Guiding principles: What we stand for
We want to improve our society! We are confident this will succeed only through dialogue and understanding. That’s why we work to promote understanding between peoples and between social groups in Germany, for greater enlightenment and reflection through science, education and culture, and for confrontation with our historical origin and identity.
Through our work we want to stimulate debates, try out solutions, and win over the people around us to involve themselves.
Talk
We see ourselves as a platform for social dialogue that brings together people from different political, social and cultural backgrounds. We contribute to ensuring that arguments and ideas holding future promise get a hearing. We involve ourselves via events and publications in current debates.
Act
We respond to social challenges through our projects, and we develop and implement our own ideas and formats. We identify examples of “good practice”, adopt them and carry them forward, either on our own or together with partners.
Inspire
We bring together disseminators and decision-makers, and encourage people to gain new insights. We encourage the younger generation to develop their own abilities and to take on responsibility. We support, promote and appreciate people who open up scope for future action and show exemplary dedication towards improving our coexistence.
What we do
We focus our work on social challenges, which were already fundamental concerns of Kurt A. Körber, our founder.
Knowledge for Tomorrow
We rely on bright, creative minds and honour knowledge that is socially relevant today for a world worth living in tomorrow. With strong nationwide and European networks, we build an environment that encourages talent, inspires excellence and creates space for experimentation and critical dialogue.
International Understanding
We encourage debate across national, political, cultural and religious boundaries under the motto “Talk to, not about one another”, and bring as many of the relevant players as possible to the same table. We take into consideration as many different identities as possible, encourage confrontation with historical issues, support an attitude of mutual respect, explore the scope for political action and highlight practically-oriented routes for international collaboration.
Vibrant Civil Society
Germany’s population is shrinking and ageing, while becoming more diverse at the same time. To prepare ourselves for this future, we forge new alliances between science, politics, civil society and the economy. We develop commitment networks and advocate more shared responsibility on the part of citizens. We campaign for a diversity of lifestyles in old age, and for successful models of integration.
Cultural Impulses for Hamburg
With our expertise from many years of cultural mediation and the promotion of young artists, we accompany culture in the Hanseatic city. We develop our own projects and enter into strategic partnerships with Hamburg’s cultural institutions.
How we work
entrepreneurially
We are convinced that social progress always needs courage, willingness to experiment and a readiness to take risks. Consequently we also encourage lateral thinking together with a focus on unconventional ideas.
competently
We see ourselves as professional, competent and possessing specialist expert knowledge. Instead of limiting our horizon, our work is interdisciplinary and exploits the potentials of our networks.
transparently
To make our work easy to understand, we regularly reflect on what we do. We are supported in this by a network of experts whom we recruit as our advisors, in advisory councils or in juries.
cooperatively
We are aware that complex social challenges demand collaboration between many stakeholders, which is why we seek cooperation with partners from civil society, science, industry, politics, culture and the media. We are guided, both internally and externally, by collegiality, appreciation and respect.
Our origins
Our foundation was created in 1959 by the entrepreneur Kurt A. Körber (1909 to 1992). Körber had not only built up a group of technology companies with worldwide operations since the late nineteen-forties, but also transferred his entrepreneurial creative drive to civil society. Körber believed in the feasibility of social change and in problem-oriented solutions. We see ourselves as a foundation in this tradition.
Körber-Stiftung is the sole shareholder of Körber AG, and earns further income from its own free assets. We take care to ensure strict independence between Körber AG and Körber-Stiftung. Körber AG does not exercise any influence over the work of Körber-Stiftung, and Körber-Stiftung does not influence Körber AG’s operational business.
The rule that also applies to the foundation’s ongoing work is that we place great importance on remaining ideologically, religiously and party-politically independent. Because only through openness and a willingness to achieve understanding that transcends borders will we be able to fulfil our Founder’s remit to “work together to shape our future” and thus make society better.