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THE LÄND, the state also known as Baden-Württemberg, opens its doors to invite skilled workers from across the whole universe to relocate to one of Germany’s finest regions

Situated in the South-West of Germany, the Baden-Württemberg federal state (known as THE LÄND) is one of Europe’s – perhaps even the world’s – leading business and industrial hubs. Even though it’s famous throughout Germany for its strong, stable economy, excellent job prospects and exceptionally high quality of life, it has two major problems.

Firstly, the state is not well known outside of Germany, and secondly, it has a persistent – and serious – skilled labour shortage. According to research by Prognos AG, the state's demand for skilled labour will be well into the six figures range by 2030.  

To make sure the region is more globally recognised and believing that this region is the best place to live and work on this planet, local authorities have extended an open invitation to all prospective skilled migrants to check out THE LÄND – meaning anyone in this universe.      

Baden-Württemberg’s Minister-President himself is fronting an ambitious, tongue-in-cheek stunt: LÄND HERE. A supersized approach to highlight the state's unique values as an employer: an interstellar recruitment campaign. Complete with a call to action for “ANY INTELLIGENT LIFE WELCOME" and even an alien landing strip.          

What’s more, the initiative is backed by some of Germany’s leading tech, manufacturing and innovation companies and research institutes, including Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, IBM, SAP, remote software giant TeamViewer and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems – whose representatives have also gone on camera to offer their reasons to LÄND HERE.    

“Innovative strength has always been the driving force behind our state’s success. Here, people from different nations and backgrounds come together. They inspire and motivate each other and can thrive. It is exactly this diversity that creates the best ideas and innovations,” adds Sabine Kohleisen, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, HR & Director of Labor Relations.

Behind the interstellar stunt is a very serious message: ‘THE LÄND’ is open to skilled workers from anywhere. The activation promotes the existence of a region that has exceptional quality of life and multiple high-level employment opportunities.

The supersized invitation is backed by a series of policies and programmes to welcome talent and facilitate easy movement of labour from beyond Germany’s borders.

“Global competition for the best talent has become much tougher. It is clear to us that we need to become faster and more flexible when it comes to the immigration of skilled labour, and we are now taking a completely new approach to this. Inaction is not an option – we see this as a powerful way to communicate the advantages of living and working here to people all over the world (and even beyond!),” says Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg.“We want to make it unmissable to all intelligent life exactly why they should take the idea of ‘landing here' very seriously.”                  

“We work on artificial intelligence. And to do the best possible work, we need human intelligence. We need the best PhD students. The best post docs. The best programmers. So come here and help us do this work,” says Bernhard Schölkopf, a Director of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

THE LÄND boasts it is the best place to live and work. The mix of an outstanding quality of life and excellent job opportunities makes for an outstanding work-life balance and a very good reason for anyone out there to LÄND HERE. For example, Baden-Württemberg is home to 149 leading global companies, and also has an average of 28.8 holiday days per year.

THE LÄND is not only the number one innovative region in Europe and one of the top science locations in the world thanks to its numerous universities and non-university research institutions, moving here can also add at least one year to a person’s life expectancy compared with all other federal states in Germany.

The region, which invests over 5.8% of its gross domestic product in research and development, is also home to some of Germany’s iconic and most innovative companies, including Bosch, Mercedes-Benz and SAP.

Simultaneously this cosmopolitan state is home to over 11 million people of which around 31% have a migration background and enjoy living in a beautiful nature that is a major tourist destination with a diverse cultural landscape. Notable citizens like Nobel Prize winner Harald zur Hausen, who played a decisive role in the development of the world's first vaccine against cancer, are proof that these conditions result in outstanding achievements.

Another special feature of THE LÄND is its active start-up scene. It stretches from Mannheim to Lake Constance and covers a wide range of industries and technologies. To ensure that this start-up culture continues to flourish in the future, The LÄND promotes visionary ideas through numerous programs that mean that 71% of start-ups are directly supported by established companies.

Potential applicants can visit the campaign website - the LÄNDINGPAGE - to access the Relocation Guide and a ‘Wall of Opportunities’, which links directly to the career pages of companies from Baden-Württemberg.

Developed by WPP'S Think agency --one of Germany’s less well known, but highly respected and awarded creative agencies-- this campaign and its supersized invitation flies in the face of the recent wins by Germany's radical far right AfD political party, so it's a (very welcome) contrast to the news cycle.