Collegium Humanum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Collegium Humanum (Internationales Studienwerk - Collegium Humanum e.V.) was an association and event location founded in 1963 by Werner Georg Haverbeck , a former National Socialist and pastor of the anthroposophical Christian community , as a "Heimvolkshochschule für Umwelt und Lebensschutz" in Vlotho , East Westphalia was active in the German ecological movement, and from the early 1980s turned to right-wing extremism , anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. As a registered - and as a non-profit organization recognized - club that was Collegium Humanum in district court Bad Oeynhausen registered (entry date: December 10, 1968) and was located in the district Vlothoer Valdorf . The main building was the central location of the “ Association for the Rehabilitation of Those Persecuted for Contesting the Holocaust ”. In 2008, the association was banned by the Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, due to "continued denial of the Holocaust". The Holocaust Denier Center in Guthmannshausen is to be regarded as the successor center .

history

The Collegium, whose house offered 50 beds and space for up to 150 guests, provided space for events in the field of environmental movement . From 1972 the Collegium was a member of the German section of the World Association for the Protection of Life (WSL-D). In the run-up to the 1979 European elections, preparatory talks took place in the Collegium Humanum for the establishment of the other political association, The Greens (SPV), in which conservative and civic environmental initiatives were organized. At the same time, the “Ecological Manifesto” of the National Democratic Party of Germany was being drawn up there. In addition, Haverbeck made his educational work available to the following organizations: the German University Guild , the Free Social Union , the German Unitarian Religious Community and later also numerous right-wing extremist groups such as the Bund Heimattreuer Jugend , the neo-pagan "Bund der Goden", the Wiking-Jugend and the Freedom Party German Labor Party .

From 1981 and Haverbeck's signing of the Heidelberg Manifesto , the association developed into a center for ethnic nationalism , anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. It served as a contact point for right-wing extremists from the New Right to Free Comradeships . In 1984 the “ Committee to Prepare the Celebrations for the 100th Birthday of Adolf Hitler ” met there. Music events with folk groups, nationalist songwriters and the Scottish blood and honor band Nemesis also took place.

From the mid-1990s, Holocaust deniers such as the Swiss Bernhard Schaub and the NPD lawyer and former APO activist Horst Mahler were guests. After the death of her husband in 1999, Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel took over the chairmanship of the association. In 2001 Haverbeck-Wetzel transferred the German "World Association for the Protection of Life" (WSL-D) and its publication Life Protection Information LSI - Voice of Conscience (circulation: 1700 - 3000 copies) to the Collegium Humanum . The publication appeared every two months in 3000 copies. In 2003, two editions were confiscated because of Holocaust denial.

The regular participants and speakers Schaub and Mahler founded on November 9, 2003 in Vlotho the " Association for the rehabilitation of those persecuted for denying the Holocaust ", which is related to the Collegium .

In October 2000, the right-wing extremist songwriter duo Eichenlaub from the Thuringian homeland security organization took part in the “First Dance and Music Festival” of the magazine Wir sich, which took place in the house of the Collegium.

Influencing young people with holocaust-denying propaganda was of particular importance to the Collegium. In November 2006, for example, a “history workshop” on Holocaust denial took place. Another similar event specifically for 16-25 year olds took place from March 23-25, 2007; Schaub and Olaf Rose were named as speakers . With this, the association reacted to the 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Iran by anti-Zionists , history revisionists and Holocaust deniers, in which intensified campaigns were demanded and organized against the valid jurisprudence that criminalizes Holocaust denial in many European countries. Schaub was one of the keynote speakers. Rose, board member of the right-wing extremist society for free journalism and parliamentary advisor to the Saxon NPD parliamentary group, was also a guest at the conference. The Collegium Humanum was financed through seminar fees and donations.

Prohibition

On May 7, 2008 (date of the prohibition order: April 18, 2008) the Federal Ministry of the Interior banned the Collegium Humanum including its sub-organization “Bauernhilfe e. V. "according to § 3 of the Association Act, since it" violates the constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany and (...) through (...) continued denial of the Holocaust against applicable law. "Following the prohibition order, house searches were carried out carried out in several federal states - especially in North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse and Lower Saxony - and extensive written and propaganda material as well as considerable assets were confiscated. The confiscation of assets includes in particular the seminar building of the Collegium Humanum in Vlotho, which was last owned by “Bauernhilfe e. V. ”found. The extensive financial assets of the Collegium Humanum and “Bauernhilfe e. V. “could be secured. The ban was associated with the collection of the association's assets (e.g. Vlothoer Immobilien).

In March 2007, the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag described the Collegium as a “center for openly neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic activities” and wanted to know whether the federal government had any knowledge of anti-constitutional or unconstitutional activities of the association and whether it saw opportunities for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to act to deprive him of the public benefit.

After critical remarks by the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , Charlotte Knobloch , she was threatened in a letter on January 30, 2008 by the chairwoman of the association and thereupon filed a criminal complaint.

The parliamentary group of Alliance 90 / The Greens called on 20 February 2008, the Federal Government on a ban of the "Collegium Humanum" according to the law on associations to consider.

On August 25, 2008, the Federal Administrative Court rejected an application to restore the suspensive effect of the action against the decision of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, as well as an application for legal aid. On August 5, 2009, the 6th Senate of the Federal Administrative Court finally confirmed the Federal Minister of the Interior's prohibition order. The reason given was that the association had denied the Holocaust in several articles and thus fulfilled the criminal offense of sedition. The association has a "kinship" to National Socialism and glorifies Nazi rule. Furthermore, it undermines the constitutional order of Germany.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Collegium Humanum. From the Nazi leadership to the center of Holocaust deniers . especially p. 9 ff.
  2. ^ Entry Bad Oeynhausen VR 403 in the joint register portal of the federal states
  3. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Benz: Handbook of Antisemitism , Volume 5, Organizations, Institutions, Movements. Walter de Gruyter 2012, pp. 114/115.
  4. ↑ a b Ingrid Tomkowiak: The "Heidelberg Manifesto" and folklore. In: Journal of Folklore. 1996 (92), p. 197.
  5. ^ Gideon Botsch : The extreme right in the Federal Republic of Germany 1949 until today. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2012, p. 86.
  6. ↑ a b Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2008 . S. 32, 54, 118 ff .
  7. ↑ "Liedg (l) ut" - between neo-Nazism and Bundish tradition ( Memento from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), archive group, Antifa-West, 2003.
  8. ↑ German Bundestag, printed matter 16/4919, 16th electoral period, answer of the federal government to the small question of the deputies Ulla Jelpke, Jan Korte, Kersten Naumann and the faction Die Linke. - Printed paper 16/4687 of March 30, 2007, p. 4.
  9. ↑ Schäuble bans right-wing extremist organizations. In: Welt Online. May 7, 2008, accessed May 3, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Right-wing extremist threat. On focus.de on March 3, 2008.
  11. ^ Motion of the Bundestag parliamentary group of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen from February 20, 2008. (PDF).
  12. ↑ Decision BVerwG 6 VR 1.08
  13. ↑ Press release of the Federal Administrative Court on the proceedings BVerwG 6 A 2.08; BVerwG 6 A 3.08 of August 5, 2009

Coordinates: 52 ° 8 '59.8 "  N , 8 ° 52' 48.4"  E