UNCORRECTED PROOF 1 Chapter 27 Aktive Bürgerschaft: Innovations for Civil Society in Germany Stefan Nährlich S. Nährlich () Aktive Bürgerschaft e.V., Berlin, Germany e-mail: stefan.naehrlich@aktive-buergerschaft.de Abstract “Aktive Bürgerschaft: Do good things even better! We make innovative engagement concepts work in practice and implement them together with partners on the national or regional level.” In line with its mission statement, Aktive Bürger- schaft (Active Citizenship) gives a fresh impetus to the further development of civil society. The promotion of community foundations is one example of this. With the foundation of the association Aktive Bürgerschaft, Germany entered new ground: a nonprofit association that promotes civic engagement on the national level and is supported by a group of banks. With its roots in third sector research, Aktive Bürg- erschaft developed in the mid-1990s as part of an innovative beginning to promote civic engagement with a new approach. Annette Zimmer’s work paved the way for this development. Keywords Community foundations · Civil society · Civic engagement · Germany Over the past two decades, civic engagement in Germany has continuously gained attention and significance. Changes in society as well as changes in voluntary ac- tion and giving, foundations and associations converted the image of “someone who only thinks about his club” to an “active citizen” who shapes society. But the focus is not only on committed citizens but also on nonprofit organizations that give this engagement a lasting influence and on structures that support and strengthen the engagement of individuals. In this context, experts often speak of an infrastructure that promotes engagement. In this regard, community foundations have gained great respect. For the first time in contemporary German history, an idea and a concept have established them- selves on a nationwide level despite the fact that they did not stem from political will, were not dependent on subsidies from exemplary—or sometimes non-exem- plary—federal programs, and are almost free from state assistance and interference. Based on private initiative, community foundations help build up the capital of civil M.Freise, T.Hallmann (eds.), Modernizing Democracy, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-0485-3_27, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Book ID: 310940_1_En Chapter ID: 27 Dispatch Date: 05/03/2014 Proof No: 1 Author's Proof