Introduction
In 2008, there were six so-called political foundations in Germany: Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Hanns Seidel Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation, and Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. They serve as important think tanks and providers of civic education programs in Germany. They are also the biggest grantmakers of undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for German students. Abroad the political foundations are promoting democracy assistance and development aid on behalf of the German government in more than 150 countries. They substantially contribute to the political discourses in German and European politics and are textbook examples for the interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity in the political system of Germany.
Definition
Each political foundation is organisationally independent, but closely affiliated to one of the political parties represented in the German federal parliament (see Table 1). They are...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References/Further Readings
Annual Reports 2007 of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (available at www.kas.de), Friedrich Ebert Foundation (www.fes.de), Hanns Seidel Foundation (www.hss.de), Friedrich Naumann Foundation (www.freiheit.org), Heinrich Böll Foundation (www.boell.de), Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (www.rosalux.de).
Konrad Adenauer Foundation et al. (1999). Joint declaration on the public financing of political foundations. Bonn: Self-published.
Lepszy, N. (2009). Politische Stiftungen. In U. Andersen & W. Woyke (Eds.), Handwörterbuch des politischen Systems der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (pp. 571–577). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
Mair, S. (2000). Germany’s Stiftungen und Democracy Assistance: Comparative advantages, new challenges. In P. Burnell (Ed.), Democracy assistance. International co-operation for democratization (pp. 128–149). London: Frank Cass.
Vieregge, H. V. (1997). Parteistiftungen. Zur Rolle der Konrad-Adenauer-, Friedrich-Ebert-. Friedrich-Naumann- und Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung im politischen System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Freise, M. (2010). Foundations, Political. In: Anheier, H.K., Toepler, S. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-93996-4_549
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-93996-4_549
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-93994-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-93996-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law