German Green Cross
| German Green Cross (DGK) |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| legal form | registered association |
| founding | 1948 |
| Seat | Marburg |
| purpose | Promotion of preventive health care and communication in Germany |
| Chair | Rolf Harzmann |
| Managing directors | Sigrid Ley-Köllstadt |
| Website | dgk.de |
The German Green Cross e. V. ( DGK ) is, according to its own statements, "the oldest non-profit association for the promotion of health care and communication in Germany". It sees itself as independent and not committed to any political, religious or commercial group. As its most important task, the association propagates the motivation of the population to take responsibility for their own health and to use prevention offers. President of the German Green Cross is Rolf Harzmann . He took over from Burghard Stück in 2005 . Hans von Stackelberg is a member of the board and managing director, and at the same time, along with his family members, is the owner and managing director of several companies closely associated with the DGK.
The DGK was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1948 . Walter Schnell was the founder and managing president . The association has been based in Marburg an der Lahn since 1950 . Ten years later the DGK moved to the " Kilian ". In 1956, the non-profit association, DGK Förderergesellschaft mbH, became a commercial subsidiary, which today functions as an umbrella organization for five subsidiaries ( GmbHs ) and handles all financial transactions. The association has 72 permanent employees, mostly medical professionals, pharmacists and PR consultants. In addition, around 300 doctors, pharmacists and scientists work on a voluntary basis as experts in 22 sections on various health topics.
The DGK became known nationwide in the 1960s through the awareness campaign " Oral vaccination is sweet - polio is cruel". The idea of the obligatory eye test for new drivers also comes from the Green Cross. Nationwide campaigns such as the 1st National Vaccination Week, campaigns such as “Better Hearing” or the school competition “Schoolchildren inform schoolchildren about hepatitis B” should make the population aware of preventive medicine issues. In addition, the DGK organizes information days and is regularly on the go with information vehicles nationwide.
The DGK works with national and international institutions - the World Health Organization (WHO), the Federal Ministry of Health , the Robert Koch Institute , chambers of doctors , medical professional associations, scientific societies and doctors in clinics and practices. Important sponsors are the public health service , health insurance companies and pharmacies as well as the pharmaceutical industry .
The ten press services and the weekly health column in over 70 daily newspapers reach a daily circulation of more than a billion a year and are thus the most reprinted health information in Germany. In addition, there are up to 1,500 radio broadcasts and around 200 TV reports each year, which are produced in cooperation with the DGK. The DGK publishes advice and brochures and gives advice over the phone or by email. "Verlag im Kilian", a subsidiary of the DGK, publishes literature on health topics, specialist books and guides for laypeople. On May 20, 2010, four subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy.
criticism
In 2000, the "opinion sponsorship" in the ZDF advice program on health was criticized in the Spiegel , whereupon the ZDF terminated the cooperation. In 1991, an information brochure was published in which numerous tobacco industry-funded scientists questioned a possible health hazard from passive smoking.
The health columns delivered to the press were repeatedly criticized for being too close to the product. Wolfgang Becker-Brüser , editor of the “Arznei-Telegram” , described the association as a “back-up organization for pharmaceutical marketing”. Gerd Glaeske , professor at the Institute for Social Policy at the University of Bremen , described the work of the Green Cross as fundamentally correct and important. "Nevertheless, a proximity to certain pharmaceutical companies or vaccine manufacturers cannot always be ruled out."
Web links
- German Green Cross e. V.
- The German Council for Public Relations issued the German Green Cross with a warning and a reprimand for violation of the transparency requirement and inadmissible surreptitious advertising (PDF; 218 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ hr-online: 60 years of the German Green Cross ( memento from July 31, 2009 in the web archive archive.today ) from August 29, 2008
- ↑ Anna Ntemiris: Green Cross in the Crisis ( Memento from September 14, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), op-marburg.de from May 24, 2010
- ↑ Cordula Meyer: Fraud on the viewer . In: Der Spiegel . No. 33 , 2000, pp. 96-98 ( online ).
- ↑ Der SPIEGEL reported… In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 2000, pp. 274 ( online ).
- ↑ PR machine Green Cross? Odysso - Discovering Knowledge: Dark Businesses in Healthcare , October 8, 2009; accessed on May 12, 2014
- ↑ More than crisis: Green Cross , Good Pills - Bad Pills 2010/05, p. 9
- ^ Anja Achenbach: Campaign with the Green Cross . In: Financial Times Germany . October 14, 2008 ( online ( memento of February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )).