On November 8 and 9, 2012, about 1,200 representatives of German local authorities met at the Educational Congress, entitled “Bildung gemeinsam verantworten” (“Joint Responsibility for Education”), in the Gasteig in Munich in order to revisit a topic which had been manifested in the “Declaration of Aachen” 5 years ago. The President of the German Association of Cities, Mayor of Munich Christian Ude, pointed out this continuity in his introduction and reminded attendees of the different facets of educational processes in a municipal context. Thus, he implicitly led over to the National Educational Panel Study: Informal and lifelong learning; the significance of a decentralized, municipal learning environment; the question concerning the effects of a migrant background on competencies attained; and, finally, returns to education in terms of social integration all reflect, in this context, the five theoretical perspectives which carry the concept of the NEPS as “pillars”. In addition, demographic change and its sociostructural and cultural consequences match the diachronic perspective of the NEPS to accompany educational biographies cumulatively as a process from the cradle to the grave. Due to the fact that NEPS already provides and will continue to provide data on these questions, the presentation of the research consortium was met with great interest by the decision makers in attendance.