Founded | 1955 |
---|---|
Founder | Bruno Heck |
Focus | Education |
Location |
|
Area served
|
Germany |
Key people
|
Hans-Gert Pöttering (President) |
Website | http://www.kas.de/wf/en/ |
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. (KAS; Konrad Adenauer Foundation) is a German political party foundation associated with but independent of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The foundation's headquarters are located in Sankt Augustin near Bonn. Globally, the KAS has 78 offices and runs programs in over 100 countries. Its current chairman is the former President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. It is a member of the Centre for European Studies, the official foundation and think tank of the European People's Party (EPP).
The establishment of a “systematic civic-education program inspired by Christian democratic values” began being considered in 1952 by a group of CDU politicians including Bundestag president Hermann Ehlers, Robert Tillmanns, and Heinrich Krone. On 20 December 1955 The Society for Christian Democratic Education Work, which would be renamed after Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1964, was opened in Bonn.
The aim of the foundation's civic education programs is, according to their official website, the “promotion of freedom and liberty, peace, and justice” through “furthering European unification, improving transatlantic relations, and deepening development cooperation”. Their function as a think-tank and consulting agency is intended to provide citizens with a basis for political action through the research and analyses of current political trends. The KAS offers more than 2,500 conferences and events each year worldwide, and actively supports the political involvement and education of intellectually gifted youth through a prestigious scholarship program as well as an ongoing comprehensive seminar program.