Note: This is a translation. Only the German version of the election program is authoritative.
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The goal: The Länd lives longer.
For developing Baden-Württemberg into the global center of rejuvenation medicine.
We want to accelerate the development of rejuvenation therapies that repair the damage of aging, so that people can potentially live healthily for an indefinitely long time.1 That is why we are running in the state election. Diseases of old age such as cancer, Alzheimer's and heart attacks, as well as age-related death, would then no longer be an inevitable fate.
Our core demand: 10% for life
We call for an additional 10% of the state budget of Baden-Württemberg (approx. 6 billion euros annually) to be invested in rejuvenation research.
With these funds, Baden-Württemberg is to be developed into the Silicon Valley of longevity:
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- Construction of new large-scale state research facilities, specializing in therapies against the various kinds of damage of aging (repair approach).
- Massive expansion of universities and training opportunities (Heidelberg, Tübingen, Freiburg, Ulm, etc.) in the fields of biochemistry, biomedicine, molecular biology, bioinformatics and medicine, as well as in adjacent life sciences, data sciences and engineering sciences.
- Accelerating research through unbureaucratic use of data and easier access to clinical trials (modeled on Finland).
We leave all other political issues to potential coalition partners.
Why Baden-Württemberg? Why now?
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- Longevity as the new key industry Baden-Württemberg is facing structural change. The automotive industry is struggling. We need a new key industry that secures jobs for the next century. Rejuvenation medicine is one of the biggest markets of the future: every person in the world ages and needs this medicine. If we invest now, in 20 years we will export not only cars but also lifetime. We will make "Made in BaWü" a seal of health.
- We have the infrastructure With the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Cyber Valley in Tübingen, the MedTech cluster in Tuttlingen and a world-leading pharmaceutical landscape, Baden-Württemberg has the best prerequisites to take over global market leadership in rejuvenation research. We must use this potential.
- The humanitarian argument Every day in Germany, thousands of people die of diseases of old age, often in agony. We have the ethical duty to protect the right to life enshrined in the Basic Law through modern science.
The scientific plan: the repair approach
We do not rely on fighting symptoms, but on eliminating causes. During aging, metabolism produces molecular and cellular damage (e.g. cellular waste, DNA damage, stiff connective tissue). The repair approach (SENS) aims to repair this damage before it turns into disease.
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- Repairing the damage biologically rejuvenates the body.
- If the therapy is applied regularly, the person stays biologically young. Here we benefit from the so-called longevity escape velocity: we do not need perfect medicine right away. It is enough if research increases life expectancy faster than time passes (more than one year per year). This way we gain the time needed to keep improving the therapies.
- The result: a life without an expiration date, in full physical and mental health.
This approach is scientifically established (publication "The Hallmarks of Aging"). While countries such as the USA (ARPA-H), Saudi Arabia (Hevolution Foundation) and Singapore are already investing billions in public money, Germany is in danger of falling behind in this key technology. It is not science fiction, it is an engineering problem. And Baden-Württemberg can solve engineering problems.
Economy & demographics: the solution to the shortage of skilled workers
An indefinitely long healthy life solves many of our biggest societal problems:
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- Pensions & care: If people are still as fit at 80 or 100 as they were at 30, gigantic care costs disappear. The health care system is relieved and the pension fund stabilized.
- Shortage of skilled workers: Experienced skilled workers no longer drop out due to illness. Politicians rightly call for an "active pension" to counter the shortage of skilled workers. But that is cynical as long as people decline physically in old age. Rejuvenation research is the prerequisite for a functioning active pension. Anyone who lives to be 150 can (voluntarily) work longer, do new training in between or take sabbaticals. Knowledge and experience are retained for the economy.
Answers to frequently asked questions
"Won't this lead to overpopulation?" No. Population growth is leveling off worldwide. The wealthier and more educated women are, the fewer children they have. In addition, rejuvenation therapies postpone menopause: children can be born much later, which spreads out the succession of generations. The real problem is resource consumption, and what helps here is technology (renewable energy, lab-grown meat, desalination plants), not painful death from aging.
