Germany is at a turning point. The baby boomers are reaching retirement age, and the demographic changes that accompany this are presenting the country with unforeseen challenges. However, the young generation that will soon be taking on responsibility is a minority in an ageing society whose reality is characterized by educational inequality, constant stress, and the feeling of being politically overlooked and socially neglected. For them, crisis has become the norm. 

The sociologist and author Aladin El-Mafaalani demands: Children must be placed at the center of political and social thinking. In his book, co-authored with Sebastian Kurtenbach and Klaus Peter Strohmeier, Kinder – Minderheit ohne Schutz. Aufwachsen in der alternden Gesellschaft, El-Mafaalani combines a comprehensive analysis of the problem with numerous possible solutions. The book advocates a rethinking: Children must be taken out of their position as outsiders, not only out of moral obligation, but out of essential necessity for a future worth living. The authors show the enormous changes that are shaping childhoods today and how the older generations can do justice to the youngest. After all, the future viability of society as a whole depends on it.
El-Mafaalani talks about this topic with comedian, author, and presenter Felix Lobrecht, who has captured the fears and hopes of young people in a special way in his novel Sonne und Beton (2017), among others.