Friedrich Naumann Stiftung

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) "is the Foundation for liberal politics. Established in 1958 by Theodor Heuss, the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany, it promotes individual freedom and liberalism. All these aim to foster civic groups and political parties in lesser developed countries that play along with the Western favored model of neoliberalism (in politics and economics).

"The Foundation follows the ideals of the protestant theologian, Friedrich Naumann. At the beginning of the last century, Naumann was a leading German liberal thinker and politician. He resolutely backed the idea of civic education. Naumann believed that a functioning democracy needs politically informed and educated citizens. According to him, civic education is a prerequisite for political participation and thus for democracy.

"In this regard, the Foundation is an agent of organized liberalism. It promotes this through civic education, international political dialogues, and political counselling. The Foundation has numerous offices in Europe, Africa, America and Asia. It also enjoys close links with Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Liberal International (LI)."

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) is a similar organization, involved in the same activities as FNF, the only difference is the party affiliation of KAS is with the Christian Democrats.

Recent News
"Liberal International (LI) and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) and the Taiwan Fund for Democracy, organized the conference “Strengthening Networks and Combating Human Trafficking” in Taipei, Taiwan from December 7-10 2007. Hosted by the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan (DPP), the conference was designed to create awareness of human trafficking in Asia, to analyze its dynamics and to work out policy responses. It also looked at the role of liberal parties and parliamentarians in the promotion and protection of human rights."

Global Warming Conference
The Friedrich Naumann Stiftung is also known for co-hosting a conference about the reasons and implications of Global Warming with the guest list only consisting of critics, skeptics and deniers of man-made global warming like Christopher Monckton and without any government scientist at all.

Contact

 * Web: http://www.fnst-freiheit.org

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre
 * National Endowment for Democracy
 * Albert Einstein Institution
 * UN Watch
 * American Jewish Committee
 * International Campaign for Tibet
 * Congress of Democrats from the Islamic World
 * Manfred Ziemek
 * Civic Forum Institute
 * Arab Thought Forum
 * Palestinian Youth Union