Turnaround Congress 2026 in Weimar
31 August and 1 September 2026 · Hotel Elephant
Not a congress for listening. Two days in which entrepreneurs, advisers, officers and founders worked together on the business model of tomorrow’s manufacturing industry.
Rethinking under pressure. Business models in a state of emergency.
Since 2013 the Turnaround Congress has been the meeting point of the restructuring industry. In 2026 it took place for the fourteenth time, the second time in Weimar, and deliberately saw itself not as a conference but as a laboratory for the future: industrial entrepreneurs meet experts in innovation in a crisis and practitioners from critical infrastructure, civil protection and defence. Deliberately kept small, with an informal atmosphere and direct access.
GRANTIRO hosted the congress together with Prof. Dr. Hans Haarmeyer (German Institute for Applied Insolvency Law). Peter Rasenberger and Boris Beckmann designed and facilitated the second day: the entrepreneurs’ hackathon.
The capabilities are already inside the company.
The demand from critical infrastructure, civil protection and defence.
The laboratory format of the congress.
Who stood on the stage in Weimar.
Prof. Dr. Hans Haarmeyer
Host, founder of the Turnaround Congress
Tobias Hans
Politics meets the Mittelstand
Christian Seel
Total defence: sovereignty is something we can only build together
Prof. Dr. Markus Exler
Translating innovation into business models
Carsten Bleck
An entrepreneur’s reality: the transformation of Andernach & Bleck
Peter Rasenberger
From hidden champion to champion of sovereignty
Prof. Dr. Kristian Giesen
Ambidexterity in a crisis
Dr. Benjamin Wolba
Defence tech: a founder’s view from the front
Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Brunnhuber
The global picture: we must and we can do something
Colonel Matthias Puschnig
The strategic demand side from a German point of view
Annett Hartwecker
Working successfully with public procurement
Nick Sohnemann
Speeding up strategic decisions with AI
The congress was chaired by Prof. Dr. Hans Haarmeyer, Tobias Hans, Peter Rasenberger and Boris Beckmann.
A departure in thinking and in method
The first day was no gentle start. Christian Seel, commissioner for total defence and civil-military cooperation, set the frame: what geopolitical pressure actually means for the German economy. Prof. Dr. Markus Exler showed why Germany systematically fears innovation and how that fear can be turned into deliberate business model transformation. With his metalworking Mittelstand company Andernach & Bleck, Carsten Bleck made the jump from theory to an entrepreneur’s reality. Peter Rasenberger described how the shift from hidden champion to champion of sovereignty succeeds. Prof. Dr. Kristian Giesen sharpened the view of ambidexterity, holding the old steady while building the new. Dr. Benjamin Wolba (European Defense Tech Hub) gave a compelling account of his initiative to found a European network for solving technical challenges in new defence.
In the evening Weimar itself became the programme: a city walk and dinner at Hotel Elephant with memorable after-dinner speeches by Prof. Dr. Dr. Stefan Brunnhuber and Colonel Matthias Puschnig.
The stage turns into a laboratory.
On the second day nobody just listens. 100 participants at ten tables each took over a fictitious mid-sized industrial company, from a small specialist to a supplier with 1,000 employees, and took it through the GRANTIRO Process in three working blocks. On paper, with cards, a board and sticky notes. The AI at the table assisted; it did not decide.
Core competencies
“You can do more than you think.”
What can this company’s machines, people and processes really do, beyond the product made so far? Each table lifts the competencies of its case study to a higher level.
Matching the needs
“There is more demand than you know.”
Demand cards from critical infrastructure, civil protection and defence meet the competencies at the table. Every card is justified, accepted or discarded.
Business model
“We bring the two together.”
Decision cards on target customers, revenue mechanism, operational change and financing condense the match into an implementation path. It closes with each table’s elevator pitch and a panel.
An impulse for every working block
Before each working block came an impulse from the stage; afterwards the speakers joined the tables and discussed with the participants.
Nick Sohnemann
Founder, FUTURE CANDYInnovation work in the German armed forces, and how AI can speed up strategic decisions. Afterwards a laptop went into service at every table as a sparring partner that knew the case study, the cards and the method.
Colonel Matthias Puschnig
former head of the Ukraine task force at the German Ministry of DefenceThe strategic demand side from a German point of view: what is actually needed, in what quantities, and how procurement works.
Two practitioners from Ukraine
A user and a manufacturer of unmanned systemsWhere industry meets the need at the front, and how partnerships with young manufacturers in Ukraine succeed. A workshop turned into series production, with development cycles of a few weeks.
Peter Rasenberger
Co-founder, GRANTIRO Think&Do TankOperational transformation under pressure: what really changes in production, supply chain and organisation when a site builds a new line of business.
At 15:30 each table presented its company and its results, five minutes per table. A panel with the speakers closed the day.
This day is the GRANTIRO Process in fast forward: it begins with the question of what a company can really do. It ends with a business model that someone will finance.
One board, 99 cards, ten case studies.
For the congress, GRANTIRO condensed the “Strategic Resilience” card set into a one-day format. Every table worked on an A0 board that lays the three working blocks out in space. 99 cards in eight sets hold the stock of possible new perspectives: 45 demand cards describe concrete needs from critical infrastructure, civil protection and defence, and 54 decision cards supply the building blocks for the implementation path. Ten case studies, from a third-generation stamping shop to a supplier with 1,000 employees, stand for thousands of companies in transition.
The card set is also used outside congresses, in facilitated workshops and in in-house strategy work.
Transformation und Turnaroundkongress GbR, Erfurt
Prof. Dr. Hans Haarmeyer
German Institute for Applied Insolvency Law. Founder and academic direction of the Turnaround Congress.
GRANTIRO Think&Do Tank
Peter Rasenberger and Boris Beckmann. Design and facilitation of the entrepreneurs’ hackathon.
Programme, speakers and registration for the next congress: