Against forgetting - for democracy
| Against forgetting - for democracy | |
|---|---|
|
|
| legal form | registered association |
| founding | April 19, 1993 |
| Seat | Berlin |
| main emphasis | History didactics and processing in relation to the Nazi and SED dictatorship, promotion of democracy, advice on dealing with right-wing extremism |
| Action space | Germany |
| Website | Gegen-vergessen.de |
Against forgetting - for democracy e. V. is a non-profit association based in Berlin with 2,000 members and 40 regional working groups. He wants to promote tolerance and democracy and contribute to the discussion of political extremism , racism , xenophobia and the exclusion of minorities . According to its own statements, the association is independent, non-partisan and non-denominational.
tasks and goals
According to the statutes, the goals of the association are as follows:
- "a) To come to terms with and preserve the legacy of the resistance against the Nazi dictatorship, to clarify the origins of National Socialism and Fascism and their structures as well as to represent the opposition, resistance, persecution and exile of the opponents of the Nazi regime ,
- b) to represent the opposition, resistance and persecution in the communist system by providing information about the development of communism,
- c) to contribute to dealing with enemy images, racism, xenophobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of political extremism and to the promotion of democratic attitudes. "
The association wants to combine historical remembrance work on National Socialism and the SED dictatorship with contemporary engagement for helping to shape democratic civil society .
He realizes cultural, educational and information events and projects, organizes political initiatives and advises civil society groups. In addition, he creates offers for schools as well as for training and further education in order to provide information about the structure and functioning of totalitarian systems and to contribute to dealing with right-wing extremism . In general, he advocates the promotion of tolerance "in all areas of culture" and the idea of international understanding .
history
The association was founded on April 19, 1993 by representatives of public life from various parties. The motivation for this was also the racist and xenophobic riots between 1991 and 1993, such as in Hoyerswerda , Rostock-Lichtenhagen , Mölln and Solingen . Founding members included politicians, academics, educators, trade unionists, journalists and memorial leaders.
The founding chairman of the association was Hans-Jochen Vogel . He was followed in 2000 by Hans Koschnick , who held the office until 2003, after which Joachim Gauck was chairman until 2012, when he was elected Federal President. His successor was Wolfgang Tiefensee until the end of 2014, when he became Minister of Economics in Thuringia. At the end of 2015, the general assembly elected Bernd Faulenbach as the new chairman.
The association's statutes, which have been in effect since the founding meeting, were changed at the general meetings on October 31, 1996, November 21, 2003, November 11, 2006 and November 22, 2014 as well as at the board meeting on November 18, 2016.
Chairman of the association
| Surname | Term of office | |
|---|---|---|
| Hans-Jochen Vogel | 1993-2000 | |
| Hans Koschnick | 2000-2003 | |
| Joachim Gauck | 2003-2012 | |
| Wolfgang Tiefensee | 2012-2014 | |
| Bernd Faulenbach | since November 2015 | |
organization structure
Bernd Faulenbach has been the chairman since November 2015 ; Ekin Deligöz , Eberhard Diepgen and Linda Teuteberg are the deputy chairmen . The chairwoman of the advisory board is Rita Süssmuth . Michael Parak is the managing director of the association.
The association is divided into 40 regional working groups, each of which is represented by at least one spokesperson. The office is based in Berlin. The association is a non-governmental organization that is financed through membership fees and donations. He also receives project-related grants and grants.
Cooperations
A large part of the association's events take place in cooperation with other institutions, organizations and companies. The partners on a supraregional level include the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung , the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung , the Federal Agency for Civic Education , the Federal Foundation to come to terms with the SED dictatorship , the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth , the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government , the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” , the Anne Frank Center , Action Reconciliation Service for Peace , the American Jewish Committee , the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the International Auschwitz Committee . The association works with memorials, educational institutions and civil society initiatives on a local and supraregional level.
Projects and events
The association organizes around 500 events and projects annually at local, regional and national level.
Historical and political education
In the field of historical-political education, seminars, workshops and other projects are organized, often in cooperation with memorials and contemporary witnesses , in which the crimes of National Socialism and the injustices that were committed under the SED dictatorship are discussed. The association was, among other things, co-organizer of the " History Forum 1989–2009: Europe Between Division and Awakening ", a major scientific and memory-political event on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolutions in Germany and East Central Europe such as Czechoslovakia . In the project “Children on the Holocaust” reports of Jewish children who survived the Holocaust in occupied Poland were published; In addition, a didactic guide was published. On the basis of the reports, a play was created in collaboration with the Theater der Junge Welt Leipzig. The numerous projects at the regional level include the processing of the history of the Hailfingen-Tailfingen satellite camp in Baden-Württemberg as part of a memorial project. In Saxony-Anhalt, the regional working group there is holding a series of events on the history of the GDR together with the state commissioner for the Stasi documents at numerous schools.
Since 2010 the association has been running a project on historical and political education in the immigration society together with the Federal Agency for Civic Education . Against the background of the growing proportion of people with a migration background among young people and young adults, new approaches are being developed to convey the history of dictatorship and democracy. Based on the results of technical discussions with experts as well as the experiences from various workshops, a handbook on “Practical history communication in the immigration society” for teachers and other multipliers of historical-political education is to be developed.
Promotion of civil society engagement
The association advises and supports civil society initiatives that deal with history on a local and regional level and oppose political extremism, racism, xenophobia and the exclusion of minorities. Among other things, the association conducts argumentation training against right-wing extremist slogans. In the context of seminars, students are trained as argumentation trainers, who in turn can support their peers in reacting to right-wing extremist statements and slogans.
In 2010, the association set up an Internet portal for civic engagement with funding from the Federal Government's Press and Information Office . Under the motto "You are doing good - we talk about it", non-profit projects, initiatives and associations from all over Germany that are based on voluntary commitment will be presented. These include institutions as diverse as the “Civil Courage Action” in Pirna, the Görlitzer Synagogue Support Group or the Rostock History Workshop with the journal Zeitgeschichte regional it publishes .
Advice on right-wing extremism
With the online advice against right-wing extremism , the association provides advice that can be used anonymously on the Internet. The advice is open to all people who are confronted with right-wing extremism directly or through their environment, who are looking for information on the right-wing extremist scene or who want to get involved in democratic coexistence. Advice is available in the form of email advice, individual chat or group chat. If necessary, contacts to regional institutions, projects and networks can be arranged. Visitors to the website will also find extensive information on the topic there.
Policy advice and initiatives
Against forgetting - For Democracy performs tasks in the area of political advice and participates with political initiatives in public discourse on the following topics:
Forced Labor Compensation
Under the leadership of its founding chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel, the association took an active part in the public discussions about the compensation of Nazi forced laborers . These discussions culminated in the establishment of the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” foundation , which managed the payment of compensation to those affected who were still alive from a fund supported by the federal government and business.
Right-wing extremism
The association has repeatedly made public statements on the subject of right-wing extremism. This includes the appeal to the politicians to establish based on continuity promotion policy for combating right-wing extremism, as well as the invitation to the legislature, with a view to NPD - prohibition to review the procedural rules for a ban unconstitutional parties.
Rehabilitation of so-called war traitors
In 1998 and 2002, National Socialist injustice judgments in the administration of criminal justice as well as judgments against Wehrmacht deserters were overturned by the German Bundestag with the law to repeal National Socialist injustice in criminal justice . Those convicted of war treason by the Nazi military justice system were initially excluded from this and were only given general rehabilitation in September 2009. The association advocated this with information events and scientific expertise before the legal committee of the German Bundestag .
Compensation for euthanasia victims
In 2007 the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring” from the Nazi era ( National Socialist Racial Hygiene ) was declared an injustice law by the German Bundestag, but the victims themselves were not fully rehabilitated. Together with the Association of “Euthanasia” Victims and Forced Sterilization (BEZ) and the Foundation Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe , the association participates in the discussion about recognition of those affected as victims of Nazi persecution.
Prize "Against Forgetting - For Democracy"
Since 2005, the association has awarded the “Against Forgetting - For Democracy” prize annually to people or organizations who are committed to coming to terms with the German dictatorship past or for tolerance and democracy and against right-wing extremism. The previous winners were the former Federal President Johannes Rau , the music group Die Prinzen , the Maximilian Kolbe factory , the President of the German Football Association, Theo Zwanziger , and the GDR civil rights activist Rainer Eppelmann . On November 7, 2010 the award was given to the Polish historian Feliks Tych . Joachim Gauck gave the laudatory speech. The writer Rafik Schami received the award in 2011 for his great commitment to democracy and human rights. The award ceremony took place on October 30, 2011 in the Bremen citizenship. The laudation was given by the former Minister of State for Culture Christina Weiss . In 2012, the award went to the historian Wolfgang Benz , whose “services to the culture of remembrance in Germany and his social commitment against prejudice and against xenophobia”, which he earned as head of the Center for Research on Antisemitism at TU Berlin for many years , were honored. The laudation was held by the then deputy chairman of Gegen Vergessen - Für Demokratie, Bernd Faulenbach . In 2013, the award was given to the soccer magazine 11 Freunde . In 2014 Nesrin and Yasemin Şamdereli received the award for their film " Almanya ", in 2015 Frank Schneider , the former president of the Psychiatry Society DGPPN, received the award. The 2016 award winner was Weimarer Republik eV, and in 2017 the ZDF children's news program received logo! and in 2018 the Ostritzer Friedensfest initiative won the award.
Accusation of "playing down the Holocaust"
The association was partially confronted with the accusation expressed by authors from the left wing of the political left that the Holocaust was being relativized and thus played down. This accusation was mainly justified by the fact that the association considers the memory of the injustice of the SED dictatorship of the GDR and the crimes of National Socialism to be equally worth remembering. So the chief editor of by government agencies regarded as left-wing extremist magazine criticized concrete , Hermann L. Gremliza , in an editorial in April 2012 a "relativize the Holocaust" as the "Purpose equating the GDR with Nazi Germany, the 872 between 1949 and Refugees and border soldiers killed in 1989 on the border between the FRG and the GDR with the sixty million murdered 'Slavic subhumans' and European Jews ” . However, such an objective is not found either in the association's statutes or in the association's writings. The association's co-founder Richard Schröder , on the other hand, in his essay What must not be forgotten (1994), on behalf of the association, also explicitly addressed the “serious differences” between the Nazi and SED regimes.
Gremliza's article was preceded by a polemic on the part of Deniz Yücel , author of Die Tageszeitung , which is regarded as an alternative to the left , in a comment in the run-up to the 2012 federal presidential election . This related his criticism to a statement by the candidate Joachim Gauck in a lecture in 2006 to the Robert Bosch Foundation , when Gauck a. a. on the other hand, stated that “the events of the German murder of Jews are being exaggerated into a uniqueness”, which Yücel interpreted as trivializing the Holocaust. Green politician Jürgen Trittin then criticized the taz at the end of February on the talk show Maybrit Illner for not being able to accuse Gauck as chairman of the Verein Gegen Vergessen - für Demokratie (For Democracy) for playing down the Holocaust.
