Erfurt declaration

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The Erfurt Declaration is a position paper and appeal from trade unionists , intellectuals , theologians , politicians , artists and other public figures from a left, social democratic and theological spectrum in Germany, which was published on January 9, 1997 in Erfurt and Berlin .

An alliance of SPD , Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and PDS (later: Die Linke ) was called for for social democracy with a link to a social Europe . The manifesto presented social , ecological and economic contradictions that continued to manifest themselves in the 1990s and that gave rise to political realignment.

Goal setting

The central argument was the appeal to Article 14 (2) of the German Basic Law (GG), which states : “ Property obliges. Its use shall also the benefit of the general public to serve. "

It was found that a bottom-up redistribution process was carried out in the course of German unification, the statement said. The reasons given were the activities of the Treuhand , the wage difference between East and West and the labor market situation in the East. The paper diagnosed a “state of merciless injustice ” and called for a “fairer distribution of income and goods” as the “central task of a new policy ”. In the spirit of 1968 and 1989 , a political change of power was called for in 1998. One of the goals was "overcoming mass unemployment ". A change of course in finance and tax policy was required to finance the project . A specific appeal went to the parties of the SPD, PDS and the Greens. You should form a tough opposition without fear of contact .

The fair distribution of work, tax burden , income and goods is therefore the central task of a new policy: “Fundamentals must change.” A “new social awakening” is necessary for the new millennium.

Historical classification

In 1995 the then IG Metall chairman Klaus Zwickel proposed an alliance for work , which was rejected by the governing parties. A broad alliance of trade unions, churches and social associations continued to work for the workers to make the welfare state future-proof. In this run-up, the thoughts on the Erfurt Declaration arose.

The Erfurt Declaration, also sometimes called Erfurt to speak , refers historically to the Erfurt SPD program from 1891. It portrayed the struggle of the working class against capitalist exploitation as a political struggle. The Erfurt Declaration takes up this approach , after the experience of the transformation process of German unity after 1990 and the failed socialism model of the GDR , after an increasingly neoliberal economic policy, and addresses a reformation of the political course towards a social democracy . A change of policy was called for, since confidence in the established governments was exhausted. The manifesto says: “In the fifth decade of its existence in the Federal Republic of Germany, the social consensus on which its success was based will be destroyed by radical redistribution in favor of the influential. (...) This creates power that is not democratically legitimized. "

The board member of IG Metall, Horst Schmitthenner , declared in May 1997 that the unity is an obligation and the initiative should make it clear that the initiators are not against the unity, but against the divisions within the unity.

Contemporary authors see the Erfurt Declaration as an impetus to change the political landscape up to and including the change of government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder , but point out that the protests against social legislation ( unemployment benefit II ) in 2004 remained an expression of social dissatisfaction. The Erfurt Declaration reflected at an early stage the approach to social developments such as xenophobia , right-wing extremist positions , protest voters , feelings of discrimination among citizens in East Germany or the strengthening of right-wing national parties such as the AfD , which are viewed as threats to democracy and the hope for freedom, equality and humanity become. The Erfurt Declaration tried to address the changes caused by global finance, neoliberal economic policy, income divergences, digitization and globalization , making reference to the threat of unemployment , poverty or old-age poverty for parts of society.

Parties and Signatories

In January 1997, in the Erfurt Declaration, almost 40 artists, intellectuals, trade unionists and politicians spoke out in favor of more social justice and a policy change through closer cooperation between the SPD, the Greens and the PDS. The first signatories included the union officials and later left-wing politicians Bodo Ramelow and Frank Spieth .

The initial signatories at the time of signing were:

By autumn 1997, 46,000 citizens in East and West signed the appeal with their names.

reception

The declaration aroused very different reactions - a lot of approval from the east, predominantly criticism in the west of the republic, which was mainly attached to the question of possible cooperation with the PDS. 17 GDR civil rights activists and scholars immediately condemned the Erfurt Declaration in a Berlin response , as a whitewash action by the PDS and as an expression of the bitterness of old and new left reactionaries over the disappearance of a real socialist alternative to parliamentary democracy and a social market economy . The initiators of the reply were the pastor from Berlin and former civil rights activist Ehrhart Neubert , Vera Lengsfeld , member of the Bundestag who joined the CDU , the historian Manfred Wilke and the former East Berlin dissident pastor and CDU politician Rainer Eppelmann .

Wolfgang Schäuble spoke of a popular front - high, but unintentional praise, this historical term for the defenders of the Spanish Republic against the Franco fascists and Hitler's Condor Legion.

By May 1997, 18,000 people signed the paper, published in January; in autumn 1997 there were 46,000. From a total of 220 regional initiatives, about half are in the West, said the board member of IG Metall Horst Schmitthenner in May 1997. Die Zeit interpreted the Erfurt declaration as an invitation to step out of the “viewer democracy”.

