#GetTheMayor

Public participation made easy

The portal www.holdenoberbuergermeister.de [Get the Mayor] gives local people a chance to draw attention to matters close to their hearts concerning Heidelberg. Projects attracting sufficient support will then be visited by the Mayor in person.

More green roofs across the city or better support for single parents? An outdoor gym in the Neckarwiese park or a communal cooking project using food rescued from waste bins? Would you like to know what the Mayor thinks of your ideas? Well, now you can ask!

With its #HolDenOberbürgermeister [Get the Mayor] campaign, Heidelberg’s city administration is the first in Germany to adopt an entirely new approach to public participation. Since January 2015, the people of Heidelberg have been able to play an active part in scheduling the diary of Mayor Dr. Eckart Würzner and draw attention to their own concerns and projects. Via the portal www.holdenoberbuergermeister.de, local people can raise issues specifically concerning Heidelberg that are important to them and which they believe merit the city administration’s attention. Other users can register their support for these concerns by voting. The projects with the most votes are visited by the Mayor in person and discussed with the initiators.

Since the launch of the project, over 4,300 users have signed up and 92 proposals have been submitted. The Mayor has responded to 26 of these proposals in person, talking to local people about their projects and concerns and working with them to develop solutions.

Heidelberg has already garnered various international awards for its public participation portal, and in 2017 #HolDenOberbürgermeister was an award-winner in the competition “Excellent Places in the Land of Ideas”, making it one of the top 100 initiatives in Germany.