Was auf dem Spiel steht

At 12:00 CET on November 5th 2024, the first voting booths for the presidential election will open in the USA. The entire world is looking intently towards the results. And even here in Saxony there are important local, European and parliamentary elections this year; here, we could be deciding how we want to live. For this reason we are organizing a marathon reading about what is at stake in elections. This question seems all the more urgent since certain candidates have been celebrating victories even though they are radicalizing the tone, even though they are demeaningly hostile to their opposition and constantly shift the "red lines" to more extreme positions of the sayable and doable.

Numerous texts document how people have fought for values in past centuries that today have given us, as a society, a framework of constitutions, guidelines and explanations – and thus a foundation for human rights, freedom and democracy. In the process, we are aware of the dilemma that some of these writings are subject to debate because they were only formulated by a small part of humanity while simultaneously denying many people rights and dignity: because of their gender or beliefs, their origins, identity or way of life.

In WAS AUF DEM SPIEL STEHT, the readers and listeners can determine how far we have come since the first definition and exclamation of universal human rights in the 18th century up to an actual recognition of equality and dignity for all – and where current challenges lie.