German Wildlife Foundation

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German Wildlife Foundation

(DeWiSt)
Logo of the German Wildlife Foundation
Legal form: Foundation under private law
Purpose: "Promotion of environmental and nature protection as well as science and research, education, upbringing, art and culture in these areas and monument protection" .
Chair: Jörg Soehring ( board member )
Board of Trustees: Alice Rethwisch
(Chair of the Presidium)
Consist: since 1992
Arose from: boco Foundation (until 1999)
Founder: Haymo Rethwisch
Foundation capital: 111.1 million euros (2019)
Balance sheet total: 170.6 million euros (2019)
Seat: Hamburg , Germany
Website: www.deutschewildtierstiftung.de

The German Wildlife Foundation is a non-profit foundation under private law based in Hamburg . She is committed to the protection of wild animals and is active in both nature conservation and nature education . The German Wildlife Foundation was established in 1992 by the entrepreneur Haymo Rethwisch .

history

Haymo Rethwisch (1938-2014)
Gut Klepelshagen (2019)

Over the years, the Hamburg entrepreneur Haymo Rethwisch acquired around 130 hectares in Fintel , Lower Saxony , which he transformed into habitats for wild animals. He focused on ecological agriculture and wildlife-friendly forestry . In the mid-1990s, around 2,000 hectares were added in Klepelshagen in the Uckermark . In 1997, Rethwisch sold his company to the Haniel Group and from then on concentrated entirely on the protection of wild animals. The company-related "boco Foundation", which was established in 1992, was renamed the German Wildlife Foundation in 1999 in order to protect his life's work.

With equity of 45 million marks , the Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung was one of the largest foundations in its field in Europe from the start. Research stations were initially established on the areas in Fintel and Klepelshagen in order to create the basis for sustainable, wildlife-friendly agriculture and forestry. Scientists there, for example, took care of the recording and mapping of the population of wild animals and plants. In addition, the German Wildlife Foundation created a research award of up to 50,000 euros from the German Wildlife Foundation to support application-oriented research in the field of wildlife. Numerous other projects followed. In 2006, the former Federal President Roman Herzog was won as patron .

The Education Nature Forum, founded by Haymo Rethwisch in 2013, was merged into the Nature Education Department of the German Wildlife Foundation in 2015. From 2016 to 2018, the German Wildlife Foundation and the Association for the Promotion of the Boddenlandschaft National Park were equally involved in a non-profit organization that supports animal and nature films in Germany. She continues to be involved in this area, for example by financing the film “ Die Wiese - Ein Paradies next door ”, which was released in 2019 .

In 2010 Fritz Vahrenholt was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the German Wildlife Foundation at the request of Rethwisch. At that time, Vahrenholt was Chairman of the Executive Board of RWE Innogy . After moving to the supervisory board of RWE Innogy, Vahrenholt took over the management of the German Wildlife Foundation as sole member of the board. Rethwisch retired to the board of trustees and died in 2014. He was succeeded by his widow Alice Rethwisch, who has since acted as chair of the board of the German Wildlife Foundation. In December 2019, the foundation parted ways with Fritz Vahrenholt as a board member after differences of opinion "about the position of the foundation in the current climate policy discussion" had arisen. Vahrenholt had repeatedly expressed doubts publicly that humans are primarily responsible for climate change; He called the climate debate “hysterical”. Jörg Soehring, previously a member of the Presidium, has been appointed to the Foundation's new board.

organization

Locations

The head office of the German Wildlife Foundation is located in Hamburg. It also has a branch in Berlin-Mitte . The third location of the German Wildlife Foundation is Gut Klepelshagen in the Uckermark, which, as a model company for agriculture , forestry and hunting , aims to combine economic goals with the demands of wild animals.

Garbe real estate projects and the German Wildlife Foundation are currently developing the “Wildspitze” in Hamburg's Hafencity (as of 2020). It is Germany's first and largest wooden skyscraper. In addition to apartments and offices, the Wildspitze will contain an interactive permanent exhibition about wild animals. A nature film cinema and a learning workshop are also planned.

