Gerhart Hauptmann House Foundation
The Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus Foundation - German-Eastern European Forum is an institution of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf and serves to maintain and further develop the cultural heritage of Germans from the East. The foundation is named after the Silesian- born writer Gerhart Hauptmann .
Foundation purpose
According to its statutes, the foundation , supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , pursues the purpose of preserving, presenting and developing the culture of the historical German eastern areas and the German settlement areas in eastern and south-eastern Europe in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the areas of origin of the expelled East Germans. This includes the treatment of German expellees and resettlers problems , the preservation and strengthening of the cultural identity of the German ethnic groups in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe on the basis of international understanding, the cultural and social integration of Germans who come from Eastern and Southeastern Europe Presentation and promotion of the interrelationships between German culture and the cultures in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well as the promotion of peaceful coexistence between peoples.
Legal basis
The legal basis of the work of the foundation is in § 96 of the law on the affairs of displaced persons and refugees ( Federal Displaced Persons Act ) of May 19, 1953 in the version of the announcement of June 2, 1993, last amended by Art. 2 para. 6 of the law of February 19, 2007 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 122). Section 96 obliges the federal and state governments to “preserve the cultural property of the displaced areas in the awareness of the displaced and refugees, the entire German people and abroad.” The foundation is a general independent foundation within the meaning of Section 2, Paragraph 1 of the North Rhine Foundation Act. Westphalia from July 21, 1977 (GV NW p. 274 / SGV NW 40) based in Düsseldorf. It is recognized as a non-profit organization.
History of the foundation
The foundation was established by a resolution of the North Rhine-Westphalian cabinet under Prime Minister Fritz Steinhoff (SPD) on April 29, 1957. It was initially called the "House of the German East Foundation". At that time, over two million displaced persons from the former German eastern regions were living in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In June 1963 Prime Minister Franz Meyers (CDU) was able to open the building belonging to the foundation in Düsseldorf's Bismarckstrasse after around two and a half years of construction. Since then, it has offered the public a diverse cultural program of events and serves as a conference and meeting place for guests from home and abroad.
As a result of the political upheavals at the beginning of the 1990s and the opening up of East Central and Eastern Europe, cooperation with partners from this region was given greater emphasis in the scope of the foundation's activities. In view of this, in November 1992, with the approval of the state government led by Prime Minister Johannes Rau (SPD), the name was changed to “Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus Foundation - German-Eastern European Forum”. The naming after Gerhart Hauptmann, who was born in Silesia and whose work is still part of world literature, takes into account the idea of building cultural bridges to the European neighbors.
The historian Winfrid Halder has been director since 2006 .
Library
The foundation's library has been available to all interested users since autumn 1966. The focus of the collection, which now comprises around 80,000 media, is on publications on the culture and history of the former German eastern and settlement areas as well as on contemporary issues in East Central and Eastern Europe. The library also contains, on permanent loan, the older collection of genealogical and local literature compiled by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ostdeutscher Familienforscher ( working group of East German family researchers until 1980) .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus Foundation: Library
- ↑ AGoFF website