The Austrian Parliament established the Demokratiewerkstatt (Democracy Workshop) as an institution designed to familiarise young people in Austria with the basics of democracy, parliamentary life, media competence and the European Union in all its aspects.
Democracy Workshops
Democracy education offers for different ages and school types.
Workshops for Children and Youth
The Austrian Parliament offers a broad range of educational in-person and online workshop designed for children and young people.
The goal is to equip them with a strong sense for parliamentarism and engage them in a lived democratic process from a young age on.
Participants can explore different democracy-related topics through interactive workshops that are adapted to different age groups.
- Workshop Parliament: How laws are made
- Workshop Media: How to gather information
- Workshop Politicians: Who represents me in Parliament?
- Workshop Participation: My opinion counts!
- Workshop A journey through time: Discover the history of the Republic
- Workshop Europa: Getting to know the European Union
The workshops are aimed at 8 to 14-year-olds and last for 4 hours.
Online Democracy Workshop
The workshop concept has been adapted to a new format: the Online Democracy Workshop. Three workshop modules (Workshop Parliament, Workshop Media, Workshop Politicians) are available to students aged 8 to 18. The workshops are interactive and are held online and live with school classes who remain in their respective classrooms.
Registration and Information
Workshops for school classes or groups take place throughout the school year from Monday to Friday.
Participation is free of charge. Registration via phone or e-mail is mandatory.
Phone: +43 1 401 10-2930
E-mail: demokratiewerkstatt@parlament.gv.at
www.demokratiewerkstatt.at (in German)
Democracy Workshop at the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament
Democracy Workshop at the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament
As part of the 5th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, the Democracy Workshop had the opportunity to hold two workshops live at the Austria Center Vienna.
Two school classes from Vienna were able to interview Speakers of Parliament and talk to them personally about various topics related to democracy, legislation, their tasks as parliamentarians and much more.
Media products created during the Workshops can be accessed on the Parliament’s website for children & youth.
The following documentary film provides an insight into the work of the participants during the workshops.
Virtual Democracy Workshop
The Virtual Democracy Workshop has been designed as a new kind of virtual space on the Austrian Parliament's Web Portal for children, young adults and anyone interested in discovering more about parliament, democracy or participation.
With the help of videos, texts, cartoons and audio recordings created by the participants of the Democracy Workshop, terms and basic concepts of political learning are illustrated. Additional texts and guiding questions foster an understanding of how these terms are interrelated and what they have to do with democracy.
E-mail: demokratiewerkstatt@parlament.gv.at
Website (in German)