Review of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium 2021

Potsdam, 16 October 2021. With interesting speeches by Benjamin H. Bratton and Andreas Reckwitz, lively discussions with diverse views and perspectives within the digital Strategic Roundtable Discussions and an exciting Special Talk with Can Dündar, Claudia Major and Saad Mohseni on “The Totalitarian Temptation”, we have covered a wide range of topics and highlighted various aspects and approaches to the issue at this year’s M100 Sanssouci Colloquium on 6 October. The day ended on a politically topical and emotional note with the presentation of the M100 Media Award to Alexei Navalny, accepted by his close confidant Leonid Volkov and lauded by Christian Lindner.

Please find below an overview of the individual parts of the Colloquium, including the M100 Young European Journalists Workshop, with links to detailed summaries and the complete speeches.

The M100 Sanssouci Colloquium started at shortly after 14.00 with the digital part of the conference:
At the beginning, Leonard Novy and a participant of this year’s M100YEJ, Andreea Tanasie, presented the results of the M100 Young European Journalists Workshop, which took place online in three weekend modules from 10 September to 2 October (more on this below).

Afterwards, the American sociologist Benjamin H. Bratton (Professor of Fine Arts, University of California, San Diego) introduced the participants to the topic with his opening speech on “The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a (Post-)Pandemic World”, which you can read here and also watch as a recording.

Following, the participants met in three different virtual rooms (Strategic Roundtables), where they discussed for 60 minutes leadership in Europe, Europe’s role in the world and the relationship between journalism and science.
The sessions were moderated by Annalisa Piras (journalist, filmmaker and CEO of The Wake Up Foundation), Christoph Lanz (Head of Board Thomson Media and M100 Advisory Board), and Alexandra Borchardt (Senior Research Associate Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism), who then presented short, concise summaries of the discussions on the stage of the Schlosstheater, moderated by Leonard Novy (M100 Advisory Board and Director of the IfM in Cologne).
We would like to thank the three moderators once again for their support and excellent work!

Can Dündar, Claudia Major, Saad Mohseni, Ali ASlan (Photo: Ulf Büschleb)

The virtual part was followed by a live-streamed face-to-face event in the Palace Theatre of the Neues Palais in Potsdam, which was introduced by a speech by Prof. Dr. Andreas Reckwitz (Professor of General Sociology and Cultural Sociology, Humboldt University Berlin) on “Resilience in late Modernity”.

Afterwards, Saad Mohseni (Afghan-Australian media entrepreneur and co-founder and chairman of the MOBY Group), Dr Claudia Major (Head of the International Security Department at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs SWP), and Dr Can Dündar (top Turkish journalist and editor-in-chief of Özgurüz) discussed in a Special Talk “The Totalitarian Temptation” on the state of democracy and reasons for rising totalitarianism in the world. The discussion was moderated by Ali Aslan (international TV presenter).

After a short break, the M100 Media Award was presented to the imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Christian Lindner, Leonid Volkov, Mike Schubert (Photo: Ulf Büschleb/M100)

The award for him was accepted by his campaign manager and close confidant Leonid Volkov. You can read his speech here.
The laudatory speech was delivererd by FDP leader Christian Lindner, who came to Potsdam directly after a first press conference on the state of the exploratoray talks with the Greens and the SPD.

The welcome speech was given by Potsdam’s Lord Mayor Mike Schubert.

The recording of the live-stream of the event (speech by Prof. Reckwitz, Special Talk and M100 Media Award ceremony) can be found here.

A summary video with interviews and impressions of this year’s Colloquium will follow soon!

M100 Young European Journalists Workshop

In the run-up to the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, an M100 Young European Journalists Workshop on “Reporting in Crisis and the Crisis in Reporting” took place over three weekends with 15 participants from 10 countries. The workshop was funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy, for which we are very grateful. The written summary of the workshop can be read here, a film about the workshop watched here.


We thank our supporters, sponsors and partners: State Capital Potsdam, Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Federal Foreign Office, Agentur Medienlabor, Bundesverband der Freien Berufe, IfM, AFP, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, VDZ, and Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation.