2023 - August - Open Day at the Federal Chancellery

Take a look over the Chancellor's shoulder, which is possible through an internship or the rocky path in politics. But the much easier option for a quick visit is to attend the Open Day.

We took advantage of this and didn't expect it to be so exciting. Of course, a personal check is required at the beginning of a visit to the Chancellery, similar to the airport. However, it was much faster here than at the airport check-in because everything was well organized.

Once inside, not all doors are open, but many of them are. However, the most impressive thing was the role-playing game. Here, we found ourselves in a conference room with other randomly selected visitors.

In large tables for 8 people each, everyone was given a tablet. Then it was revealed which ministry they had landed in. We suddenly became employees of the Ministry of Justice. Other tables represented other ministries as well as the Chancellery.

Specifically, it was about negotiating a fictitious legislative proposal from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for the Social Obligatory Service. The actual "social year" proposed by our Federal President Steinmeier has more stumbling blocks than one might think.

That is why we at the Ministry of Justice were not convinced by this new legislative proposal: What about the social freedom of young people? Is this proposal even unconstitutional? And then there are practical problems: how and where do you accommodate about 700,000 young people per year? And what about Germans abroad or foreign youth here in Germany?

We quickly assumed our role at the table, and just as quickly, we found a spokesperson among us who was then appointed as the minister. The neighboring table represented the Chancellor, in our case even a female Chancellor.

Each minister and the Chancellor, together with a State Secretary, now took their seats at the large conference table. As staff in the background, we were able to send messages to our minister via our tablets. And we did. It even turned out that we had a Dutch lawyer among us who then found the right articles of the Basic Law.

You wouldn't believe how many interested citizens there are, and everyone was passionate about it. There were even children, and two of them also held ministerial positions.

By the way, the Chancellor is more of a mediator or has a moderating function in such a meeting.

In the end, we voted, and most of the votes were against the new draft law.

By the way, in the middle of our role-playing game, the real host entered the room. No, not Chancellor Scholz, but the Minister of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt. He also has the job title 'Federal Minister for Special Tasks'. Of course, he came with his entourage, including bodyguards, and gave us insights into his work.

But of course, we also visited the Federal Chancellery from the outside and inside and had a snack with a view of the spree in the best weather. In the end, we were really impressed by this visit.

So even if you don't feel like participating in the role-playing game, I can really recommend a visit to the Federal Chancellery!