On June 7 the 2018 Reinhard Mohn Prize on the topic "Living Diversity – Shaping Society" was awarded to former German President Joachim Gauck at Gütersloh Theater. In bestowing the award, we honored Gauck for his role as a bridgebuilder in a culturally diverse society.

Highly qualified bankers from the EU, "guest workers" from Turkey, refugees from Syria – Germany's cities are experiencing cultural diversity in a variety of ways, and their responses are equally distinct. The communities range from mostly homogenous small and midsized cities to mega-diverse metropolises that benefit from the numerous cultures present there.

Half of Germans would like immigrants to adapt to mainstream society. One third would prefer a merging of cultures – and among younger people, this is even the majority view. These are the findings of a special analysis of our Religion Monitor, in which we investigated attitudes among the German population about successful coexistence in cultural diversity.

The Belgian city of Mechelen is showing the way forward in efforts to live well together in diversity. While visiting the city, Liz Mohn was introduced to its diversity strategies that have been identified as outstanding examples of good practices as part of the international research conducted for the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2018.

Author: Torsten Meise

Cultural diversity offers valuable opportunities – such as helping companies increase their innovative power. As the study we conducted for the 2018 Reinhard Mohn Prize shows: Businesses that hire people of diverse cultural backgrounds are better positioned to develop ideas for new products, services and processes. Companies, however, are not yet living cultural diversity to the same degree.

This year's Reinhard Mohn Prize on the topic of "Living Diversity - Shaping Society" goes to former German President Joachim Gauck. The Bertelsmann Stiftung recognizes Gauck as a bridge builder in a culturally diverse society. Gauck will receive the €200,000 award on June 7th in Gütersloh.

Two studies examine attitudes toward diversity in Germany.

As part of this year’s Reinhard Mohn Prize and in the tradition of Reinhard Mohn's vision of learning from the world, we’re searching the globe for urban settings where living together in cultural diversity is a proven success. The United Kingdom has considerable experience with multiculturalism and a long tradition of embracing diversity. We went to visit one of the UK’s most diverse cities – Leicester in the English Midlands. With its Community Cohesion Strategy targeting a “community of communities,” the city has taken a pro-active approach to fostering good relations between the various cultural and religious communities that call Leicester home.

Author: Johannes von Dohnanyi