My collaboration with the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag

/ ProMundis Blog

 

Panel discussion of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag in 2015 © Martin Warnecke

In preparation for my 65th birthday, the list below detailing my relationship with the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and the CDU/CSU’s EAK was compiled, insofar as it can still be traced on the internet. Nothing can be found for the period from 1999 to 2007.

(* = only available in German)

My CDU career began in 1975 in Giessen, when I/we, as the Schülerunion (student union) in Giessen, successfully took a stand against “school strikes” at the Landgraf Ludwig School. After a heated debate, the school’s general assembly decided that no students would stay home during the school strike, but that everyone would be present. The left-wing groups were furious, as they had been promoting a day off from school. I stayed a party member in my places of residence, first in Giessen, then in Lörrach, then in Bonn, where I still belong.

My collaboration with the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag on religious freedom, led by Hermann Gröhe, began in 1999 on behalf of the parliamentary group leader Angela Merkel. A “reprimand” from Gröhe led to the idea and founding of the International Institute for Religious Freedom. I recall this in retrospect here (search for “1999”).

Around 2005, Angela Merkel promised me that if she ever became chancellor, she would establish the issue of religious freedom in the headqurater of her party CDU (“Konrad Adenauer Haus”), and we discussed the office of a religious freedom commissioner for the first time. It took longer than expected, but she ultimately kept both promises.

In 2006, Hermann Gröhe—already with the support of Volker Kauder—arranged my first expert opinion in a Bundestag committee on the topic of “Persecution of Christians worldwide: what can foreign cultural policy do?” in the Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural Policy of the Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Peter Gauweiler, with the help of the subcommittee chairman Peter Gauweiler (CSU). Since then, I have served eight times as an expert witness on behalf of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag’s Human Rights Committee on a wide range of human rights issues.

Since 2016, I have held the honorary position of “Commissioner for Religious Freedom of the Protestant Working Group of the CDU/CSU.”

Expert activities in the Human Rights Committee of the German Bundestag that can be verified on the Internet (in each case at the suggestion of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag)

2024 “Third Report of the Federal Government on the Global Situation of Freedom of Religion and Belief”

2021 “Human rights situation in Turkey”

2021 “Second Report of the Federal Government on the Global Situation of Religious Freedom”

2018 “Displaced Ethnic Groups – Threatened Peoples”

2010 “Religious Freedom and European Identity”

2006 “Persecution of Christians worldwide: what can foreign cultural policy do?”

  • Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural Policy of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Chair: Peter Gauweiler)

Other verifiable assignments with and for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag (1)

2024 Hearing of the Human Rights Working Group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and the Stephanuskreis of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag on the “Violent Incidents Database”

2017 Book contribution to the CDU/CSU parliamentary group anthology “Compass ‘C’: The Christian view of humanity as the basis for the policies of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group”

2015 Lecture at the Human Rights Working Group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag on “Religious Freedom and the Development of Democracy”

2014 Lecture on religious freedom for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag

2014 Excerpt from CDU/CSU parliamentary group direct

2008 Meeting with the Human Rights Working Group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag on Iraq

2000 to present: Annual publisher of the “Yearbook for Religious Freedom” and the “Yearbook on Discrimination and Persecution of Christians,” each with numerous contributions from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, for example:

Thomas Schirrmacher welcomes CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemann, left Thomas Rachel, Member of the German Bundestag, Chairman of the EAK of the CDU/CSU © Martin Warnecke

Other verifiable engagements with and for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag (2): C Congress in the entrance halls of the German Bundestag

2009–2018 Speaker at the C Congresses of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2018, but these are largely no longer traceable on the internet

2014 Congress of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag

2012 Support for the publication of the book by Volker Kauder, Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, “Persecuted Christians: Commitment to Religious Freedom,” including

  • Thomas Schirrmacher. “The Situation of Christians in India” and “The Situation of Christians in Indonesia,” pp. 123–136 and pp. 210–214 n: Volker Kauder (ed.). Persecuted Christians: Commitment to Religious Freedom. Holzgerlingen: SCM Hänssler, 2012. ISBN 978-3-7751-5418-5
  • 2010 Thanks to Volker Kauder*

Other verifiable engagements with and for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag 3: Stephanuskreis

2017 “Ethics of Mission.” Article in the “Stephanus-Post” of the Stephanuskreis of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag

2016 “UN Special Rapporteur,” article in the “Stephanus-Post” of the Stephanuskreis of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag

2015 “FORB: What does it actually stand for?” Article in Stephanus Post – CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. December 2015: 7

CDU Germany / Konrad Adenauer House (the headquarter of the CDU in Berlin)

Since 2014 Co-founder and member of the “Working Group on Christian Persecution of the Federal Committee on Foreign, Security, Development and Human Rights Policy of the CDU Germany”

In 2016, this working group published a 30-page CDU brochure entitled “Questions on the topics of religious freedom and the persecution of Christians,” which was drafted and supervised by Thomas Schirrmacher.