Edelbert Richter wrote in 100 Arguments for the Erfurt Declaration : GDR real socialism was "a society of catching up industrialization with a despotic legacy and a socialist ideology". The neoliberals shamelessly tied in with the economic despotism of the communists; on the other hand, the Social Democrats are denied the inheritance of socialist ideals.

For the conservatives , the proposals were a clear criticism of the previous policy. The manifesto called for overcoming mass unemployment through “a new type of full employment ”. Recipes: reduction of working hours , redistribution of work, environmental sustainability and orientation towards social benefits, which meant a strong sector of public employment. A single criterion would change something decisive: tax honesty .

Nevertheless, the manifesto spurred a social discussion to this day. These include polarizing statements from BDI President Hans-Olaf Henkel , who denied that there was poverty in Germany , such as contributions by Thilo Sarrazin or the SPD's longstanding defense of the change in social legislation in 2004 with unemployment benefit II. In the eyes of many, the labor market reform of 2004 means that wages will be reduced, resulting in the largest low-wage sector of all Western European countries, instead of investing in education and qualification, infrastructure, digitization or Industry 4.0 or reacting early with a minimum wage .

The original attempt at the Erfurt declaration of an all-German citizens' movement ultimately failed due to the reservations of the established parties, above all the SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen against the PDS, which the initiators called for a change of power. Everyone seemed to agree to prevent an extra-parliamentary mass movement like 1968 or 1989.

In 2007, the writer Daniela Dahn, who was also one of the initiators of the “Erfurt Declaration”, said, “Unfortunately nothing has changed in the policy that we then called the Cold War against the welfare state. On the contrary, it has come to a head, this direction ”.

In November 2019, after the state election in Thuringia , from which the Left under Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow emerged as the strongest party, the Protestant Christian Ramelow once again commented on the intention of the Erfurt Declaration of 1997 on Deutschlandfunk : “This Erfurt Declaration is in a time originated in 1997, in which we were of the opinion that “we” means church representatives, trade union representatives, scientists, artists, intellectuals. We said: It can't go on like this, that under the Chancellorship of Mr. Kohl things are simply frozen and no new departure can arise. ”His own government, red-red-green, is therefore a direct result of the Erfurt declaration, which was written on evangelical soil. Ramelow continues: “I said I want to establish a new political model, namely three parties on an equal footing. I say: dare more democracy and less party membership. "

Web links

literature

  • Daniela Dahn, Dieter Lattmann, Norman Paech: Property obliges. The Erfurt Declaration , Heilbronn 1997, ISBN 978-3-929348-21-7 .
  • Oliver d'Andonio, Johanna Klatt and Robert Lorenz (eds.): Manifestos: History and Presence of Political Appeal (Studies by the Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research on the History of Political and Social Controversies) - The Last Struggle for the Old Republic: The Erfurt Declaration , Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-8376-1679-8 .
  • Edelbert Richter: 100 arguments for the Erfurt Declaration , self-published (repeatedly reviewed), Weimar 1997

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e SPW editorial staff: Erfurt declaration. In: Journal for Socialist Politics and Economy - 1/97. Kulturverein Mauernrechen eV, 1997, accessed on November 5, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Journal for Socialist Politics and Economy - 1/97
  3. ↑ Erfurt declaration. In: DOCUMENTS forum citizen movement 1/97; Pages 10 + 11. Journal for Direct Democracy, Ecology & Human Rights, June 7, 1997, accessed on November 5, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c Vincent Körner: "Erfurt Declaration", "Initiative for a Policy Change" etc. - a little history of collecting. In: OXI. OXI - Thinking Economy Differently is published by common verlagsgenossenschaft eG, August 12, 2018, accessed on November 5, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Christoph Dieckmann: Up to here - and how next? In: Die Zeit, 42/1997. Die Zeit, October 10, 1997, accessed on December 9, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Ferdinand Muggenthaler: The "Erfurt Declaration" reaches the Rhine. In: https://www.jungewelt.de/ . Junge Welt, May 20, 1997, accessed December 9, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b c d Oliver D'Antonio: The last battle for the old republic: The Erfurt Declaration . In: Johanna Klatt and Robert Lorenz (eds.): Manifests: History and Presence of Political Appeal (Studies by the Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research on the History of Political and Social Controversies) . 1st edition. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-8376-1679-8 , p. 357 ff .
  8. ^ Editor Die Welt: Civil rights activists attack "Erfurt Declaration". In: The world. Axel Springer Verlag, January 20, 1997, accessed on November 9, 2019 .
  9. ^ Bernd Rürup: Low wage sector: Hartz-IV reloaded. In: https://www.handelsblatt.com/ . Handelsblatt, May 10, 2019, accessed on December 9, 2019 .
  10. ^ Daniela Dahn, Hanno Harnisch: 10 years ago: The "Erfurt Declaration". In: ND New Germany. ND Neues Deutschland, January 9, 2007, accessed on November 5, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Henry Bernhard and Bodo Ramelow: I like the pebble in my party's shoe. In: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/ . Deutschlandfunk, November 18, 2019, accessed on December 9, 2019 .