Friendship Society GDR-Belgium

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The GDR-Belgium Society was founded on June 6, 1964 in Berlin as the German-Belgian Society in the GDR . She belonged to the umbrella organization League for Friendship of Nations .

founding

A celebratory event took place on the occasion of the founding, at which speeches were given by the president of the newly founded society, Nathan Notowicz , and the representative of the Belgium-GDR association, the communist MP and former resistance fighter Willy Frère .

function

The GDR-Belgium society should promote cultural and scientific relations between the GDR and Belgium and contribute to a better understanding between the two states. For the GDR in particular, foreign cultural policy was also a means of breaking through the diplomatic isolation brought about by the Hallstein Doctrine . The GDR-Belgium Society was intended to promote international recognition and sovereignty of the GDR under international law among the Belgian population.

The partner company Vereinigung Belgium-GDR

Its Belgian counterpart, the Association Belgium-GDR ( French Association Belgique-RDA ; Flemish Vereniging België-DDR ), was founded on February 23, 1963 and had its seat in Brussels . It emerged from the Belgium-GDR culture committee based in Bruges , which was founded in 1958. The first president of the association was the socialist Ghent professor of German language and literature Willem Pée , and the association's long-term general secretary was the communist Christiane Braet-Delrue .

The Belgium-GDR Association, in cooperation with the German-Belgian Society in the GDR, organized numerous language courses, exhibitions, film screenings and conferences as well as visits to the GDR, especially for journalists and politicians.

The Association Belgium-GDR gave the Belgian government before 1972 on several occasions to establish diplomatic relations with the GDR.

President of the GDR-Belgium Society

See also

literature

  • To found the German-Belgian Society in the GDR . In: Deutsche Außenpolitik 8 (1964), pp. 793ff.
  • League for friendship between the peoples of the GDR . In: Andreas Herbst , Winfried Ranke and Jürgen Winkler (eds.): This is how the GDR worked . Volume 1: Lexicon of Organizations and Institutions . Reinbek near Hamburg, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag 1994, pp. 600–607.
  • Hans Cottyk: De vereniging België-DDR 1958-1991 . Universiteit Gent 1995 (Master's thesis).
  • Carel Horstmeier: La politique de reconnaissance de la RDA en Belgique jusqu'en 1972 . In: Ulrich Pfeil (Ed.): La RDA et l'Occident. Colloque international. Paris, November 1999 . Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Asnières 2000, pp. 281–298 (published in German under the title: The GDR and Belgium (1949–1972) . In: Ulrich Pfeil (Ed.): The GDR and the West. Transnational Relations 1949 –1989 . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2001, pp. 309–327).