German-Czech Future Fund
The German-Czech Future Fund (DTZF) is an endowment fund established in 1997 that supports cooperation between Germans and Czechs by promoting joint German - Czech projects and contributes to getting to know each other better and strengthening friendly relationships. Up to and including 2019, the future fund supported more than 11,600 projects with a total funding volume of over 63.5 million euros.
What and how does the Future Fund support?
The German-Czech Future Fund contributes financially to the realization of activities in the following areas:
- youth and school
- Culture
- Dialogue and scientific projects
- publications
- Renovation of architectural monuments
- Social projects and support for minorities
- Partnerships between municipalities and civic associations
- grants
Eligibility Conditions
Applicants for a project that they are implementing together with a Czech or German partner can receive financial support from the German-Czech Future Fund. Applicants or project partners may also be individuals. The project duration should not exceed one year. Exceptions are projects for the renovation of monuments, the realization of which can take up to two years. The future fund does not support commercial projects and does not support ongoing operating costs. The subsidy requested from the Future Fund may not exceed 50% of the total costs of the project. This maximum funding is reserved for projects that are characterized by their special quality of partnership and/or their innovative character. The remaining financing of the project must be provided from other and/or own sources.
In the case of special calls such as the “Topic of the Year”, the funding can account for up to 70% of the total project costs.
application deadlines
There are four application deadlines per year, each at the end of a quarter (exceptions are projects in the areas of monuments and grants, which have their own application deadlines). The application must be submitted no later than three months before the start of the project. The special funding program Auf geht's can also be used to decide on the funding of activities in the youth and school sectors in an accelerated process.
Funding priority "Topic of the Year"
Every year, the Future Fund reacts to the current social situation in both countries. Applicants can receive up to 70% of the total project costs for activities that they implement within the framework of the annual theme.
The "Topic of the Year" 2020 is entitled The future is now. Acting sustainably together. German-Czech projects that focus on ecology, climate and nature protection, environmental education and sustainable lifestyle can apply for funding.
About the future fund
The German-Czech Future Fund was founded on December 29, 1997 as an endowment fund in Prague. It came about as a result of the German-Czech declaration of January 21, 1997, in which both countries agreed to support activities of common interest. The original endowment assets amounted to almost 85 million euros.
In the first ten years of its existence, the German-Czech Future Fund played a key role in compensating Czech victims of National Socialism. In the years 1998-2008 they were paid around 45 million euros from the foundation's assets. The payouts from this program have already ended.
In the years 2000 to 2006, the Future Fund also managed the payouts within the framework of compensation for Czech victims of forced labor and other Nazi injustices, in cooperation with the German Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility, Future (EVZ).
The future fund is currently dedicated to promoting joint German-Czech projects that bring people from both countries together, enable encounters and deepen mutual acquaintance and cooperation. In addition, the fund implements some of its own projects. The average annual funding volume of the fund is around 3.6 million euros and is spread over an average of 600 projects per year.
Selected long-term projects of the future fund
German-Czech discussion forum
The German-Czech Discussion Forum is a platform where Germans and Czechs meet regularly and discuss current social issues. Its aim is to support the dialogue and the inclusion of the most diverse social groups who are committed to a close and well-functioning partnership between the two countries. The highlight of the joint activities is the annual conference, in which active citizens, politicians, scientists, journalists and business representatives from both countries take part every year.
The founding of the discussion forum was anchored in the German-Czech declaration of 1997.
German-Czech journalist prize
The German-Czech Future Fund awards the German-Czech Journalists' Prize in cooperation with the journalists' associations of Germany (DJV) and the Czech Republic (Syndikat novinářů). The award is given to journalists who provide differentiated and cliché-free information about the neighboring country and thus contribute to better understanding between Germans and Czechs.
The special award for long-term, outstanding journalistic work is given to journalists or journalistic formats who have made a special contribution to differentiated reporting on the neighboring country and/or the coexistence of Germans and Czechs in Europe over a longer period of time .
Compensation for Nazi victims
The first and most important task of the future fund in the first years of its existence was the compensation of Czech victims of National Socialism.
Representatives of the victims from the Czech Association of Freedom Fighters and the Federation of Jewish Communities played a leading role in the development of the compensation project (officially: project of humanitarian aid for victims of National Socialist violence, the so-called social project). This guaranteed that the form of compensation would correspond to their real needs. The project was approved at the first meeting of the board of directors of the future fund.
In this way, the victims of the harshest repressions (prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, penal camps or other detention facilities, but also those who had hidden from persecution in inhumane conditions) received direct financial support. The payments were intended for citizens of the Czech Republic or former citizens of Czechoslovakia of any nationality and also residing abroad, provided they had not previously been compensated on the basis of German legislation.
In accordance with the German-Czech declaration, 90 million German marks were paid out for this purpose (and thus the majority of the endowment assets of the Future Fund, which both governments had paid into it). The compensation project was designed to run for ten years. During this period, eligible persons were paid an annual sum that they could use according to their needs and their own assessment in order to improve their social and health situation.
In 1998, more than 7,000 people received a first installment of compensation as part of the social project. The last installment was received in 2007 by around 3,500 of the Nazi victims who were still alive at the time.
Compensation for Czech forced labourers
The path towards compensation for people forced into forced labor during World War II opened up in the 1990s. The impulse came from class action lawsuits in the USA against German companies that had forced concentration camp inmates to do forced labor during the war. Threatening lawsuits and a broad media, political and economic campaign against German companies overseas, as well as the more accommodating attitude of the new governing coalition, paved the way for compensation for prisoners affected by slave labor and civilian forced laborers in 1998.
The Czech Republic also took part in international negotiations in 1999 and 2000. Of the total amount of 10 billion DM that the German state and German companies paid into the newly created foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”, 423 million went to the victims from the Czech Republic. These funds should be distributed primarily among the victims of slave and forced labor. Under certain conditions, a payment could also be granted to other groups of victims. In the Czech Republic, for example, persecuted relatives of murdered victims of racist and political terror, persecuted Roma or people in hiding could receive a payment.
The German-Czech Future Fund became the partner organization of the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future". In , he set up his own office, the "Office for Victims of National Socialism", which administered the payment of compensation payments in the Czech Republic. In the years 2001-2006, the future fund paid out compensation to 75,769 (out of a total of 110,624) applicants who had done forced labor on German territory. The future fund also processed 11,798 applications from people who had been held captive or used as forced labor or had suffered other damage/impairments on what is now the territory of the Republic of Austria, and granted a payment to 10,964 applicants on this basis. This was done on behalf of the Council for Victims of National Socialism, the partner organization of the Austrian fund "Reconciliation, Peace and Cooperation".
In total, the Future Fund paid out funds of CZK 8 billion (based on 86,925 applications) under the German and Austrian Compensation Program.
web links
itemizations
- ↑ Let's go! In: fondbudoucnosti.cz. Retrieved March 20, 2020 .
- ↑ http://fondbudoucnosti.cz/en/what-we-demand/topic-of-the-year/
- ↑ https://www.stiftung-evz.de/start.html
- ↑ http://www.diskusniforum.org/de/
- ↑ http://www.deutsch-tschechischer-journalistenpreis.de