New faces, new ideas: Politics thrives on people with different perspectives and life experiences. Yet for many, the path to elected office is a major hurdle – particularly for young people. Women remain underrepresented; they account for only around one-third of the members of the German Bundestag.

One of them is Nora Seitz from Chemnitz. The 42-year-old is a master butcher and works in the family business founded by her grandparents almost 100 years ago. She has achieved what few manage to do: make the leap from the skilled trades into federal politics. Since 2025, she has been a member of the German Bundestag for the CDU – one of only six members of parliament with a master crafts qualification in a skilled trade. Originally, however, she had no plans to become a career politician. She changed her mind during the COVID-19 pandemic: »After spending the first day of lockdown on the phone from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and eventually explaining to the third ministry official in Saxony that butchers and bakers are indeed essential workers – not just supermarkets – I thought: I'll do it myself.«

On her path into the Bundestag, she received support from the non-profit organisation JoinPolitics, whose work is supported by the Schöpflin Foundation. The Berlin-based initiative aims to identify, support and connect people with compelling ideas and approaches for political office and projects – at municipal level as well as in state and federal politics. Alongside Nora Seitz, five other JoinPolitics alumni entered the German Bundestag in 2025, five of them for the first time. Verena Hubertz (38) is the first JoinPolitics alumna to become a member of the federal government. Since last year, she has served as Federal Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Building.
 

Promoting greater diversity in politics

Caroline Weimann founded JoinPolitics in 2019. With populist parties on the rise, she began asking herself what was going wrong in the democratic system. In conversations, she kept encountering the same problem: »Fewer and fewer people with new ideas are entering politics. And yet democracy needs more talent, innovative ideas and drive than ever right now,« Weimann explains. From her perspective, there is no shortage of people who want to make a difference. Rather, established structures make it difficult for many to enter politics, while others no longer feel that the existing party system speaks to them. This is precisely where JoinPolitics comes in: the initiative supports people with practical experience and a desire to shape politics – with a particular focus on women, people with a migration background, people with disabilities, those without an academic background and other groups whose voices have so far been underrepresented in politics.

At a time of major societal challenges – from reforming social security systems and digitalisation to climate change – Weimann also believes that more politicians are needed who work with members of other democratic parties to find solutions. »This is central to our vision of a modern, future-ready democracy. When talented people show that politics can bring about change across party lines and solve concrete problems, trust in democracy's ability to find solutions also grows,« she says.
 

Clear strategy, confident public presence and resilience

JoinPolitics is looking for people with political talent and new ideas. The team now has 13 permanent staff members. Another 40 Fellows contribute their professional expertise on a voluntary basis, including experts from politics, business and the media – among them a political strategist and former campaigner for Barack Obama. The team offers boot camps, masterclasses, mentoring and coaching. Participants learn skills that are valuable in political life: How do I develop a strategy? What is values-based leadership? And how can I present myself confidently in public?

Trainers prepare participants for the pressures of an election campaign and advise them on how to look after themselves even under pressure. Parts of the programme are tailored to individual participants. Participation is free of charge and funded through donations. Participants can also apply for financial support to cover material, staffing, travel and living expenses – up to €40,000 per person.

The programme is designed to fit around participants' existing jobs. The only mandatory in-person event is a multi-day boot camp. Mentoring sessions are arranged individually, while coaching and digital learning sessions are optional. This allows participants to decide how much time they want to invest beyond a fixed monthly minimum. To date, JoinPolitics has supported 85 alumni across nine cohorts, selected from more than 800 applications. Initially, the focus was primarily on financial support. It quickly became clear, however, that the substantive guidance and the network were at least as important to participants, Weimann explains.
 

Focusing on individual strengths

For Nora Seitz, JoinPolitics' support was particularly valuable in helping her give her election campaign a clear strategic focus. Together with the team, she developed a clear direction without »setting off in 15 different directions and losing focus«. She concentrated on her core issues: the economy, reducing bureaucracy, the skilled trades, and small and medium-sized businesses in Mittelsachsen. This was particularly important because the collapse of the previous coalition and the resulting snap federal election left less time for campaigning than usual.

»JoinPolitics has helped me develop not only as a politician, but also in terms of what makes me who I am,« says Seitz. »I don't have to become someone else. I can trust in and build on my own strengths. JoinPolitics has given me a great deal of confidence in this.«
 

Who is JoinPolitics looking for?

JoinPolitics is looking for people with a talent for politics, a concrete political project and the drive to put it into practice. This often involves standing for elected office, but it is not a requirement. What matters is that applicants want to solve a specific societal problem and know how they can bring about change through politics. One example is JoinPolitics alumna Natascha Sagorski. Through a petition, she called for maternity protection to be extended to women who experience miscarriages and successfully set a legislative initiative in motion at federal level. Since June 2025, women who experience a miscarriage from the 13th week of pregnancy onwards have been entitled to maternity protection.

Above all, however, it is the person behind the application who matters. »A project may change, but a person's values and ability to get things done remain,« says founder Weimann. Admission to the programme is decided by a »Talent Committee«. Its members are deliberately diverse and its composition changes regularly. Members of all democratic parties, as well as politically active people without party affiliation, can apply.
 

Finding solutions together

First-time candidates in particular describe the expertise and exchange with others involved in politics as extremely valuable. Nora Seitz shares this view. The programme creates a »safe space« where people from different democratic parties can exchange views and debate – an experience that also helps her in her cross-party work.

Since entering the Bundestag, Seitz has founded the Parliamentary Group on the Skilled Trades, bringing together members of parliament from different parties. She also regularly exchanges views with MPs from other parties on other issues. »We all need to roll up our sleeves and tackle things together now,« says Seitz. Democratic parties can no longer make progress otherwise, she adds, referring to the recent state elections in eastern Germany.

What Seitz still lacks in her work at the federal level is more colleagues with a similar professional background. »Politicians who come from practical backgrounds approach issues and projects in a very hands-on way. Career politicians often see politics as something abstract. They sit at their desks working on texts and wording,« she says. This is where she places her hopes in JoinPolitics and the network that has grown around it. Speaking about the team, she says: »JoinPolitics is my family. If I ever find myself in an internal conflict, I know I can always get in touch with them.«