Bodies

The business of the German Wildlife Foundation is managed by a full-time executive board . Jörg Soehring is currently performing this function, the articles of association provide for up to three additional board members. The work of the board of directors is controlled by a voluntary board of trustees consisting of at least three and a maximum of 20 people. The Board of Trustees elects three to five members to the Presidium from among its members . This committee currently includes Alice Rethwisch as chairperson as well as Christian Scharff and Klaus Hackländer .

Josef H. Reichholf acts as the foundation's ambassador (as of 2017).

Finances

The foundation capital at the end of 2019 amounted to 111.1 million euros. In addition, the German Wildlife Foundation had reserves of 32.3 million euros. Of this, 8.7 million euros were allocated to the annually growing capital conservation reserve , which compensates for the loss in value of the foundation capital caused by inflation. The foundation capital and the capital maintenance reserve must not be touched, but must be invested with commercial care.

In 2019, the vast majority of revenue came from wealth management (66%). In addition there were donations, inheritances, fines (16%), grants and subsidies (11%) and other income (7%). The expenses were divided between specific activities in nature conservation and nature education (88%) and general administrative costs (12%). The project expenditures in nature conservation and nature education thus exceeded the donation income many times over.

The German Wildlife Foundation has joined the Transparent Civil Society initiative and published the required information.

Holdings

The Deutsche Wildtier Foundation is a partner in Klepelshagener Handels- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Billbrook Grundstücks- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft, the main purpose of which is to manage assets. There is also a participation in the school camp in Gehren ("Haus Wildtierland"). Alice Rethwisch had the former country school home renovated with private investments in the millions.

Cooperations

The German Wildlife Foundation works with various governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the Association for Landscape Management and Species Protection in Bavaria , the Naturschutzinitiative e. V. and the Forest and Game Foundation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The Wildtier Stiftung maintains project-related collaborations on the Red Kite with the umbrella association of German Avifaunists and the German Association for Landscape Management .

Like other environmental and nature conservation organizations, it is also entered in the lobby list of the German Bundestag .

Focus and positions

The work of the German Wildlife Foundation extends to different areas:

Wildlife

The foundation tries to save wild animals from extinction. To this end, she runs a large number of projects that are dedicated to certain species or habitats, such as the European hamster , the lynx , the spotted eagle and the wild cat . Their commitment to wild bees reached a broad public. In Berlin, for example, together with the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection and the Berlin districts, she initiated the project “More bees for Berlin - Berlin blooms!”, In which wild bee flower strips are laid out on public green and open spaces. The German Wildlife Foundation annually proclaims the " Animal of the Year " in order to draw more attention to endangered species and habitats. The projects that have already been completed include, for example, a research project on the black woodpecker and the "Red Kite - Land for Life" project, which was funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as part of the federal program for biological diversity .

Habitats

The foundation is committed to creating and maintaining habitats for wild animals. To this end, it acquires land on which it uses land that is not only ecological, but also wildlife-friendly. Gut Klepelshagen is a model for this. In north-eastern Germany, the federal government has given the foundation eleven areas from the national natural heritage , on which the existing near-natural forests are left to their own devices. In total, the German Wildlife Foundation protects over 7,100 hectares.

Wind energy

In contrast to the environmental protection organizations BUND and NABU , the Wildtier Stiftung demands a general ban on wind turbines in forests or on the edges of forests and in protected areas ( independent of the type of forest and its naturalness ). Her further demands include special consideration for breeding sites and a fundamental upgrading of species protection in the event of a conflict. In 2014 and 2016, the biologist Klaus Richarz wrote studies that set out the value of the forest as a habitat in more detail and should emphasize the foundation's demands.

