West-East sponsorship organization

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Patenschaftswerk West-Ost (or West-Ostdeutsches Patenschaftswerk ) is an initiative of people displaced from the former East German territories after the Second World War , the purpose of which is to keep East German traditions alive. As part of the West-East sponsorship association, West German regional authorities took on sponsorships for regional authorities that no longer belonged to Germany after the Second World War.

When declaring sponsorship, some cities and municipalities emphasize sponsorship for the residents of the particular region or municipality of origin or their cultural institutions, others on sponsorship for the region or municipality of origin. The latter type of sponsorship was, at least at the time of the sponsorship declaration ( Cold War ), officially based almost entirely on one-sidedness. Individual sponsorship declarations were later revoked; other sponsorships became town twinning since the end of the Cold War .

Story and purpose

The plant was founded around 1949 (with the participation of Ludwig Geißel, among others ). It was first implemented in 1950 when the city of Goslar took over the sponsorship of the city of Brieg . Further sponsorships followed in the same year. On December 15, 1953, the Federal Association of Local Central Associations and the Association of Landsmannschaften agreed on the "Guidelines for the adoption of sponsorships by East German municipalities and districts"

Regarding the content of sponsorships, the guidelines refer to the following individual measures:

  • Keeping home files and facilities of information centers
  • Holding home meetings
  • Creation of a "home parlor" or a "house" for the East German partner
  • Naming of streets, squares or buildings after the East German partner or after his outstanding citizens
  • Affixing of the coat of arms or regular hoisting of the flag of the East German partner; Decoration of public buildings with pictures from the old homeland
  • Special consideration of East German cultural assets in the public libraries, in the museums, in the exhibitions, in school lessons, in the elementary schools, etc.
  • Collection of cultural and archival material from the East German partner
  • Granting support and scholarships, recreational stays for children and other welfare measures, participation in relief actions for the citizens who remained in their old homeland.

In the publication "The West-East German Sponsorship Work in North Rhine-Westphalia" commissioned by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1961 , it further states:

“ This binding of an East German community to a West German community expresses in a decisive way to the whole world that these cities and districts are clearly German and the sponsored communities stand up as witnesses and defenders for this fact without restriction [...] The people of these urban communities, these citizens' and peasant communities are to be recorded and collected in their community formations in order to revive the pulse of the old home communities. [...] Children who otherwise have no memories of their old homeland are re-introduced to the circle and experience their parents' home community while lingering and talking. "

Sponsorships

The following list contains only a few examples of sponsorships within the framework of the West-East Sponsorship Association.

Sponsoring community For since Develop relationships
Dusseldorf Danzig 1952
eat Hindenburg OS 1953 since 2000 additionally cooperation with Zabrze
Goslar Brieg 1950 town twinning with Brzeg since 2000 ; still sponsorship for the Federal Association of Brieger eV
Recklinghausen Beuthen OS 1952 town twinning with Bytom since 2000 ; continued sponsorship for German resettlers and expellees from Beuthen OS

literature

  • Alfons Perlick : The West-East German sponsorship organization in North Rhine-Westphalia . In: Series for East-West Encounters, Culture Book No. 38 . Der Wegweiser, Düsseldorf 1961 (Represented by Alfons Perlick on behalf of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. With a list of West-East German sponsorships in the Federal Republic.).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.essen.de: The West-East German Sponsorship Organization [1]
  2. ↑ www.duesseldorf.de: Düsseldorfer Stadtchronik 1952 [2]
  3. ↑ www.essen.de: The sponsorship Essen - Hindenburg OS [3]
  4. ↑ www.essen.de: Cooperation between the cities of Essen and Zabrze [4]
  5. ^ The twin cities & sponsorships ( Memento from April 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Sister cities and sponsorships ( Memento from October 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )