Jugend Internet Governance Forum Deutschland 2019 (Youth IGF Germany 2019) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

On 10–11 September 2019 the Jugend-IGF Deutschland convened around 30 under-30s at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Berlin — the first edition in the current format run by the German Informatics Society (GI).
After expert dialogues and hours of negotiation the participants adopted 'nine positions for a better internet' — an emission-neutral internet, data literacy, free software for the public sector and more — and presented them from the main stage of IGF-D 2019 the next day.
With the UN IGF coming to Berlin two months later, the event built a pipeline carrying youth positions from the national to the global level — a model for institutionalising youth participation.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Jugend Internet Governance Forum Deutschland 2019 (Youth IGF Germany 2019) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	Jugend Internet Governance Forum Deutschland 2019 (Youth IGF Germany 2019)
Dates	10–11 September 2019 (day 1: workshop 9:00–17:00 plus an evening visit to a Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society event; day 2: participation in IGF-D 2019 to present the outcomes)
Venue	Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Berlin
Theme	Regional governance themes
Participants	30 (Around 30 politically engaged people under 30 (open to 18–30-year-olds living in Germany; travel costs covered))
Host	A project run by the German Informatics Society (GI), supported by the BMWi, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland, Google, the Fraunhofer ICT Group and IGF Deutschland
Outcome	Adopted 'nine positions for a better internet', carried into IGF-D 2019 the next day and into the global Youth IGF summit (24 November) ahead of the UN IGF in Berlin

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. The Nine Positions — 'Don't Leave the Internet to the Corporations'

Sessions: Full-day group deliberations on 10 September, published in GI's press release of 11 September

"The youth representatives negotiated their priorities collectively, producing nine concrete positions on education, sustainability, fundamental rights and public goods. … The presence of young people at the IGF is only the first step — what is needed is continuous inclusion in digital-policy negotiations"
— Elisabeth Schauermann (GI, Youth IGF project coordinator), translated from German [2][1]

Participants first chose five clusters — ecological and social sustainability of digitalisation, human rights and non-discrimination online, digital education and data literacy, fair debate culture and information integrity, and open government/software/data — then hammered them into nine demands [2][1]
The demands were concrete: an emission-neutral internet in view of the climate crisis, data literacy for young and old, no forced consent, stronger government action against disinformation, non-discrimination as a default, and 'public money, public good' — free software and open data across the public sector [2][1]
On platforms and fundamental rights the positions insisted that 'interpretive authority must not lie with the corporations' — the press release itself was headlined 'Don't leave the internet to the corporations' [2][1]

2. Expert Dialogues — Internet Governance 101 and Disinformation

Sessions: Two expert conversations on the morning of 10 September with Dr. Julia Pohle (WZB) and Dr. Christian Stöcker (HAW Hamburg)

"The internet is a sphere that young people decisively shape, and they are proportionally the largest demographic group of internet users. Yet the voices of youth go unheard at many levels. That is why we support projects like the Youth IGF, which aim at effective participation and visibility for young people"
— Dr. Johanna Börsch-Supan (Head of Strategy and Programmes, Vodafone Stiftung Deutschland), translated from German [1]

Dr. Julia Pohle of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center — a researcher on the politics of digitalisation and a member of the IGF-D steering committee — discussed with participants how internet governance fits together [1]
Dr. Christian Stöcker of HAW Hamburg, a SPIEGEL ONLINE columnist, tackled online opinion formation, disinformation and judging media relevance, sparking a lively debate about the lack of contemporary media education [1]

3. Joining IGF-D 2019 — On the Main Stage Right After the Minister

Sessions: Presentation and poster exhibition at IGF-D 2019 (11 September, BMWi)

On day two the participants carried the nine positions into every session and workshop of IGF-D 2019, and engaged visitors through a poster exhibition [1][2]
Immediately after Federal Minister Peter Altmaier's appearance, GI project coordinator Elisabeth Schauermann was invited onto the main stage to present the youth demands at prime billing [1][2]
The results fed directly into the global Youth IGF summit on 24 November, ahead of the first-ever UN IGF on German soil in Berlin — strengthening youth participation was a pillar of that preparation [1][2]

4. Series History — Not the First Edition, but the First in the Current Format

Sessions: (Background)

2019 was not the series' first edition: the UN IGF youth-initiatives register records the German Youth IGF as established in 2013, GI's press release says it has offered under-30s a negotiation space 'since 2012', and a '2nd Jugend-IGF' is documented on 1 June 2013 at Telefónica in Berlin [4][5][3]
What was new in 2019 was the format: the GI-run workshop model at the BMWi, backed by the ministry, foundations and companies — with the dedicated site yigf.de also launched that year [4][5][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. How is this different from the regular IGF-D?

A. Participants and role. The main forum (11 September) is for practitioners; the day before, around 30 under-30s worked their demands into nine positions with expert input, then presented them on the main stage the next day. It is not a standalone conference but a youth-participation mechanism built into IGF-D.

Q. Was it really the 'first' Youth IGF Germany?

A. Only in format. The series dates back to 2013 on the UN register (GI itself says 2012); 2019 was the first edition of the current GI-run workshop model hosted at the economics ministry.

Q. Why should I care?

A. The design — youth-only negotiation one day, a prime slot at the main forum the next — is a replicable template for making youth participation consequential rather than decorative.

What Is Youth IGF Germany? (for first-time readers)

Youth IGF Germany is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2019 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.