WWF Germany

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WWF Germany
logo
legal form Foundation, endowment
founding 1963
Seat Berlin ( ⊙ coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 24.8 ″  N , 13 ° 23 ′ 5.1 ″  E )
precursor Association to promote the World Wildlife Fund
purpose Environment and nature protection
people Valentin von Massow
( Chairman of the Board of Trustees ),
Eberhard Brandes (Managing Director )
sales 92,415,000 euros (2019)
Foundation capital 10,741,876 euros (2019)
Employees 338 (2019)
Website www.wwf.de

The WWF Germany is a German foundation under civil law, headquartered in Berlin , which in 1963 in Bonn as a club to promote the World Wildlife Fund was founded. It is recognized as a non-profit organization and an independent part of the World Wide Fund For Nature . According to the statutes , it is the purpose of the foundation to promote nature and environmental protection, science, education and training in the natural and environmental field. The WWF is one of the largest organizations in Germany in this area. WWF Germany has around 600,000 sponsors.

history

WWF Germany headquarters in Berlin-Mitte (2014).
School strike for the climate ( Berlin , 2018).

WWF Germany was initially organized in the legal form of an association , the name of which was Association for the Promotion of the World Wildlife Fund eV . The founding deed was signed in 1963 in the house of Bundestag President Eugen Gerstenmaier . In addition to himself , Wolfgang E. Burhenne , Klaus Walter Gerling, Bernhard Grzimek , Gerhard Stoltenberg and Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager were the first members. The seat of the association was in the house of the Interparliamentary Working Group in Bonn . After Great Britain , the United States , Switzerland and the Netherlands , WWF Germany formed the fifth national section of the World Wide Fund For Nature.

In the first year of its existence, the association received donations of 85,000 German marks . His first projects included protecting sea eagles threatened with extinction in Schleswig-Holstein and supporting international activities, such as setting up the Charles Darwin research station on the Galapagos Islands . In the early 1970s, WWF Germany acquired 13 hectares of land in the Dellstedt Birkwildmoor for the first time with the intention of renaturing it. In the following years the basic strategy of buying endangered areas in Germany developed.

At the end of the 1960s, the name of WWF Germany changed to "Association for the Promotion of WWF International". In 1972 its members finally decided to dissolve the association and convert it into a foundation under civil law . This step was taken with effect from the beginning of 1973, when "WWF Germany (Foundation for the Design and Protection of the Natural Environment)" was chosen as the new name. The WWF itself justified the step by stating that they wanted to follow the example of WWF International. However, observers also suspected that the new legal form would have tax advantages. As a foundation, WWF Germany remained a non-profit organization within the meaning of the tax code. The first chairman of the new board of trustees was Hans-Dietrich Genscher , his deputies were Hermann Josef Abs , Franz Burda and Bernhard Grzimek.

In 1978 WWF Germany moved its headquarters to Frankfurt am Main , where an office was set up with the first two full-time employees. The move was accompanied by the decision of the foundation board to strengthen its own projects and programs in Germany in addition to fundraising . In the 1980s, WWF Germany achieved a greater presence in the media, among other things, the ZDF organized a television gala in 1986 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of WWF International. After reunification , WWF Germany was also active in East Germany: In 1990 the so-called Nature Conservation Center East was opened in Potsdam . Their task was to preserve important landscapes such as in Jasmund or on the Baltic coast .

In the 1990s, WWF Germany stepped up its lobbying work , for example by setting up units for climate protection and energy policy as well as agriculture and rural development . In 1996 the international annual meeting of the WWF took place in Berlin, at which the campaign The Living Planet played a central role. WWF Germany took part in the Expo 2000 world exhibition with its own stand, which was designed by André Heller and Stefan Szczesny . While other organizations rejected Expo 2000, the Environmental Foundation presented its Global 200 initiative for the protection of key ecological regions. In 2002 the foundation set up a collaboration with the Krombacher brewery , which pays a donation for every crate sold to protect the rainforest .

In 2003, WWF Germany opened its capital city office on Hackescher Markt in Berlin, into which the Nature Conservation Center East from Potsdam was also integrated. In 2008 WWF Germany announced that it would move its headquarters from Frankfurt am Main to Berlin in order to be closer to political decision-makers. In the following years, the foundation campaigned for the energy transition in Germany, among other things . Most recently, the cooperation between WWF Germany and Edeka achieved greater awareness; the retailer wanted to optimize the ecological balance of its own brands and other products from 2012 onwards.

Locations

WWF Center for Marine Protection in Hamburg (2014)

In addition to the headquarters in Berlin, there are offices in Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main , where the first branch was located. There are also various branch offices and project offices, for example in Dessau , Erfurt , Husum , Ratzeburg , Stralsund and Weilheim . The International WWF Center for Marine Protection , which opened in Hamburg in 2006 , recently received special attention . Among other things, the corresponding activities of WWF Germany, which were previously located in Bremen , Husum and Stralsund, were brought together there. At the same time, the international activities of WWF in the field of marine protection are coordinated in the center, which, according to its own statement, concentrate on the north-east Atlantic including the North Sea , Wadden Sea and Baltic Sea as well as the West African marine regions.

