Fire Brigade Association
A fire brigade association in Germany is an association to promote local fire protection , which in some regions exists alongside the respective local volunteer fire brigade .
Differentiation of the association from the communal institution
Membership in the fire brigade association is usually independent of participation in the respective volunteer fire brigade. As a rule, however, if a fire brigade association exists, the emergency services at one location are also members of both organizations. While fire brigade associations have only recently emerged in the other federal states, the fire brigades in Hesse and Bavaria had been organized in the form of a fire brigade association since the early days of around 1870. The resulting dual nature of the fire brigades in Hesse and Bavaria as an association and community fire protection facility at the same time was legally difficult terrain until the publication of the Hessian Fire Protection Assistance Act (BrSHG) in 1971 and the Bavarian Fire Brigade Act (BayFwG) in 1985. Only the BrSHG or the BayFwG defined the demarcation of the fire brigade association from the communal institution. As a result, however, every municipal fire brigade in Bavaria also has a fire brigade association.
financing
Fire brigade associations are usually financed through donations and membership fees . In isolated cases, municipalities have committed themselves to their fire brigade members to pay expense allowances for operations or special services. However, some of these are paid to the fire brigade association. From this money purchases are often given in the sense of camaraderie, but also grants for vehicle, building and equipment purchases. Furthermore, fire brigade associations can be given financial support by their municipality as part of the association's funding. The proceeds from the implementation of festive events (e.g. anniversary celebrations) are an essential financial basis for many fire brigade associations.
designation
The fire brigade associations have different names in the individual regions. In the central and southern German states they usually have the same name as the volunteer fire brigade, whose support and promotion they serve; They are then called, like the communal fire brigade itself, "Voluntary Fire Brigade ... (place name)" or, if they are entered in the association register, "Freiwillige Feuerwehr ... (place name) e. V. ". In northern Germany, on the other hand, the designation "Fire Brigade Funding Association ... (place name)" or "Fire Brigade Association ... (place name)", again depending on the entry with or without the addition "e. V. “, more common. From a legal point of view, there are reservations about the naming practice practiced in central and southern Germany, because there is a considerable risk that outsiders will find it difficult to distinguish whether they are working with the fire brigade as such - usually a communal facility without legal personality - or with a fire brigade association contact.
Legal
According to the case law of the Federal Fiscal Court , which is largely followed by the legal literature, there is a (non-registered) fire brigade association even if the members of the fire brigade create a comradeship fund. This view is controversial because it fabricates an association that no one really knowingly and willingly founded. Even if one basically follows the Federal Fiscal Court, at least in those federal states there is no unregistered association, but a municipal special fund behind the Kameradschaftkasse , in which the Kameradschaftkasse is contained in a public fire brigade statute, i.e. in the statute of the municipal fire brigade itself, is regulated. In addition to Baden-Württemberg and Saxony, this also includes Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein . However, since there is no clear legal regulation, with the exception of Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig-Holstein, this is not without controversy for the other countries mentioned.
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : Development of fire protection . In: Freiwillige Feuerwehr Obertiefenbach e. V. (Ed.): 125 years of the Obertiefenbach volunteer fire brigade . Reference 2005, ISBN 978-3-926262-03-5 , pp. 114-119 .
- ↑ Landgericht Stralsund , judgment of April 7, 2011 - file number: 6 O 383/10, published by Juris, no. 18 there
- ↑ State Fire Brigade Association Schleswig-Holstein: Action aid for the management of the comradeship funds of the volunteer fire brigades in Schleswig-Holstein
- ↑ cf. on this the article by Hauke Schäfer and Hagen Schäfer: Die Rechtsnatur Freiwilliger Feuerwehren in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , in: LKV 2007, p. 15 ff. with further references; also the same: The volunteer fire brigades of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in private law , in: LKV 2007, p. 545 ff .; Hauke Schäfer: Primary and secondary powers of the fire brigade in fire and rescue operations, KommJur 2008, 207, 208 [footn. 2]