Germany Foundation

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The Germany Foundation e. V. was a German association closely related to the Union parties with a national-conservative orientation, which existed from 1966 to 2007 in Breitbrunn am Chiemsee . Spiritus rector was Kurt Ziesel , later honorary chairman. The foundation awarded the Konrad Adenauer Prize from 1967 to 2001 and was the publisher of the Germany magazine .

history

The association was founded in 1966 in the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim with its headquarters in Breitbrunn am Chiemsee. The entry in the register of associations took place in May 1967.

Kurt Ziesel was instrumental in founding the association. He was managing director of the association for many years.

Former Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU) was honorary president of the foundation until his death. The Honorary Presidium included the Bavarian Prime Minister Alfons Goppel (CSU), former Prime Minister. D. Heinrich Hellwege (CDU) and former Federal Minister. D. Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (CDU).

On August 11, 2003, the Rosenheim District Court opened insolvency proceedings for the association's assets . This was discontinued by resolution of August 7, 2007 due to lack of assets . The association was then deleted on October 16, 2007 due to the loss of all members.

Articles of Association and Profile

According to the statutes, the aim of the association was the “ conservative renewal of intellectual, cultural and political life”. Right- wing conservative Christian Democrats increasingly shaped the profile of the Germany Foundation . The foundation saw itself as the extra-parliamentary “spearhead of the [right] opposition” , especially during the Social-Liberal Coalition . In doing so, it had influential parliamentary references such as Franz Josef Strauss (CSU), who described it as "the first successful citizens' initiative that is not committed against, but for the state".

Chairperson

Germany magazine

The publicity objectives were ostensibly shaped by the will to democracy in post-war Germany , which was emerging economically and was striving for international recognition . a. characterized by a pronounced anti-communism .

The foundation published the magazine Deutschland-Magazin between 1969 and 2002 . In the monthly publication, predominantly political issues were dealt with from a decidedly conservative point of view. The magazine had the same meaning for many CSU and CDU members as it did for SPD supporters at the time, pointedly left-wing articles in Spiegel or Die Zeit , and for readers it was a source of information and argumentation for the battle of opinion, for example in the dispute over the détente the Brandt / Scheel government , which was firmly rejected. While z. For example, the Spiegel repeatedly reported about affairs by Franz Josef Strauss and presented them negatively, the number of the Germany magazine before the 1980 election contained a refutation of each of these affairs, all of which were presented as unfounded slander by Rudolf Augstein's Spiegel .

The editors-in-chief of the club magazine were u. a. Elimar Schubbe , Hans-Jürgen Mahlitz , Ivan Denes and most recently Nadira Hurnaus.

Konrad Adenauer Prize of the Germany Foundation

Between 1967 and 2001, the association awarded a Konrad Adenauer Prize , which was temporarily endowed with prize money (10,000 DM for each award winner), to people who were close to the association's conservative goals.

In the political scene, the acceptance of the award by Chancellor Helmut Kohl ( CDU ) in 1994 was seen as a “political accolade”, which according to some contemporary historians such as Wolfgang Benz should make the line between serious-conservative and dubious-nationalistic meaningless.

Prize winners:

criticism

Members of the Social Democrats and the Greens often referred to the Nazi past of some members of the Germany Foundation, in particular its founder and political engine Kurt Ziesel . In addition, they accused authors of the Germany magazine, such as Hans Georg von Studnitz , Heinrich Jordis von Lohausen and Harald Moesli, of also publishing in the Coburg monthly magazine Nation Europa , which was observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on suspicion of right-wing extremist activities.

Furthermore, the Deutschland Magazine author Axel Heinzmann was accused of injuring the then representative of IG Metall at a union anti-war rally in Reutlingen . In addition, Heinzmann took part in rallies by the militant right-wing extremist military sports group Hoffmann .

literature

  • Hans-Dieter Bamberg: The Germany Foundation eV Studies on the forces of the “democratic center” and conservatism in the Federal Republic of Germany (= Marburg treatises on political science, Volume 23). Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1978, ISBN 3-445-01376-4 .
  • Germany Foundation (ed.): A legacy of Konrad Adenauer - The Germany Foundation. A documentation . Holzner Verlag, Würzburg 1967.
  • Humanist Union (ed.): Information . 15: The "Germany Foundation" eV and its political background . Publishing yesterday and today, Munich 1967.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ISSN  0012-141X : The newspaper was not (or only temporarily) affected by the dissolution of the association, it still exists to this day and is now (2012) published by the association The German Conservatives , which is classified as right-wing extremist.
  2. ↑ Hans-Dieter Bamberg: Strauss and the "Germany Foundation eV" . In: Ingeborg Drewitz (Ed.): Strauss without chalk. Reinbek 1980, ISBN 978-3499146374 , p. 81.