At a meeting of the Rotary Club Berlin North on August 17th, 2017, Dr. Johannes Bohnen introduced guests to Berlin's foreign policy think tank landscape. He explained why think tanks exist, where Germany's think tanks stand in the global context, and how their appearance has changed over the years. As a result, Bohnen sees 3 types of think tanks:
First, the non-partisan, research-oriented ones (e.g. SWP, DGAP), second, ideologically and politically oriented institutes (e.g. KAS, FES), and finally the think tanks mostly driven by economic interests (e.g. Stiftung Marktwirschaft).
You can access the text of the speech here.
