Stefan Schartlmüller

Stefan is a Co-Founder of the IG Demokratie - which was founded with the Idea "renew democracy every day as a society" in 2012. After 10 years in tourism, he opened two restaurants in Linz in 2009. His role as a restaurant owner, next to other aspects, made him more and more question why politics works better for some and worse for others. identifying participatory methods and culture as a key for renewing and opening political processes, he started different courses around opening, facilitating, and harvesting formats of political dialogue and trauma-sensitive communication. With the IG Demokratie, next to various other projects, he established the Democracy-Repaircafe and deepened a view on democratic deficits, citizens' assemblies, etc. After quitting the restaurant and tourism business in 2015, he was cooking along the "Balkan-route", started growing vegetables in community gardens, worked as a kindergarten assistant, and deepened the work on renewing democracy every day.