Christian-Pan-European Studies
The Christian-Pan-European Studienwerk is a registered association that acts as the sponsor of the so-called “Brüsewitz Center”. The latter was named after the Protestant pastor Oskar Brüsewitz , who caused a sensation in 1976 with his public self-immolation in Zeitz in the GDR . The association chose this name despite the protests of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the widow of the namesake.
The association was founded on June 18, 1977 in Bad Oeynhausen on the initiative of Paneuropa members Olaf Kappelt , Bernd Posselt and Walburga Habsburg Douglas . The aim of the association should be to raise public awareness of the violation of religious freedom in the GDR. The foundation was supported u. a. by Otto von Habsburg and the Prime Ministers Franz Josef Strauss , Bernhard Vogel and Gerhard Stoltenberg .
The Brüsewitz Center was also opened in Bad Oeynhausen on October 18, 1977 and moved to Bonn in 1984. The center worked u. a. with the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). The association received subsidies from public funds from the Federal Ministry for Internal German Relations , the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the European Community . Members of the Board of Trustees were a. Otto von Habsburg , Heinrich Aigner , Hans Graf Huyn , Luděk Pachman , Heinrich Lummer and Lothar Bossle . The board member Jörn Ziegler was from 1981 to 1989 board spokesman of the German section of the ISHR and chairman of the German guild .
The statutory goal of the association is "to contribute in the Christian spirit of basic and human rights to better understanding, cooperation and solidarity in the whole German people, in Europe and between the peoples of the world". The work of the association included the dissemination of publications on questions of human rights and religious freedom, direct legal and material support for Christians in the GDR and the care of GDR refugees. The club members saw themselves as a radical anti-communist organization and turned against church circles in the GDR who were looking for an understanding with their government. With the reunification, the Studienwerk lost its importance, but the association members remained active in circles such as the right-wing conservative study center Weikersheim .
As a result of German reunification in 1990 , the association's activities were scaled back and the center moved again to Woltersdorf . Wolfgang Stock , who also lives in Woltersdorf, is the chairman of the Brüsewitz Center and the Christian-Pan-European Studienwerk . On May 27, 2004, the Brüsewitz Center handed over all of its files to the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship .
Web links
- Website of the institution ( Memento from September 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- "The abused death" , Dietrich Strothmann in Die Zeit , June 17, 1977
Individual evidence
- ^ Jens Mecklenburg : Handbook of German right-wing extremism . Elefanten-Press, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88520-585-8 , p. 182 f .