Franca Lehfeldt is one of the ambitious media personalities of a new generation. Her expertise and know-how on the transformation of society through politics, business and technology are in great demand.

As former chief political reporter for RTL magazines and chief reporter and presenter for the news channel WELT, she became known throughout Germany. Today she is the owner of a communications and branding agency.

Franca Lehfeldt: “The European single market doesn’t work with a four-day week and working from home.”

Franca Lehfeldt: Economy, Politics & Society

As a keynote speaker and panel participant, she knows her way around the current issues of our time. As a moderator, she knows the background in political Berlin and intervenes pointedly in socio-political debates. Franca Lehfeldt is particularly well informed on social and financial policy issues.

  • Personal branding – it needs rough edges. Not all decision-makers are aware of the importance of personal brands.

But: people are interested in people. Narratives are driven by people and narratives drive brands and share prices – personal branding can therefore become a measurable success factor for companies. Franca Lehfeldt explains how to build a personal brand and which factors are decisive for success.

  • SPIEGEL bestseller OLD WISE MEN: a declaration of love to the performance principle

After the debates about the 4-day week, life-work balance and working from home, the next attack on the performance principle is currently underway: the “zero buck day” is being discussed by employers and employees. A sign of overconfidence in the face of ageing and global competition, says Franca Lehfeldt. She believes that society should remember that nothing comes from nothing.

How can we reorient society towards performance? In her book “Alte weise Männer”, the author and entrepreneur spoke about this with top manager Wolfgang Reitzle, journalist Stefan Aust and SPD veteran Peer Steinbrück, among others, and is certain that we can learn a lot from the experience and lifetime achievements of this generation. A cross-generational debate is guaranteed.

  • Panel discussion

Debate culture in Germany: Why are public and published opinions increasingly diverging?

Can we actually still argue properly? And why is a lively debate often interpreted negatively as disagreement or dispute? After all, the struggle for perspectives, solutions and opinions is at the heart of a democracy. But debates on social networks are intensifying and people are cursing anonymously online instead of at the regulars’ table. Why is it that people are turning away from established media and often migrating to their own digital forums?

The answer can only be a plea for more relaxed diversity of opinion in the media. You don’t always have to be persuasive or want to proselytize. You can exchange arguments and examine your own position. But if you can’t come together, you can also simply respectfully state your disagreement. And the media can also simply give equal weighting to two opposing positions.

Franca Lehfeldt explains why everyday editorial work too often leads to mainstream opinions and why this is a threat to freedom of opinion and the acceptance of journalistic media.

Franca Lehfeldt, born in 1989, studied at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Glion near Montreux in Switzerland after graduating from high school. She holds a Bachelor’s degree (BBA) in International Hospitality Management and Development and Business Administration as well as a Master’s degree in Strategic Marketing from the International School of Management (ISM).

From 2017 to 2018, she attended the RTL journalism school, while at the same time starting to work as a reporter at RTL. In April 2021, she became “Chief Reporter Politics Magazine”. She worked for RTL News for five years and reported on events in the Chancellery and Bundestag for RTL news programs. In 2022, she moved to the television station WELT, where she was chief political reporter. Together with Hendrik Streeck, she presented the TV magazine Welt Gesundheit.

Franca Lehfeldt: Bestselling Author

Together with Nena Brockhaus, Franca Lehfeldt published the book “Old Wise Men” – a tribute to an endangered species.

An excerpt from the Spiegel bestseller: “Once upon a time there was a world without a gender star, without Twitter shitstorms and without lecturing fingers. That was Germany before a moralizing zeitgeist rolled over the country. The modernization of recent decades has driven out some of the mustiness, but it has also come at a price. Virtues such as the will to achieve, willingness to make sacrifices, fulfillment of duty and discipline seem to be on the retreat. The personification of these values has been hit hard: the old white man. And while the men of the post-war generation are fighting for their place in society today, the country’s prosperity and cohesion are on the brink of collapse at the same time. Coincidence? Or the consequence of a society that is plunging into identity debates…