"Isn't that unnatural?" No. Aging is not a universal law of nature: some animal species (e.g. naked mole rats or certain jellyfish) hardly age at all or can even rejuvenate biologically. The term "natural" is not fixed either, but changes over time. For example, modern medical procedures and aids such as glasses, pacemakers and antibiotics could also be called unnatural. We use technology to reduce suffering. Aging causes enormous suffering worldwide. Not curing it would be failure to render assistance.
"Who is going to pay for this?" The question is: who is going to pay for the disease? A dementia patient costs the system several hundred thousand euros.2 A healthy 90-year-old pays taxes and consumes. Prevention is always cheaper than care.
"When will it happen?" Some experts3 estimate a 50% chance of the first comprehensive therapies in 15 years - if we invest now. With every year of delay, millions of people die unnecessarily of aging.
Preventive health care: gaining time for longevity escape velocity
Our demand is to accelerate the development of rejuvenation therapies so that as many people as possible reach longevity escape velocity (LEV). Preventive health care also plays an important role here: it helps to slow down the accumulation of age-related damage, which can be partly influenced by lifestyle factors. Through this and through preventive medical checkups, the onset of diseases of old age can be detected early or delayed in many people.
Every delayed disease of old age increases the likelihood that people will live to see future breakthroughs in rejuvenation research and be able to benefit from them. That is why we welcome an evidence-based prevention policy and consider it important to take health into account in all policy areas (Health in All Policies), i.e. to also include the indirect effects of political decisions on health.
Cryonics: Plan B
For people whom medicine cannot yet help today, cryonics offers an important option. In cryonics, the body is gradually cooled after legal death and finally stored in liquid nitrogen in order to preserve the structures of the brain and personality until future technologies make revival and cure possible. In reproductive medicine, the cryopreservation of fertilized egg cells is already standard. Since it could also solve the global problem of organ shortage in the future through long-term storage of organs, we consider greater scientific attention to and funding of this field of research to be very worthwhile.
Vote for us in the state election
Many people do not yet know about the historic opportunity to cure aging. There is no public pressure for the faster development of rejuvenation therapies - there are no demonstrations and hardly any political debates about it. Since our party stands exclusively for this one issue, every vote for us is an unmistakable wake-up call to the established parties. The better we do on March 8, the sooner others will take up the issue more strongly.
We could be the last to die of aging - or the first to overcome it. Use your vote for life!
On March 8, 2026: Party for Rejuvenation Research (Partei für Verjüngungsforschung).
Footnotes
1. If the body stays biologically young, age-related decline and all the diseases resulting from it disappear, so that one only dies of non-age-related causes (e.g. accidents). With today's safety standards in industrialized countries, this statistically leads to a life expectancy of several thousand years. Formula: 1 divided by the probability of death per year. Based on the current risk for 20-year-olds of less than 0.04% per year - according to the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), life table 2022/2024 -, this gives: 1 / 0.0004 = 2,500 years. See https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/Sterbefaelle-Lebenserwartung/sterbetafel.html.
2. Cf. Schwarzkopf et al. (2011): Costs of care for dementia patients in community setting: an analysis for mild and moderate disease stage. Value in Health, Volume 14, Issue 6, 827-835. The study puts the total societal costs (including care services) at approx. 47,000 euros per year. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) arrives at approx. 44,000 euros per year (see https://www.dzne.de/ueber-uns/forschung-und-gesellschaft/dzne-positionspapier/). For courses of the disease lasting several years, this results in total costs of several hundred thousand euros.
3. Dr. Aubrey de Grey (President of the LEV Foundation) predicts a 50 percent probability of reaching longevity escape velocity within 12 to 15 years (as of 2025). See https://www.ceotodaymagazine.com/2025/08/dr-aubrey-de-greys-longevity-escape-velocity-when-will-humanity-outrun-aging/ as well as https://x.com/aubreydegrey/status/1371196809595346950 and https://x.com/aubreydegrey/status/1639686074707632129. Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church said in the same context: "I wouldn't be surprised if 2050 would be a point." See https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/george-church (answer from 0:35).