Matthias Horx
The Future Thinker
He is the best-known and most prominent futurologist in the German-speaking world. An analyst, rhetorician, and visionary of a very special kind, his lectures span a wide range from the future through the past to the present. His message in our time of crisis and uncertainty is about the possibility of change in the spirit of “humanistic futurism,”. This places people at the center of change and reopens the future as a space of possibility.
We need a new sense of calm about the future. Curiosity without greed. Active hope without fear.
The current lectures:
Transformation Time!
Confidence in times of disruptive change
We live in times of disruption and disappointment. The future has receded beyond the horizon and seems unreachable. But this very era is generating new opportunities for growth and change. This lecture explores the transformative capacity of people and society, of companies and organisations. How can we reimagine and re-envision the future? How can we understand what lies beyond the epochal disruption of our time?
2050 – The World Beyond
The future after the Omnicrisis
What can serious futurologists say about the period up to the middle of this century – in light of an increasingly uncertain world? In this broad reaching lecture, Matthias Horx looks through the turbulence of our time into a “different tomorrow.” He questions conventional models of the future and revises outdated Megatrends. A fascinating journey into the middle of the century that helps us approach the future with more optimism.
- Introduction: How to predict the future anyway: trend and counter-trend, cycles of history – how to learn (better) from the past for the future.
- The new world (dis)order: Scenarios of global political development.
- Peak Human: The great turning point in population development and the battle for young talent.
- The “Blue Transformation”: Why the ecological climate transition is happening despite everything.
- Digital Peak: The digital cycle passes its peak and loses the hype.
- Newtopias: Visions for worlds completely different from those we are used to …
Further topics on request
Matthias Horx is also happy to speak on other topics. Please simply click on the “Request a speech” button and tell us your preferred topic.
“Futurologists have so far explained the future only from the perspective of technological and economic constraints and processes. Now it is important to understand it in terms of human change.”
Short biography
Even as a technology-loving boy in the 1960s, Matthias Horx was fascinated by the mysteries of the future. After a career as a publicist and journalist, including at “DIE ZEIT,” he became the most influential trend and futurologist in the German-speaking world. He published more than 20 books and founded several futurology companies, most recently the “FUTURE:PROJECT”, a network for thought leaders.
A committed European, he commutes between Ireland, Frankfurt, and Vienna, where he lives with his family in the “Future Evolution House”. With his wife Oona and their children Tristan and Julian, he is developing futurology for the next generation.
Matthias Horx represents a constructive view of the future that always questions visions at their human core and doesn’t chase after every fear or hype. He is a proponent of “humanistic futurism”, which incorporates people—their deep needs, errors, and dreams—into its prognosis.
The true tomorrow first arises in the inner change of consciousness before it unfolds externally in the world.
