In March 2025, I had the great pleasure of accompanying and moderating a very special event: the 1st Referendum of Living Beings. In this theater event, approximately 150 theatergoers at the Brecht Festival, representing aquatic life, debated and decided on difficult questions concerning the sustainable protection of the “World Heritage Water City of Augsburg” in interaction with the initiators of the referendum (artist collective Club Real/species ambassadors of Organism Democracy). Decisions were made on the urgency of four proposals prepared by species ambassadors on the future of the World Heritage Site and the city of Augsburg.

It was a creative challenge to interactively involve 150 theatergoers in this experiment. This made the successful, moving change of perspective and the passionate, tongue-in-cheek debate all the more enjoyable. In the end, everyone had the opportunity to decide, on behalf of “their” aquatic creature, whether and how to continue on the path to a just multispecies society in Augsburg. It was an action-learning experience that will surely move and remain in the memories of all those involved for a long time to come. Never before have I experienced such an engaged and at the same time humorous, light-hearted, and profound debate about conflicts of interest and discrimination in a group of strangers.

Starting in March 2025, the species ambassadors in Augsburg will be dedicated to implementing the decisions of the referendum of living beings in cooperation with the city council in Augsburg.

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