Biomass

The foundation is involved with 26 other actors from the fields of nature conservation, hunting and the energy industry in the "Feldflur habitat network". The partners are jointly looking for ways in which the generation of energy from biomass can be better linked with species and nature conservation. Mixtures of various native wild plant species for biogas production are to be established as an ecologically necessary supplement to conventional energy crops in agricultural practice.

education

The foundation wants to get people excited about nature and wild animals, for example through child-friendly websites and offers to experience nature for schoolchildren and preschoolers. Over the years, a practice-oriented dialogue has been established between providers in the field of nature education, science and parents. The reason for this was a study that confirmed that children growing up in large cities in particular had a lack of contact with nature.

Controversy

Positioning on the energy transition

The newspaper Context: Weekly newspaper published two articles in which they criticized the work of the German Wildlife Foundation. The newspaper criticized the foundation's efforts to prevent wind turbines from being built in forests, while at the same time ignoring the deforestation of the Hambach Forest . This was attributed, among other things, to the fact that Vahrenholt was a former RWE board member, there were joint projects between the German Wildlife Foundation and RWE, and RWE transferred money to the foundation in 2017. The foundation did not answer a request from the newspaper about the amount of the donation, but later published a press statement in which it put it at € 1,000. The foundation stated that the donations would only go to projects. The use of the foundation for the purpose of fighting against the expansion of wind energy was also criticized during Fritz Vahrenholt's time on the board against the background of his controversial positions in connection with the denial of man-made global warming and the ties with RWE. Varenholt himself said in 2012 about his motivation to work for the foundation: "I was wondering what I can contribute to the foundation. I want to position it nationwide as a brand. Through my contacts to industry and individual companies, I can approach financially strong potential sponsors . You can get involved without having to lead a socio-politically controversial debate. " Other environmental associations have fully committed themselves to the energy transition and would therefore hold back in the event of conflicts with nature conservation.

At the local level, the Wildtier Stiftung supports associations entitled to sue in their legal proceedings against individual projects, such as the “Naturschutzinitiative e. V. ". The nature conservation initiative in turn supports individual citizens' initiatives, such as Pro Limpurger Berge in Michelbach near Schwäbisch Hall or the Odenwald without wind power in the Odenwald district (as of 10/2018). In the 2016 annual report, the foundation wrote that 800 citizens' initiatives in Germany would get involved against wind energy and described it as a “new nature conservation movement”. The publications would be followed by "tens of thousands from the citizens' initiatives" and "fed into their networks". In 2016, the Wildtier Stiftung organized a “Parliamentary Evening” on the topic of “Wind power and nature conservation”. Patrick Moore gave a lecture and was quoted in the foundation's annual report with the demand that the environmental movement should return to its original goals, because the environmental movements today “often act like lobbyists for the energy turnaround that is threatening nature and species”.

In the context of the dismissal of long-time chairman Fritz Vahrenholt, Ansgar Graw wrote in Die Welt (December 22, 2019) that at least three of the 15 members of the Board of Trustees had already resigned out of solidarity with Vahrenholt, including Arnold Vaatz , member of the Bundestag for the CDU and member of the Berlin district of the Union . According to the newspaper, the former board member of E.ON AG , Rainer Frank Elsässer, is said to have withdrawn his decision to bequeath his assets to the foundation. He also stopped a grant of 50,000 euros for a project.

Michael Miersch , managing director of the foundation responsible for "Communication & Education" gave the Bild-Zeitung an interview in March 2017 in which he spoke out against climate hysteria . As a representative of the Wildtier Stiftung, he gave an interview to the Global Warming Policy Foundation in November 2017 under the heading “How the energy transition is destroying wild animals and forests”.

Animal of the year

The selection for Animal of the Year , which the German Wildlife Foundation has been making since 2017, has been criticized because it is not sufficiently based on professional criteria. For example, the dormouse , the animal of the year 2017, was advertised for an RWE game relocation project at the Garzweiler opencast mine . The deer, which is not threatened in the population, was declared Animal of the Year 2019 without any need. The German Wildlife Foundation, which is campaigning for donations with a project against the mowing death of fawns , invented the number of 100,000 fawns that would die annually on German meadows.

Web links

Commons : German Wildlife Foundation  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

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