Transition Culture

7 May 2013

Former German President waxes lyrical about Transition

Thanks to Transition Town Freiburg in Germany for this.  Horst Köhler, recently-resigned German president (and former president of the IMF) gave a speech to a big world mobility conference (i.e. lots of car companies in the audience), in which he waxed lyrical about Transition!  And a few days later he stood down.  Here is the video of his talk, followed by a translation of what he said.

“… something like that already exists, and many who think alike are looking for solutions, for example, in Transition Towns initiatives. From London to Sydney, from Austin to Gottingen, people in their communities come together to address the same concern: How can we ourselves organise our town in a way, so that it’s resource-saving, climate-friendly and worth living in?

These initiative draw on the knowledge, ideas and creativity of each and everyone in search of progress towards a better quality of life.   I see this as a wonderful combination of civic local engagement and a worldwide network.

In many towns throughout the world people get together, finding community and are enthusiastic about the idea of together envision a future model for their town, that will make it worth living in.  There is something out there ladies and gentlemen, I’m deeply convinced, that was set in motion already quite some time ago…”

My thanks to Gerd Wessling of Transition Germany for the translation and to everyone on Twitter who also offered their help translating it.