Heute nicht auf Kosten von morgen leben! – Parlamentarischer Beirat für nachhaltige Entwicklung im Deutschen Bundestag

Thomas Oberender has been Director of the Berliner Festspiele since 2012. He was previously Head of Theatre at the Salzburg Festival from 2006 to 2011. Oberender has lived in Berlin before – from 1988 to 2000 – where he completed a doctorate on Botho Strauß at the Humboldt University in 1999. Oberender has initiated long-running series formats for theatre, art and literature and curated time-based exhibitions. At the Berliner Festspiele he conceived and launched the Immersion series in 2016, whose projects have included opening up the planetarium as a site for the work of artists in the digital age. The exhibition by Philippe Parreno that he initiated at the Gropius Bau was selected as “Exhibition of the Year 2018” in 2019. As a curator Oberender was responsible along with Tino Sehgal for the time-based exhibition “Welt ohne Außen. Immersive Spaces since the 1960s” in 2018 and, as part of a wider curatorial team, for the “Palast der Republik” in 2019. The re-examination of the historical transformation of Eastern Germany since 1989 has become an additional focus for his work in recent years. He has published numerous books, including the anthology “The New Infinity. New Art in Planetariums” (2019), the artists’ conversation “Occupy History. Decolonisation of Memory” (2019) and “Nebeneingang oder Haupteingang? – Gespräche über 50 Jahre Schreiben fürs Theater” (Side Entrance or Main Entrance? – Conversations about 50 Years of Writing for the Theatre, 2014, together with Peter Handke). His latest publication “Empowerment Ost. Wie wir zusammen wachsen” (Empowerment East. How we grow together) was released in July 2020.

Rüdiger Kruse is a politician and member of the German Bundestag since 2009. For well over 30 years, he has been the managing director of the Hamburg chapter of the “Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald”, an association for the protection of the German forest, and has demanded that all political decisions be geared towards the 17 sustainability goals. Kruse is also a member of the Environmental Committee of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development and is the representative for maritime economies of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.