Volksbund for Peace and Freedom

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The Volksbund for Peace and Freedom e. V. (VFF) was outstanding since 1950 in the Federal Republic of Germany, against the GDR directed propaganda - and news organization .

history

The VFF was founded on August 29, 1950 in the “Zum Patzenhofer” inn in Hamburg . The initiative came from the publisher Franz Wilhelm Paulus ( Hamburger Allgemeine Zeitung ) and the former Ministerialrat in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and secret service employee Eberhard Taubert . The Volksbund tried to track down communist entanglements in bourgeois and nationalist parties and to brand them publicly. For this purpose he published numerous brochures and leaflets. Günther Gereke ( DSP ), a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament at the time , accused the organization of having “made himself available to the chief Bolshevik Ulbricht for the Bolshevization of the Federal Republic”. The leaflet ends with the appeal: “Beware of Günther Gereke! Don't fall for his vertigo. See to it that this dangerous Moscow agent is stopped! "

The VFF saw itself as "the central anti-communist organization of the Federal Republic". In March 1952, the VFF was granted the status of a state-recognized organization. Presidents were Jürgen Hahn-Butry from 1950 to 1951 and Fritz Cramer from 1951 to 1966. The Volksbund was financed by the US government, but between 1951 and 1956 it also received around 700,000 D-Marks annually from federal funds (more later) from the Federal Ministry for All-German Issues . With these funds the VVF u. a. Posters, brochures, films and a magazine called The Truth .

Historical classification

Friedrich Winterhager characterizes the organization in an essay: it “ran, one could say, the business of McCarthyism in Germany, that is, fanatical anti-communism”. Mathias Friedel viewed the VFF as a replica of the Nazi propaganda organization Antikomintern . Martin Finkenberger also draws a connection between the Anti-Comintern and the VFF in the Handbook of Anti-Semitism , which, however, “did without the previously central anti-Semitic elements”.

Similar organizations

Organizations equivalent to the VFF have also been established in other European countries. In September 1950, the politician Jean-Paul David founded the Paix et Liberté (Peace and Freedom) organization in France with the help of Prime Minister René Pleven to counter the influence of the communist party in the country. In 1951 the organization Vrede en Vriijheid was established in the Netherlands with official support from the government . She too published a magazine called De Echte Waarheid (Eng. The truth).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Stöver: The case of Otto John. New documents on the statements of the German intelligence chief to the MfS and KGB. In: VfZG. 47, 1999, pp. 103-136, here p. 135. ( PDF )
  2. ↑ Volksbund for Peace and Freedom, leaflet around February / March 1951, cited. after Friedrich Winterhager: Günther Gereke. A minister in the area of ​​tension during the Cold War. Biographical essay. Ludwigsfelde 2002, ISBN 3933022169 , p. 73.
  3. ^ Kai-Uwe Merz: Cold War as Anti-Communist Resistance . R. Oldenbourg, 1987, p. 147.
  4. ↑ a b c d (en) Roehner, Bertrand M., Driving Forces in Physical, Biological and Socio-economic Phenomena: A Network Science Investigation of Social Bonds and Interactions. Cambridge University Press, 2007; Chapter 7 "Bonds of vassalage" online .
  5. ^ Matthias Ritz & Erich Schmidt-Eenboom: In the shadow of the Third Reich: the BND and its agent Richard Christmann. Ch. Links Verlag, 2011
  6. ↑ In an interview on November 21, 1969, the executive chairman H. Hämmerle stated: budget from 1951 to 1956 about 700,000 DM annually  , from 1957 to 1967 about 1.1 million DM annually
  7. ↑ Gudrun Hentges in an interview with Felix Klopotek . In: Kölner Stadtrevue. 12/2002, p. 33.
  8. ↑ "The Truth". Scripture against Soviet Communism , publisher: Volksbund für Frieden und Freiheit (VFF), German Committee in the World Movement for Peace and Freedom , Bonn  in the German Digital Library
  9. ^ Winterhager: Günther Gereke. A minister in the area of ​​tension during the Cold War. Biographical essay. Ludwigsfelde 2002, ISBN 3933022169 , p. 73.
  10. ^ Mathias Friedel: The People's League for Peace and Freedom (VFF) . St. Augustin 2001, book cover: “Because he had already practiced anti-communism as a profession in Goebbels 'propaganda ministry by setting up a propaganda agency there, the' Antikomintern e. V. ' headed, as a replica of which the VFF can be considered. Therefore the book deals with the construction and implementation of anti-communist enemy images by the Volksbund with regard to the Anti-Comintern as a model. "
  11. ^ Martin Finkenberger: Antikomintern. In: Wolfgang Benz: Handbook of Antisemitism, Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. de Guyter, Berlin / Boston 2012, pp. 28–30, here p. 28.