Konrad Adenauer Foundation - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.) (KAS) is a German

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...

political party foundation associated with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

(CDU). The foundation's headquarters are located in Saint Augustine (Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

) and Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Globally, the KAS has 78 offices and runs programs in over 100 countries. Its current chairman is the former President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering

Hans-Gert Pöttering

Hans-Gert Pöttering is a German conservative politician , and was the President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009...

Establishment and Mission

The establishment of a “systematic civic-education program inspired by Christian Democratic values” began being considered in 1952 by a group of CDU politicians including Bundestag

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...

president Hermann Ehlers

Hermann Ehlers

Hermann Ehlers was a German politician. He was President of the Bundestag from 19 October 1950 - 29 October 1954.He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union.- Early life :...

, Robert Tillmanns

Robert Tillmanns

Robert Tillmanns was a German politician.- Life and Work :After the Abitur in 1914, Tillmanns took part as a soldier in the First World War...

, and Heinrich Krone

Heinrich Krone

Heinrich Krone was a German Christian-Democratic politician.Shortly after beginning his Theology study in 1914, Krone was drafted into service in World War I. After the war Krone continued his study, joining the Catholic Center Party in 1923...

. On 20 December 1955 The Society for Christian Democratic Education Work, which would be renamed after Chancellor

Chancellor

Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...

in 1964, was opened in Bonn.

The aim of the foundation's civic education programs is, according to their official website, the “promotion of freedom and liberty, peace, and justice” through “furthering European unification, improving transatlantic relations and deepening development cooperation.” Their function as a think-tank and consulting agency is intended to provide citizens with a basis for political action through the research and analyses of current political trends. The KAS offers more than 2,500 conferences and events each year worldwide, and actively supports the political involvement and education of intellectually gifted youth through a prestigious scholarship program as well as an ongoing comprehensive seminar program.

Institution

Along with the headquarters in Saint Augustine and Berlin

Berlin

, the KAS operates two educational centers, sixteen training centers, an Academy, and an international conference center.

The KAS consists of 6 departments:

The aforementioned Academy located in Berlin, which hosts symposia, conferences, meetings, and exhibitions in order to analyze relevant societal and political issues in a public setting.
The Archive for Christian-Democratic Policy (ACDP) documents and researches Christian Democracy
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...

’s historical development.
The department for European and International Cooperation engages itself with international politics through the functions of the foundation’s more than 200 projects in around 120 countries.
The Politics and Consulting department is the think tank of the KAS.
The department for Civic Education combats the status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...

, looking to invoke citizen participation in an era where freedom and peace are taken for granted.
The Scholarships and Cultural Activities department provides financial and moral support to roughly 2,000 students.

Former President of the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering

Hans-Gert Pöttering

Hans-Gert Pöttering is a German conservative politician , and was the President of the European Parliament from January 2007 to July 2009...

is the current President of the KAS. He is joined on the Board of Directors by 24 other individuals. The KAS currently has 55 members, many of whom are current and former CDU

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

politicians. The Board of Trustees has 24 members who assist and supervise the work of the KAS.

Finances

Similar to other German political foundations, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation is largely financed by federal and land government funds. 96.8% of the foundation’s €120 Million budget in 2009 was therefore provided by public funding, while 2.7% was derived from admission charges and miscellaneous revenues, and 0.5% came from private funds and donations.

Cooperation with other foundations and organizations

In Bavaria, the Hans-Seidel-Foundation operates in lieu of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation; in Schleswig-Holstein, the Hermann-Ehlers-Foundation assumes the Adenauer Foundation's role. These two CDU-friendly foundations are not the Adenauer Foundation's only collaborators: For instance, the Adenauer Foundation co-published a study with the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Market Economy Foundation, and the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation titled "Educational Policy in a Federal System and International Influences," in which it injected itself into the dialogue on educational policy and examined various influences. Furthermore, the Adenauer Foundation authored a "Common Declaration" in partnership with the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation, the Hans-Seidel-Foundation, and the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation. The "Common Declaration" explored various mission statements and financing models of political foundations in Germany. The KAS is a member of "European Movement Germany." As a member of the market-oriented Stockholm Network, the KAS cooperates with other foundations and think-tanks in issues pertaining to European politics.

Establishment and Mission

Institution

Finances

Cooperation with other foundations and organizations

See also

Further reading