Honorary members
- Hans Bonkas (1921–2012), long-time chairman of the Reichsbanner Black-Red-Gold Association , Association of Active Democrats
- Heinz Droßel (1916–2008), as a first lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, used his room for maneuver for civil courage and resistance during the Second World War; he was appointed as Righteous Among the Nations award
- Elisabeth Graul (1928–2009), dealt with her imprisonment in the GDR in poems and novels; After this, she reported on her experiences in many readings and interviews with contemporary witnesses
- Ingeborg Hecht-Studniczka (1921–2011) has been honored several times for her work in memory, including the Federal Cross of Merit
- Andreas Heldrich (1935–2007) was the first director of the Bavarian Memorials Foundation and, particularly during his time as rector of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, was committed to a continuous discussion of the Nazi regime of violence
- Max Mannheimer (1920–2016), chairman of the Dachau camp community , a. a. Winner of the Federal Cross of Merit and the Bavarian Constitutional Medal in gold
Award
In October 2013 the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany awarded the Association the Humanitarian Prize of the German Freemasons . The laudator at the 2013 award ceremony was Peter Maffay , who received the award in 2009 for his TABALUGA Foundation.
literature
- Hans-Jochen Vogel (Ed.): Against forgetting - For democracy. With contributions by Eberhard Bethge u. a. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-12012-1 .
- Hans-Jochen Vogel, Ernst Piper (ed.): From life in dictatorships: the project “Against forgetting - For democracy”. With contributions by Christoph Klessmann u. a. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-492-12214-0 .
- Johannes Rau , Bernd Faulenbach (ed.): Heinz Putzrath - Against National Socialism, For social democracy. Klartext, Essen 1997, ISBN 3-88474-564-6 .
- Hans-Jochen Vogel, Sandra Maischberger : How do we want to live - What will hold our country together in the future. Siedler, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-88680-991-2 , pp. 185 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Date of the founding meeting. See Articles of Association, p. 4.
- ^ Against forgetting - for democracy eV: Association. Retrieved August 29, 2018 .
- ^ Against forgetting - for democracy eV: Association at a glance. Retrieved August 29, 2018 .
- ^ Against forgetting - for democracy eV: statutes. Retrieved August 29, 2018 .
- ^ Association statutes, p. 1.
- ^ Against forgetting - for democracy eV: statutes. Retrieved August 29, 2018 .
- ^ Against forgetting - for democracy eV: Board of Directors. Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Information on geschichtsforum09.de
- ↑ World premiere on May 17, 2009, information on theaterderjungenweltleipzig.de ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Information on sachsen-anhalt.de ( Memento from September 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Information on www.geschichte-einwanderungsgesellschaft.de
- ↑ Information on the page "You are doing good - we talk about it"
- ↑ Information on gegen-vergessen.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "Münchner Appell" of November 17, 2007, on gegen-vergessen.de ( Memento of the original of January 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Declaration “A strong democracy needs strong democrats” from November 15, 2008, on gegen-vergessen.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The basis of the association's commitment was the research results of Wolfram Wette and Detlef Vogel, available in a book: Wolfram Wette, Detlef Vogel (ed.): The last tabu. Nazi military justice and treason. Construction Publishing House, Berlin 2007.
- ↑ tagesspiegel.de
- ^ Ostritz Peace Festival
- ↑ Against Forgetting - for Democracy eV: Prize "Against Forgetting - For Democracy". Retrieved November 21, 2018 .
- ^ Hermann L. Gremliza : Heitmann the second. In: concrete . 04/2012, pp. 8–9.
- ↑ Richard Schröder: What must not be forgotten . In: Hans Jochen Vogel (ed.): Against forgetting - For democracy. With contributions by Eberhard Bethge, Hanna-Renate Laurien, Erich Loest, Richard Schröder and Hans-Jochen Vogel. 2nd Edition. Munich 1994, pp. 37-47.
- ↑ a b Deniz Yücel: A stinky boot named Gauck , taz, February 20, 2012.
- ↑ Stefan Reinecke : Trittin insults "taz". A censorship does not take place. In: die taz , 2012.
- ↑ Humanitarian Prize of the German Freemasons 2013 awarded.
- ↑ Humanity. The German Freemasons magazine. Volume 39, 1/2014.
- ^ Josef Balazs: Peter Maffay receives the Freemasons Humanitarian Prize. In: Transylvanian newspaper. on November 22, 2009; Retrieved December 28, 2013.
