Anniversary: 25th annual meeting of the Working Group of German Minorities

From 7-10 November 2016 the 25th annual meeting of the Working Group of German Minorities inside FUEN (AGDM) is taking place in Berlin. More than 50 persons representing 29 minority organisations from 19 European and Central Asian states will meet at the jubilee event. They all are very important for the Federal Republic of Germany, because they work abroad for maintaining the German culture – especially in regard to the German language – and for understanding between peoples. This year even the German Chancellor Angela Merkel will honour their commitment personally. She will receive the guests in the Chancellor’s Office on 9 November.

The preparations of the meeting by the AGDM-Coordination Office and its umbrella organisation from Flensburg, the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), took place in close coordination with the Mr Hartmut Koschyk MP, the German Federal Commissioner for Issues Related to Ethnic German Resettlers and National Minorities. Koschyk made it possible that the groups is received by the German Chancellor and that they have a visit to the Office of the German President with State Secretary David Gill, that they meet State Minister Prof Dr Maria Böhmer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that they will have meetings with the Budget Rapporteurs of the German Federal Parliament.

Overall the programme will consist of many different meetings, discussions and negotiations over the course of four days. It will be mainly about fostering the collaboration amongst the minorities and their cooperation with the German Federal Government or cultural intermediary organisations of Germany.

The 25th anniversary of the Working Group of German Minorities (AGDM) will be celebrated in the evening of 8 November, in the premises of the Representation of the German-speaking Community in Belgium and the Belgian Embassy in Berlin.

There is a special meeting for the youth delegates from the AGDM-associations on Monday (7 November), where they will sit together with the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) and the organisation Deutsche Jugend in Europe (DJO).

In connection to the annual meeting, the conference ‘The promotion of national minorities by their ‘mother countries’ in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21st century’ is organised by the German Federal Institute for the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe. The conference will start on Wednesday (09 November 2016). FUEN is a partner for the conference.  

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The 25th annual meeting of the Working Group of German Minorities inside FUEN is supported by a grant from the Federal Republic of Germany.