A Reality Check on Tenant Rights: A Citizens' Forum in Erfurt Takes a Closer Look at Tenant Rights

The Forum Recht Foundation, the 75th German Lawyers' Convention, and the AWO Thuringia Regional Association invite you to a joint discussion at the AWO Innovation Lab.

Erfurt. Where does rental law reach its limits in everyday life—and what changes would citizens like to see? These are the questions addressed by the „A Reality Check on Rental Law: A Public Forum with “Legal scholars" on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the AWO Innovation Lab in Erfurt. The Forum Recht Foundation, the 75th German Lawyers' Congress (djt) and the AWO Thuringia Regional Association, Inc. Together, they invite participants to share their experiences with rental law, discuss specific challenges, and identify areas for change from the participants’ perspective.

The legal scholars will participate in the event Prof. Dr. Markus Artz from Bielefeld University and Prof. Dr. Beate Gsell from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Both play a key role in shaping the civil and social law division of the 75th German Jurists’ Congress and aim to directly incorporate citizens’ perspectives into the expert deliberations.

The event focuses on personal interaction: Instead of a traditional panel discussion, the event deliberately emphasizes direct dialogue with citizens. In three discussion groups, participants will discuss the following topics: Overdue Payments, Discrimination in the Search for Housing and Terminations for Personal Use. Together, they develop potential solutions before bringing the results together and discussing them in a joint wrap-up session.

This issue is also of particular importance to AWO Thuringia: The state association has chosen „A Home for Everyone“ as its motto for the year 2026, thereby bringing the social issue of housing into focus.

„Through our counseling services—such as debt counseling or immigration counseling—we see firsthand the difficulties people face when looking for housing, managing rental agreements, or dealing with financial burdens. This makes it all the more important to incorporate people’s experiences and perspectives into the professional debate,“ says Katja Glybowskaja, executive director of the AWO Thuringia Regional Association e. V.

This is exactly where the citizen exchange comes in: The insights gained from these discussions will be incorporated into the deliberations on tenancy law at the 75th German Jurists’ Congress. Based on this, recommendations for action will be developed, which the German Jurists’ Congress will present to policymakers following the conference.

Participation in the event is free of charge and limited to 30 participants. Please register by email at sebastian.perdelwitz@awo-thueringen.de is required.

About the Guests

Prof. Dr. Markus Artz holds the Chair of Civil Law, European Private Law, Commercial and Economic Law, and Comparative Law at Bielefeld University. He is the director of the Research Center for Real Estate Law and, since 2017, has served as chair of the German Tenancy Law Conference. In addition, he serves as an expert advisor to the civil and social law division of the 75th German Jurists’ Congress.

Prof. Dr. Beate Gsell holds the Chair of Civil Law, Civil Procedure, and European Private and Procedural Law at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She serves as chair of the Civil and Social Law Section of the 75th German Jurists’ Congress and has also been a judge at the Munich Higher Regional Court since 2011.