Alex Sängerlaub

Alexander Sängerlaub is the founder and Executive Director (aka Minister of the Future) of futur eins. His work takes a holistic perspective on digital public spheres and the central question of how the utopia of an informed society can be achieved.

With his expertise, he regularly advises and supports organizations strategically over longer periods of time: for example, in 2024–25 the Alliance for a Resilient Information Society at betterplace lab. In 2024 he co-developed the quiz show Fake Train with Rezo for the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). From 2021–23 he returned to Constructive Journalism as Program Director Future of Journalism at the Bonn Institute. In 2021 he supported reset.tech in their analyses and campaigns against disinformation during the German federal election.

From 2017 to 2021, he built and led the program area Strengthening Digital Public Sphere at the Berlin think tank Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (today: Interface), managing projects on disinformation (“fake news”), fact-checking, and digital news literacy. Together with Anna-Katharina Meßmer and Leonie Schulz, he co-authored the study Quelle: Internet? (2021), which received the Hans-Bausch Media Prize of SWR and the University of Tübingen in 2022.

In 2014, he founded the utopian politics magazine Kater Demos and led its editorial and creative direction until 2019. The magazine was Germany’s first constructive politics magazine. Before that, he worked as a research associate in journalism and communication studies at the University of Hamburg and Freie Universität Berlin. In 2013–2014, he also worked with the Berlin agency Blumberry, including on Angela Merkel’s federal election campaign.

Alexander is a sought-after speaker, moderator, and expert on topics such as the disinformation, news literacy, and constructive journalism or the utopia of an informed society. He has spoken at institutions such as the Goethe-Institutes in San Francisco and Seattle, 1014 New York City, Streitraum, re:publica (2022, 2023), ARD/ZDF Media Academy, SWR, MDR, and the Max Planck Society, and has moderated for the European Commission and dpa. As an expert, he has been invited by the German Bundestag and the Berlin House of Representatives. Media outlets from The New York Times to SBS in Australia reported on his work (as did domestic ones such as Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutschlandfunk, or ARD).

He studied journalism, psychology, and political communication at Freie Universität Berlin and has taught at institutions including the Berlin University of the Arts, HTW Berlin, the University of Tübingen, the Bundeswehr University Munich, and currently again at Freie Universität Berlin. His never-written PhD, tentatively titled “Who needs journalists when you can have robots?” on journalism and artificial intelligence, was always interrupted by life (aka Kater Demos). As a child, he originally wanted to become a music journalist and an MTV VJ.