CDU Germany’s Working Group on Persecuted Christians 2015–2017

Lectures:

2015: Quote:

  • “Report on a historic meeting of church leaders in Tirana on the topic of ‘Discrimination, Persecution, Martyrdom’”
  • “Questionnaire on the topics of religious freedom and Christian persecution, Prof. Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher and Ute Granold”

2016: Quote:

  • “Discussion and decision on the above-mentioned questionnaire on the topics of religious freedom and Christian persecution”
  • “The significance of Catholic-Orthodox rapprochement for religious freedom”

2017: Quote:

  • “Summary of the work in the outgoing legislative period, actions in the election campaign, and outlook for the work in the coming legislative period”

Protestant Working Group of the CDU/CSU

2010 Keynote speech at the EAK Bundestag “Persecution & Discrimination of Christians in the 21st Century,” with introduction by Angela Merkel

Since 2016, honorary position as “Commissioner for Religious Freedom of the Protestant Working Group of the CDU/CSU”

2020 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (EAK CDU/CSU): Article “Christians and Muslims: Critical comments on the discussion paper on a theological roadmap for the Protestant Regional Church in Baden”

2019 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) Article “Eleven Theses on Rezo’s Video ‘The Destruction of the CDU’”

2018 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) Article “Mission and dialogue belong together”

2017 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) Article “Human Rights in One World” – Lecture before the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Württemberg

2014 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK der CDU/CSU) (1+2/2014: 5–8) Article “A new normative family model” as “normative orientation” – A sociological critique of the EKD’s family paper

2013 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) – Special issue with Volker Kauder on religious freedom, article “Religious freedom and persecution of Christians”

2010 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) Article “Persecution & Discrimination of Christians in the 21st Century”

2009 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) Article

2006 Magazine Evangelische Verantwortung (Protestant Responsibility) (EAK CDU/CSU) Article “Action against the persecution of Christians only in our own cause? Why religious freedom should be a central issue in politics.” EV 11+12/2006: 6–14

2003 Publication of a book about the EAK by Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft Prof. Thomas Schirrmacher

  • Judith Fischer. Christians in the CDU/CSU using the example of the EAK. With special consideration of the EAK in Baden-Württemberg. Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft: Bonn, 2003. 150 pp. Pb. ISBN 978-3-932829-62-8

Panel discussion at CSU headquarters in Munich in 2012 © CSU

CSU Munich

2012 CSU, Munich, party headquarters, lecture “Religious freedom worldwide”

2007 CSU, Munich, Congress “Persecution of Christians”

Many lectures at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Hanns Seidel Foundation, also abroad, for example

2017 Hanns Seidel Foundation Washington together with the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch, lecture

2018 Hanns Seidel Foundation Washington as part of the National Prayer Breakfast, lecture

2015 Expert conference of the Hanns Seidel Foundation on the topic of “Cyber Jihad”

2013 Lecture and essay on the Armenian question in the book “Turkish Domestic Policy” by the Hanns Seidel Foundation

Miscellaneous

2024: CDU Bonn District Association

2021 State election in North Rhine-Westphalia

2019 Commentary “The commendable virtues of Angela Merkel and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer”

2017: Photo on Angela Merkel’s Facebook page

2016 CDU Hesse: Conversation between Hesse’s Minister President Bouvier and the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch

2007 CDU Heesen: Visit and lecture at Roland Koch

2007 Article for the Seniors’ Union “Persecution of Christians – an urgent political issue.” Souverän (Seniors’ Union of the CDU Germany) 1/2007: 14–16

Many lectures at CDU district associations, Seniors’ Union, EAK, on topics related to religious freedom or human rights

2021 CDU district association Tauberbischofsheim, Lioba Church, “Religious freedom – a human right”

2017 Solingen

2015 Solingen

2000 “Ethics 2000: Are there viable foundations for the state, the constitution, and human rights?” District association of the CDU and EAK of the CDU Pforzheim

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