The 2025 Summer Reception of the Bavarian State Parliament - Insights into volunteering in Bavaria

Thanks to their volun­teer work, Max­imili­an Bau­er, Max­imili­an Eiche, Michaela Grädener, Luisa Latel­la, Vere­na Leo­pold, Mario Ran­zinger, Arslan Ra­za, Josef Tabai, Vin­cent Wess­ling, and Sarah Za­ghloul were able to partic­ipate this year. They are in­volved in inter­cul­tural pro­jects, im­prov­ing medi­cal care, sus­taina­bility pro­jects, the Long Night of Sci­ence, help­ing refu­gees, stu­dent repre­senta­tion, and local poli­tics. The mem­bers of the Elite Net­work of Ba­varia thus re­flect­ed the broad social diver­sity of volun­teer work and at the same time con­tributed to net­work­ing with other com­mit­ted indi­vidu­als.

The supporting program was opened with a speech by Ilse Aigner, President of the Bavarian State Parliament. With regard to the upcoming local elections, she concluded her speech by emphasizing: “If ‘Bavaria calls’ and more women move into town halls, it would not be detrimental to democracy.” 

Fol­low­ing the speech, guests were treat­ed to culi­nary spe­cial­ties dedi­cated to each of the seven Ba­varian ad­minis­trative dis­tricts. The di­verse pro­gram in­clud­ed musi­cal per­for­manc­es by the Schleißheimer Schloßpfeifer, the Mus­ikkapelle Stein­heim e.V., and the band The Heimat­damisch, a fire acro­batics show, and a raffle orga­nized by Sternstund­en e.V., which raised a total of €40,000 for chil­dren in need.

The unique at­mosphere and di­verse en­coun­ters made the even­ing a mem­orable expe­rience for the mem­bers of the Elite Net­work of Ba­varia. How­ever, the big­gest high­light was get­ting to know inter­esting and inspir­ing per­sonal­ities and, above all, the op­por­tunity to ex­change ide­as with each other.

Text: Mario Ranzinger (Alumnus Max Weber Program)