HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATIONS RELATED TO THE GREEN PARTY
Even before 1983, the Green Party had their own regional state foundations affilated with the party. They had advocated the founding of a nationwide Green Party foundation before 1983. For instance, “Die Frauenanstiftung“ was created by activists of the women movement. The supporters and carriers of this model were the "Bundeskonferenz unabhängiger Friedensgruppen" and the "Bundeskongress entwicklungspolitischer Aktionsgruppen".
The "Initiative zur Gründung der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung" developed due to the strong participation by Green Party politicians, namely Lukas Beckmann and Christa Nickels, but viewed itself as being independent and outside the Green Party. Its constitution was on September 14th 1986 in Cologne.
Foto: Martin Wilmen
The foundation "Regenbogen e.V." was constituted on July 26th1988. On the first of July 1988, the representatives of the different state foundations had united in the "Buntstift - Föderation". On August 15th, the national board of the Greens recognized the Stiftungsverband Regenbogen as a politically close foundation. The merger of the multiple foundations into the new Heinrich-Böll-Foundation was initiated at a national conference of the Bündnis90/Grünen in March 1996 in Mainz. Gender democracy was manifested in the constitution as a main task. The commitment to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians and the priority of migration policy issues were also accounted for. In the end, the drafts were accepted by an overwhelming majority. Simultaneous to the recognition as an federal national institution, the assembly chose the name "Heinrich-Böll-Foundation". On July 7th 1997 the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung began its work– at the "Hackeschen Höfe", in the heart of Berlin.
