Dr Rupert Graf Strachwitz

Biography

Dr Rupert Graf Strachwitz is a representative of the Quelle Innovation Foundation. The Quelle Innovation Foundation is a co-founder and shareholder of the Berlin Governance Platform.

Rupert Graf Strachwitz has been involved with civil society for more than 40 years in an honorary and full-time capacity, in a practical, advisory, research and teaching capacity. In 1997, he became Director of what is now the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society in Berlin and in 2010 became a member of the Board of Directors of its legal entity, the Maecenata Foundation. In 2023, he handed over this role to the previous Deputy Director, Dr Siri Hummel, and took over the management of the Maecenata Foundation's Tocqueville Forum. He is an honorary deputy chairman of the German-British Society and a member of the supervisory board of International Rescue Committee Deutschland gGmbH. Today, he is particularly committed to European integration.

He studied political science in the USA and Munich. His master's thesis dealt with the 'Levellers', a civil society revolutionary group in England in the 17th century. After seven years working for the Order of Malta abroad and Malteser-Hilfsdienst in Germany, he was president of the administration of the Duke of Bavaria and at the same time an honorary manager at Malteser-Hilfsdienst as well as a member of various committees of the German Caritas Association, most recently as vice president. In 1987, he began advising foundations and other charitable organisations. From 1995-2000 he was Chairman of the German Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project; from 1999-2002 he was a member of the Enquete Commission 'Future of Civic Engagement' of the German Bundestag. From 2000-2007 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fondazione Cariplo, Milan. From 1992-2011 he was a member of the council of the European cultural heritage organisation 'Europa Nostra'.

His approximately 500 publications in German, English and other languages deal with foundations, civil society, civic engagement and related topics as well as European and cultural policy.

Further information: www.strachwitz.info


The shareholder of the Berlin Governance Platform is the Quelle Innovation Foundation, which supports the Maecenata Foundation and is organisationally linked to it. The Maecenata Foundation sees itself as a think tank for civil society and related topics and realises its goals through four programmes:

  • the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society, a non-university research organisation,
  • the Transnational Giving programme to promote transnational giving,
  • the Tocqueville Forum for networking research, policy and practice,
  • the MENA Study Centre for analyses and debates on the MENA region

The foundation also has an extensive, publicly accessible specialised academic library.

Further information: www.maecenata.eu