#6/25 My Book – read, listen, join the conversation!

Dear Readers,

I have written a book. Why? There are already so many.

67,467 new releases annually, says Statista. That could actually be my very first section: the number that sticks in your mind. But I am dedicating that (today at the very bottom) to a LinkedIn post about a scandal directly after the federal elections, which has made a lot of waves (No, not the one in the Oval Office).

Back to the book: “Der gefesselte Wohlstand. Wo die Milliarden liegen, mit denen wir die Welt verbessern können” will be published on March 27 by Econ-Verlag. The publisher itself recommends pre-ordering on Amazon, but of course I am also happy to offer an alternative on Autorenwelt. An audiobook will also be released in the summer.

For the already sold-out premiere on March 26 in Berlin there is only a waiting list, but I will be organizing a series of discussion events after that: In Vienna on April 4, Essen on April 8 (tickets via Deutschlandfunk Kultur Lesart), Zurich on April 11 (Tickets), Munich on May 12 (Tickets) and in June on Sylt. I am currently looking for a location in Hamburg and Frankfurt.

I look forward to the debate!

Yours, Felix

A person who inspires me “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” Just like E. M. Forster, I felt the same way when editor-in-chief Gabriele Fischer asked a year ago after a lecture in Hamburg at her brandeins magazine whether there might not be a book in it. Without this encouragement from a person I admire, I wouldn't have thought about it.

But I only really took the matter seriously when I sat with an exposé in the garden of literary agent Elisabeth Ruge at Berlin's Schlachtensee and she explained to me how she first wanted to test the appetite of some publishers before I should start writing. And it only became irreversible when Jürgen Diessl from Econ-Verlag thought the book was right for his program and for the current times.

And because many people have asked me how it all works alongside a job and family, Janina and I recorded a podcast with Elisabeth Ruge about the why and how of book writing. Here is the link to the episode “Why and how do I write a book?” with one of the most experienced women in the German literary business.

For me, the writing took half a year from the first chapter to submission. The book was constantly with me, in the middle of a conversation something occurred to me, in the morning while running I sorted my thoughts, and wrote mainly at the weekend. And I discussed drafts with many people around me. The journalist and Nannen Prize winner Heike Faller helped decisively in finding a convincing narrative perspective, describing my own history of insight through encounters instead of acting like a scientist or an investigative journalist. I am curious about the feedback on whether that succeeded.

An idea to think further: On the Internet, the book is never finished

For half a year, I wanted to get finished. Since the submission, I have been worried about not being able to add anything more. That's why I decided to simply continue the book on dasneuegeben.de.

There, I have not only documented the encounters from the book as podcast episodes, but am also constantly adding new ones. There are already over 35, and every week Janina Breitling and I talk to interesting people about the many different perspectives on capitalism, wealth, giving. And to make it easier to find the two hundred people mentioned in the book, I have put an index of people online.

The newsletter also continues there. This allows me to not only add more ideas, but also to share my learning experiences - and to correct myself if I change my mind.

And of course things are constantly happening that I would have liked to include in the book: The first weeks of the second Trump presidency and the end of many certainties about the role of the state and the Western community of states. Even though in the chapter “The Mega-Donors and Their Limits” I was still able to say something about the eerie world-improvement strategies of tech billionaires, I would certainly write differently about Elon Musk today.

In the chapter “The New Giving”, I sketched out some political ideas for German policy that wants to unleash prosperity. I am pleased that “Capital” magazine is already recommending my book before publication as one of four books that should be read by the next federal government. The following “number that sticks in your mind”, however, makes me suspect that the energy for a larger civil society will not come from the new parliamentary majority, but must come from society itself.

A number that sticks in your mind: 551

That is how many questions were contained in the “minor interpellation” by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. And five hundred reactions and over one hundred comments were triggered by the following LinkedIn post of mine:

Surely one is still allowed to ask #551questions?? NO.

It is not just suggestive questions that are being asked by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. They do not only unnecessarily burden the parliament and the discourse.

They are the most significant attack on civil society since the ATTAC ruling six years ago. And that practically as the first official act of the future Chancellor.

And this in an international environment where we can see exactly where the rhetoric of suspicion towards NGOs and their completely transparent public and private funding leads - to delegitimization, then to withdrawal of funding, then to … #turkey #hungary #trump

Now would actually be the moment for major private donations to the affected organizations, completely regardless of where one stands politically.

There is rarely urgent daily politics to comment on regarding “my” topics. In this case, I am grateful that I spoke out, because firstly, public funding and transparency rules are not something that one necessarily has to understand. And secondly, I learned something from the reactions: even in my bubble, the NGO-critical approach finds some approval. We will have to talk a lot more about this topic.