The Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur is a government-funded organisation established in 1998 by the German parliament

Bundestag

The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

.

Its mandate is to assess the history (1949-1990) of the socialist

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 regime of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, commonly known as East Germany), and its impact on the now reunified Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

As its logo, the foundation uses the former East German flag minus its coat of arms

Coat of arms of the German Democratic Republic

The National Emblem of the German Democratic Republic featured a hammer and a compass, surrounded by a ring of rye. The hammer represented the workers in the factories. The compass represented the intelligentsia, and the ring of rye the farmers...

. In the final months of the GDR, many East German citizens cut out the flag's emblem in this manner.

The Stiftung also initiated a project "Aufbruch 1989" in which 17 organisations cooperated, including the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is a German research foundation associated with The Left party. The organisation was founded in Berlin in 1990 as the "Social Analysis and Political Education Association". It was named after Rosa Luxemburg.The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is actively involved in...

 which is affiliated with the SED

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

 successor party, Die Linke

The Left (Germany)

The Left , also commonly referred to as the Left Party , is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The Left is the most left-wing party of the five represented in the Bundestag....

. This was rejected by Hubertus Knabe

Hubertus Knabe

Hubertus Knabe is a German historian, human rights activist and the scientific director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a museum and memorial in a notorious former Stasi torture prison in Berlin. Knabe is noted for several works on oppression in the former communist states of Eastern...

, and after it was made public, by a public letter signed by Bärbel Bohley

Bärbel Bohley

Bärbel Bohley was an East German opposition figure and artist. In 1983 she was expelled from the GDR artists federation and was banned from travelling abroad or exhibiting her work in East Germany. She was accused of having contacts to the West German Green Party.In 1985 she was one of the...

, Werner Schulz, Lutz Rathenow

Lutz Rathenow

Lutz Rathenow is a dissident German writer and poet who was haunted by the Secret Police until the German reunification...

, Joachim Walther, Ralph Giordano

Ralph Giordano (writer)

Ralph Giordano is a German writer and publicist.Giordano was born to a Sicilian father and a Jewish mother....

, Erich Loest

Erich Loest

Erich Loest German writer who was born in Mittweida, Saxony. He also writes under following pseudonyms Hans Walldorf, Bernd Diksen and Waldemar Naß.- Works :* Jungen, die übrig blieben, Leipzig 1950...

 and others, with support by Lea Rosh

Lea Rosh

Lea Rosh is a German television journalist, publicist, entrepreneur and political activist. Rosh was the first female journalist to manage a public broadcasting service in Germany and in the 70's the first anchorwoman of Kennzeichen D, a major political television program. She has been a member of...

 and Michael Wolffsohn

Michael Wolffsohn

Michael Wolffsohn is an Israeli-born German historian. Wolffsohn was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine and today is Israel. His parents were German Jews who fled in 1939....

.

External links

• Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
• "Zwist unter den Stasi-Aufklärern", Berliner Morgenpost