Green light for the next 25 years - anniversary meeting in Berlin

This week the 25th anniversary meeting of the Working Group of German Minorities inside FUEN (AGDM) took place in Berlin. The 50 participants of this anniversary event came from 29 different minority organisations and 19 European and Central Asian states. They are of great importance for the Federal Republic of Germany because they promote the German culture and especially the German language abroad – and because they work as bridge-builders between the different states.

The program of the anniversary meeting included several high-ranking meetings. ‘We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, State Secretary David Gill in the Office of the Federal President and with Minister of State Prof. Dr. Maria Böhmer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’, underlined FUEN Vice President Olga Martens who was in charge of the AGDM meeting. The meetings took place on the initiative of Mr Hartmut Koschyk (MdB), German Federal Commissioner for Issues Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities.

The focus of the meetings was placed on the future transnational cooperation, the long-term strategic collaboration with the German Federal Government and the intermediary organisations and the achievements of the minorities in their home countries.

Chancellor Merkel took a lot of time for the minority representatives. She was impressed by the scope of the social and political dedication of the German minorities in their countries and in the European context.

She received detailed information regarding the situation in Poland and the consequences of the territorial reform in the area of the city of Opole upon the minority.

There was a lively and informative meeting with State Secretary David Gill in the Office of the Federal President who emphasized the bridge-building function of the German minorities among each other and in their particular country.

In meetings in the Department for Foreign Affairs the minorities underlined the importance of the promotion of the German languages, active youth development and a strategic collaboration with the intermediary organisations.

The AGDM members agreed – in the run-up to the elections for the German Federal Parliament in 2017 – to work on a new support framework as an offer to a future-oriented and systematic collaboration between the German minorities and the Federal Republic of Germany.

‘The German minorities and their organisations can be proud of their achievements regarding the preservation of the German language and culture in their home countries, 25 years after the political change. It is time to transnationally connect these achievements and in the European context’, said Olga Martens.

The working group that was founded in Budapest in 1991 celebrated its 25^th anniversary in Berlin on invitation of the German-speaking Community in the Belgian Embassy in Berlin. The working group is the oldest inside the Federal Union for European Nationalities (FUEN). FUEN president Loránt Vincze attended the AGDM meeting. The German minorities as well as the entire FUEN regard themselves as a community of solidarity where minorities help other minorities.

On Wednesday the AGDM elected a new speaker for the upcoming 3 years. With immediate effect, this position is held by Bernard Gaida, chairman of the Association of German Social Cultural Societies in Poland (VdG). He will take over the position from Olga Martens from Russia.

At the end of the meeting, Federal Commissioner Hartmut Koschyk announced that the financial support of the Federal budget for the German minorities in Central-, Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well as in the succession states of the former Soviet Union will be raised in the future.

Concretely, funding is given to a foundation of the German minority in Poland, to retirement homes and welfare centres of the German minority in Romania as well as to institutions in the Czech Republic.

Fortunately, the travelling exhibition about the history and present situation of the German minorities that is being supported by the AGDM will be funded in 2017.

The activity of the AGDM coordinating office in 2017 will be secured by a grant of the Federal Government for the Federal Union for European Nationalities. 

More information and photos on request here:

Working group of German Minorities (AGDM)

Bundesallee 216-218

Eva Pénzes

D-10719 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 30 30 1868114613
agdm-media@fuen.org
www.agdm.fuen.org

Background information:

The Working group of German Minorities (AGDM)

There are German minorities in 28 countries in Europe and in the succession states of the Soviet Union. Most of them are part of the Working Group of German Minorities (in short: AGDM), which is part of the Federal Union for European Nationalities (FUEN), located in Flensburg.

The AGDM is a committee, which makes the exchange and the collaboration of minority associations possible. The annual meetings conduce to direct encounters of stakeholders, the articulation of their concerns and the dialogue with political decision-makers.

The AGDM is home for three different groups of minorities: the minorities in Western Europe are – benefiting from general development – in a stable position, the minorities from Eastern Central Europe try to improve their situation since the political change in 1989 and the minorities in the succession states of the former Soviet Union are in diverse phases of democracy processes. In spite of all differences of the German minorities abroad, the ties to Germany, the German language and the German culture are regarded as a major element.

The numerical strength and the regional settlement structure of the particular German minorities differ significantly. Whereas in Poland, Hungary, Russia and in Kazakhstan there are still more than 100,000 Germans, the number in some succession states of the former Soviet Union is reduced to a few hundreds, like for instance in Armenia and in Azerbaijan. In total there are still about half a million Germans in Eastern Europe alone.

The AGDM was founded in 1991 in Budapest and currently has 21 associations from the following countries: Denmark, France, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan as well as partner organisations from Belgium and South Tyrol.

In order to promote the minority work, the AGDM coordination office was established in Berlin in 2015, which is funded by the Ministry of the Interior. 

Brochure: German minorities (in German)

Press release: consultations of the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag regarding the Federal Budget completed (in German)