Hanns Seidel Foundation
The Hanns Seidel Foundation eV is a party-affiliated foundation, which has close ties to the CSU.
History
The plans within the CSU to create a separate institution for political education, began in 1964. The other parties in the Bundestag possessed at that same time for comparable facilities. In April 1965, the CSU Board approved the establishment of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, named after the former CSU chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister Hanns Seidel. On November 7 In 1966 21 of the CSU related parties in Munich, the Foundation. The entry in the Register was made on 11 April 1967. The first chairman of the Bavarian State Minister for Labour Fritz Pirkl was chosen.
Under the motto " In the service of democracy, peace and development," she was given the statutory objective to promote " democratic and civic education of the German people on a Christian foundation " and founded a training center to teach civic knowledge. With the Academy for Politics and Current Affairs beside a forum for promoting science and scientific policy advice has been created that should work as a think tank policies and strategies.
1969 was also the "Research Institute for Safety, strategy and international issues ", which later became the Institute of Foreign Relations and for International Contact and Cooperation, established to carry on the " international outlook and understanding between peoples and European integration ".
Opened in 1975, the Hanns Seidel Foundation as a tenant of the Wittelsbach family, the education center in Wildbad Kreuth. In 1983, the education center in Kloster Banz and in 2001 to the seat of the Foundation of the Munich Lazarettstraße the conference center of the Foundation was inaugurated.
In 1981, the Foundation through their promotion work with the award of scholarships to study abroad in the Federal Republic. Since 1982, domestic students are supported financially and ideologically.
After Fritz Pirkls death in 1994, Alfred Bayer was elected chairman, he was succeeded in 2004 the former Bavarian Minister of Culture Hans Zehetmair. Beginning of 2014 was Zehetmair known to refrain from further candidacy. Horst Seehofer struck out the deputy chairman Ursula Männle as successor Zehetmair ago.
Since 2003, the Hanns -Seidel -Stiftung Foundation Member of working group Eastern Europe. To this belong, inter alia, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Louis Leitz Foundation, the WP Schmitz Foundation and the Eberhard- Schöck Foundation.
The Hanns Seidel Foundation now has 270 employees and an annual budget of almost 50 million euros. She is developmentally active in 57 countries, offers a variety of seminars on political education and promotes annually nearly 900 talented and socially committed students from Germany and abroad, both financially and conceptually.
Organization
The Hanns Seidel Foundation is organized as a registered association based in Munich.
The number of members of the association is limited to 40 persons, who choose a five-member Board narrower. Current chairman is Hans Zehetmair, as his deputy act Alois Glück and Ursula Männle. Secretary is Michael Glos, Treasurer Ingo Friedrich.
As chief executive Peter Witterauf manages the business and key tasks of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, which is divided into four departments.
The Academy for Politics and Current Affairs operates practically oriented policy advice. It lays the foundation for policy-making on a scientific basis, conducts conferences and publishes the publications (including " Political Studies " ) of the Foundation. Connected to the Academy is the archive for Christian Social policy, which serves as a central archive of related the CSU party and the people and institutions.
The Institute for Political Education (formerly the Educational Institute ) promotes democratic and civic education in wide circles of the population. Through the organization of seminars and conferences, the political participation of citizens should be increased, and these are capable of shaping the liberal- democratic state.
The Institute for the Gifted (formerly Förderungswerk ) awards as academically gifted to talented students and doctoral students at German universities and colleges that are socio-politically engaged and personally suitable, grants from state resources. In addition, it offers programs for young journalists promotion. The Foundation is also a member of the Media Campus Bavaria, the governing body for media education and further training in Bavaria. On Kloster Banz has a fully equipped radio and television studio.
The Institute for International Cooperation ( IIZ ) controls the projects of international development cooperation. Focus of the work are training, administrative support, counseling of parties and governments, measures to improve the infrastructure and environmental protection, etc.
The IIZ now serves about 90 projects, spread over the regions of North Africa, Near / Middle East, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, China / Mongolia, Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. In spite of dwindling financial resources, it has managed to maintain the level of the world's recognized activity. Overall, 2008 was just under 10,000 events were conducted with approximately 261,000 participants worldwide.
In addition to the IIZ the Hanns Seidel Foundation has an office on Foreign Relations and the world over joints in Washington, Brussels, Berlin and Moscow and about 30 project offices, whose aim is to establish contacts with governments, parliaments, political parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs ) of these states, which exercise a relevant influence on politics, the economy and society to establish and deepen.
Prices
The Hanns Seidel Foundation regularly awards prizes, so the prize for young poets song in the context of the songs on a summer evening, the diamond for student publications, the Prize for Political Journalism and the Hanns Seidel Award for Business Ethics. On award of the folk music prize at the "Day of Folk Music " in Wildbad Kreuth, which was since 1984 428 assigned times, the Hanns Seidel Foundation in 2012 renounced the time being, after evidence was known that the founder couple Mary and Max Wutz was close to Nazism. An independent opinion should now clarify, among other things, the origin of the donor 's assets and whether it was purchased after 1945 and any recipient of the heritage determine if the Hanns Seidel Foundation would give up the assets.
In addition, the Franz Josef Strauss Prize, the Foundation awards annually to " individuals who used in an outstanding way for peace, freedom and justice, democracy and international understanding or who are special services in the fields of economy, science and technology and literature have acquired and art. "Previous winners have included Helmut Kohl, Roman Herzog, Mikhail Gorbachev, José María Aznar and George Bush sen.
Criticism
The Hanns Seidel Foundation has the Italian right-wing terrorists Stefano Delle Chiaie financed, who was due in connection with the anti-state propaganda.
Chairman
Prominent members
The Hanns Seidel Foundation are members of many well-known personalities, including Edmund Stoiber, Theo Waigel, Horst Seehofer, Erwin Huber, Wilfried Scharnagl, Angelika Niebler, Gerd Sonnleitner and Friedrich Zimmermann.