Finances

The vast majority of WWF Germany's income is donations and inheritances from natural persons , most recently around half of all income. In the period from July 2018 to June 2019, WWF Germany generated income of 92.41 million euros. Of this, 47% came from private donations, 5% from inheritances, 32% from institutional donations, 14% from collaborations, 0.4% from income from asset management and 2% from other income. The expenditures amounted to a total of 91.73 million euros: 83% was used for project, campaign and awareness-raising work, and 11% for supporting sponsors. The administrative costs account for 5% of expenditure.

Since 2000, WWF Germany has held a 70% stake in the National Park Center Königsstuhl Sassnitz non-profit GmbH , which built and operates the corresponding building complex on behalf of the city of Sassnitz from 2001 to 2004. The cooperation with companies and the use of the WWF brands are coordinated by Panda Fördergesellschaft mbH from Frankfurt am Main. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of WWF Germany.

management

The board has a dual leadership and consists of the executive board and the board of directors for nature conservation. Eberhard Brandes has been the executive board member since 2006 . Before this function was u. a. at Dr. Hartmut Schumann

literature

  • Klaus-Henning Groth (Hrsg.): The big book of the WWF . 40 years of nature conservation for and with people. Edition Rasch and Röhring, Steinfurt 2003, ISBN 3-934427-37-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Günter Murr: Development and options for action by environmental associations in international politics . The example of WWF. Oekom, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-928244-23-X .
  2. ^ Statutes of WWF Germany. (PDF) Retrieved October 1, 2014 (96 KB).
  3. ^ Kathrin Voss: Public relations work by non-governmental organizations . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, ISBN 978-3-531-15347-6 .
  4. ↑ a b WWF Germany (ed.): Annual report 2017/2018 . Berlin 2018, DNB  100419756X ( online [PDF; accessed on September 8, 2019]).
  5. ^ A b c d e Yorck-Philipp Müller-Dieckert: From "rainbow warriors and advocates of nature" . An analysis of the German sections of Greenpeace and the WWF. Tectum, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-8288-9140-3 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Klaus-Henning Groth (Ed.): The big book of the WWF . 40 years of nature conservation for and with people. Edition Rasch and Röhring, Steinfurt 2003, ISBN 3-934427-37-5 .
  7. ^ Gernot Sieg: Economics . With current case studies. Oldenbourg, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-59658-8 , pp. 145 .
  8. ↑ Buy to renature. How the WWF made the protection of entire habitats popular in Germany. WWF Germany, accessed October 14, 2014 .
  9. ↑ WWF warns of decreasing environmental protection. Annual meeting of the Worldwide Fund For Nature in Berlin. In: Berliner Zeitung. October 23, 1996, accessed October 21, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Heller designs WWF presentation . In: Lausitzer Rundschau . October 21, 1999.
  11. ↑ Jürgen Voges: Alone among enemies at the Expo . Only the WWF has its own stand at the Expo 2000 in Hanover. In: taz . October 20, 1999, p. 9 .
  12. ^ Henryk M. Broder: Drinking for the gorillas. In: Der Spiegel. July 7, 2003, accessed October 17, 2014 .
  13. ↑ WWF moves from Frankfurt to Berlin . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 6, 2008, p. 41 .
  14. ↑ Jule Reimer: The energy transition is "slowed down" by the coalition agreement. In: Deutschlandfunk. November 28, 2013, accessed October 18, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Kristina Läsker: Seal with Panda . Edeka wants to convert the raw materials for its own brands to organic and hires the WWF for this. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 14, 2012, p. 22 .
  16. ↑ Sven-Michael Veit: The rescuers of the seas on the Elbe . Nature conservation organization WWF opens international center for marine protection in Hamburg. In: taz . May 22, 2006, p. 21 .
  17. ↑ Angelika Hillmer: Marine Protection from Mönckebergstrasse . New WWF center has been working in Hamburg since 2006. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . September 22, 2011, p. 8 .
  18. ↑ CDU Senate is happy about the WWF Marine Protection Center . In: taz . May 26, 2006, p. 24 .
  19. ↑ The International WWF Center for Marine Protection. WWF Germany, accessed on October 16, 2014 .
  20. ↑ Annual report 2018/2019. (PDF) In: wwf.de. Pp. 75–77 , accessed March 25, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Annual financial statements 2012. National Park Center Königsstuhl Sassnitz, November 29, 2013, accessed on October 22, 2014 .
  22. ↑ Cooperation with companies. Retrieved October 22, 2014 .
  23. ↑ https://www.wwf.de/ueber-uns/organisation/vorstand-und-geschaeftsleitung-des-wwf