German-Russian forum

German-Russian Forum e. V.
purpose	Organization of dialogue and encounters between the societies of Germany and Russia
Chair:	Matthias Platzeck , Chairman of the Board of Management
Establishment date:	1993
Number of members:	409 ; (January 2016)
Seat :	Berlin , Germany
Website:	www.deutsch-russisches-forum.de

Michail Gorbatschow , young pianist and Lothar de Maizière on May 15, 2007 in Berlin.

The German-Russian Forum is a non-profit association based in Berlin , which has been committed to a broad social dialogue between Germany and Russia since 1993 .

Sponsorship and members

The association is conceptually and financially supported by members from politics , business , mass media and culture . Membership is acquired through co-optation .

In February 1993 the association was founded with 59 members. Today there are 400 members. Membership is public.

activities

The activities and projects of the German-Russian Forum include the organization of internships for journalists, annual German-Russian city partner conferences, school and youth exchanges and the implementation of encounters in Potsdam . These were initiated in 1999 by the former Federal President Roman Herzog and serve to meet players from politics, business, culture and civil society.

In cooperation with the German Embassy in Moscow and the German Academic Exchange Service , the association organizes the alumni network hallo Deutschland! aimed at Russian graduates from German funding institutions.

Dr. Friedrich Joseph Haass Prize

The association has awarded the Dr. Friedrich Joseph Haass Prize annually since 1994 to people who have made outstanding contributions to German-Russian relations. The award is named after the German doctor Friedrich Joseph Haass , who worked in Russia in the mid-19th century.

Award winners

1994: Wolfgang Karte , former advisor to the Federal Government for the Russian Federation
1995: Vyacheslav Dashichev , head of the Center for German-Russian Studies at the Institute for Global Economic and Political Studies
1996: Thomas Roth , journalist, then head of the ARD studio in Moscow
1997: Maja Turowskaja , theater and film critic and screenwriter
1998: Sigmund Jähn , space consultant, ESA
1999: Vladimir Wojnowitsch , writer
2000: Otto Wolff von Amerongen , entrepreneur
2001: Yuri Luzhkov , Lord Mayor of Moscow
2002: Manfred Stolpe , then Prime Minister of the State of Brandenburg
2003: Yekaterina Genijewa , President of the Moscow Institute "Open Society"
2004: Archbishop Georg Kretschmar , spiritual director of the evang.-luth. Church in Russia
2005: Tamara Morschakowa , former Deputy Chairwoman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation
2006: Martin Friedrichs , organizer of medical projects in Russia
2007: Mikhail Gorbachev , former president D.
2008: Angelika Küpper , CEO of the Society for German-Russian Encounters, Essen e. V. and Anne Hofinga, chairwoman of the board of Russian Aid e. V.
2009: Alexej Mordaschow , Chairman of the Management Board, OAO Severstal
2010: Nikolaus Knauf , Deputy Chairman of the Knauf Group's Shareholders' Committee
2011: Ella Pamfilova , President of the Presidium, All-Russian Social Movement "Dignity of the Citizen"
2012: Reinhard Führer , President of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. and Nikolai I. Ovcharow, Mayor of Kursk
2013: Alexandra Countess Lambsdorff
2014: Elena Nemirovskaya , founder of the Moscow School of Social Education
2015: Egon Bahr , former Federal Minister D., and Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz , ambassador a. D.
2016: Daniil Granin , writer
2017: Fritz Pleitgen
2018: Mikhail Jefimowitsch Schwydkoi
2019: Andreas Meyer-Landrut and Stefan Dürr

Board

Matthias Platzeck , chairman since 2014
Wilfried Bergmann , Deputy Chairman
Andrea von Knoop , Deputy Chairwoman
Per fisherman , treasurer
Martin Hoffmann , executive board member
Dr Thomas Falk
Torsten Erdmann
Bernhard Kaster
Elena Melnikov
Sergei Nikitin
Michael Rutz
Michael Sasse
Evgeniya Sayko
Doris Schröder-Köpf

Former CEO

Alexandra Gräfin Lambsdorff , founder of the German-Russian Forum and chairwoman from 1993 to 2002
Andreas Meyer-Landrut , Chairman from 2002 to 2003, today Honorary Chairman
Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz , chairman from 2003 to 2014, today honorary chairman

Board of Trustees

Bernhard Reutersberg , board member of E.ON AG , chairman
Manfred Balz
Roland Berger
Heinrich Bonnenberg
Andre Carls
Eckhard Cordes
Hans-Ulrich Engel
Gernot Erler
Regina von Fleming
Hans-Joachim Gornig
Tessen from Heydebreck
Vladimir Yakunin
Nikolaus Knauf
Gabriele Krone-Schmalz
Klaus-Dieter Lehmann
Rainer Lindner
Lothar de Maizière
Klaus Mangold
Alexander Medvedev
Hartmut Mehdorn
Alexei Mordashov
Siegfried Russwurm
Markus Scheer
Hermann Schmidt
Manfred Stolpe
Antje Vollmer
Georg Graf Wäldersee
Michael Wedell
Heinrich Weiss

criticism

In the course of the Ukraine crisis, the German-Russian Forum was repeatedly accused of adopting an overly uncritical attitude towards the controversial policy of the Russian President, particularly because of the statements made by its chairman Matthias Platzeck. In this context, too, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported on November 22, 2014 on a key issues paper supported by the Chancellery and the Foreign Office . It demands that the St. Petersburg Dialogue “must also provide space for critical discussion of Russian politics”. The connection to the German-Russian Forum is to be terminated, as there are large personal overlaps in both bodies: the Eastern Committee of German Business is well represented. As part of the reform, the former Brandenburg Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck is to lose influence in the forum. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) “wrested” this concession from Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) on November 19, 2014.

At a meeting of the organization on March 26, 2015, the journalist and long-time Moscow correspondent Elfie Siegl announced her resignation. In her statement, which her colleague Boris Reitschuster published on his Facebook page, it is said that in recent years the forum has moved further and further away from the purpose of the association laid down in the statutes and is now setting other priorities: “It is less about understanding to wake up for Russia, rather than to show understanding for the policies of the Putin regime, to approve them. ”Siegl further criticizes the fact that several well-known members and board members of the forum the appeal“ War in Europe again? Not in our name! “Have signed. She explains: “This appeal does not mention the state of war in some parts of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea . For this reason alone, I, as an independent journalist and Russia expert, no longer feel adequately represented by the German-Russian Forum and its management. ”According to Siegl, political scientist Hannes Adomeit and lawyer Otto Luchterhandt have left the organization for similar reasons . In addition, the journalist and author Christine Hamel is planning to leave. Boris Reitschuster also writes that a member had told him that "in the forum, the pro-Putin majority is evidently being specifically strengthened through new admissions".