WHP: Can you briefly introduce the Berliner Bürgerplattformen? What is its main purpose in Berlin?
Sami Atris: Who actually decides what happens in our lives? How much influence do we have over how high our rent is — or whether we can even afford to stay in our neighbourhood? Who decides whether our children go to a good school? What the park around the corner looks like, whether the bus still runs, whether the playground gets renovated?
Most of the decisions that massively affect our lives are made somewhere — but not by us.
The Berliner Bürgerplattformen are an alliance of civil society groups: schools, daycare centres, churches, mosques, community centres, and much more. These groups have a clear message: We want a say. Not through polemics, not through protest for the sake of protest — but through solutions we develop together, and through our ability to show decision-makers that these solutions are in the interest of the city.
How do we find our issues? Our member groups listen to their base and find out what really concerns people. From these conversations emerge the topics we work on. Then we analyse: Who makes the decisions we want to change? How do we get a seat at that table?
It is about power — but not the kind of power exercised at others’ expense. It is about developing influence together, so that people who are often not heard get a voice. A voice that counts.
WHP: What personally motivated you to get involved?
Sami Atris: In 2015, I first came into contact with community organizing and the Berlin Bürgerplattformen. I had previously met young people — migrants who had repeatedly experienced discrimination at government offices, at school, or on the street. Many had come to terms with it. They withdrew, stayed among their own. A safe space — but also a cage.
I tried to bring them in. And it worked. Over the years I observed again and again how these young people grew out of that powerlessness. Not because someone rescued them — but because they built relationships with other people and groups in the city, learned to trust one another, and then fought for their own interests. And won. They realised: I am not a victim. I am someone who can shape the city.
This experience was so formative that I left my previous career and became a community organiser. I have not regretted it for a single second.
WHP: What challenges do people in Berlin face when they want to get politically or socially involved — and how does the Bürgerplattform try to respond?
Sami Atris: Again and again people come to me and ask: Who should I even vote for? Nothing ever changes anyway. And I tell them: Democracy is more than voting. You can fight for yourself and your neighbourhood every single day — by organising together. A vote every few years matters, but it alone rarely changes what affects us daily.
Our guiding principle is: Do nothing for others that they can do themselves. But for the things that cannot be changed alone, the Bürgerplattform is the place where people learn how to organise systematically — and generate the strength from that to bring about real change.
What we offer to counter the feeling of powerlessness is no quick fix. Before we work together on issues, we invest a great deal of time in something that is often forgotten in politics: relationships. Genuine conversations about what moves people, what they wish for, what makes them angry. From this foundation grows trust — and from trust grows the ability to act together.
Whoever works with us eventually negotiates not as an individual, but as part of an organised community. That changes how decision-makers listen. And it changes how people see themselves.
WHP: Is there a project, event or initiative coming up that you would particularly like to recommend to our readers?
Sami Atris: For anyone who has become curious and would like to experience community Organising first-hand, I recommend the Organising Germany Day on 24 April 2026 at the Catholic University of Social Work Berlin (KHSB). 120 people from across Germany who want to change their neighbourhood will come together in one place. There will be talks, workshops and a vibrant marketplace of possibilities — with activists from Berlin, Cologne and Duisburg showing what is possible in practice.
Those who want to join for the whole weekend will experience even more: On Saturday 25 April we head to the German Bundestag — a conversation with a member of parliament about informal power dynamics in the city, followed by an exploratory tour of Berlin-Schöneweide, where the Berlin Bürgerplattformen took their first steps over 25 years ago.
On Sunday 26 April we visit the Lilienthalstraße cemetery in Neukölln — 1,000 graves where Muslims could be buried according to their own rites. A campaign that shows what becomes possible when people come together and persistently stand up for their interests.
Places are limited. Registration deadline is 13 April 2026. You can register here.
WHP: How can interested people support your work or get involved themselves?
Sami Atris: There are different ways, depending on who you are and what you can contribute. The most valuable support is when an organisation — a school, a mosque, a church, an association, a community centre — becomes a member of the Bürgerplattform. These groups bring what truly matters: people, networks, roots in the neighbourhood. Without this foundation there is no platform.
Entrepreneurs who take social responsibility seriously can accompany us through an annual donation as part of our circle of supporters. This allows us to work in a long-term and independent way — without party lines, without grant bureaucracy. Individual donations also help us to continue our work consistently.And anyone who simply wants to take a first look without committing to anything straight away — the Organising Germany Day on 24 April is the perfect place to start. Or just get in touch directly here.
(Header image: © Florian Boillot / FUNKE Foto Services)
