedom we consider a given has long since become an illusion? What if freedom i… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Freedom is in danger. With Michel Friedman

Event data
  • Date: Sat. 28 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Sign language interpreting Available
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

The unthinkable has occurred. War is back – and a threat to all of us. Was the long period of peace in Europe nothing but a brief intermezzo? Is fate coming to get us because we cannot overcome our b… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Why war is not a destiny – Harald Meller, Kai Michel and Carel van Schaik on the evolution of violence

Event data
  • Date: Sat. 28 June 2025
  • Time: 20:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Philosophical approaches are an inextricable part of anti-racist and post-colonial theory. At the same time, however, philosophy has always been a driving force for the development and anchoring of… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Canceling Kant? Reza Mosayebi and Alice Hasters on racism in the history of philosophy

Event data
  • Date: Sat. 28 June 2025
  • Time: 21:00
  • Location: BALLONI-Hallen
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Luisa Neubauer is one of the best-known faces of the climate movement, which has been fighting for years to ensure a livable future on our planet. In her book What If We Are Brave?, she analyzes the… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event How do we save the climate? With Luisa Neubauer and Frauke Rostalski

Event data
  • Date: Sun. 29 June 2025
  • Time: 16:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Sign language interpreting Available
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Theologist and philosopher Britta Müller-Schauenburg appears to have taken a somewhat anachronistic path. She left her life as a scientist to become a nun at a time when more and more people are … This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Believing in God – a good idea? Manfred Lütz, Britta Müller-Schauenburg and Bernd Stegemann on faith in our secular times

Event data
  • Date: Sun. 29 June 2025
  • Time: 17:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Very few countries in the world are as inequitable as Germany: Only the USA and China have more superrich residents – and the gap between the richest and the poorest is widening further. Criticism of t… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Let’s talk money! Julia Friedrichs, Christian Neuhäuser and Wolfgang M. Schmitt on wealth, power and inequality

Event data
  • Date: Sun. 29 June 2025
  • Time: 17:00
  • Location: Filmforum NRW im Museum Ludwig
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Let’s create peace – but how? There is barely any question so urgent yet so controversial. When does the way out of a war even begin? And how can it be successful: with or without weapons, through neg… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Creating peace – Jörn Leonhard on wars and how to end them

Event data
  • Date: Sun. 29 June 2025
  • Time: 18:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

Nobel laureate for literature Thomas Mann fled to America to escape the Nazis. From there, he broadcast monthly speeches to German listeners via the BBC. Desperate, admonitory, angry, he tried to say… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event “Barbarism always begins with the abolition of human rights” – An evening for Thomas Mann, with Mely Kiyak, Maria Schrader and Daniel Schreiber

Event data
  • Date: Sun. 29 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

A romantic relationship between two people is no longer the only model for living out love, intimacy and sexuality. Faced with polyamory, “friends with benefits” and new relationship constellations, we … This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Smash monogamy!? Ole Liebl and Toni Loh on friendship, love and the ethics of polyamory

Event data
  • Date: Sun. 29 June 2025
  • Time: 20:00
  • Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal
  • Accessibility
    • Easy Language Available
    • Induction loop Available
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

In our culture, the eyes dominate and seeing is considered the most important sense. We want to look at things under the light, see as clearly as possible – we do not want to be confused cave d… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Listen up! How to understand. Philosophical radio live with Giovanni Maio

Event data
  • Date: Mon. 30 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: WDR Funkhaus, Kleiner Sendesaal
  • Accessibility
    • Wheelchair-accessible Available
    • Assistance dogs welcome Available

These days, it often seems that money is the opposite of good. It flows to where it already exists in excess: into complex financial products or expensive real estate. At the same time, there is a… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event Good money? Ways to a fair and sustainable society. With Philippa Sigl-Glöckner and Michael Hüther

Event data
  • Date: Mon. 30 June 2025
  • Time: 19:00
  • Location: Filmforum im Museum Ludwig
  • Accessibility
Unterstützt von:
Udo Keller Stiftung - Forum Humanum
 
Identity Foundation - Gemeinnützige Stiftung für Philosophie
 
Imhoff Stiftung
 
bpb Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
Medienpartner:
WDR5
Förderung durch:
Aktion Mensch
In Kooperation mit:
Philosophie Magazin
 
KSTA
 
Savoy Hotel
 
Stadt Köln