Equilibrismus e.V. was founded in December 1997 exactly 25 years ago. That’s something to be proud of. And we are. Damn proud. Our start was phenomenal. Supported by numerous prominent personalities such as Sir Peter Ustinov, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Thor Heyerdahl, Daniel Goeudevert, Dennis Meadows, Jean Ziegler, Herbert Gruhl, Helmy Abouleish, Dr Hermann Scheer, Helmut Creutz and numerous lesser-known advocates, we believed that the necessary and comprehensive paradigm shift could indeed be achieved. The vision of Equilibrism seemed to fall on very fertile ground. The fact that it then became a difficult and rocky road only confirms how difficult it is to face the steamroller of irrationality that leads directly to ecocide in broad daylight.

Albert Einstein said that we cannot solve problems with the thought patterns that led to them. Of course we can’t. The vision of Equilibrism is a socio-ecological society that follows the rules of nature in all areas of human activity and subordinates itself to the cycles of nature. Living with nature and not against it — this will be clear to everyone after the foreseeable disaster into which a greed-driven economic system is currently leading us. We are unhinging the world though we are not in a position to then keep it in balance, so it will come crashing down and bury us. But since so many have had their hands on the controls, no one will feel responsible, no one will be held accountable — but we will all have to bear the consequences.

As long as we are not prepared to question the existing economic system in all areas of human life, we will not find any solutions. Basically, the question is: Do humans want to live only on or again with the earth in the future?

“The concept of Equilibrism strives for a balance amongst ecology, economy, and politics, as well as social and cultural life. At a time when exclusively economic thinking is rampant and economics is becoming omnipotent on a global scale, this goal is more urgent than ever.” These words were written by Sir Peter Ustinov in his foreword to our book Equilibrism – New concepts instead of reforms for a world in balance. At the same time, he suggested writing a novel based on the non-fiction book to make the ideas of Equilibrism palatable to a wider audience.

How that turned out is well known: It resulted in The Tahiti Project, a bestselling novel that won the German Science Fiction Prize in 2009. And because it felt so good to be part of a society that had come to its senses, author Dirk C. Fleck continued the story into the year 2037 with MAEVA and FEUER AM FUSS. Fleck’s Maeva trilogy, a so-called longseller, continues to inspire new readers. A fruitful collaboration over 12 years, from research to the finished book, gave us a lot of motivation and created a great dynamic.

And while we are patting ourselves on the back, it should not go unmentioned that the German Environmental Media Prize 2010 was awarded for the programme The Practice of Utopians by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, in which Matthias Leitner devotes himself exclusively to the work of Equilibrismus e.V.. One year later, in 2011, Equilibrismus was awarded as one of the twelve best projects of the year 2011 within the framework of the “Project Future” with the triad of economy, ecology and social issues.

Finally, a few words from our friend and supporter Dennis Meadows, which aptly summarise what we have also been committed to for 25 years:

“Above all, we now have to fulfil an important basic mental prerequisite: turning away from anthropocentric thinking. We humans are a complex subsystem in a multitude of complex systems that have developed over long periods of time, in mutual dependencies and in a dynamic network of relationships. Just as today we can only scoff as a matter of course at the geocentric view of the world before Copernicus and Galileo, we will hopefully soon find our way to a holistic view of the world in which human beings are given their place in the grand scheme, and look back with wonder at the time when they saw themselves detached above ‘the rest of creation’.”

Although we have encountered many obstacles in our efforts to communicate precisely this to a wider public, we remain confident that Equilibrism can make an important contribution to bringing about this change in awareness in the future.