TheHanns Seidel Foundation (German:Hanns-Seidel-Stiftunge.V.; Abbreviation:HSS) is aGerman political party foundation. It is politically associated with but independent of theChristian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) party and taxpayer-money funded political researchregistered association. It was founded in November 1966 after most of the other party-associated foundations in Germany had already been established. It is headquartered inMunich. The conference centre in theBanz Abbey is the foundation's main location. It is a member of theCentre for European Studies, the official foundation and think tank of theEuropean People's Party. It is named after the CSU politicianHanns Seidel.
In April 2025, the Hanns Seidel Foundation was declared anundesirable organization inRussia.[1]
The CSU began planning to create its own institution for political education in 1964. At that time, the other parties with faction status in theGerman Bundestag already had comparable institutions. In April 1965, the CSU state executive decided to establish the Hanns Seidel Foundation, named after the former CSU chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister Hanns Seidel.[2] Fritz Pirkl, Bavarian Minister of State for Labour and Social Affairs, was elected as the first chairman.[3]
In 1975, the foundation opened the educational centre inKreuth as a tenant of theWittelsbach family. The lease for this conference building expired at the end of March 2016.[4] In 1983, the educational centre at theBanz Abbey inBad Staffelstein followed,[5] and in 2001, a conference centre was opened next to the headquarters inMunich.[6]
In 1981, the foundation began awarding scholarships for foreign students inGermany through its funding agency. Since 1982, domestic students have also received scholarships.[7] The foundation also has aPhD scholarship program, where recipients who are working on theirdoctoral thesis receive additional funding for research and receive a monthly payment of 1,450 EUR.[8] Students and doctoral candidates that are funded by the foundation scholarships are those with above-average academic achievements both socially and politically.[9][10]
After Fritz Pirkl's death,Alfred Bayer was elected chairman in 1994,[11] followed by former Bavarian Minister of EducationHans Zehetmair in 2004.[12] In 2014, CSU chairmanHorst Seehofer proposed the deputy chairwomanUrsula Männle as Zehetmair's successor.[13] She was elected chairwoman by the general meeting on 12 May 2014[14] and was re-elected on 30 July 2018. In September 2019, she announced her resignation. Her successor in 2020 wasMarkus Ferber, a long-standing CSU MEP.[15]
The foundation has around 270 employees and an annual budget of around 66 millioneuros. It is active in over 60 countries and provides funding to almost 1,300 students from Germany and abroad every year.[7]
The foundation awards prizes to promote special achievements in various fields. The sponsorship award for young songwriters has been presented to songwriters since 1987.[16] In addition, the Franz Josef Strauß Prize is awarded at irregular intervals to 'personalities who have made an outstanding contribution topeace,freedom andjustice, todemocracy and international understanding, or who have rendered outstanding services in the fields ofeconomics,science andtechnology, literature and art'.[17] Previous winners includeMikhail Gorbachev,Jean-Claude Juncker,[18]José María Aznar,Helmut Kohl,Roman Herzog,George Bush Sr.,Henry Kissinger,[19] andGerman Democratic Republic dissidentReiner Kunze.[20]
In 2015, the Bavarian SPD parliamentary group leaderMarkus Rinderspacher called for the Franz Josef Strauss Prize to be revoked from Hungarian Prime MinisterViktor Orbán.[21] Rinderspacher cited Orbán's attacks on fundamental democratic principles and the principles of solidarity of the European community of values as the reason. Orbán had been awarded the prize in 2001. In 2020, Rinderspacher renewed his demand. The reason was Orbán's controversial law restricting the rights of the Hungarian parliament in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[22]
From 1984 to 2012, the Folk Music Prize was awarded 428 times as part of the 'Folk Music Day' inWildbad Kreuth and theBanz Abbey. The award was discontinued in mid-November 2012 after media reports revealed that the prize's founders, Maria and Max Wutz, wereNational Socialists. The foundation was made aware of this in 2001 but failed to disclose it.[23][24] After the media reports, the foundation then commissioned theInstitute for Contemporary History to conduct an independent investigation. The result was so clear that the foundation, which had 'accepted the legacy in good faith', divided the total inheritance of around 1.4 million euros as follows: 1.25 million went to the Bayerischer Jugendring to support Bavarian-Israeli youth and school exchanges, and 150,000 euros went to the Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten to establish a memorial site at the formerDachau concentration camp subcamp Mühldorfer Hart.[25]
Other parties in Germany also use the legal form of a foundation for support and public relation purposes. The other foundations are:
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