BMI - DDR - Zwangsadoptionen - Start of the research project to deal with forced adoptions in the GDR
On July 1st, 2022, the project of the German Institute for Home Education Research gGmbH/An-Institute of the Evangelische Hochschule Berlin (DIH) to research politically motivated forced adoptions in the GDR will start. The BMI is providing around 1 million euros for the duration of the project (3 years). With the start of the funding project on July 1, 2022, the BMI is implementing the decision of the German Bundestag ( application Bundestags-Drucksache 19/11091 ). The research team is interdisciplinary and consists of social ethicists, educationalists, lawyers, psychologists and medical historians from various universities and institutes.
The selected research project will include:
explore the importance, scope and historical dimension of politically motivated adoption processes;
review the circumstances of the forced adoption;
rediscuss the various definitions of forced adoption and check them against new sources;
establish the connection between political imprisonment, departure or other politically motivated repression against the biological parents and the adoption process;
work out the repressive part in the adoption process and
its effect on the processing of the separation in the appreciation of those affected by forced adoptions for a later political processing
illuminate. In addition to researching the relevant files, the DIH is also planning to develop its own contemporary witness portal in the form of a website.
A woman is standing between two shelves with Stasi files stacked close together and is looking for a specific file.
Source:picture-alliance-Stepahnie_Pilick
Universities and other research institutions that conduct research at university level were asked to apply for funding in the summer of 2021 (deposited as a pdf ) to carry out the research project.
After a multi-stage selection process involving a committee consisting of:
Anne Drescher, State Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for dealing with the SED dictatorship, as representative of all State Commissioners,
dr Anna Kaminsky, Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship,
dr Maria Nooke, representative of the state of Brandenburg for dealing with the consequences of the communist dictatorship, as representative of all state representatives,
dr Christian Sachse, Union of Victims' Associations of Communist Tyranny e. v .
a decision was made in favor of the German Institute for Home Education Research gGmbH. After intensive preparatory work, which was also preceded by two changes in the law to create the legal prerequisites for access to the files of the GDR youth welfare service, the DIH can now start the project to research politically motivated forced adoptions in the GDR.
The planned research project (main study) is to be based on the preliminary and feasibility study from 2018.
In January 2017, the then Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States and Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy commissioned the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) with a preliminary and feasibility study on "Dimensions and scientific verifiability of political motivation in East Germany Adoption Procedures 1966-1990". The project was initiated and funded together with the Ministry for Education, Youth and Sport of the State of Brandenburg.
Homepage on the subject of politically motivated adoptions in the GDR
The website of the Central Information and Mediation Center (ZAuV) offers information on the subject of "politically motivated adoptions in the GDR" for those affected and those interested.
The ZAuV shows possibilities for targeted research tailored to the individual case as well as tailor-made advice offers at the existing authorities and institutions (so-called "pilot function"). After the completion of the extensive conceptual preliminary work carried out last year, the Central Information and Mediation Center (ZAuV) was set up at the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (BADV) at the beginning of 2021.
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