Society for Security Policy

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Society for Security Policy eV
(GSP)
purpose Public relations in the field of security and defense policy, political education
Chair: Johannes Varwick
Establishment date: January 5, 1952, Munich
Number of members: 7345 (2008)
Seat : Wenzelgasse 42
53111 Bonn
Website: www.gsp-sipo.de

The Society for Security Policy eV ( GSP ), founded on January 5th, 1952 as the Society for Defense Studies ( GfW ), is a registered association with its seat in Bonn . After reunification , it was renamed the Society for Defense and Security Policy ( GfW ) in 1990 . Since October 7, 2014, the association has been called the “Society for Security Policy” (GSP). It has around 7,300 members.

The GSP is networked with organizations relevant to security policy and the armaments industry in Germany and is funded by the Federal Government. The club's youth organization, the Junge GSP, has been in existence since February 1, 2020.

tasks

The GSP has set itself the task of doing public relations work on the topics of security and defense policy . These goals are mainly implemented through public information events. The main sponsors of these events are the sections.

Historical and political importance

The Gesellschaft für Wehrkunde was founded in 1951 by the Central Intelligence Agency and financed under the code name QKSNITCH with DM 240,000 until the beginning of 1953 . The GfW was financed by the American side through the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft . This was supposed to dispel the suspicion that the GfW was, like the German Soldier Newspaper , an institution supported by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

In January 1952 the GfW was registered as an association. Further financing from 1953 onwards was to come from Industry and the Blank Office . On the board sat opponents of Hitler like Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin , but also SS-General Felix Steiner , who was also the editor of the US-funded German Soldier's Newspaper. The journalistic projects of the GfW had to be checked and approved by the USA in the early years.

Against the pacifist Without Me movement of that time, the GfW was founded as an interest group to support integration into the West .

"Assuming that Germany would be asked to make its own military contribution in the foreseeable future, the founding fathers of the GfW wanted to play an active role in avoiding undesirable developments in the past and adapting the reorganization of the armed forces to the requirements of the new democratic system in Germany."

- Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin (2002)

One year after its founding, the company had, in addition to its board of directors working in Munich, already distributed 70 sections throughout Germany and, in addition to the beginnings of a monthly magazine, ten military policy brochures with a total circulation of 200,000. As a result, she signed a contract with the Federal Government's Press and Information Office at the beginning of 1953 , which put the financing on a solid basis. The contract has been renewed from year to year since then.

The board of directors and the federal assembly of the GfW reacted in April 1990 to the new situation after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the East-West conflict. The term " Wehrkunde ", which was negatively affected by the pre-military training in GDR schools, was replaced by "Defense and Security Policy". In Article 2 of the statutes, the objective: "To promote and consolidate the unity of Germany" was added.

With the reunification of Germany , the GfW was given the task of expanding its sphere of activity into the new federal states and East Berlin. This worked well in the Berlin section. In addition, the GfW has firmly established itself in all the capitals of the new federal states. With the expansion of the sections and the increasing range of information on security policy, the number of members, friends and sponsors of the GfW grew steadily.

criticism

In February 1999, the Society for Defense and Security Policy (GfW) was publicly criticized after research by the Panorama (magazine) of the North German Broadcasting Corporation , because it financed right-wing extremist speakers like Franz Uhle-Wettler , Hans-Ulrich Kopp and Albrecht Jebens from tax money and they gave speeches at their events. The government spokesman then announced that he wanted to have the activities of the GfW checked in order to prevent further co-financing of right-wing radical agitations. The then General Inspector of the Bundeswehr , Hartmut Bagger , was a member of the Board of Trustees at the time and became President of the GfW in March 1999 before he retired. The Federal Ministry of Defense contradicted Panorama and announced that Bagger was not a member of the Board of Trustees and that Panorama’s claim was "simply wrong", but apologized in retrospect and made it clear that the Panorama research was "completely correct". Shortly thereafter, in 2000, Bagger resigned from the office of President of the GfW.

In a small question to the federal government in 2010, the GfW was criticized, among other things, for the strong suspicion "that the main purpose of the GfW is to promote the economic interests of the arms industry and to influence political and executive decisions". The Federal Government then did not rule out recommendations from the GfW on federal government projects for armaments programs and armaments contracts.

Board

The Society for Defense and Security Policy is headed by:

Board of Trustees

The board of trustees consists of the following people:

Similar institutions

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Society for Security Policy with new leadership. Federal Executive. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Entry at Bonn District Court VR 5684.
  3. ↑ Money for the armaments lobby . In: Der Spiegel from February 13, 2010
  4. ↑ Austerity measures FDP protects the Federal Press Office from unpleasant reforms . In: Der Spiegel from February 12, 2010
  5. ↑ “Kick-Off of the Young GSP”: First organizational meeting in Berlin. Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  6. ^ Final Report. Central Intelligence Agency , April 14, 1953, accessed March 15, 2015 .
  7. ↑ a b Subject: GfW. Central Intelligence Agency , January 1953, accessed March 15, 2015 .
  8. ↑ PROJECT STATUS REPORT. Central Intelligence Agency , January 1953, accessed February 5, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Bert-Oliver Manig : The politics of honor. The rehabilitation of professional soldiers in the early Federal Republic. Wallstein Verlag , 2004. p. 525; The original source is a “Memorandum on the Structure of Soldiers' Associations and Defense Policy Papers” from July 18, 1952
  10. ↑ Brown comrades. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, February 4, 1999, accessed on May 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Apology from the BMVg according to ARD report
  12. ↑ BT-Drs. 17/1106
  13. ^ Function of the Board of Trustees. Retrieved September 13, 2019 .