Germany: foundations boom in 2006

2006 was a year of records for German foundations. There are 899 of them, the highest peak ever reached. The Confederation of German Foundations counted them and the result is a total of 14.401 foundations with a total capital of about 80 billion euros. Germany is a country full of foundations in which you can breath an air of civil commitment, says Fritz Brickwedde, Confederation President.

In comparison with nineties there has been a great increase: in 1990 there were 191 foundations. Half of the foundations that exist today, were born in the last 15 years. In Brickwedde?s opinion, in these years people?s consciousness that the State is not adequate to solve many problems and that it is up to fundamental individual commitment has grown.

In spite of 16 years that have passed since the fall of the wall, Germany is still divided. In east Germany in 2006 (excluding Berlin), 47 brand new foundations were created, about 20% less compared with 2005. In west Germany the opposite is true, the number of brand new foundations has grown to 825,4% more than the previous year.