Friedrich Ebert Foundation

In 1946, the FES was reinstituted at the founding assembly of the Socialist German Student Federation. In 1954, the FES was restructured into a charitable organisation "for the advancement of democratic education". This established the FES as an independent, self-contained institute. In addition to education programmes, the FES has also worked in the area of development aid since the 1960s. In this effort, it has supported democracy and freedom movements, for instance in the African National Congress (ANC), and played an important role in overcoming dictatorial regimes in Greece, Spain, and Portugal. As a case in point, the Socialist Party of Portugal was formed at an FES school in Bad Münstereifel, Germany.

The German state did subsidize the work of the foundation with 170 Million Euros in 2018.^[3]

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Academic Foundation

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Academic Foundation (FES) is one of thirteen state-funded organizations for the promotion of young talents (Begabtenförderwerke) in Germany. Less than 1% of German students achieve a scholarship at one of the thirteen organizations (i.e. FES, Studienstiftung, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Hanns Seidel Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Cusanuswerk, Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund).^[4]

Further activities

Today, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation employs several hundred employees in their offices in Bonn and Berlin, as well as in 14 regional offices and an academy within Germany and in over 100 foreign agencies. It is financed mainly through grants from the federal budget and the budgets of the various Bundesländer.

The FES had its own conference center on the Venusberg in Bonn for these activities until its closure in 2009.

The historical research center of the foundation also contains the Archive of Social Democracy and its libraries in Bonn and at the Karl Marx House in Trier. This is one of the largest collections of documents on social history and the history of the workers movement.

Since 1982, the foundation has awarded a prize of 10,000 euro called Das politische Buch ("The Political Book") to promote noteworthy political books. The prize serves to remind people of the Nazi book burnings of May 10, 1933.

Controversy

In 2017, Friedrich Ebert Foundation was attacked by a group dubbed “Pawn Storm”, the same cyber spy group that targeted that year's campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron; the group used email phishing tricks and attempted to install malware at the foundation.^[5]

In 2022, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation was barred from working in Russia.^[6] In 2024, it was designated as an "undesirable organization" by the Russian authorities.^[7]

Leadership

• 1953–1970: Gerhard Weisser
• 1970–1983: Alfred Nau [de]
• 1983–1987: Heinz Kühn
• 1987–2003: Holger Börner (chairman laureate from 2003 until his death in 2006)
• 2003–2010: Anke Fuchs
• 2010–2012: Peter Struck
• 2013–2020: Kurt Beck and Dieter Schulte (interim since Struck's death)
• 2020–present: Martin Schulz

See also

• CDU
  )
• CSU
  )
• FDP
  )
• Grüne
  )
• Die Linke
  )
• AfD
  )

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

• Official website (in German)
• FES OnlineAkademie
• Library of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
• Archive of Social Democracy
• Website for Grantees of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation