Democracy in Minecraft
Imagine you could reinvent your town. Design every square, every street, every meeting spot exactly the way you want it. That’s exactly what we do — in Minecraft!
With “Democracy in the Minecraft World,” we combine gaming with real political participation. Teenagers don’t just build virtual worlds — they develop concrete ideas for a better way of living together, and discuss them directly with local politicians. Pixels become plans, and gaming fun becomes democratic co-creation.
The concept
86% of young people in Germany view the future with concern. Only 23% believe we’ll get climate change under control. Less than a third feel they can help shape politics. We want to change that!
In our future workshops, teenagers from grade 8 upward explore their visions for their own municipality and creatively implement them using the open-world game Minetest (the open-source alternative to Minecraft). Participants:
- explore their town and gather ideas for improvement
- build their concepts as 3D models in Minetest
- discuss with politicians as equals
- sign future contracts — concrete agreements with mayors about next steps
What makes it special: here, every voice really counts. Classic public participation formats barely reach young people — but in Minetest, instead of abstract wish lists, visualised concepts emerge that relate to real local places.
From idea to reality
Since 2022, we’ve run over 50 future workshops in 47 Bavarian municipalities — from Munich and Augsburg to Berching and Waldsassen. Over 200 concrete project ideas have emerged as a result. And many of them have already become reality:
- Students from Schweinfurt took over their town’s Instagram channel
- Teenagers from Regenstauf successfully campaigned for their own youth parliament
- In Wurmannsquick, a bouldering wall was built on the school grounds
The story: from Future Nights to Future Days
2022 — The beginning
The Bavarian State Centre for Civic Education launches the Digital Future Nights as part of the “Bavarian Year of Youth.” The original format: teenagers stay overnight at their school and spend the whole night building their Minetest projects (4 pm to 10 am the next morning).
2022–2024 — 27 Future Nights across Bavaria
Future Nights take place at Realschulen and Mittelschulen across every Bavarian school inspectorate district, run by KidsLab and Q3 – Quartier für Medien.Bildung.Abenteuer.
2025/26 — Evolving into Future Days
The format evolves into a project day: the Digital Future Days run during the day (8 am–4 pm) and are expanded with a classroom lesson, an extracurricular preparation meeting, and discussion events. New partner: the Bavarian Youth Council.
More about the Digital Future Days 2026The Future Museum
The results of the future workshops can also be visited virtually: in the Future Museum in Minetest, the teenagers’ visions are accessible as a walkable exhibition — around the clock, free of charge.
- Install Minetest (free, open source)
- Connect to the “Zukunftsnacht Museum” server (password:
zukunft) - Explore!
Partners
The project is a collaboration between:
- Bavarian State Centre for Civic Education (concept and client)
- KidsLab gGmbH (delivery, Minetest server, platform)
- Q3 – Quartier für Medien.Bildung.Abenteuer (delivery, technical implementation, OpenStreetMap import)
- Bavarian Youth Council (expert and service unit for participation, since 2025)
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